Wait, MetalSlimeHunt... are you saying that the fact that 36% of adults think that gay relations should be illegal, even if they're in private, is evidence of progressive attitudes towards homosexuals?
Sounds about right to me.
It sure doesn't. Over a third of the country thinking your sexual orientation is an abomination enough to be made illegal is not indicative of a "progressive" attitude. The US is not progressive at all by Western standards when it comes to homosexual rights. That's just a fact. Our policy and our social attitudes are lagging behind Western Europe, Canada, and Australia, to name a few. Yes, they're better than a lot of other places. That does not make us "progressive".
No, we're not even near the level of "progressive" as the rest of the West. That's not what I was saying at all, and I'm pretty sure MSH wasn't either. I'm jealous of Canada particularly, but also those other places. However, we are more "progressive" in terms of approval of homosexuality than we used to be.
"Over a third of the country thinking your sexual orientation is an abomination" is still god-awful, but I wasn't pointing out that it wasn't. I was pointing out that compared to where we were even a decade ago, it's progress.
edit: Though if it gets WORSE again, which surely it won't, hopefully... then more incentive for me to move to Canada.
We seem to be on the same page, then. I just really, really, really want to drive home the point that we still have to consider it a problem in order for it to continue to get solved.
"We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me." -1 Timothy 1 1:9-11 (TNIV)
Question: What does that passage say in the original language (presumably Greek)? Is that a literal translation, or not? I'm looking up different English translations and they all say wildly different things, from "those practicing homosexuality" to "sodomites" to "those who defile themselves with mankind".
The original word is "arsenokoitai". The meaning of this
is ambiguous. Such is the problem when so much of people's worldviews depend on modern (or often rather old) translations of a single word from a completely different cultural and sociopolitical context. It's very hard to tell what was even meant, so over the centuries, meanings get shoehorned in and the original word gets pigeonholed into whatever is convenient. See also "fornication".
The classification of sexual behavior in ancient Greece/Egypt/Rome/Israel was
very, very different from what it was today. Much of that context isn't something most people are aware of, and they just fill in the gaps using modern classifications, gender roles, and sexual orientations. In fact, some of the context is not fully understood by
anyone, because it's been centuries or millenia. It would be like taking modern social commentary from the US and expecting 14th-century Russians to interpret it. They wouldn't draw appropriate conclusions to apply to their own lives because the very concepts and context expressed would be alien to them. Same situation applies here.
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Topic: Don't Ask Don't Tell Delayed by Gates (Read 7321 times)