Homosexuality is a sin

And so is football. Also, sucks to be you if your shirt is only 90% cotton.

Yep, the Bible is full of ridiculous, outdated rules about how to live. And yes, people pick and choose the parts that fit their own views. We all know this by now, right? I suppose the surprising part of that exchange is that it still has to happen.

Problem is the people stupid enough to cite Leviticus as the reason for their bigotry are not going to care about that other stuff because their preacher probably told them it doesn’t apply to modern day like the gay stuff does.

The Holiness Code.

Does the self-mutilation prohibition forbid piercing too?

From my own experience in these churches this happens quite alot. Often you’ll hear a statement like “That commandment was meant for the Jews, we are under a different dispensation” (dispensation theology is big in these parts of Christianity). Also, do not underestimate a person’s ability to ignore or irrationally deny facts that are inconsistent with their worldview.

The nastier variants of modern Christianity have developed a truly amazing set of rationalizations to justify just about anything, with epicycles to do a 180 when it becomes no longer tenable (Southern Baptist Convention racism? What’s that?)

Well, that’s disappointing.

I thought I could use this information next time someone starts spamming me with hate rhetoric.

Oh, it’s still fun to watch them dance, don’t let us dissuade you. :)

There’s also the “why are you being such a dick to only your sinning gay friends?” angle.

Even if you accept those ridiculous rationalizations about the old testament, what about the stuff in the new one? Surely that should apply to every christian, right? So “do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you”
Oh wait, it would be COMMUNISM, and we can’t have that can we?

By the way I can’t see the point of arguing with religious people about moral issues. Typically they aren’t interested in having an honest discussion anyway. So they want to think homosexuality (or divorce, or abortion, or whatever) is a sin, they can go ahead and live their life as they please, or more accurately as their bizarre neuroses compel them to - we all do. As long as they don’t want to enforce their stupidity on others, I don’t care anymore.
Unfortunately the blatant failure to apply basic logic and rationality still irks me, but that’s my problem I guess.

The phrase “it’s right there in the bible” is the ‘drop the mic’ moment for a lot of Christians. They figure it’s game over at that point. No debate possible, bitches!

Yes, except for piercings of the earlobe (and I think possibly the tongue, due to the rate of healing? Don’t quote me on that one).

Why the earlobe? Why is that part OK? Tradition?

Earlobes grow back. It’s in the bible.

The earlobe is specifically mentioned, as you pierce a slave’s earlobe to signify his slavery. IIRC, Rachel wears a nose ring at some point, as well, so that’s clearly allowed. Other piercings are debatable, but most are probably OK, depending on whom you ask.

The biblical prohibitions are more based around scarring, for two reasons (that I know of – there may be others). (1) You shouldn’t permanently damage the body that God gave you in his image. (2) Pagan religions used to scar themselves, so Jews want to make sure that they don’t seem to worship those religions.

I doubt that most people who say homosexuality is a sin really think that it’s a sin. Rather, homosexuals provide convenient “others”, and making a group into an “other” and sticking a negative label on them has been part of human nature since the beginning.

I think you’re wrong. I think a fairly significant percentage of people who describe homosexuality as sinful really think of it as sinful, with the caveat that most of those people think sex in general is sinful, aside from some narrow cases (hetero sex, in a marriage, possibly with no birth control)

I sort of agree with you. But while I think they really think of it as sinful, the motivation for their thinking is not that it is actually sinful. Wow, I need to try that sentence again. Hold on…

People may honestly say that an action is sinful, but not because they believe in its sinfulness. Instead, they say that an action is sinful because it makes them feel good to say it.

Like, if I say “The Steelers SUCK!” then you’d say that I believe that the Steelers suck. But I’m only saying it because it makes me feel good to say it, not because I actually believe it.

Yeah, but the tribal identification part of declaring the self-evident truth of how badly the Packers suck impinges rather less on the misguided Sconnies’ way of life (well, the other six days of the week anyway).

Sure – the sports analogy is not of equal import.