Pro-Gay Legislation Fuels Concerns Over England's Anti-Faith Trend

[Nero]

Pro-Gay Legislation Fuels Concerns Over England's Anti-Faith Trend

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070909/29237_Church_of_England_Stands_Against_Pro-Gay_Legislation.htm

By Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
09/09/07

'The Church of England has expressed fear over a newly proposed law that could allow homosexuals to sue the church if they felt discriminated against by religious authorities.

Under the proposal, a gay indidvidual could sue the church if he heard a sermon that condemned homosexuality. The law is meant to protect homosexuals from hostile or humiliating 'environments' as part of a revision of discrimination legislations.'



//Nero's opinion - I'm conflicted on this. On the one hand, I believe people have a right to hold to the beliefs of their religion and to teach those beliefs.
But on the other hand, just as the Curse of Ham theory (that all blacks are cursed, inferior, and destined for servitude and subjugation) is no longer taught in American churches, neither should the archaic belief that homosexuality is an abomnination, and all homosexuals are perpetual sinners.
Churches should no more preach hatred of homosexuals than any other minority group.
Racism and homophobia are analogous - both teach hatred, ignorance, and the villification of a certain group by distorting certain passages in the Bible. A century ago, racism was practiced and taught in American churches, now the 'Curse of Ham' theory is seen as outdated, horribly racist, and disgusting.
My hope is that the 'Sodom and Gomorrah' theory will soon be seen in the same light.//

[Keira]

The problem here is the "preaching".
Having a personal opinion that gays are obhorent is well, not great, but at least they hopefully will die with you, or at most be propagated to your offspring. But, in the case of institutional hatred of any kind, it gets propagated to a multitude, forever.

This is particularly bizarre seeing as the main message of christianity is love of others as yourself and gays are at most (if at all) a cherry picked fleeting passage of the old testament, which in theory should be put in the annexes of the christian message, not the forefront.

That focus alone is highly suspect and reflect modern bigotry of man rather than the open to all church that god's representatives envisaged. Mankind has used the bible as a mean to implement their own fear of the unknown since the very beginning, so the current slant is not surprising.

[Thundra]

The problem is not what people believe, or that groups of like-minded people gather.
The problem stems from how those people react to their own feelings. I could care less if a church teaches that I am abhorrent to GOD, because I know better.

I don't like that a parent through a religious organization would teach that child to hate or rain down disparragement upon someone from my community. But that is their legal right. However, the act of that parent chastizing someone in public, that goes against their beliefs, or teaching their child that they should verbally or physically assault someone that goes against those beliefs is criminal in my opinion.

You can feel anything you like, and share it with like-minded people willing to listen to your drivel. You can hold the people within your social grouping to a certain belief system, at the risk of expungement. But bringing your hate out into the public and hindering anyone, in anyway, because you do not like them or their behavior is not to be permitted.

Those churches over there should not be forced to change their belief system. But the moment anyone from that belief system acts against anyone outside that belief system in any way, they have crossed the line and need to be held accountable IMNSHO.