[QUOTE]Originally posted by zipzip:
[B]I agree that bad things happen to certain people in the Bible that repeatedly disobey God after they have been warned. Punishment, justice, bad stuff, whatever you want to call it is fine with me. Most of the time, though, God is patient. That's the point of all those passages in Proverbs about the sun rising on the good as well as the wicked, etc." -end of quote
Isn't it just possible that the "evil" that follows certain "ungodly" conduct is simply the natural consequence of a certain set of behaviors, and not at all the result of some divine justice?
If one does not think of God as actively involved in the daily affairs of mankind, many of these difficulties vanish. If one allows that the OT was written by an ancient, primitive people who understood the world through the eyes of their times and used the same justification systems people do today(i.e. God is on MY side so whatever I do is okay.), then these passages, along with many others, become far less of an issue. We are, however, left to examine our beliefs with a terrible honesty.
What if I, with no risk to myself, could go into a burning building and save the life of an innocent child, and yet stood by and allowed a needless, horrible death to occur? What would you think of me? I imagine I'd be voted the king bastard of the world.
Christian principle, which I highly honor, dictates that I act proactively to aid those in need. Yet every day we see children die in exactly such a way. My own conclusion, which I offer as simply that and no more, is that the notion of an actively involved God is faulty, or He would interfere. There is no justice in life (Check out Ecclesiastes.)in the OT or on 9/11 or today or, I expect, tomorrow.
Our spiritual lives have nothing to do with any of that, in spite of how we choose to relate to the scriptures of any faith.
As it directly relates to the threads stated topic of homosexuality, anything forced to grow in the dark becomes funky. But if people were free to pursue their own path without the fear of violence and sanction, we might be suprised at who we meet and value.
There is no point to the Law except to break us all. No one of us is even remotely good in all things. So why pick out a few verses and damn some folks? Maybe it keeps us from looking under our own beds at what hides there.
Of course, I could be mistaken.
(By the way, can any one tell me how to put the quotes into the proper format/indention, whatever? Sorry to bother, but I just don't see how you all do it.)
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