I am not sure if there is something oddly inverted about this being the 999th post, but here you go: Eyewear celebrates the decision to welcome Women Bishops into the Church of England. There was weeping (and no doubt gnashing of teeth) from some anti-women-bishop church leaders, who felt this was going too far. My own sense of this issue is rather clear: Christianity, as a faith, and a series of churches, is bound to relinquish its relevance, and its mission, if it does not soon adopt tolerance as its most central doctrine.
The religions of hellfire and damnation are retrograde, punitive, and unbelievable in this age - but a religion based on kindness, goodness, mercy, compassion, and love, is timeless, enduring, and, more than anything else, rational. No "God" of love would hate a human due to their gender, or their sexual orientation - or seek to engage any one person less fully than any other. That, at any rate, is my basic theology. It's derived from The Sermon on the Mount.
I know Christ also said he came with a sword (not a kiss) - but mostly, Jesus spent time expressing extraordinary compassion. Those who seek to keep gays and women from the inner sanctum, as it were, show little compassion, and less depth. Their house seems to have very few rooms in it, and is likely subprime.
The religions of hellfire and damnation are retrograde, punitive, and unbelievable in this age - but a religion based on kindness, goodness, mercy, compassion, and love, is timeless, enduring, and, more than anything else, rational. No "God" of love would hate a human due to their gender, or their sexual orientation - or seek to engage any one person less fully than any other. That, at any rate, is my basic theology. It's derived from The Sermon on the Mount.
I know Christ also said he came with a sword (not a kiss) - but mostly, Jesus spent time expressing extraordinary compassion. Those who seek to keep gays and women from the inner sanctum, as it were, show little compassion, and less depth. Their house seems to have very few rooms in it, and is likely subprime.
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(from a Catholic-ish perspective)