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  1. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    I don't think anybody would disagree with you there. The question isn't so much whether the church has persecuted homosexuals for a very long time, which I think everyone would admit, but rather whether that should mean that the Christian tradition is inherently and irrevocably anti-gay. I think...
  2. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    Perfect isn't a point on a spectrum with good. Perfect means complete, fulfilled, truly and utterly oneself. That's both the literal meaning of the Latin word from which our word perfect is derived, and also the Greek τέλειος, which is the word in the Bible that people translate as perfect...
  3. Vishvavajra

    Is Jesus truly God?

    Yes, that's the one. I was thinking about it recently, so it was on my mind before I drifted into this discussion. Jesus is alluding to Psalm 82, in which Yahweh is addressing a council of elohim, which either means "gods" or the assembled kings and judges of the world. The word is very...
  4. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    Then those people are working from a mistaken apprehension that who one is on the inside is meaningfully different from what one does. However, your posting that image in the context of this thread in particular was no mere bland statement to that effect, and the implications in this context are...
  5. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    You two are talking past each other when you ought to be allies in this. Sojourner's (and my) point about the lack of modern ideas about sexual orientation in ancient times is relevant insofar as people claim that the Bible is anti-homosexual in general terms, as people in this very thread have...
  6. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    I'd like to suggest some additional hash tags: #thingsnobodyeversaidtobeginwith #strawmenthatpeopleliketobeatoninsteadofactuallyexaminingthemselves #stuffthatmakesunlovingpeoplefeelself-righteousandjustified
  7. Vishvavajra

    Is Jesus truly God?

    It's true. I had been reading John and was thinking of a passage there and got confused about which one we were talking about. The one in Matthew is of a completely different character (not that it refutes anything I said in general terms, as the priest's problem there is that Jesus won't deny...
  8. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    I don't think you could possibly have missed the point by a greater distance. Are you being intentionally obtuse, or is this really such a major blind spot for you? Even intentionally obtuse doesn't begin to cover this. There is no way you don't see what's wrong with this statement. My cat just...
  9. Vishvavajra

    Is Jesus truly God?

    Well, the bit about residing at the right hand of God seems to be a reference to the idea that the Messiah had been held in reserve since the beginning of creation, which has scriptural precedent, sort of like how Twelver Muslims believe that the twelfth imam has been occulted until such a time...
  10. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    I think the problem is two conflicting ideas of what "God's will" means. There's a camp that takes it literally, as if God is a person with an anthropomorphic consciousness, desires, and opinions, who has decided that he wants certain things and not others. Contrasted with them are those who...
  11. Vishvavajra

    Vaccination and Religious Beliefs

    There really isn't a discussion to be had on this issue. Anti-vax is on the same level as young-earth creationism: there are those who understand the science and those who do not (and fill in the gaps with bizarre conspiracy theories).
  12. Vishvavajra

    Monism and Buddhism

    It's true that it doesn't mean there is nothing there, but that's not because there is something there, but rather because "something" and "nothing" are relative concepts constructed by the mind. "External" and "internal" are as well, and it's not clear what "external to the mind" means in...
  13. Vishvavajra

    Monism and Buddhism

    People are liable to mistake the Cittamatra (often translated "Mind-Only") approach for a kind of monism, but it's not really. In asserting that all is mind, it refers to mind-as-process rather than mind-as-substance. The gist is that there is no means of apprehending anything apart from mental...
  14. Vishvavajra

    Thanks for reading and for the encouraging words.

    Thanks for reading and for the encouraging words.
  15. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    Bigotry is a sin. Sin is dividing people up and treating some as unclean. Sin is justifying that by citing texts without understanding or Love. Sin is hiding behind religion to justify bigotry. Sin is any act predicated on delusion and the absence of Love--for example, the delusion that sin is...
  16. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    No, not going to let you suggest that I'm the problem here, either. The problem is that some people choose to believe certain things about other people's sex lives and use that as an excuse to marginalize them. You bring up common ground for public policy, but public policy cannot be dictated by...
  17. Vishvavajra

    Is Jesus truly God?

    Well, I never claimed to believe in Biblical inerrancy. It's a minority position in the Christian tradition, so I don't see it as essential--which is good because I don't see it as a tenable position to begin with. You'll find I often bring up context because the Bible often isn't sufficient as...
  18. Vishvavajra

    About becoming an educated buddhist priest/monk

    No, you go to a monastery and tell them you want to become a monk. The teaching will happen there.
  19. Vishvavajra

    Praying in Buddhism

    While there is certainly a lot of syncretism in the realm of Chinese folk religion, devotional practices are well within the realm of orthodox Buddhist practice. It's good to show gratitude to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. In the Chan tradition, which is about as orthodox as you can get, we...
  20. Vishvavajra

    Is pro-gay Christianity really a tenable position?

    The purity laws of Leviticus can certainly engender homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, etc., if taken to be authoritative. And let's face it, as much as certain people want to separate the two, there's no rational basis for condemning homosexual sex apart from a deep-seated and fundamentally...
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