Hmmm, I would like to hear his original statements (that people took offense too) but censorship in any form bothers me, even if I completely disagree with the speaker.

Chrisitianity over equality eh?

@Lynnjynh9315 - to love your neighbor is to confront them when they are in the wrong. parents that truly love their children will correct bad behavior; this is no different. Recall John 8? Jesus said "Neither do I condemn you... and here's the catcher: "Now go and sin NO MORE." Jesus forgave people of their sins everywhere he went- but he also exhorted them against continuing their lifestyle of sin. To do the one without the other is sheer hypocrisy as God hates ALL forms of sin. Homosexuality is no more or less sinful than any other sin it just tries to boast of being a good thing when in fact it is not. "Woe to those who call good evil and evil good." Most of us recognize it's wrong to lie, cheat, steal , commit adultery, curse God, and so on and so forth. But the homosexual agenda seeks to banish God's Word in their understanding of their lifestyle- that is why it meets with more ready opposition in the Christian community.

@PreciousOnyx - No it isn't.  I don't know what book you've been reading, but the Bible I read specifically says not to confront the sins of others unless you yourself have no sin.  In multiple places.

@Omelettes - NO- it says not to judge them. There is a difference.

@PreciousOnyx - Actually- you are quite wrong in both your examples since they are unequal comparisons.

Parents correct their children because they are parents and thus have the authority to discipline those under their charge. In the same way, the example in John 8 depicts the Pharisees bringing a woman accused of adultery so that she might be judged as "the Law Moses commanded". The Law of Moses was given to the Jews- and they are clearly held to a different standard than that of Gentiles.

As such, neither of your examples accurately shows how or even if a Christian should judge a non-Christian. This is further exacerbated when you consider that nearly all the New Testament letters that talk of homosexuality were addressed to believers and not non-Christians.

The last problem I see in your reply are the words: "opposition in the Christian community". The word "opposition" implies hostility and/or violence. One can hardly ignore that the practice of Judaism met with "opposition in the Christian community" much as the more recent example of slave-emancipation met with "opposition in the Christian community".... Bigotry often wears the mask of Christianity.

This brings us back to my initial point (which you failed to meditate on): Christians should be less concerned with judging others than they should with loving others. And since you seem to thinking that bashing others is the same thing as "loving others", I would think that your example in Isaiah 5:20 of calling "good evil and evil good" would apply just as well to your own stance.

@Lynnjynh9315 - Christians are called to be salt and light to the world. Salt has the quality of stinging and preserving. The sting of conviction and the preserving of the saving faith for those who believe. The Bible tells us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel- the Gospel is that fallen sinners can be saved through the merit of Christ's sacrifice. In order for anyone to be saved they must first recognize they are in need of a savior- in other words, they must recognize their sin. That doesn't make us the disicplinarians of the world- but it does put us in a position that naturally brings us into confrontation with sinful man. And by confrontation- I don't mean violence- you have attached that idea unneccesarily to my point.

That opposition implies violence doesn't mean it always means it. The NT calls Christians to peaceful opposition against the ways of the world. That some Christians have gone about it the wrong way doesn't make the whole wrong in its core beliefs. There will always be tares among the wheat and wolves among the sheep. Christ knows his own.

No, I got your original point about love. True love is not about turning a blind eye to the wrong- but loving the person inspite of the wrong. They are not the same. One ignores; the other seeks to separate the sin from the sinner. I do not- nor did I imply that bashing homosexuals is loving or kind. Nor do I think refusing to call a sin a sin in the name of some paltry concept of love you've cooked up, love either. God hates sin- if we love God and seek to live that love- we must stand in opposition to sin. Opposition to sin does not mean we don't love the sinner- in fact it fulfills the law of love both to God and man. Recall Ezekiel's watchman?

LOL!  SO MUCH FOR FREE SPEECH!  Gotta love Obama!

@Lynnjynh9315 - I am glad that we come to some area of common ground. I am against all forms of hate crimes- but I do not consider preaching against sin a hate crime but rather a lawful practice of our both God-given and 1st Amendment protection of rights. I have two sibling-in-laws who are practicing gays- one who does so while claiming to be a Christian and the other an openly practicing Wiccan. They know that our stance is one of love to them personally- we don't excoriate them or belittle them or deny them their personal God-given dignity. But they also know our stance regarding the teachings of the Bible- that God's Word condemns their behavior as sinful- and that while we as their family love their person we cannot- because of our love for God- embrace their sin.

Were the Day of Silence a protest against hate crime in the general sense I'd accept it and probably participate in it. But from my understanding of it's purposes it is specifically about upholding and defending homosexuality- not even really in the sense of persecution but in the sense of a legitimate lifestyle in direct contradistinction with Scripture. God's people should reaching out to and protecting homosexuals when they are in real danger- but I don't think the Day of Silence is the way Christians should express that to them.

Similarly related- I am against the Matthew Shepherd hate crimes law- one because Matthew Shepherd didn't die for his sexuality- his killers wanted his wallet for drug money; they didn't even know he was gay until after the fact- but they received a life sentence all the same- thus justice was served. For another because the homosexual would be protected just as well under the regular hate crimes laws. For another because hate crimes law like this create classes of people- we are all equally protected under the laws of justice as they stand. And finally because it puts one's thoughts and beliefs on trial when the government has no right whatsoever to discriminate over personal beliefs and convictions and condemn one while upholding the other.

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Unrelated: I saw your diatribe on rejection of the church (though not of Christ) and you mentioned something of the nature of heresies that you had studied. What particular heresies are you referring to? (As seen in comment on Mighty Men of Valor's page- regarding Sunday School survey).

@PreciousOnyx - On the unrelated comment, read this blog- and you will understand part of my reasons.

In a nutshell, though, Christianity was originally intended to be grafted onto Judaism (Romans 11) and God's promise for the Jews- instead, we've decided that God had forsaken the Jews and that Christians are now God's chosen people.... Any idiot should be able to see the problems with trying to say that an unchanging God decided to recant an unconditional promise.

@Lynnjynh9315 - i don't think that calling some act a sin is not loving the person. you are confusing the two. is it loving if you see someone in trouble but simply walk by? 

you make christianity sound like some body kit that you put on a car. christianity is an extension of judaism. christians bellieve that the coming of christ was the fulfilment of the prophecy about messiah. jews denounce christ as messiah. naturally they still believe that messiah is still coming.  with the advent of christ, christianity and judaism took two different paths. it was not a graft but a branching of a religion. christians believe that jews are the chosen people. we do not believe that jews are forsaken people.
@bosefius - i really respect your view on censorship. hope you will fight against the fairness doctrine that obama wants to enact.
@Omelettes - it says to preach the gospel to all of the world. what is the gospel? come on. you are castrating christianity to make it fit to your standards. you can not do that.

@ADClark - You realize that this was all in Britain, right?

@Omelettes - I would be interested in exactly what you think Paul was doing in his epistles, especially Galatians, if not "confronting" others about their sin. What the Bible ACTUALLY teaches is to only use God's standards against those who have adopted them as their own; we are not to judge the world in the same manner as we judge other Christians. This doesn't mean we can't recognize sin as sin when we see it. A doctor who ignores his patients' illness isn't going to be a very effective physician, now, is he?

Besides, it's apparently a crime to be gay and pro-life, as well, so I'd say we're even. The bottom line is that the law is way over-reaching in its restrictions against liberty, both to be gay and to speak the teachings of your individual religion (and no, I don't mean Christianity, I mean the religion that each individual follows, no matter what they call it.)