Your views on homosexuality - no arguing please! - adjusted wording

[Cammie]

These sex obsessed conservative fundamentalists are REALLY interesting -

 

http://samuel-warde.com/2015/08/duggar-family-pastor-your-wife-or-else/

 

 

I am really fascinated by how much sex is the focus of the radical right...but they want to blame the left for it.

​

In all my years of attending liberal congregations...I have never heard a pastor preach about the sexual relations between spouses.​

 

 

 

 

[BooksandBoys]

I'm not a Christian. I fully support equal rights for all humans.

When I was a fundamentalist Christian, I believed that LGTBQ people were sinners and professed the "love the sinner, hate the sin" line. After becoming good friends with a few LGTBQ people, I realized that my faith was condemning real people. This was the beginning of a long, painful deconversion process. I am so very thankful that I had the opportunity to meet people who were not heterosexual and cis gender so that I could become the person I am today.

[albeto.]

Are you suggesting that all people who believe homosexual relations to be a sin are homophobes?

 

Insofar as homophobia is used to express a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, I suggest that people who believe homosexual relations to be a "sin" are homophobic.

 

Assigning a negative moral value ("sin"), is an example of homophobia. Contempt, prejudice, aversion, and hatred may be more easily recognizable as negative attitudes and responses, but homophobia isn't understood as an extreme reaction, just a particular one. 

 

Furthermore, I propose that as homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational capabilities, negative responses, including encouraging people to avert homosexuality (including aversion of one's own homosexuality), are not rational responses. They are irrational, fear-based responses. They are homophobic responses. 

 

Actually, I don't think conservative Christians are keeping silent because they are in "mixed company". I think the opposing people scream the loudest and, therefore are heard more. This is true here as well as in the big picture. 

 

What I interpret from this is that to you, being "loud" is another way to say, "persuading more people to agree or support an idea/issue/cause by use of some measure of aggression." Clearly you don't mean to refer to volume, and you can't mean to refer to impassioned arguments, as this can be observed on both sides. I think what you mean is one argument is less persuasive than the other by virtue of being "shut out" of the conversation in some way. 

 

But the way you say it shows a bias as well as a lack of knowledge of history, and utilizes emotional manipulation in lieu of information or reasoned arguments. The idea of being "shouted down" and "screaming" invokes the image of aggression and subsequent threat to safety. It's as if those who are no longer satisfied with the Gay = Sin argument aren't listening any more, they're just getting more abrasive and militant in their approach, denying access to the public to hear opposing ideas. Subsequently, people who align with LGBTQ supporters might consider feeling ashamed for their contribution, or at least for their support of such a breakdown in civilization. This explanation is inaccurate, and rather silly, imo.

[Susan Wise Bauer]

Quite a few of you seem unable to abide by the OP's request, which is rude.

 

Having said that, the OP's request didn't have a hope of succeeding.

 

We've seen this thread over, and over, and over again. And you're all still saying the same things. IMO, a chat board such as this one is not a space in which this conversation is going to advance. It's merely going to mire itself in accusation, name-calling, fear, and judgment. And I'm talking about those of you on BOTH sides of the question.

 

So be done.

 

SWB