Consider the laws regarding homosexual lifestyles that are being promoted in California. These LAWS, as just one example, force others who disagree with the homosexual lifestyle to participate in it by forced legislated teaching to children, and by forced legislated silence of dissent.
Which laws? Could you state a specific law that prevents free speech in California?
SB777? I read it and I don't see anything banning free speech except that teachers cannot teach anything that is derogatory to a particular race, religion, gender, handicap or sexual orientation. Do you disagree with this? Should teachers be allowed to teach derogatory opinions of particular races, religions, genders, handicaps or sexual orientations?
Maybe that's not the law you are referring to. The only way I will know is if you tell me what law and where in the law it states what you are saying it states.
The only thing that makes your 'faith'. as you pronounce it. stand. Linear, is your obliviouness to the facts, or truth as it may be.
Here you state
Because Christ stated that the law doesn't save you. He loved and showed compassion to people who weren't moral and then taught them to live morally.
..but you fail to mention that he showed to compassion to people who were stuck in sin, ailing in it, and likewise repentent of it. He did not run after people who loved their sin, those he left in it and warned them of their imminent destruction. Show me one example of where Jesus saved a person who loved their sinful state, just one. There aren't any. He would also tell those he healed.. 'go and sin no more...' ... and he also said things like... the cow that returns to the mire (after being saved from it) becomes ten times worse off than before... I cannot find that exact quote at the moment but here is a similar one
And you are in a position to determine which person involved in sin is "ailing" and which person loves their sin? Well, you're better at discernment than I am. Those people didn't become repentant until after they met Jesus and He showed them the example. If they were repentant before they met Him then they would have tried to change already.
If sin has no meaning whatsoever, if sin as defined by the law has no meaning whatsoever, then it would seem appropriate for you to tear those pages from your bible, since they are all meaningless. Since, in thought, you have done this already, it is not an abject statement to say, your faith is not the one that Jesus taught.
I never said that sin was meaningless. However, forcing people to not sin, does nothing to stop their desire to sin. It is only by experiencing the grace and love from Christ that they can get the desire to turn from their sin. You cannot influence people that you have no relationship with. Forcing people to do things that they don't want to, has a tendency to stifle the growth of a relationship with them.
There is something very important about the faith and salvation that Jesus did teach that seems to be missing from your dialogue, Linear. As far as I can tell it is the repentent part, as often is with most people who desire salvation but refuse to fully believe that God can save us from our sin, from ourselves, and turn us into a new creation that looks back upon our lives of sin with utter disgust, not longing. Most people that get saved, today and even in the bible, have already reached a state of repentence on their own, perhaps with God's help, they have realized that they are separated from God by their sin. The realization that God is holy, and that holy is not a meaningless word either, is essential.
So you repented of your sins after people you didn't know told you how disgusting and awful you were? Do you think that's a good recipe for saving people?
The fact that you seem ok with this or 'they' seem ok with that, does not in anyway mean that God is ok with it or approves of it in any way, shape or form. You would be much better off seeking Him and his help with these issues than constantly trying to prop up your pride in yourself and your conflicting, and they truly are conflicting, beliefs on a daily basis. If you truly believe then seeking his help with these issues should not be an utterly overwhelming task. Of course if you only look to yourself as the answer for all things and never bother to inquire of the Lord then it should not surprise you that others say, your faith is not true.
I never said I was ok with the lifestyle of others so your argument falls apart right there.
What I pray for is the ability to reach those around me in love and not rejection. I seek guidance in fostering relationships without getting mired in their lifestyle. Be in the world but not of the world. Salt cannot preserve unless it is placed on the item to be preserved.
