[WideRight05]

Wide

This statement comes to mind.

Jesus taught his followers to love even our enemies. If anyone is teaching hatred toward any group, or any people that they have identified as sinners, it is not of Christ. In fact, Jesus loved us sinners so much that He took our sins upon Himself and He died in our place.

I do not support gays nor do I care if someone chooses to be so. It does not affect me or my relationship with god.

As for abortion. It's so different. I only support abortion in terms of rape and life threatening situations. I think someone would have to live with thee choices and mistakes.

My view of liberal is much different than yours. Mine is I don't think anyone should tell another person what to do. Because everyone doesn't believe the same. Conservatives preach about keeping the governemnt out of our life's until it comes to gays and other issues they don't agree with.

I am far from a Christian. But I believe in the biblical God. Coming to terms with that will be my final judgment.

Wildcat,

First off - thank you for the genuine response.

I'll start with the bottom of your post and work up. I encourage you to keep at it with the Bible. Remember that it's not about works, it's about the grace of God. He knows you are an imperfect human, as am I. I can go on and on all day about the mistakes I make, LOL. Too, too many to count.

Your views on gays/abortions are more to the right than the left. You may have more in common with a conservative than you think, and TBH Wildcat, it hits me now that you remind me of myself about 4 - 5 years ago being more to the center-left. Even though I was to the right on abortion/gay issues, I still was far left on such issues as unions, the war, taxing the rich, etc.

It's a common misconception about conservatives and "hate groups." That is merely a tactic used by the liberal media to turn people away from conservatives. I am not a homophobe, either though the Biblical definition of marriage is clearly defined. As evidenced by my multiple awards in diversity and I could go on, I am not a racist. I do not believe in letting the poor fend for themselves but I certainly don't believe in enabling the lazy and uneducated. This is how the typical conservative thinks, yet the media and the liberals make every goal to pin them differently.

Again, Wildcat, thank you for the reasonable response.

No offense to you, Wide...
because this is something that Christians have struggled with forever.

But this is the school of thought that has placed Christians behind the 8-ball.
Christians are more commonly know for what they're against than what they're for anymore.
I sat at Church the other day on a Sunday morning and my stomach almost turned at our message. We had visitor's in the building that could be struggling with anything; depression, drug abuse, an abusive relationship, anything you could imagine. Can anyone guess what the message was about?

We rambled on about Harry Potter, Anne Rice novels and TV shows that you shouldn't watch. Of course, the message was met with choruses of "amens" and everyone left thinking that they had gotten something - but I was left thinking that we missed our chance.

No offense taken Zaga! :Thumbs:

And you couldn't be more right. I worked with a girl to try to get her coming to church a few years ago, and she happened to come on the one night that they were giving a lesson about Harry Potter. It made me cringe, and sure enough, she had cousins that watched Harry Potter and was greatly upset afterward. I don't know enough about Harry Potter except for a couple of painful movies I was forced to watch in french class in high school lol, but considering I played a lot of the video games such as Grand Theft Auto, I can't say too much. To this day, I watch South Park. I believe they prove good points at times, believe it or not. I do agree that the perspective needs to be much more focused on the important things and not so much on the Harry Potters of the world.

Churches use more of an "inside-out" approach in this day rather than an "outside-in." Meaning, they expect you to come in and learn the Word rather than going out in the communities and making a big difference. The smallest of things can make the biggest of differences. I know that I struggle in so many ways to keep true to what God has put me here to do. I struggle in my eating habits, my language, and many other things that I am ashamed of - and yet, I continue to not do a lot about it. If there is a way, I try to make up for that by being involved, being a positive influence to others, and doing little things such as holding doors for people and being polite. The norm is that people should "help others, as long as it doesn't inconvenience yourself." For me, it's "serve others at all costs. The rewarding impact of going out of your way is that it may influence someone else to do the same."

There are just as many problems on the inside of the church as there are on the outside. Too many folks that are judgmental and "high and mighty" to commit sins. Heck, I even remember a street preacher that came to school one time and actually said, "I stopped sinning." What a load of bull, and sadly people believed it! It's our job to be the best witnesses that we can be, to show people that we are humans that struggle, just like everybody else if not worse.