Just a day after his election, new Presbyterian Church Moderator sparks row by telling gays to stop Comments

bigchiefally

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 17:31:57 +0000

I don’t know why so many people almost seem to delight in getting annoyed at various churches position on things. If you think they are basically frauds, believing in madness, why be bothered about what they think? Many christians clearly think the bible says homosexual acts are sinful and not good for people, thus they think people shouldn’t do them. Many of the people who profess to be very liberal seem to be the most agitated when someone does not hold their views on subjects like this. Let people get on with whatever they want to get on with.

Semillion

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 17:08:23 +0000

Well one thing all these christian church people have in common is that they are all obsessed with sex.

Yahoe_Yahboyee

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:33:59 +0000

"We would encourage people who are gay to live a celibate life." Give me strength... *shakes head in disbelief*

bewilderedpleb

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:27:14 +0000

The 1950's just called, they want their attitudes back.

BipityBopityBoo

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:23:50 +0000

If the religious want gay people to stop having sex why not let them get married? That generally does the trick.

maxtully

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:00:08 +0000

Get real. His job is to preach what Christianity teaches. IT'S HIS JOB !!! It could be worse. He could be an RC priest saying one thing and promoting another. It only matters if you believe the story of a big alien in the sky anyway.

Scrungeboo

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:44:41 +0000

Well, doesn't that just take the biscuit. hypocrisy from the first breath to the last. Using religious language to promote an agenda. The Onanist Order and most specifically George Chittick ought to protest against this and warn people of what is going on here. Not that religious language learning is wrong as such, but when it has been used to promote an agenda then something must be done. BIt of fleg waving and opportune and judicious faux ballax and talk in tongues briefly should do the trick.

lostchord

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:38:55 +0000

Tell them to stop eating shellfish too. Apparently that's just as horrific to G_d.

deleted1192890

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:37:18 +0000

to add to my previous comment earlier - do these anti-gay fundamentalists really believe that only gay people are having anal sex and other ungodly sexual activities? Honestly, they should be asking most of the straight people I know to go celibate! *rolls eyes*

MQSP

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:25:42 +0000

I don't see any original comments here, although I agree with most of them. Do the religious (of whatever hue) stop to think logically about what it is they profess to 'believe'? Most of it (the scriptures) is self evidently complete ********. Absolute madness. Interesting historical text for sure but certainly not something anyone in this day and age should profess to 'believe' in. As a passing shot. My favourite reposte to creationist's is that there are trees older than they believe the Earth to be. To put it another way there are living life-forms on Earth today that are older than the Earth (to use creationist logic). Surely it is time we call religious observance what it actually is, a genuine psychological illness. Unlike homosexuality which is observed in nature and therefore a completely natural part of the human condition. It is religious observance which should be considered the abomination. For the record I am not gay, just tired of watching good people continue to be subjected to this crap.

deleted1192890

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:17:28 +0000

Why are so many religious people so concerned with anal sex?

Stephen_Glenn

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:17:22 +0000

So the next Moderator can only read as far as the first part of verse 7 of First Corinthians 7. If he reads the rest of the verse he will see that even Paul says that not everyone has the gift. I'm sure that Mrs Berry is evidence that he himself does not have the gift he is saying that all LGBT Presbyterians must possess. However, I have one question for him. In verse nine after Paul talks about celibacy he goes on to say: "But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." therefore why is so opposed to gay people finding the right person for them, to be able to love them and not burn with the passion that Paul warns us is actually worse than trying to remain celibate when we don't have the gift?

aodagain

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 14:26:27 +0000

Brilliant! Keep it up, guys, please! I'm so relieved you've rediscovered your stupid streak. Don't forget the Earth is Flat - don't believe all this Papist nonsense about it being a big round ball. If it's a big round ball the Bible would have said so, wouldn't it?

nallyterrace

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 14:03:20 +0000

When I started to openly question religion for the first time, someone made this point to me : Are you questioning it because you are really beginning to believe that there is not a God, or is it because religious people themselves have alienated you through their own stubborn and total faith in things which make no sense? The truth is that it was the latter. Christians will go to great lengths to tell us how much God loves us, and how he has shown that love to us. Yet the scripture which they base that faith on is built on intolerance, wrath and vengeance. This God who loves us all adds the caveat that we must in turn love him, believe in him and honour him. Why would any eternally existing force of such immense power and intelligence demand something which is so selfish? What is great about demanding that others praise you? Why does this God who loves us so much have so much anger towards two men who love each other when all sensible people can see that it is harmless? Why does God make us so ashamed of our sexuality, to the point where people are embarrassed and ashamed to open up about the thing which forms the basis of so much of our behaviour? The fact that God created us, and therefore bestowed hormones on us, makes it all seem like a bit of a sick practical joke by this God of love. And some Christians will either rush to tell me that I must simply accept scripture despite its manifest lunacy, and others will tell me how wrong I have got it ... that when God says we should kill gay people he actually did not mean it . .

OX38655

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:57:50 +0000

Great so we know where this cleric stands on 'gay sex' (disappointing of course but no great surprise) and that he won't be attending a Catholic service in a Catholic place of worship (disappointing of course but no great surprise) but what we DON'T know is how he plans to demonstrate leadership on the much more pressing issues of unemployment, reduced hospital beds, education, stagnant wages, the widening gap between the very rich and the poor, (I think Jesus addressed this issue head on) and all the other things that get ignored while folk obsess over who does what with whom in consensual adult relationships.

bewilderedpleb

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:50:02 +0000

One would think this world has a few more problems more deserving of his and the Church's attention than people loving each other.

Kerfuffling

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:42:35 +0000

As the Moderator of the choych, cathedral, chapel, corner of a pub bar somewhere of those that are required by the ones that believe in something that does not exist that we believe that the something they believe in, but doesn't actually exist, believe in the non existent thingy not existing I call on the Moderator of the believers in the non existent thingy to stop talking absolute, that is be celibate from spouting, well, horse doings. Oh and if they would just not actually breed themselves then the world would be a much more amicable place.

scary_biscuits

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:38:45 +0000

The church have a creepy interest in other peoples sex lives. It's ironic these people in high and mighty positions are not intelligent nor educated enough to realise that people are gay because of their biological makeup, it's not something they just decided on a whim, and that so-called gay conversion courses would cause more harm than good. Maybe it's the moderator who needs a conversion course.

ribtickler

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:27:38 +0000

God never said a word about homosexuality, Jesus most certainly did not - only some obscure individual called Leviticus and even that was his main claim to fame. God gave them their sexuality and the bits and pieces to use accordingly - blame God then!

myonions

Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:16:01 +0000

Times like these I'm proud to be Atheist!