"Well according to the Bible, his brother is NOT gay! Gay doesn't come until Revelation when in the last times "men will become lovers of men". Don't even try to justify homosexuality with the Bible."

"Matthew 25.40 (what you do to the least... you to do me) is my current favorite. For someone who cannot comprehend the Golden Rule, it sometimes breaks through their shell of hate and fear and "lets Jesus into their heart." They "get" it.

Right now I'm re-reading Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus J. Borg. Fascinating book. He's one of the editors of The Five Gospels: the Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. (the 5th gospel is Thomas, probably the most direct words of Jesus, but tough to get the product of religions of power to recognize.)"

"Matthew 25.40 (what you do to the least... you to do me) is my current favorite. For someone who cannot comprehend the Golden Rule, it sometimes breaks through their shell of hate and fear and "lets Jesus into their heart." They "get" it."

"Excuse me but that Revelations quote does not apply to homosexuality. It means that men will become in love with themselves (meaning they denounce God). Remember the Bible was written 2000 years ago, the language is not always the same as our current version of English. If it meant gay people, it would also say "women will become lovers of women" or "men will have carnal relations with men" or something of the sort. Don't even try to justify your bigotry with the Bible."

"Yeah, I even said that too before.
The Bible has the language and literature within it changed and converted many times over those some 2000 years ago, by HUMAN hands. For example, its like playing that children's game where a long line of kids have to pass down a word or phrase to each child next to them all up until that very last child shouts out the word or phrase and it sounds very different from the starting word. And then all the kids laugh because it sounds dumb. So I'm guessing the today's Bible sounds "dumb" with the people of today's world, and the world just laughs, lol! =P"

"A fabulous example of this the is the time of year of Jesus's birth. He was born in late summer of 6 or 5 B.C. But in the 4th century A.D,, the church decided to move Christ's Mass (Christmas) to late December. Saturnalia and winter solstice seemed appropriate times to celebrate. (think of the politics at that time! Yeesh!) How many people now actually think that Jesus of Nazareth was born on 25 December 0 A.D? It's fiction, created centuries later and not even in the Bible, but try to convince them of that!"

"I agree with you. I too was confused about Jesus Christ's exact birthdate.
Besides my best friend who told me that the real Bible may not exist in our modern world anymore, another person, a relative told me another thing. Jesus Christ may not have been Caucasian, in appearance. My relative told me that Jesus could have looked Middle Eastern, with dark hair and olive-green skin, like a "pure-blooded" Jewish man =]

But I feel astonished that homophobia exists solely because of the Christian church. Although, homophobic people may NOT be Christian, they may just be ignorant about people who they find different. Why? Because our society and culture treats homosexuality as "unnatural" or "strange". There may be a sociological-psychological reason for human prejudices. But I also noticed that Islam and other faiths condemn homosexuality. I really think, in my hypothesis, that these religious faiths play a powerful influence on society and the culture. "