Because they have never had a crisis in their life. When life's tragedies/unfairness touch our lives, the only way to survive is to find something bigger than yourself to believe in.

I have survived a brutal assault, family member suicide and murder, .my faith was what got me through the agony and sustains me.

Anonymous wrote:He was clear clear about abortion, gays, divorce etc
Again I don't think these sins are worse than lots of other sins like lying, coveting, viewing porn aka stuff that "Christians" do all the time
but to say that Jesus approved of performing homosexual acts well I have a bridge over here :-p.
And finally we all fall short we all need Jesus, we need to admit our acts are sinful and be repentful

"We all..." being Christians, of course (and not even all of them believe this way). People of other religions or no religion don't need to think of themselves in this negarive, dependent way.

He was clear clear about abortion, gays, divorce etc
Again I don't think these sins are worse than lots of other sins like lying, coveting, viewing porn aka stuff that "Christians" do all the time
but to say that Jesus approved of performing homosexual acts well I have a bridge over here :-p.
And finally we all fall short we all need Jesus, we need to admit our acts are sinful and be repentful

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are trying to justify behavior that you know deep down is sinful.
And yeah many of the specific rules in the old testament were fulfilled by the coming of Christ and is why we aren't Jewish
but the bible is the infallible word of God once you start picking and choosing what is relevant and what isn't you are going down a dangerously slippery slope

Once Jesus came along, it gave us permission to disregard things in the old testament that we didn't like and to interpret anything else we didn't like however we liked.

That's a wrong and unfair interpretation of Jesus' own attitude towards the Old Testament, and I suspect you know it.

What did Jesus say about the Old Testament?

Famously, he boils down all the rules in the Gospel of Matthew:
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

There were also multiple incidents where Jesus ignored Old Testament dietary rules (he said, basically, that it's not what goes into your mouth but what comes out of it) and ritual purification rules (Jesus consorted with people considered "unclean").

In sum, Jesus was quite clear about what was important vs. not important in the Old Testament. It's not a case of "pick and choose" at all.

But he wasn't clear about the gays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are trying to justify behavior that you know deep down is sinful.
And yeah many of the specific rules in the old testament were fulfilled by the coming of Christ and is why we aren't Jewish
but the bible is the infallible word of God once you start picking and choosing what is relevant and what isn't you are going down a dangerously slippery slope

Once Jesus came along, it gave us permission to disregard things in the old testament that we didn't like and to interpret anything else we didn't like however we liked.

That's a wrong and unfair interpretation of Jesus' own attitude towards the Old Testament, and I suspect you know it.

What did Jesus say about the Old Testament?

Famously, he boils down all the rules in the Gospel of Matthew:
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

There were also multiple incidents where Jesus ignored Old Testament dietary rules (he said, basically, that it's not what goes into your mouth but what comes out of it) and ritual purification rules (Jesus consorted with people considered "unclean").

In sum, Jesus was quite clear about what was important vs. not important in the Old Testament. It's not a case of "pick and choose" at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are trying to justify behavior that you know deep down is sinful.
And yeah many of the specific rules in the old testament were fulfilled by the coming of Christ and is why we aren't Jewish
but the bible is the infallible word of God once you start picking and choosing what is relevant and what isn't you are going down a dangerously slippery slope

Once Jesus came along, it gave us permission to disregard things in the old testament that we didn't like and to interpret anything else we didn't like however we liked.

That's a wrong and unfair interpretation of Jesus' own attitude towards the Old Testament, and I suspect you know it.

What did Jesus say about the Old Testament?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are trying to justify behavior that you know deep down is sinful.
And yeah many of the specific rules in the old testament were fulfilled by the coming of Christ and is why we aren't Jewish
but the bible is the infallible word of God once you start picking and choosing what is relevant and what isn't you are going down a dangerously slippery slope

Once Jesus came along, it gave us permission to disregard things in the old testament that we didn't like and to interpret anything else we didn't like however we liked.

That's a wrong and unfair interpretation of Jesus' own attitude towards the Old Testament, and I suspect you know it.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are trying to justify behavior that you know deep down is sinful.
And yeah many of the specific rules in the old testament were fulfilled by the coming of Christ and is why we aren't Jewish
but the bible is the infallible word of God once you start picking and choosing what is relevant and what isn't you are going down a dangerously slippery slope

Once Jesus came along, it gave us permission to disregard things in the old testament that we didn't like and to interpret anything else we didn't like however we liked.

Sounds like you are trying to justify behavior that you know deep down is sinful.
And yeah many of the specific rules in the old testament were fulfilled by the coming of Christ and is why we aren't Jewish
but the bible is the infallible word of God once you start picking and choosing what is relevant and what isn't you are going down a dangerously slippery slope

What churches need is to do is to stop hitting people over the head with a book that was written centuries ago. Yes, the Bible is important. Yes, we can learn a lot from it. I personally believe the writings were divinely inspired.

BUT - I'm also smart enough to understand that any book needs to be read with an awareness of the time, place, customs, and political climate at the time of the writing. We don't sell our daughters into slavery. We don't stone people for adultery in our country. We don't kill people for planting two different kinds of crops next to each other or for wearing clothing made from different types of material. We don't cut off body parts for stealing. Most of us eat shellfish and pork.

The Bible is full of beautiful metaphors, parables, and stories. It is much more about people's responses to their experience with God than about God's response to us. It needs to be read critically understanding that we don't live in that world anymore. We have to remember that it's been translated and re-translated hundreds of times. The Catholic Church pretty much chose what made into the Bible and what didn't. It's valuable. It's important, but it was never supposed to be read like a rule book.

I think young people are smart enough to make their own decisions about what the bible says about sin including homosexuality and again there are many sins. We all fall short and need Jesus Christ. If you encourage or justify sinful behavior we shall see what happens. Christianity needs grace AND truth. Too many churches today are unbalanced in their approach.

Thank you, pp, for illustrating so perfectly why so many young people are turning away from religion.

Also this

http://www.afa.net/the-stand/homosexuality/yes-jesus-did-talk-about-homosexuality/

I don't want to get hung up on it though there are plenty of so called "Christians" that are obsessed with this particular sin over many others which I listed

Yeah that's the latest line to be tolerant of sinful behavior plenty of other places where its a sin

Anonymous wrote:I agree prosperity gospel is a crock

Intolerance yup intolerance to sin. Jesus calls us to sin no more and that includes engaging in homosexual behavior along with premarital sex, lying, cheating, gossiping, coveting etc.

Jesus did not say anything at all about homosexuality.