Hear, hear.

In the years when Christ was alive the various religious factions were the law of the land and controlled the population through the Old Testament from my knowledge of history. In those years the only way to change the current law was to bring change to religious beliefs.

Christ ran a great campaign for religious change by embracing the outcasts of his society. Those who noone would be caught associating with, those who are still maligned to this day. The prostitutes, those with incurable diseases like leprosey (which is what I would liken to today's AIDS epidemic), the poor, the sick, the disabled; all those that religious society threw away, scorned, killed and spat upon.

He gave them hope that change would come. That society would change. The world they knew would change for the better. That was the beginning of the Christianity movement; a single fight against discrimination.

Today I look around and wonder what has become of the original ideals of the church. It seems that the quest for religious political control has outweighed the original intent of Christianity. Love.

The book of Leviticus was written before the Christianity movement. The Old Testament was written before the Christianity movement. Before his death Christ said that the Old Testament was no longer viable, that blood sacrifices were no longer needed and that his blood would wipe away all previous sins. The previous laws were not viable and were discriminitory.

For all the protestations that the New Testament bans GBLTs it does no such thing. Most will quote you two lines from Romans but all should read the entire gospel. It says those two lines belonged to the old law. When Christ died that old law died with him and when he was resurected the New Law began. The new law is not about the carnal body but the spirit. It is about how you live your life spiritually. Paul spent the majority of Romans asking who are you to judge Gods servant, your brother.

What is said over and over in the New Testament, as also in Romans, is that if you LOVE HONESTLY you have fulfilled the new law. If you live a spiritual life by helping your neighbour; not tearing him down; not throwing stumbling blocks in his path; not judging him and keep following the 10 commandments you have fullflilled the law. Paul then says in Romans to mark those who cause divisions and avoid them.

When I read what is around those two lines I notice the usage of a : at Romans 1:20 Then Romans 1:22-23 says "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things" Sounds like what happened with all those Proposition 8 amendments; corrupting ideas to mold folks to their way of thinking.

It's my belief that Paul was talking about how some rightous folks began corrupting the gospel of Christ. And then Chapter 2 starts off as "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." I absolutley love Romans 12:9 that says Let love be without hypocrisy (pretense of some public approved attitude). And the entire Chapter 13 is a winner. Romans turns out to be about being honest about who you love, our personal relationship with God and living a spiritual life because none of us are being turned away unless you simply don't believe he exists. (That's up for an entirely different discussion folks.)

My grandfather Joseph was a preacher, and a carpenter. Wonder how he would feel about me saying this about religion but this is essentially why I am Agnostic. Religion seems to pick and choose passages in any gospel or piece of writing that suits their agenda. If you read the entire book then you see what they left out and what the author was really trying to tell you, so you can make up your own mind. All I learned from the New Testament is that honest love fulfills the law of Christ. That's it. There is nothing else to pick apart. That is the one thing that is repeated over and over that no one seems to get.

Honest love and living your life spiritually by lifting up all, especially those you cannot agree with. I don't hate. I get very disappointed but I cannot hate.

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Come on, Nick, please don't die..