Speak Compassion

I was having a somewhat interesting conversation over at Gay Christian Movement Watch. It is worth a read. A few things to note is that DL Foster in the end didn’t post my last comment and ended telling me he has a “Zero tolerance” policy regarding gay ideology. In my eyes that is the same as putting your fingers in your ears and singing “lalalalalalala” but I understand why DL would need to do that sort of thing.

Anyway, the conversation and post that sparked it were about “cherry picking” the bible. It was my claim and still is, that it is impossible to be a Christian and not Cherry Pick your beliefs from the book. It is impossible to believe everything in the bible and be consistent as the book is not. Even in the context it is written, considering who it was written for, there is no way of being a Christian without disregarding certain texts that either don’t make sense anymore or that go against logic and reason.

For instance, the Jesus Christ told his followers to hate their parents and family. So, do we disregard that?

Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

How do we get to choose what verses to follow and which ones to ignore as “irrelevant”?

How do Christians manage to disregard some stuff and demand other stuff in the bible. At one point in the bible (don’t ask me what verse) Jesus Christ states that he did not come to bring peace but the sword. (I am not sure I remember that perfectly, but close) in another spot in the bible Christ says in the garden after being arrested that “those who live by the sword die by the sword”…so which is it?

I have a hard time understanding how anyone who believes in a literal reading of the bible can ignore these things but expect the world, and the government adhere to this as an ideology that we all should be following.

I use to not care so much about who believed in what but after seeing how inflexible some people can be with their belief systems and seeing how unwilling they are to flex and respect others beliefs as just as sound as there’s. It is that inflexibility that causes such wars and violence. As soon as we proclaim that our version is the right version of the truth with no respect or flexibility towards other beliefs, we are on a path that can only lead to violence.