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dudelovenextIt's really good to see so many people repost the "Homophobia is Bad" thing. I realize that most of the people I know are pretty open-minded and cool like that, but still cool to see. :)
Just...man, tired. Played some Settlers at Stef's GameNoc. Oh yeah! And I got what I assume to be a birthday present from Humu. :) A BADASS tye-dye shirt. I think this might be my favorite, even more than the one my mom made me. It's kind of like...it's pretty much my Dude Hentai shirt. :) Thank you Humu! *huggles*
Now...sleep...
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Date: 2005-08-11 07:58 am (UTC)Happy (Late) Birthday By the way ^.^;;;;;
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Date: 2005-08-11 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-08-14 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-08-11 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-11 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-11 05:29 pm (UTC)Granted, homophobia, that is the FEAR of homosexuality, is stupid, that said, I cannot endorse a destructive way of life. I don't want to start anything...my beliefs are well known to you. Let's just leave it at that. ^_^
~Dave
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Date: 2005-08-11 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-12 04:14 am (UTC)~Dave
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Date: 2005-08-14 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 02:31 am (UTC)I had to tell my mother than her friend of more than 25 years died of AIDS. The man was gay. He didn't tell her because she didn't want to scare her, and he had been dying for more than 6 years. I had to give her that news, and I never want to be in that position again.
The woman who taught me to play the guitar is a lesbian, and was a friend of my Dad's. She is like my sister. She also is one of the most unhappy people I have ever met.
She has gone through a myriad of unhealthy, unfulfilling relationships, all of which over confusion of who she is, as a woman, and who she is as a person. She never had a father...the only affection she ever knew was from her girl friends, and as such developed the attachment to women. I'm not saying anything she hasn't said herself, and she often wishes that she didn't go the way she did.
She is so lost to who she is that she cannot see a way out of something that people say you are "born with", and as such, she is one of those cases that most certainly aren't.
You comment about freedom is telling. Just because I am a Christian, doesn't mean I am a 'prisoner' to anything. I am in fact MORE free since becoming a Christian. I am NO longer a 'prisoner' to sin. You might want to re-evaluate your statement.
I find it funny when people who are not inherently religious think of religion as a kind of bondage. I personally don't look at my faith as a religion. I have faith in Christ, and a relationship with Him, not with the rules and mandates of a particular faith.
That is why you will see that many of my posts are in fact going against the grain of traditional Christian teaching. My treatise on Romans 1 on the LJ a few months back was a good example. The whole passage talks about the decline of morality in a culture. Paul was describing the steps in which a civilization slides down the slope of destruction.
A great deal of Christian pastors(mainly of a Fundamentalist bent)use 2 verses of the text to justify their hatred of homosexuals. You will see that I have never said that I have ever hated anyone, especially homosexuals. I find that lifestyle abhorrent and troubling, but I don't hate anyone who is living that life. I have the freedom to judge the activity, NOT the person.
I wouldn't be playing guitar if that sweet woman, who happens to be a lesbian, didn't take an interest in me at 17. I also wouldn't have the outlook on it, if I hadn't seen what I have. I hope this gives you a little more perspective on where I come from on this.
~Dave
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Date: 2005-08-14 02:42 am (UTC)The "I don't know who I am" isn't ground isn't just sexuality. There are tons and tons of people from all walks of life who don't know who they are.
I'm gonna say this, and though I'm sure you will, I hope not a whole lot of offense is taken.
I view organized religion as a crutch. As an excuse. I believe in the Bible (someday I have to sit down and read it) we are all sheep of the Lord, and he is our sheperd, correct?
I'm not a sheep. Yes, I am insignificant in the whole of the universe, but I am not a sheep. I am not passive. That is why I look at it as a bond or a prisoner.
I believe that each person should live their life according their own guidelines. If it makes you happy, then who is to say? Of course, there are several people who live lifestyles that don't make them happy, but they live them anyway...out of habit or whatever, I'm not sure.
Response Part 3
Date: 2005-08-14 03:57 am (UTC)I hope you do not take offense to my fervency tonight. ^_^
~Dave
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Date: 2005-08-11 06:43 pm (UTC)Re: Nice...
Date: 2005-08-11 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-11 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-12 05:02 pm (UTC)............birthday? x_x If I had known it was near your birthday I wouldn't have sent it when I did. xP Maybe you didn't know, hehe. I don't celebrate birthdays. :P It was just a gift cause I felt like it. :) But I'm really glad you like it!! I saw a bunch of different ones but I liked that it had a lot of black. It made it....I dunno, not you're traditional tye-dye. I think it's really cool. Glad you do too! ^_^ *huggles*
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Date: 2005-08-14 02:04 am (UTC)But regardless, yes, it kicks ass. I LOVE it. Yeah, it's like...er, the anti-tye-dye!...kinda. `^_^
*hug*
Response Part 1
Date: 2005-08-14 03:54 am (UTC)The statement was in question of my friend's sexuality.
You don't offend me by saying what you have said. Many people believe that, however, many of those same people cry out to God almost instinctively in their hour of need. That doesn't mean they've been indoctrinated into any belief system, that simply means that at the heart, the do have a belief in something greater than themselves, it is inherent in human nature.
Some advice...the Bible is not meant as a sit down and read kind of book. You should probably get a concordance or a study guide. It will help with the history and background.
Also, you quote that phrase out of context. It irks me when Christians do that, and no different when someone who is not familiar does it the same.
Here is the text...
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the gatekeeper opens.
The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.
So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."
~John 10:1-18 (English Standard Version)
This entire text uses the concept of the sheep and the shepherd as a way of explaining to the Jews in a way that they would be able to easily understand. They knew what a shepherd was, they knew that sheep were some of the less intelligent creatures in the world. They also knew that sheep tended to fall off of cliffs, and took other sheep with them if they weren't watched carefully. Wolves preyed on sheep, and if the sheep skittered away from the shepherd, the wolves would devour them.
This is one of many ways that Jesus explained to the Jews that the religion of the Jews, that is holding to the Rabbinical(Mosaic)Law was simply a path to destruction, and that they were the WOLVES. You can be religious, and never truly know WHO God truly is. The context was placed solely to those who were Jewish, following the mandate of the Temple, and not of God.
Response Part 2
Date: 2005-08-14 03:55 am (UTC)There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, "He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?" Others said, "These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"
At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?"
The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God."
Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came--and Scripture cannot be broken-- do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. And many came to him. And they said, "John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true." And many believed in him there."
John 10:19-42(English Standard Version)
Jesus was trying to tell the Pharisees that their way was empty. People who truly saw that their way was empty, we apart of the "fold". This was also a common way of referring to a rabbi's ministry. Without that important piece of information, you would read this as "Oh!!! I'm just a sheep????"
Let's make this a modern example.
A computer without a CPU is simply a paperweight. If you don't have an operating system, what can you do with a computer? Boot up the CMOS? What if you have no CMOS?
What if the Operating System was full of virii? What if the OS that was supposed to be loaded with was corrupted? There would be signs.
Certain programmes would lock up, some things may not work right. The video display may have issues. It could be a myriad of things. What if you ignored the signs that a crash was immenent, and you kept on using the computer? Well, it would certainly crash eventually.
You see, your life could be looked at like an operating system. You could be coasting along, thinking nothing is wrong. You see signs that things may not be COMPLETELY right with who you are. You may not like what you see, but you continue blindly until you crash and burn.
That is the state of mankind. People are capable of such good things, but their OS is corrupted. Some, more than others.
It didn't come from the factory that way, years of being 'online', downloading information, they have contracted virii, for this discussion, lets call it sin.
Sin can infect the mind and heart, just like the hard drive of a computer. Eventually, sin can overwhelm the person to the point in which nothing operates as it was intended. The difference is whether they have decided to use the anti-virus software that came with the computer, or go it alone until you grind your hard drive into the ground. Unfortunately, you can't replace your hard drive in this life, my friend. You've got one time around.
~Dave