I've skimmed many of the posts and discarded adding to them. I think I'm better to start off fresh.
Hello all. My name is Kendall, but you can refer to my logon name if you wish. I was uncertain whether I wanted to bother doing this because in one sense I think you are better off to let people that are heavily steeped in religion alone until they seek other viewpoints. Sometimes it's simply to test their faith, or broaden understanding, but there are a few places where people go to talk outside the box so to speak. So I was a little loathe to come to the home ground of a religious forum, but there are a couple of things I think are important enough to justify it.
One is that I see one of the administrators is a self professed "ex-gay", and I find that particularly interesting and I'm curious about his experiences and beliefs.
More importantly though someone on another board posted an example from here about a young teenager who was stating she was gay and trying to put across that she didn't feel it was wrong. Predictably she was responded to with no support for her identity and instead gave what I consider to be very harmful advice to her.
That's the crux of it. I decided that when people are espousing certain viewpoints, especially to young impressionable people, they should be accountable for such things. Anyone who strongly condemns homosexuality should have to back up their feelings with good solid evidence and common sense. Actions that deliberately attack a persons sense of self should at the very least be defendable as you could have a very real effect on someone. Suicide could be the extreme result, and I believe anything that could lead to such serious behaviours needs to be taken to task.
So with that said, I wish to engage in a mature, fact by fact discussion with anyone willing to participate. I will try not to deliberately attack Christianity per se, but I AM going to challenge the teachings of the Churches, and the "inerrancy" of the Bible.
Let it be said that I have nothing against the Christian belief that Jesus could have been the son of God, or even that there IS a God. But when people turn belief into words and actions affecting others, whether Christian or not, they should be morally responsible for their influence.
So I will attempt a specific post shortly. I'm looking forward to the discussion.