Continuing anti-gay attacks, WND CEO Farah warns that "America is being judged by God" for "homosexual ... sin"
November 24, 2009 10:00 am ET by Media Matters staff
From WND founder and CEO Joseph Farah's November 23 WND.com column headlined, "Why sin cannot be condoned by state":
On Friday, more than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration reaffirming their opposition to homosexual marriage on the basis of protecting religious freedom.
While I agree that government's granting of special "rights" based on aberrant sexual behavior is a religious freedom issue, it's not the main reason for concern by Christians and Jews.
The Bible clearly identifies homosexual behavior, as opposed to homosexual thoughts or predilections, as sin.
The issue Christians and Jews should be focused upon is whether it can ever be acceptable for the government to condone sin - or, worse yet, encourage it by making it a "right."
I don't believe government can do that without dire consequences.
[...]
America is being judged by God.
The biblical proof text is Romans 1.
I am not stating the obvious here - that individuals will be judged for their behavior in the afterlife. What I am saying is we are already being judged in the here and now for rejecting God and one of those judgments is the explosion of homosexuality in our culture and the absolute explosion in the number of people accepting it, condoning it and even rejoicing in it.
Whether you are a believer or not, this affects you. It shapes the world in which you and your children live. If you think your society is depraved now, you have seen nothing yet.
Farah's column is promoted on WND's frontpage next to an unscientific online poll asking readers, "LET'S NOT MINCE WORDS; What do you think of homosexuality?" From the WND.com poll, accessed on November 24:
Previously:
WorldNetDaily repeats Jennings falsehood -- again
With their homophobic smears of Jennings exposed, anti-gay right now targeting EEOC nominee Feldblum
Media Matters: On health care reform, the Fox News noise machine is cranked to 11
The media myth of Obama's "falling poll numbers"
How to annoy Glenn Beck in five minutes or less
and what ever happen to actually interpreting the bible for what it is.
Farah, at least in the cited article, never said God hates anyone. What he does, and MMFA edits out, is quote a rather extensive list of verses that state the 'sinfulness' of homosexuality. You may not like the rules that the Bible says are are the standards of nature and nature's God, but that doesn't change what it teaches. Actually, what the Bible presents about homosexual behavior is that God knows it is ultimately destructive, both to the individual and to society. Thus a loving God calls people to change their minds and their behavior because He does not want any of His creation to suffer the consequences of destructive behavior.
Farah's point is quite plain - if society, and government in particular, endorses and protects destructive behaviors like homosexuality, it will face the inevitable judgment that will follow.
Farah's point is quite plain - if society, and government in particular, endorses and protects destructive behaviors like homosexuality, it will face the inevitable judgment that will follow.
Actually Farah's point is that he believes that "his" religious beliefs should be reflected in the law of the land.
Some how, I believe that this is one reason why the founding fathers did advocate the speration of church and state.
The Founding Fathers established the idea of freedom of religion - it was the one truly radical idea they incorporated into an essentially conservative 'revolution.'
The idea of 'separation of Church and State' did not seem to be quite what some try to make it today as several states had 'established churches' when they ratified the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. What the First Amendment to the Constitution does is prohibit the Federal Government from controlling or inhibiting the freedom of religious expression. Trying to get 'his religious beliefs reflected in the law of the land' is precisely the type of behavior that the First Amendment protects, and that idea of protecting religious liberty is a pretty good summary of what 'separation of Church and State' meant.
A citizen is not less of a citizen because he has religious beliefs and acts on them.
Certainly, the atheist is trying to get his religious beliefs enacted as the law of the land when he sues to stop public prayer at a City Council meeting, for instance. Or tries to get the Pledge of Allegiance either changed or banned because of the phrase "under God."
The religion you apparently think should be constrained is the religion that was dominant in the founding and the establishing of the country. Until recently, (probably prior to the mid -60s) no one would have questioned the propriety of the government suppressing homosexual behavior, hence what were known as 'sodomy' laws.
I'm hardly surprised that the conservatives in religion sound exactly like the conservatives in politics. They've been in bed for a while now. I'm also hardly surprised that the mainstream media, which is conservative, would continue to push this story. But, where are the liberal religious voices? As a liberal Christian, I am outcast in my own country, because I believe what two people do in the bedroom happen to be their own business. Their sin, if sin it is, is certainly between them and whatever god they choose to worship. Christians, at least according to the words of Christ, have much better and more important things to do with their time than obsess over who is sleeping with whom.
This is the dumbest f*#$ing thing I've ever read. Ever.
1 Corinthians 13 NIV
If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Read this passage, and you will understand why some of us still believe the Bible has value, and honor the teachings of Christianity.
Without living this passage first, and without upholding the tenets of Jesus's commandment to love one another, Christianity becomes one more religion that has prophets and adherents but no practioners.
1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
********************
I'm a Christian, and I'm a liberal. Those who fail to live up to the command to love one another and forget the roots of Christianity, are one more religionist claiming to have found the secret to life while extorting money from their followers.
President Obama used passages from this in his inaugural address for good reason. It is both a passage of wisdom and a passage of strength.
1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
********************
I'm a Christian, and I'm a liberal. Those who fail to live up to the command to love one another and forget the roots of Christianity, are one more religionist claiming to have found the secret to life while extorting money from their followers.
President Obama used passages from this in his inaugural address for good reason. It is both a passage of wisdom and a passage of strength.
Christianity can be a religion of peace, if kept in the heart of peaceful people. Used as a tool of the angry and the hateful, it's a religion of despair.
I'm a lesbian that keeps the parts of the faith that are meaningful, and discards the falsehoods as the lies that they are. Farah couldn't print the truth on WorldNutDaily if it was typed for him.
1Cor 13 is indeed a wonderful passage. It was written by Paul a few years before he penned these words."Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper," (Romans 1:24-28) he goes on to list several other destructive behaviors common to sinful humans.
Paul obviously did not see a contradiction between condemning sinful behavior and love - he wrote both passages. You obviously think we should disapprove of some behaviors - per your insult to Mr. Farah. Who should decide what is good? Are you competent to that task? I confess I am not.
Sadly, as history repeatedly teaches us, it is the fanatical religious zealots who profess to understand how, why, and when God is punishing people, and they take it upon themselves to mete out additional appropriate punishment, because (I guess) God is so busy that he doesn't have time to do it all himself. How people with such insight could actually get it completely bass-ackwards confounds me. A loving God who values love so much has such an inclination for hate?