are you a christian?

[Ban my account ffs!]

My work here is already done.  I'll leave the fundies to it from here on out.

yeah, many disciples said pretty much the same thing as they refused to follow him:

John 6
Many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.  Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

Your self-infatuation is cute.  Keep going.  Oh, and since you seem to know, do I get to go to heaven?  What about the rest of us?  Do you decide or do you just have the "ins" with God's list?

[Ban my account ffs!]

Your self-infatuation is cute.  Keep going.  Oh, and since you seem to know, do I get to go to heaven?  What about the rest of us?  Do you decide or do you just have the "ins" with God's list?

As if I am making myself out as the Judge simply because I accept the bible.   

The Gospel in a NutShell:  There is only one Judge, Jesus Christ.  And his testimony is that we have been born with a fatally flawed nature that is hostile to God and that, in order to be saved, we must repent of all sin and place our trust in him.  In return, he has promised to forgive all of our sins and give us a new nature that will lead us to eternal life.

I can't help but notice that you have let worldly prejudices heavily influence your faith.  You have not professed your faith from a Biblical manner, but have sought out Bible verses to justify your preconceived prejudices.

You do not know who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  Don't pretend that you do.

But what bugs people most is that you believe what you believe is the only true way to believe (which is understandable), but you lord it over everybody else and you have a very smug attitude when people disagree, and you simply hide behind Bible verses like it's supposed to impress us.  You pretend to have an answer for every challenge and absolutely refuse to admit that you may very well be wrong.

In other words, your self pride is your downfall.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Jmfcst, all I'm going to say is I was born gay.. I have always like guys, even when I was a little kid. I had my first crush on a guy at the age 5. I know you will say I wasn't, but you aren't gay so therefore you have no clue. You put your faith in a book written by man. I know I do too, but all I am saying is we have no clue how God really thinks, he sure didn't come down from heaven and tell me.

Also let me tell you I did get saved, back in May, and my feelings for guys didn't change. I can't change who I am or how God made me.

Very well said.

Your relationship with God is between you and God.  Don't let the (wrong in my view) opinions of people like INKS and Jmfsct change that.  Don't let your faith become a simple means to blindly follow those that wish to take advantage of you.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Why does sex always come up when we talk about faith?

Sex is something very close to the core of our being.  So is religion.  Since Christianity is basically a man's religion, it is no surprise that control and allowing others to exert control over your own sexual being/desires is a core foundation of the religion.

If you're a woman, it's letting your husband have control, and if you're a man, it's letting God have control.  Either way, the authority comes from the top down in every sense of the term.  This could also be why many conservative Christians advocate the "Missionary position"... it is more Godly to have the man on top and in full control. 

But that's just my overly Freudian outlook on it.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Responding to BRTDs thread, I have to ask you this then:

Do you take the position of the Catholic church, which argues that sex is defined as being only a part of heterosexual marriage for the purpose of procreation?

The general belief of many Catholic priests and monks is that homosexuality itself is not sinful, but that homosexual sex, just like adultery, is sinful.  Homosexuals cannot have sex, therefore, because it is not possible to procreate, that being the main defining factor, not simply because they are homosexuals.

But with this positions comes a lot of other "baggage":

Condoms are seen as immoral, as is masturbation, any kind of birth control...

It could even be debated that coitus is immoral and sinful, as you are intentionally trying to reduce the chance that you conceive a child.

This position is much more consistent, but most "Christians" don't believe this.  Instead, they condemn the homosexuality from the beginning while not equally condemning other sinful acts like divorce and premarital sex.

Why aren't there campaigns to make constitutional amendments to ban divorce, adultery, and birth control?

If we are to live by the Bible.. why not LIVE BY THE BIBLE?

What I see is a gross perversion of the Bible because people are picking and choosing verses that conform to beliefs they already had...

[Ban my account ffs!]

I'm more agnostic than I used to be.  The "y'all is goin' ta hell" evangelical fundamentalist crowd has really turned me off to Christianity.. the whole "fall in line.. do as you're told, don't challenge authority, and hate everybody not like you" attitude of many Christians taints the faith.

I was sort of brought back by the Catholic priests and theologians at my university who taught a lot about God's love and that an important distinction must be made between God's word being infallible and ours being quite the contrary.