CHRISTIANS: Do the answers to this earlier question help you to understand why Christian values are suspect?

Question

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Earlier today I asked whether Believers would attend their nephew's same-sex civil union / wedding ceremony. People of all faiths responded, and while several said they would attend, eight respondents (all Christians) said they would not, and said so with some recognizable hostility. (One even wrote, "no that person would be as if they were dead to me.")

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aq5z4BpV9r53wdI4iAg15rbd7BR.?qid=20070627090456AAv3rgN

What do these answers suggest to you about the nature of Christianity as practiced in the modern day? Loving or judgmental? Open-hearted or closed? More in common with Jesus or the Pharisees? Community-focused or self-focused?

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Answer 1

Is it that Christian values or suspect, or the values of some Christians that are suspect?

I had a friend in high school who got pregnant by a boy she loved much but who her parents disapproved of because he wasn't a church-going Christian (he actually adhered to his ancestral Native American religion). She told her parents she had been raped so that they wouldn't throw her out of the house. The attitude of the parents is hypocrisy.

I know these two girls at our church who took a year of unpaid volunteer service to work at a maternity home (Our Lady's Inn) where pregnant women in difficult circumstances (abusive homes, runaways, kicked out, financial difficulties) can come for help. These women are counseled to carry the child to term and either keep or give it for adoption (rather than abort), are taught parenting skills, financial management, and given every help to have a new life. This is deep in the heart of Christianity.

That eight Christians said they wouldn't go to a same-sex civil union is a shame, but it is eight Christians in what you must admit is an unscientific poll. Moreover, why did you not ask non-Christians? If eight atheists or eight Muslims or eight Zoroastrians said the same thing, would you condemn their value systems as a whole?

To surmise about the nature of Christianity as practiced today should take more than a small poll on the internet where anonymity reigns.

Answer 2

Except for the hostility some expressed, which is mistaken and should never be included in a true Christian's attitude, I don't think that the answers said anything about whether Christian values are suspect, the reason being that the appropriate, Christian thing to do varies based on context. I believe I'd be correct in saying that most of the people that said no made that decision based less on anger than on the decision that to attend the wedding would be to express their condonance of it. To any dedicated member of any faith, there are many cases in which they must refrain from something on moral and religious principle. This does not reveal that they are being selfish, or hard hearted; it shows that they truly believe they cannot participate without being hypocritical.

Answer 3

You have made an excellent observation. Unfortunately what you have noted is typical. However, I do not necessarily think that this makes Christian values suspect. Instead, it means that something is different in the fundamental application of these values. Thus, it is the hierarchy of certain values that affects how one lives. The ones who refused to attend valued purity above relationship. The ones who would attend valued their relationship above purity. There is room for disagreement here, and I would suspect that much would depend upon the contextualization of the event.

At the same time, please, beware of lumping all Christians into the 8 responses that refused to attend. The 8 might represent a sector of Christianity, but certainly not the whole. There were quite a few others who were going to attend. Thus, while their might be disagreement over whether one would attend or not, this does not necessitate questioning the Bible's outlook on homosexuality.

Answer 4

Judgmental, closed-hearted, self-focused.

I attended a domestic partnership wedding a few weeks ago, and it was the most loving and supportive ceremony I've ever been to. Everyone who came did so out of love and good wishes, and there was so much good feeling the air was nearly solid with it... I don't believe in deities, but that day I was ready for one to appear among us. It was mind-blowing. I was left with a feeling I'd done something good that day, just by being there.

Even my husband, who was always for marriage equality on the simple principle of it, was struck by how important it can be for two people who love each other to be able marry - that they felt just like we did, and now he's as passionate about the cause as I am (used to be simply live and let live).

I say treat others as you would like to be treated...and I declare Christians who say they would like be shunned and mistreated so they wouldn't want to sin anymore, are liars. They don't know of what they speak.

Answer 5

There is such a thing as right & wrong, God's view is the one we want to have on such matters, what do you think of incest? is it repugnant to you ? why at one time in history before God gave the Law to Moses it was a ligitimate way to find a mate. it didn't become wrong until God told them it was Num ch 19, 20 like wise Jesus being a Jew would have lived by those same principals Paul brought it out in Ro 1:27 & 1 cor 6:9 & jude 6 now you don't have to agree with this, but if you claim to be a Christian, then you have to agree with God And ARE YOU GOING TO TELL GOD THAT HE'S WRONG IN HIS THINKING????????

Answer 6

I would not take part in any ceremony that is same sex. I would pull them aside and say to them I am happy For you however, As what the Bible suggest that man shouldn't lie with man and woman shouldn't lie woman I can't take part of the ceremony or the date.
We Christians needs to live a separate live from the wicked and unnatural. This ceremony is modern and is not what God created man and woman for.
This isn't about being loving or judgmental it's about Morals.

Answer 7

i do no longer see that clothing. I see a astounding, gifted, humorous guy. i admire ya in simple terms the way you're, ((((((((((Jack)))))))))). No faith, no ailment can exchange that. And, to be truthful, i do no longer supply a rat's asss what any faith has to assert approximately HIV - or homosexuality. So, i'm no longer able to truly say how this is been prompted by utilising it. standard, faith maintains to be primary in an afternoon and age whilst humanity could be previous such archaic questioning because of the fact human beings like to have an excuse to decide others - a minimum of, this is suited to the Abrahamic religions. And, I say "screw 'em".

Answer 8

as Ive answered other questions with the same response. They are not as open minded as they like to think, they are more judgemental then a bunch of girls stuck in one tiny room, and it seems they are self focused and telling each other its for the world's good that pagans are banned from the chruch and that gays should stay away

Answer 9

Jesus goal from what I was taught was to love one another and judge no one else. so if they do judge and also hate others based on same sex relationships they arent truly christian in my view.

Answer 10

no, the answers to this earlier question do not help me to understand why Christian values are suspect. They help me to understand why Christian values are clear and unambiguous, and disliked by non-Christians.

What your question suggests to me is that you think everyone who disagrees with you is a hypocrite, and not nice, and other nasty things. You're entitled to think that way about other people, of course - no doubt you consider this way of thinking to be 'tolerance'.