For a guy who's done all this study of the old desert stories, you sure don't understand much when it comes to how you are suppose to treat other human beings.
Here you go Wade, you could have saved a lot of time:
All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum
Most of what I really need
To know about how to live
And what to do and how to be
I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top
Of the graduate school mountain,
But there in the sandpile at Sunday school.
These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life -
Learn some and think some
And draw and paint and sing and dance
And play and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world,
Watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
It doesn't really address the whole LGBT bashing that is so common with you smart people, but I think the jist is you're suppose treat everybody really well.
Originally Posted by: DakotaT
Fulghum's is all good advice. (My mother was a kindergarten teacher, by the way.)
Unfortunately, it misses my main point. Or, more likely, I was unclear. Again.
Let me try one more time.
Were I a parent, or a kindergarten teacher, and I knew I had a kid who was attracted to fire, I'd probably try to convince him or her that fire was a dangerous thing.
Well, by my reading of the Book, the bad consequences of playing with the wrath of God are rather larger than the bad consequences of grabbing a branch out of the campfire.
If all that mattered is the kindergarten of this life, I'd have no problem with any sort of sexual behavior whatsoever.
Problem is, this life is *only* kindergarten compared to eternity.
And when it comes to eternity, the possibilities for the wrath of my God terrify me.
Utterly terrify me.
Because his Word demands far more obedience of us than Robert Fulghum does or my mother the kindergarten teacher ever did. And part of what it requires in that "love thy neighbor as thyself" is pointing out that He really doesn't like it when His children ignore His posted rules about keeping our hands (or other parts of our body) out of certain fires.
To my mind, the worst thing that could happen to a LGBT practitoner/believer is not me pointing out their sin. The worst thing that could happen to them (or to me did I knowingly fail to point out that sin) is for them to stand before Jesus and have him say to us, plainly, "I never knew you. Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness".
I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want that to happen to *anyone*.
You want to label pointing out what Romans 1 says, "bashing"? Fine. Me, I call it trying to obey God and avoid the wrath promised by Jesus in Matthew 7:23.
Nothing out-trumps trying to obey God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Nothing.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)