the prejudice towards LGBT does what I find to be a great thing, and this is people leaving the church.
Agree. Likewise, this abortion thing will cause a lot of hardship and suffering for women, but the upside is exactly what you refer to. People are seeing what this church actually is as opposed to how it describes itself, and what it will do to them if allowed to. Does anybody actually believe that stuff about letting individual states decide abortion law? That's what you say when you undo the law making it legal everywhere while you're getting ready to criminalize it everywhere if possible. People see the Handmaid's Tale playing out in the news, and that will damage the church further in the eyes of the American public.
Has the tolerance of gays changed the sinner from the gay, to the Christian condemner?
It's a work in progress, but the answer is yes, eventually. The Christian definition of sin and virtue is being replaced by the humanist equivalents. We're seeing that play out here. I don't think that this discussion would have been possible a century ago, when people like Scopes went on trial for his blasphemy. If one claimed that Christian homophobia was bigotry in 1922, he could expect to be shouted down and maybe arrested. Nor will we see it a century from now, just as all of the biblical arguments for keeping slaves and preventing women from voting have disappeared.
I'm sure that you're familiar with the concept of the Overton window: "the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse." This is a nice illustration of how that evolves.
I seen many dismiss what the Bible says. That’s nothing new. My challenge is to show when it changed.
I haven't seen that, but it's not surprising. Christianity is coming under attack increasingly more often as its critics' voices gain traction. It's in America where this religion is offending the greatest number of people living in western secular societies, and that is where this cultural war will be waged most visibly. If Christians are walking back the homophobic theology, it's likely for the same reason that they have been walking back hell theology, and why Republican politicians are walking back their extremist anti-antiabortion position - to adapt in order to remain viable. We've seen several threads on RF lately on this topic, with Christians on the defensive trying to justify this institutionalized bigotry. It's not a good look for them in a world that increasingly sees such attitudes as irrational and unjust.
It's how humanist values eventually reshape Christianity. It's why Christians no longer kill women as witches. It's why the scriptures against rising up against kings were ignored and subjects became free citizens. It's why there are secular governments at all. It's why there is freedom of (and from) religion. It's why many if not most Christians accept the theory of evolution and call the Genesis creation story mythology. It's why believers are changing the description of damnation from a fiery torture pit to separation from God. It's why many Christians are increasingly saying that unbelievers can be moral and even that some will be saved. It's why sex outside of marriage is legal. It's why the majority of Americans including Christians support reproductive freedom, and why the upcoming blowback to overturning Roe will be so fervent. People are increasingly less interested in Christian dicta and values.
And every one of those changes was for the betterment of mankind. Apparently, persecuting gays is hurting the church's public image, and some believers are getting tired of defending that doctrine, why some welcome and even ordain gays. These are progressive values.
Where did God change his mind on the issue of homosexual behavior? When did it become not a sin?
God's not here to express Himself. Every gets to decide for himself what's on His mind. When did God change his mind about monarchy? Exactly when people needed Him to - around the time of the American Revolution. The Bible is clear that man is to submit to kings by command: "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."- Romans 13:1-2 This became inconvenient in the eighteenth century. That's when God changed His mind. Not long after that, He changed His mind about killing witches. I'm not sure when He changed His mind about women speaking in church, but apparently, He did.
Yes, this is a bit tongue-in-cheek. These are all examples of men speaking for God. They are the mind of God. They always have been, since words were first attributed to God.
The kill the witch verse was badly translated.
And here you are trying to change the mind of God under the influence of humanist values, which considers the witch thing superstitious, cruel, and barbaric. Now, Christians like you agree, and revisionist apologetics deployed: "It never said that."
illegitimate sex outside of God’s design is rampant in the culture.
The culture is increasingly uninterested in what the church considers illegitimate sex. Its moral authority is increasingly being questioned. Christians see that as a mistake. Humanists see clinging to ancient moral values of ever diminishing relevance being the mistake. Isn't that what this thread is about - concern of the OP that man is headed in the wrong direction if he stops calling homosexuality sin, and a host of more modern thinking people rejecting that value?
