Comments on first item: Gabi Clayton. I did visit the site last night and this morning. What happened to her son is very sad, and I'm sure that she is still grieving. I am impressed with her conviction and dedication, it is admirable.
I will note a few things though. I don't understand why a hate crime from some idiot radicals is being held highly responsible for the child's suicide, while the fact that he was raped when very young by a gay person isn't. Why not also stand up for those who have been victims of sex crimes as well? Maybe that just isn't what she wanted to take issue with, but it does seem that blame is not being equally placed.
Also, the overall site seems to be favoring and condoning homosexuality. The links, the information, the wording. Hate crimes are horrible, and it's good to be a part of preventing them, but being a victim of a sin doesn't make your own sin ok. Love and accept a person despite our sin, not love and accept the sin because it's a part of us. <p>
Hermaphrodites. We're also required to use some common sense when dealing with people and scriptures. It speaks of male and female, I've never seen anything that deals with a person that is both. Does testing reveal what sex a person born with both parts is genetically? <br>
Gender identity is told to us by what a person is born with. If you were born with male parts, you're obviously a male. Female parts, obviously a female. I suppose only medical testing and other factors would be able to say for the miniscule percentage of people that are truly born with two functioning parts. <p>
I'm not sure that Marty's statements were based on the fact that she chose to love her son, but perhaps because she chose to accept his homosexuality without showing him that it was wrong. I don't know, you'd have to ask him that question, but knowing him, it's not his nature to hate people, but to hate sin, even his own. <br>
As you can see, we're not going for a quick "from the hip" discussion, or this website would not be set up. True, the opening statements do not mince the fact that we believe homosexuality to be a sin, but it's the truth. I've seen enough sites where you cannot tell what stance the person is going to take because they dance around their true thoughts for ten pages before they present it, so that it makes me appreciate this one. Having a full conversation on the issue is no problem, however that is not the general idea of a guestbook. They're more of a commentary. As you can see, coming to the actual site leads to a deeper engagement in conversation on the issue commented on. <p>
Yes, hopefully we can engage in loving relationships with people committing sin (while still keeping our stance and not accepting the sin as ok anymore than I'd want someone to stand back and silently watch me engage in sin), and yes, we can discuss the issues, but....and I'm not sure how to tactfully say this, but Gabi's character seems to be promoting homosexuality. While I can truly say that I'm sorry for the loss of her son and the pain she must feel, I still won't mince the fact that I feel homosexuality is wrong and that her site does seem to promote it. I can understand WHY she feels the way she does on the issue, but I believe it to be scripturally wrong. I would like to see her be able to study the issue of homosexuality from a scriptural viewpoint while trying to seperate it from the emotional factors involved there. Then again, I'm not sure if that's something that would even be possible, I'm assuming with the links to witchcraft and goddess sites she may not consider the scriptures relevant to the issue. I dunno, guess only she could answer that.
Chrys