One of many reasons...

[protege]

Simply put, it's a wedge issue. Much like gay marriage and other heavily-politicized things, it's used chiefly as a way to divide and conquer. If we're so busy squabbling over this kind of stuff, then we're also supposedly too blind to notice all the other nasty shit they're doing.

That's *exactly* why this crap keeps coming up...and why certain "Christian" idiots--Fred Phelps, for one--try to use it to further their own agendas. They know it will get people riled up, and distract them from the real issues.

I usually do lean towards the conservative side of things. However, I do think that gay people should be allowed to marry. I might not agree with their lifestyle, but who am I to deny their happiness? Also, I don't see what the big deal is over what we call it. Don't want to call it a "marriage?" Fine, call it a "civil union," but extend the same benefits.

And on a side note, this is something that puzzles me: if everybody on earth originally came from Adam and Eve, then wouldn't that mean that their kids would've had to resort to...incest, in order to multiply? That's kinda gross, you know?

Now that's just fucking nasty! But, to bring up Phelps again...it's already happening in his "congregation." What bugs me about that, is he rails against the sexual practices of everyone else on Earth, but somehow ignores the obvious incest inside his own family. WTF?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Also, Adam and Eve only had two SONS. Cain and Abel, remember? How the flipping hell do you get a human race from them? O_o The bible mentions that Cain had a wife, but where did she come from?

[Rapscallion]

Where in the bible does it forbid abortion?

It's probably covered by that whole 'thou shalt not kill' bit.

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Dinah's brothers, to justify the massacre of a town for the rape of their sister, say: "Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?" To the author of Genesis, rape is a crime against the honor of men rather than against a woman. 34:31

A lot of men see it that way, sadly. They turn it into an insult against them, not a trauma that happened to the women they supposedly love.

It really is shamful, that attitude. And it doesn't help things.


Protege: Phelps is no more a Christian than I am a werewolf. I would bet that deep down, even Phelps himself knows he's not a Christian, that he's just using that as a front. I'm not saying that great evil is never perpetrated by those who profess and even believe that they are Christian. It is. But Phelps is so far beyond the pale that if I found out that even he knew he was just using faith as a smokescreen, I would not be suprised at all.

[protege]

Protege: Phelps is no more a Christian than I am a werewolf. I would bet that deep down, even Phelps himself knows he's not a Christian, that he's just using that as a front.

That's why I put Christian in quotes. He's more of an *extremist* than a Christian. He, and people like him *do not* speak for all conservatives. Unfortunately, those fools are a very small, yet annoyingly loud minority...who makes us all look bad. Instead, I think he's someone who hides behind the cloak of religion to justify his actions. He won't be the first, nor will he be the last idiot to do that.

[Evandril]

'Tis why I used xtian in naming idiots like that...though the first time I use it, I try and explain it does NOT refer to 'real' Christians, to make my meaning clear

[lordlundar]

And on a side note, this is something that puzzles me: if everybody on earth originally came from Adam and Eve, then wouldn't that mean that their kids would've had to resort to...incest, in order to multiply? That's kinda gross, you know?

Always a point I like to bring up on the bible-bashers who scream "heathen!" at me and similar.