tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457001.post112287805190066230..comments2024-01-31T09:33:05.146-08:00Comments on Two World Collision: Love Your Neighbor As YourselfErichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03948061964482528393noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457001.post-1123372019252009932005-08-06T16:46:00.000-07:002005-08-06T16:46:00.000-07:00I suppose the real question is: what exactly is th...<I>I suppose the real question is: what exactly is the sin? i don't know yet.</I><BR/><BR/>Pretty scary realization, isn't it? I would go futher and point out that you will <I>never</I> know. I think that one of the scariest things about being human is that we have to be responsible for our actions without ever being able to know absolutely what constitutes right action. I think that this is one of the chief roots of human sinfulness, and that this is why believing in God's grace and forgiveness is so absolutely essential to living. <BR/><BR/>In addition to faith in God's grace and forgiveness, I find that faith in God's goodness is also indispensible. One aspect of faith in God's goodness is faith that God has equiped us to deal with the moral and ethical dilemmas that God requires us to face. I believe that it is possible (although by no means easy) to develop a reasonable sense of ethical behaviour, and I believe that the rightness of our ethics improves (very slowly) over time. This is part of moving closer to God. The key to this is as you say: "doing this with the lens that i desire God's truth not my own." Given that you can never truly know God, it means that you can never be sure that you know God's truth, and so you must always be questioning - never certain that you are right. Also, I think that God is most clearly manifested in our relationships with each other. A search for God's truth is necessarily a quest that must be undertaken in community with others: "we" is more important than "I".<BR/><BR/>Still, one can't question everything all the time. So for me the Christian life becomes a balance between trying to love God with all my heart and all my soul, which compels me to continue searching for God's truth (knowing that I can never fully find it) and living in the most right way that I know how (and can manage) now, knowing that I am making mistakes, am sinning constantly, but with faith in God's forgiveness. It's maybe not the way that I would have set up the universe, but it seems to be the way that God did.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11723971441793150228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457001.post-1123262518544349422005-08-05T10:21:00.000-07:002005-08-05T10:21:00.000-07:00i've got alot of 'i don't knows' thus the reason w...i've got alot of 'i don't knows' thus the reason why i started the blog...to journal my process through sorting it all out. <BR/><BR/>i've owned up on the fact that i formerly believed that any kind of homosexuality is a sin because that is the only thing that i was taught. i decided to take a step back, do some investigating of my own on all sides of the issue, and form my own conclusions so that i can at least fully own what i believe. i'm doing this with the lens that i desire God's truth not my own. i'm discovering that the trouble with this is that people have different interpretations of God's truth.<BR/><BR/>i've not yet formed concrete conclusions thus far, however, i'm inclined to believe that simply having the attractions are not sinful. but that raises the question as to my "being". did He create me like this or not?<BR/><BR/>when i say that i'm trying to figure out if 'being gay' is a sin or not....part of that figuring out includes exploring the definition of being gay - same sex attractions alone...physical sex...then attaching that to the other question of whether or not its a sin.<BR/><BR/>I suppose the real question is: what exactly is the sin? i don't know yet.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03948061964482528393noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457001.post-1123246173771687742005-08-05T05:49:00.000-07:002005-08-05T05:49:00.000-07:00trying to figure out if being gay is a sin or not ...<I>trying to figure out if being gay is a sin or not and trying to figure out how my same sex attractions effects how my faith is lived out </I><BR/><BR/>Eric, do you genuinely believe that "being" gay (i.e., experiencing same-sex attractions) is, in and of itself, sinful? <BR/><BR/>I can understand why some view being physically intimate with another who is not your opposite gender spouse as sinful, but just experiencing the desire?<BR/><BR/>I don't deny that living with the desire unfilled has its own challenges but I was curious and wondered if you can offer clarification here.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06559254262445527142noreply@blogger.com