The Christian Conservative groups are at it again

Personally, I have witnessed how people who are hardened towards Jesus, never really change throughout there lives. The only lives that really show significant personality change, are lives that are surrounded by love and acceptance, love like that worked for me. It is that love that reaches out with the right words at the right time, and they heal and touch in ways that I am unable to describe, though I most certainly will try. Thanks for the "Beautiful" word. Your mind is a beautiful one.

But Aeryck, if these people are 'hardened towards Jesus', why do they announce themselves under the banner of 'Christian'? Why don't they just call themselves Anti-gay groups? Like it or not, a major proportion of the anti-gay lobby are Christians, who actively use their religion as ammunition in their campaigns (such as the example above) against homosexuality.

It is that love that reaches out with the right words at the right time, and they heal and touch in ways that I am unable to describe,

These words had nothing to do with healing.  The words these groups spoke were words of condemnation, of division. 

As for people being hardened towards jesus - these are people who claim to be doing his work, to be spreading his word.

How much lower can they go?  To me, picking on a cartoon sponge when there's a war going on is pathetic.  Truly pathetic.

“Mom is Sponge Bob gay?”

The question SHOULD BE...
"Mom, are Christian Conservatives Christian?"

The American media is much like the media here in the UK. They are all poofters making these programmes and enforcing the dangerous idea that the natural family unit can be replaced by two bleached haired poofters teaching an adopted child that following Christ is 'evil'. God does not accept poofters and therefore aggression towards poofters is a very Protestant thing to do indeed. That is what we all should be concentrating on, doing the glorious work of God's chosen English Protestant people.

Once again, the floodgate of SPM's mouth opens and raw sewage flows...

It's sad that they choose to go after spongebob and barney when they could be focusing their efforts on actually doing some good in the world.

Once again, the floodgate of SPM's mouth opens and raw sewage flows...

Raw sewage has some practical uses... don't insult it...

It is to be expected that an American would collaborate with an Israeli Jew. The micro politics match the macro. I expect you think that Henry Kissenger was a saint.

I am not sure who this Barney chap is, but if he is promoting a homosexual lifestyle for children with his friend Bob then they should both be hanged. Political agitators like 'Barney' should not be tolerated.

Actually, it would only require one of us to take out an emasculated hack such as yourself old chap!

Great article! A lot of people are posting about this, including myself and I think it's a great topic of discussion!

I have so much fun coming to sites like this and reading all the Hypocrisy from the commentors. You claim that "Christians" are "using their religion as ammuntion in their campaigns". Talk about discrimination against an entire group. It is so easy to make a label for an entire group. I am a Christian, I don't have anything against all the homosexuals in the world, true I do believe the decision to be gay is a sin, but I also believe lust is a sin and I have certainly struggled with that along with every male in the world. If you're going to be prejudiced against a group, at least be honest about it. It is true that there are some zelots in the Christian faith, but thats true in ever large group without exception. There are just as many homosexual zelots as Christian, one of them just got banned from my campus as a result of sexual harrassment towards another student. I think that before any of you trash talk an entire group again, you should meet every single person who places themselves under that banner.

I know that what I say will get a lot of right-wingers flaming me, but what I have to say relates to my family, and it's hard for me to be objective because it's my late brother I'm talking about.

Before you talk about trashing anyone, realize that there's a lot of trash in general. My brother only wanted to spend the last weeks of his life with his father. He thought that his father and stepmother were okay with that; that's what he understood from them. Then when he was about to come home from New York to be with them, he learned that they planned to put him in a hospice rather than to live with them. This, of course, was because his "good Christian" stepmother wasn't about to let her husband let his gay son who was dying from AIDS come home when that would just "upset him." As she didn't hesitate to say, "Your father means more to me than anything else on this earth and I will not have you upsetting him." My brother chose instead to die in New York in the hands of state-supported health care workers. Had it stopped there, it would have been enough, but it wasn't. After he died, my dear stepmother was the first to occupy his New York apartment to take over the evacuation of everything. She interfered so much, even violating the instructions in his will, that the others involved had to summon the attorney who drew up the will to have her removed.

It doesn't stop there, I fear. She was the one to arrange his memorial service. The clergyman had never met him, so he had to take all the cues from whoever prepared it. In the end, the clergyman recited a script that omitted me completely, mentioned my mother once, mentioned my father in passing, and spent the rest of the time talking about what a loving relationship he had with his stepmother -- a total lie.

Fortunately, we have a cousin with whom we were very close, and he wrote a novel, Goneaway Road. If you read it, you'll read the story of Buck and Maxine. That's the story of my brother and my stepmother; the names were changed, of course. The difference is that in the book, my cousin told her off in the character of Evangeline, whereas in real life, he didn't get to do that. Maxine in the novel is a hateful bitch, but in real life, my stepmother is far more evil than the character in the book. In fact, I have a case against her in federal court now for defamation of character, invasion of privacy, and quite a few other charges when I caught her snooping in my bank accounts and medical records without permission. Somehow she believes that the law exempts her because of age, gender, and facial wrinkles. A federal judge and jury will prove to her just how wrong she is. If justice is done, she will spend her twilight years in the trailer camp with her crazy eldest daughter. Yes, the "good Christian" woman has no problem letting her eldest daughter, who suffers from severe bipolar disorder, live in a trailer camp while she lives in luxurious conditions, but that will be a short-lived situation.

MasterWriter: That woman's quite cruel, but that's just one woman. Surely, there's at least one bad person in every group of the world, right?

Response to Tim Lyons:

'You claim that "Christians" are "using their religion as ammuntion in their campaigns".
I said this. It is incontrovertibly true.

'Talk about discrimination against an entire group.'
No one argued this. The target of this blog - as spelled out in the headline(!) - is 'Christian Conservative groups'. No one said 'ALL Christians'.

Perhaps you might learn to tell the difference before you start hurling accusations of hypocrisy.

And finally:
'I also believe lust is a sin and I have certainly struggled with that along with every male in the world.'
Before you come to this kind of conclusion, shouldn't you - in your very own words - 'meet every single person who places themselves under that banner'?

"No one argued this. The target of this blog - as spelled out in the headline(!) - is 'Christian Conservative groups'. No one said 'ALL Christians'."

So all groups who are both Christian and Conservative think Spongebob is gay? I'm thinking accusations of hypocracy are dead on. It's the same asinine attitude that happened after the whole tinky winky thing. Jerry Falwell says something, so people have carte blanche to smear me and my beliefs.

Secularist bigots appear to be at it again. Any excuse is enough for a little Christian bashing, I guess. As long as you say "not ALL Christians" you're fine, kind of like how other bigots say "not ALL black people" or "not ALL Jews". As long as we say what you think is right, you're nice and tolerant, I guess. Sho' boss, i'z a gooood Christian.

pig.

'So all groups who are both Christian and Conservative think Spongebob is gay?'
No, BakerStreet, just some. Nor does your post imply that ALL 'secularist bigots appear to be at it again', only that some are. If you mean all, you say 'ALL'. It's really not that difficult a grammatical construct.

'As long as you say "not ALL Christians" you're fine, kind of like how other bigots say "not ALL black people" or "not ALL Jews".'
While there is ample evidence that there are Christian Conservative groups out there right now claiming that Spongebob Squarepants is gay, according to BakerStreet's argument no one is allowed to say so because that would be Christian bashing. (So I guess we'd just have to wait until all Christians were doing it?)

'pig'
Very constructive, very thoughtful, very Christian.

MasterWriter -

Your story is a sad one, but only illustrates what bigotry and hatred does. Be it against a race, a religion, a lifestyle, whatever.. it hurts someone along the way.
I truly believe that in the end it is the bigot that suffers, not the intended victim.

"No, BakerStreet, just some. Nor does your post imply that ALL 'secularist bigots appear to be at it again', only that some are. If you mean all, you say 'ALL'. It's really not that difficult a grammatical construct."

Either it's bigoted, tactless, or just too lazy to find out which group made the statement. If a terrorism report is on a public TV, and I say "Those Muslims are at it again" at the top of my lungs, how do you think I'd be percieved? Do you think I'd be excused if I tagged "fundamentlaist" onto it? Nah. It would still be a bigoted comment.

Yes, I called you a pig. I don't feel any "christian" obligation to tolerate adolescent junk like that. Nice of you to tell me what "Christian" behavior is, though, thanks.

'Either it's bigoted, tactless, or just too lazy to find out which group made the statement.'
No BakerStreet, as I said before it's grammar.
And the groups are the American Family Association and Focus on the Family - as you would know if you had followed the link provided on the initial post.
Now, can we move on from the insults please, as they have no bearing on the valid point that foreverserenity has raised here. Thanks!

No, you're being facetious. If someone said "The African American groups are at it again", or "The Homosexual groups are at it again" regarding something negative, I don't think a grammar lesson would soothe many people's feelings about it. Ross Perot said "You people" and basically destroyed his campaign.

People are taught to be tactful regarding race, to take the feelings of the listener into consideration. They remain sadly ignorant otherwise, evidently.

It's funny, because liberals are offended when people talk about "the left" or "the liberals" and how silly they are, even though the writers never specify all liberals, which means it should not be offensive in any way. Why is that, liberals? Are liberals mentally impaired?

'pig' Very constructive, very thoughtful, very Christian.

Well, Jesus called someone a dog....

There's a lot of mischaracterization going on about Christians, particularly on the "spongebog" issue. First of all, I don't see why anyone even watches that cartoon. It has not redeeming entertainment value. But personal opinion on the entertainment aside, the point that conservative Christian groups are actually trying to make is NOT that "spongebob" is gay. It is that the cartoon is being used in a way that can easily be an arguing tool for pro-homosexual agendas---saying that any kind of "family unit" is acceptable that anyone opposed to that is wrong. Even such longtime valuable shows as Sesame Street have become tools in this manner. Sir Peter Maxwell's ridiculous remarks notwithstanding, a real Christian knows exactly who he/she is as a born again child of God. A real Christian knows that the Bible is to be considered the Word of God, and that the teachings therein are both a Testament of what we as believers have in Christ, and a roadmap to what God expects of us. Homosexuality is clearly a sin according to God's Word. Anyone who denies that is creating the wildest of interpretations that cannot be substantiated. Homosexuality is no larger or lesser of a sin than any other sin in the Bible. In other words, ANYTHING that is not a thought, expression or behavior that Christ modeled for us, or that God directs in His Word, is considered unacceptable. The entire Old Testament was built around a book of laws to provide an external direction to counter what sinful mankind was driven to do, and there were specific ways of redemption. Christ became the be-all and end-all of redemption. So, while we as believers still wrestle with the fleshly drives because of our physical form and inheritance, repentance and the act of turning AWAY from those things in the knowledge and faith that we are truly forgiven for those acts is the hope of our calling.

The point is, alleged Christians who seek any kind of violence against homosexuals are wrong. We are to do nothing to encourage or make acceptable ANY kind of sin. But we are to embrace those who sin and introduce them to Christ. The individual must come to the realization that whatever sins they are engaging in are unacceptable to God, then repent and turn away from them. The problem is, too many people either don't know what they are doing is unacceptable, or don't want to believe there even is such a person as God--which would mean there really is an absolute right and wrong.

I have had homosexual friends at many points in my life, and had very deep, serious discussions about these very topics with them. The ones who do, in fact, love God truly struggle with these unnatural desires, and they often find their bodies at odds with their spirits. But such as it is with all of us who are believers. For some of us it may be the strong desire for pornography, or smoking, or drinking, or violence. All of these can be brought into subjection as we draw closer to God. But the first step absolutely is to acknowledge what God says about a thing and then seek to be like Him. We, as Christians, need to combat the agenda to continue immoralizing this nation, but at the same time open the doors of hope, faith, and deliverance for those who are wrestling with those various desires. It doesn't make it easy when there is a whole counter-culture designed to legitimize all sorts of behavior and even make it attractive. When you can laugh at a thing, you've accepted the thing.

Wow! I didn't even realize that they never do actually call Sponge Bob gay, but in fact, that was what was people claimed they said, in an attempt to undermine the point they had (which I'm sure even some non-Christians would agree with, since sexual identity also applies to polygamists, the incestuous, and swingers, and I'm positive that most liberals are not all right with any of those things).