Sex Both Powerful and Potentially Dangerous

Smuggling of luxury cars at the Subic Freeport has been stopped, but the smuggling of “blue seal” cigarettes, among other things, continues, according to sources at the former US Navy base.
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The cigarettes are loaded in 10 containers and spirited out every week.
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ON SEX brings up the threatening possibility of schism with the Episcopal Church in America

DIVORCE-REMARRIAGE
WORSE THAN GAY MARRIAGE
IN GOD'S SIGHT?


Let him who is without sin cast the first vote for any proposed freedom-squashing Amendment to an American State Constitution or to the Constitution of the United States that effectively prohibits homosexual marriage.

This 71-year-old Anglican heterosexual bit of flatulence (2d dictionary definition) puts the Gospels first, then the Epistles, then Revelation, and then the Old Testament.

Jesus Christ urged that we strive to be perfect, but He also recognized that there would be temptations in life. Thus, it may be better to strive to overcome homosexual urges with the help of God and ex-gay organizations like Regeneration. But for those who cannot, or will not, try to overcome them, wouldn't it be better to have gay marriage than possibly promiscuous homosexual fornication?

Professional psychologists do not acknowledge as healthy relationships "pan-sexuality (polygamy{1}--virtual adultery?)," pedophilia, incestuousness, or bestialities (sex should be between human and human, baboon and baboon, dog and dog, cat and cat, etc). Since homosexuality is natural between lower animals, it is not unnatural in human animals created in God's image.

The unique relationship that insurance companies, psychologists, and other denominations accept is homosexuality. It is nonsense to say gay marriage would cause moral decline in our society. Poor parenting does.

In consenting homosexual relations between two childless, never-married singles there is no "victim," while in abortion there may be a "victim," the fetus, which feels pain 5 months into gestation. And, while Jesus indicated God made people "male and female," that a man should leave father and mother and "cleave to his wife", and "her" as a wife{2}, Christ was speaking from the perspective of 2,000 years ago when "traditional family values" included a "wife" subservient to the "husband" who usually remained home to raise children while the "husband" often left for extended periods to make the family livelihood. Nowadays "traditional family values" are unlikely to make the Woman subservient to the Man, and sometimes "traditional" roles are reversed where the Man stays home to raise children while the Woman works because she is better prepared to do so.

Accordingly, while heterosexual marriage seems preferable because of procreation, homosexual marriage is not that different from heterosexual marriage where the couple does not have children.

Noteworthy is that Leviticus 20:9-16 states a number of sins, such as adultery, bestiality, and homosexuality, are to be punished by death. But clearly that has all been reversed by Jesus Christ when He said "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her," for the woman taken in adultery{3}. But note in John 8:11 Christ told the woman not to sin again, which could apply to Leviticus 18:22, where homosexuality is called an abomination without any penalty declared. Therefore, while Christ is not quoted as saying anything explicit about homosexuality, Jesus did say He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it{4].

Yet Christ uttered aplenty condemnation of divorce (apparently including "annulment" of a consummated marriage) and remarriage as "adultery."{5} Mercifully, we have progressed beyond this; otherwise many ordained ministers would be defrocked. More practically, if there is domestic violence or emotional abuse, divorce might be best for both partners, and remarriage could make a more loving relationship for the new couple and for children of the prior marriage.

Jesus Christ is quoted as damning among other evils both "fornication" and "adultery"{6} (somewhat different sins, else one of these words is unnecessary or superfluous). Yet only "adultery" is prohibited in the Ten Commandments{7} .

Apparently "adultery" must be defined as sexual relations between a married person outside marriage or between a divorced person and someone else he or she re-marries while a former spouse is living [See Christ's teachings, footnote 5]; and "fornication" must mean sexual relations between two life-long single, or married but widowed-by-death, people. Yet no portion of our hallowed Ten Commandments specifically prohibits commission of "fornication" or "abomination."

Thus, it is saddening that in America, "the land of the free," a majority of voters would apparently deprive homosexuals of the right to marry whom they choose. This is against Christ's teachings of "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."{8}

While many would throw gays a second-class-citizen sop of blessing gay unions, this still implies they continue "living in sin" (at least "fornication" or "abomination") and, thus, are not allowed full participation in God's love that complete vows of marriage provide.

If divorce and remarriage when one of the former spouses is alive is, to God "adultery," then a fortiori that is worse to God than a homosexual union between two consenting, life-long, single adults which, though perhaps sinful, would be "only" "fornication." (And there are degrees of sin{9}.) THUS, ISN'T IT CALAMITOUSLY
INCONSISTENT FOR NIGERIAN ARCHBISHOP PETER AKINOLA TO ADVOCATE JAILING GAYS, WHO MAY COMMIT "ONLY" "FORNICATION", BUT APPARENTLY NOT
TO ADVOCATE JAILING HETEROSEXUAL "ADULTERERS," PERFORCE INCLUDING THE DIVORCED AND REMARRIED WHEN A FORMER SPOUSE LIVES?

My faith is strong in the Lord Jesus Christ that He would condone most, if not all, heterosexual divorce and remarriage if He returned today. And, if so, I am certain He would condone gay marriage.

Recently a newspaper forumist wrote that >>>Quakers in his area tend to believe in "continuing revelation," meaning
truths "revealed" today are as valid as those revealed 2000 years ago. That belief allowed Friends to interpret Biblical teachings from almost the start in the mid-1600's, most notably at that time asserting equality of men and women.

>>>All that raises questions of authority, and Friends have a sort of mystically bureaucratic process for determining that. And they only adopt a change to their previous way of doing something by unanimous consent. So it's sort of a radical freedom combined with a very conservative process. He thought Jesus would approve.

>>>That process led the large majority of Friends Meetings in his area to approve same-sex marriages starting about 10 or so years ago.<<<

(1) Titus 1:6 and see 1 Timothy 3:2; (2) Matthew 19:4-5, 7, 9; (3) John 8:3-11; (4) Matthew: 5:17-20; (5) Matthew 5:31-32; Matthew 19:8-9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18). (6) Mark 7:21 and Matthew 15:19 (KJV, RSV, and Oxford Study Bible); (7) Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18 (KJV, RSV, OSB, & GoodNewsBible); (8) Matthew 7:1-2, and James 2:13; (9) 1 John 5:16-17

Copyright 2006 by Rufus Hill whose recent novel (including better short stories) is THAD DUVAL FROM ROBERTSON, Amazon.com

E Favorite,

I'll look a little more into the MM/JofA legend.

If you like mystery novels and are nostalgic for GBury, Deborah Crombie wrote a mystery novel set in Glastonbury, "A Finer End", in 2001.

Regards.

Norrie Hoyt:

No, I'm not from the South, just dyslexic.

Glastonbury is funky and fun and I wish I’d spent more time – it was a stop on the road from Bath to Stonehenge.

As for Mary M and J of A getting to Gbury, you’ve got a point, except I’ve never heard of ancient Hebrews being explorers. A little Googling could clear up the issue, I’m sure. I did learn via a Wikipedia link provided by another On Faith poster, that the Apostle Thomas is reputed to have personally spread Christianity to India, Syria, Japan and Mexico, so you never know.

E FAVORITE,

Glad you got to Glastonbury. If you got to go there I want to go there too. My son says its a funky, fun place in its modern new-age-ness.

You say it was a journey too far for Mary M and J of A to have made it to GBury. I'm not so sure. It was only about a millenium later that the Vikings made it to North America, and most of M + J's journey would have been on land or on calmer seas.

I'M BETTING THAT YOU'RE FROM THE SOUTH!

WHY? All the telemarketers with southern accents ask for Mr. or Ms. HOLT. They transmute the Y to L, just as you did. Why can't southerners handle Y's?

AM I RIGHT?

Best wishes to you.

Yes Dear Sir, as all fires are. That is why I recently adopted a policy of 40-day 40-night celibacy between even the possibility of intimate relationships. This is only fair to all concerned and it allows the mind to clearly assess the situation without being under the influence of Sexual Chemistry, however BE ADVISED THAT THE MIND IS TRULY THE MOST POWERFUL OF SEXUAL ORGANS FOR EVEN IF THE OTHERS ARE SEQUESTERED OR RENDERED INACTIVE, THE MIND CAN GO ON WITHIN PURE LOVE, AND PURE LOVE IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE. TIS LIKE MANNA. TIS NOT BANANA I DO BELIEVE. NAKED APES BY DEFINITION WOULD NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE IF IT REPEATEDLY CALLED TO THEM "HEY THERE LONELY GIRL" OR "HEY HEY" GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS ALWAYS.

Norrie Holt: "I'd love to visit Glastonbury. ... Do you think Mary Magdalene was really there with Joseph of Aremathia?"

No way! Glastonbury is a great place to visit now, but in Joe of A's day, it was a long way to go.

Does it say in the Bible that Joe was Jesus' uncle, on his Mother's side? and that Jesus and Uncle Joe visited there when Jesus was a kid? I never heard that until I went to Glastonbury.

Also never heard that Uncle Joe brought the chalice from the last supper filled with sweat and blood from Jesus-on-the-cross in it. What a miracle that it didn't evaporate on that long trip from Jerusalem!

I saw the grave marker for King Arthur and Guinevere, who were once buried in Glastonbury, but alas their bones were stolen. Just as well, because they were legendary, anyhow.

Mary C: One Egyptian Pharaoh had 75 sons. Henry VIII said it was the queen's fault and kept getting new queens all failing to produce a male heir. Now just who's fault was that anyhow?

MC,

I read the article. What an amazing change. If I were an Englishman I'm not sure I'd approve of the EU and its mass migrations. Whatever's happened to the Britain we knew and loved?!

Roy: Marriage was invented by men. At the time women were a comodity bought and sold on the open market. Kings and others blessed by God had harems. Some had hundreds of "wives" and even a few concubines for practice. When one man owns a lot of women a lot of men have none at all. If a man owned a woman he cound rent her out. If she went into business for herself she was stoned, both before and after in some cases, (cases of beer). God was right there with them all the time.

Mary C.,

Do you read novels, historical novels, mystery or detective stories? If you do, let me recommend to you three wonderful books that I think you'd enjoy.

C.J. Sansom, a British solicitor with a Ph.D. in history from Birmingham University has written DISSOLUTION [as in dissolution of the monasteries], DARK FIRE, and SOVEREIGN. They are all set in Henry VIII's reign. The hero is a hunchbacked lawyer, Matthew Shardlake, a civilized, thoughtful, humanistic man who finds himself in the service of Thomas Cromwell, and whose religious sympathies change with time and experience.

The Sunday Times commented: "Magnificent novels set in the reign of Henry VIII bring to life the sounds and smells of Tudor England." The Roman-Anglican religious troubles and terrors are at the heart of the books. I loved reading them. You can check the reviews at Amazon or Amazon UK (was Waterstone's).

I'd love to visit Glastonbury. My younger son climbed the Tor and visited the chalice spring. Do you think Mary Magdalene was really there with Joseph of Aremathia?

I've always thought it was terrible that the abbot was hauled up the Tor and hanged. I still think so, even though recent research seems to indicate that the abbot was indeed fiddling the accounts to the detriment of Henry and Cromwell.

I'll read the Times article, but wanted to get this off to you first.

Regards.

Dear Bishop, sorry to disappoint you but companionship outside of marriage can, too, be like the hearth at the centre of the home in an old-style homestead: The place of warmth, the place of cooking, the place where the fire can be enjoyed and effective without burning the house down. Believe me, I have tried marriage and it was nothing like you described. Marriage was invented by women because men are not, by their nature, generally monogamous..

Brambleton

or is your name RAMBLEton?

Here's what you wrote in a comment to another one of these panelists'posts:

""Whether you believe in God or not has nothing to do with your ability to think for yourself." That's right. And what secular society has come up with, after decades of thinking for itself, is that 6th graders are better off with condoms. That's right. We're weak, selfish, and hard wired to have sex. No thanks. I'd rather my children experience the intimacy and passion of sex as described in the Bible as opposed to carrying around all the baggage associated with "casual" sex."

Really?

You are a fine one to talk. Hey, if you believe in sex as it is in the Bible, go ahead. Go ahead an believe everything it says. That's your prerogative.

I only want one cathedral, Norrie, Durham maybe...that part of England held out for the olde faith for longest.. Oh no! That's the good reverend's see. OK, another one-ehmmm: Ely? One of the great Gothic cathedrals soaring up against the dark northern European sky: well, Catholics have always liked beauty in their worship.

Or maybe rebuild the great monastery at Glastonbury: sacked and burned by Henry VIII's criminals.

No, I guess that'll have to stay a ruin.

Here is the article in today's (London) Times, the Catholic population has jumped due to unprecedented amounts of young Catholic immigrants. I can see it in my little church in the East End of London. I like it! I like the diversity of population...all this blather of multiculturalism & it was there in the Catholic church all the time.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1386939.ece

Best
MC

Norrie: Your "no pope here" reminds me of the fellow who added "green stamps" to the "Jesus saves" graffito.

Mary Cunningham,

My younger son recently returned from three months working on a farm in Wales. He reported that he was surprised to see that the largest sect in Britain was made up of the alcohol worshippers, who loudly proclaimed their faith all night long in the cities, thereby depriving him of sleep.

Apart from these devotees, I gather that the largest British sect is that of the secularists. S's tend to enjoy a good time, so I suspect the burnings of the Pope and Guy Fawkes Day will continue.

{Remember this true story? A Northern Ireland neighborhood had painted "NO POPE HERE" on the side of a building. Someone had later written underneath: "LUCKY POPE."}

I understand you want your Church's property back. But consider that Henry VIII's Church may have done your Church a favor by stealing its property: "It's harder for a rich Church to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle."

Best wishes.

Dear Dr Wright,

Brief but to the point. On another matter: what do you think about Roman Catholics becoming the largest (practicing) Church in Britain?

Does this mean they'll stop burning the Pope in effigy at Lewes? And what will happen to Guy Fawkes in general? Kinda makes a mockery of being "delivered from" the Catholics when they are the largest church, eh?

Do you suppose we'll ever get some of our property back? I wouldn't mind worshipping in a nicer looking church. The Anglicans certainly have the best locations & stained glass windows.

Yours sincerely,

Mary C.

Thanks for another informative opinion Anonymous. You might not agree with any of the panelists (which begs the question of your presence here) but at least they offer intelligent, reasoned opinions. You offer drivel that wouldn't be found in elementary schools. I know. I know. You're just regurgitating what Oprah and Hillary tell you.

Bishop: You probably don't even believe in evolution do you? Certainly not for humans with males fighting and killing each other for reproductive rights like some lower class animals. Nazis believed in that, master races and so on. We only believe in "the chosen people of God."

So I know this is automatically rejected. Human sperm is shown to be competative, act like a football team with blockers and tacklers and so on. It would seem that the sperm of at least two different males be present in the female at the same time to fight it out and determine the biggest, bravest, strongest, quickest, and so on, the one that fertilizes the egg while the weaker, slower etc does not. Darwin called that process Natural Selection, Survival of the Fittest.

I know that's reject but just try to suppose it's so. What does that say about us right now? Does is say anything significant? I know, the bible is bougs but beyond that. Anything else? Perhaps we could check with the real scientists and ask a silly question. What happens to species that violate their natural reproductive protocols?

Before the baby dies of starvation it's belly swells to watermellon size. Is the population of earth swelling just before the big bust? Does perversion of that which is natural destroy? Does only God know for sure?

The reality of Christ’s fundamental message was not an ethical system, though the ethics of Christ are how Christians are supposed to live. The reality of Christ of Christ’s fundamental message was the cross and sacrifice that he made for us to restore us to God.

I agree that marriage is the crux of the issue when it comes to matters of sexual morality, within the ethics of Christianity. It is for that very reason that there is such and issue over homosexuality. All sexual relations outside of marriage (man and wife) are considered immoral and thus sinful. Why? Well, simply because that is how it is treated throughout the Bible.

As to the Bible, I believe that it is very unwise for Christians to treat it as some sort of cultural phenomenon simply because to do so logically leads one to contradict its spiritual validity completely. I strongly feel that the Bible must be treated as containing eternal truth in all cases. Otherwise, who’s to say anything in the Bible is true?

Example: A lot of writings in the New Testament, concerning sexual morality, were written by Paul. Paul makes his stance on sex outside the marriage very clear. If Paul is simply mirroring the culture of his time, then how can he be said to have the authority that he claimed? Paul claimed authority from God. The Christian Church has traditionally always accepted Paul as an apostle with authority; this includes the early Church headed by Peter. If Peter approved of Paul, and Peter was the leader of the Church at that time, and Peter like the other apostles was given authority directly by Christ, then how can we argue with it? It forms a chain. By denying Paul, you deny Peter. By denying Peter, you deny Christ. By denying Christ, you deny God.

I agree that we, as Christians, must do all the things that you listed, especially welcome the outcast. However, we are still required to not condone sinful practices, and that includes our own. If the Bible contains eternal truths, which I believe a Christian must come to accept or eventually face an epistemological crisis of faith, then we have no choice but to be loyal to it. To quote Martin Luther on the topic of scriptures, they are “the manger in which Christ is laid.”

Above all else, we must be honest with ourselves when it comes to these matters. When trying to decide which way we stand on the issue, we must continually ask ourselves: Is it for His glory or my own? Am I shaping myself to the will of God or am I shaping God to my will?

"Religions, however, reflect and often distort life's various realities."

Really?

Wow! What an insightful comment. When did you realize this?

I mean, this is BIG ... get thee up into the high mountain ... lift up thy voice ... lift it up ... with strength ... say unto the cities of Utah (okay, okay Wyoming too!) ... BEHOLD! BEHOLD! Religions reflect and often distory life's various realities!

Wingnut!

"Religions, however, reflect and often distort life's various realities."

Yes, as the worldwide Anglican community is distorting the rality of Christ's fundamental message: that we should welcome the outcast, love one another, be merciful that we might receive mercy, and remove the log from our own eye before we judge our brother for the speck we perceive in his.

Fortunately, among Anglicans here in the U.S., the message of Christ has trumped a throwaway line by Paul, written to correct a specific situation the details of which we have no knowledge.

Dear Bishop, the same can be said of Religion, or Nationalism. What can Sex, Religion and Nationalism all have in common? That is right, Love. Now, love of God will guide all three to the Light. Love of self before God will guide all three to the Dark.

God Bless you and yours. May you find God's Light in all that you do. In otherwords, have a Happy Valentines Day, Sir. I am sure you've earned it! :)