WARNING: Blunt and to the point!

Ali wrote:

Colin - I do wish you wouldn't jump to the conclusion that Christians like the woman involved in this case hate homosexuals. Her position is one of conscience, based on the teachings of her faith. I am a Christian, my brother is gay, he and his partner had a civil partnership last year, which I attended and even made the celebration cake for! I love my brother and his partner - their sexuality has no bearing on that love. I do not hate homosexuals. A Christian conscience absolutely does NOT equate with hatred (in fact that's a contradiction in terms!), and the fact that this woman has stood up and been prepared to be counted makes her very much NOT a coward. I think you might need to be careful that you're not bordering on bigotry yourself, against people (like myself) who hold with the teachings of the Bible. [The online Encarta definition of a bigot is - intolerant person: somebody with strong opinions, especially on politics, religion, or ethnicity, who refuses to accept different views.]

Oh dear, you really cannot see your own bigotry and hatred nor hypocrisy can you? Nor can you see that such an attitude of intolerance is hatred. It isn't love. Hatred does not have to be overt or even recognised within one to be hatred.

I think your attitude is appalling. It is patronizing to your brother, I certainly do not believe you love him, clearly you do not, you love your fantasy of him, not the homosexual man that he is. You cannot love him on one hand and believe he will rot in hell on the other for being who he is. That is not love. That is cowardly bigotry. Like that registrar, you do not have the courage of your convictions because you say it is your faith that gives you this attitude. Rubbish! The attitude is in you, in your soul, in your mind, if it were not it wouldn't matter what a book said, or people's interpretation of what it says, you would not accept it because it would not fit with your conscience. In other words it is you who believes your brother is evil because he is gay and that God will damn him for all eternity. Have you ever thought about that? YOUR BROTHER , the man you say you love, you are quite happy to see burn in Hell for all eternity? That he is an abomination in the eyes of the God you believe in? And therefore in yours. As you long as you can feel that someone else pays for your sins and that as long as you believe that, and spout the beliefs, including the hatred of your own brother, you will go to heaven and be in bliss for eternity. Oh as long as you believe that, you don't give a toss what happens to your brother do you? No as long as you feel safe you are quite happy that your God will damn him.

(Imagine for a moment what it might feel like to be told that your feelings of love and arousal are evil? Imagine what it might feel like to be told that your essence is an abomination? That what makes you who your are is wicked and despicable. Think about it. Did you choose not to have feelings of love and arousal for women? When did you make that choice? Explain just how you HAD a choice? No? I thought not).

Or have you never followed your thoughts thru? Your beliefs. Do you truly mean it when you say you are a devout believer in a belief system that condemns your brother for all eternity?

If you do, then I feel very sorry for you. You are a hypocrite and a coward and bigot of the worst kind. You hide behind your so called faith and put the blame there. When this evil is within you.

Think I am being too harsh? Maybe but because of people such as yourself millions of gay people have been killed, are still being, or live terrible fear filled lives. And don't you dare say you have no blood on your hands - you DO by supporting a belief system that causes this evil.

Ultimately, your conscience and belief system is utterly self centred. It is all about saving you and is based upon fear. This is not faith nor is it love. It is fear and hatred.

The God I believe in is truly one of unconditional love and I am only sorry that you don't understand the concept of unconditional love.

Love is an ACTION not a feeling. You say you love your brother but your actions say otherwise. So what that you attended his wedding and made the cake? In your heart he is an abomination to you. This makes you a coward and a hypocrite and quite wicked in my mind.

Having said that, I know that the Creator is within you too and that despite your way of thinking, you will not be condemned for it but you will be held to account. Change is painful. That is how we pay for our sins. We suffer. We are 'punished' BY our sins, not for them! Changing our thinking, the beliefs we base our lives upon, is excruciatingly painful. To see ourselves as we are and not as we think we are is suffering. To become aware of the suffering we have caused others, is suffering. We FEEL it. We will KNOW and in that knowing will be our 'punishment'.

You cannot escape this by putting the onus on someone else. No one else will take your consequences. That is so clear yet unseen by those who deny their culpability and believe that another will pay for them. If this were true, all their suffering would cease the minute they believed! There would be no consequences to their thoughts and actions. No cause and effect. That, as any one with brain knows, is not what happens.We continue to suffer.

How anyone can believe in a God who thinks their brother is evil and an abomination is beyond me. How anyone can believe in a God who demanded that a man, who he says was his son, die such an appalling death to appease his anger is beyond me. How anyone can believe in such an evil story I have no idea. Except of course I do know. They believe out of fear and because they cannot conceive of unconditional love and because they in their heart are jealous and judgemental and condemning and demanding that others be as they wish them to be. We can only believe what fits with our conscience. Or what we are too afraid not to believe because of indoctrination.

Strange how people are afraid of their God of Unconditional Love!

So Ali far from being loving and accepting of your brother, far from being the person you pretend to be, the one you'd like us to see, you are in fact a cowardly bigot who would rather think she is saving her own skin and hang what happens to her brother (according to the belief system you ascribe to).

And as for me thinking what I think about Xtians (and Muslims and Judaism and any belief system that holds faith in a God of conditional love, which is an oxymoron ), well of course I do! They ascribe to a belief system that condemns me! Would I condone that? Do you think I am insane? And apart from that, this belief system sanctions child abuse, the subjugation of women, it supports slavery, gives succour to those who judge others because of their race. It has been the cause of the death of millions.

Now, if I were a Nazi and got uptight with you because you automatically assume that means I hate Jews, you would think I was a fool right? How could I support a belief system that includes hating Jews and not be a Jew hater myself? If I expected you to believe my protestation that I do not hate Jews but love them, despite my being a Nazi, well...actually this is what you expect me to believe of you so maybe you would believe me!

Let me be clear - I don't hate you, I don't condemn you. I do condemn your thinking, your belief system, because to me it is evil. You have a CHOICE to believe what you believe or not. Your brother does not have a choice to be someone else.(yes he did not choose to homosexual-he just is just the same as heterosexuals did not choose to be, it isn't a virtue, it's a matter of nature) It goes very much against my conscience, my belief that we are all a part of God and as such are in essence Divine and therefore cannot ever be destroyed or ever be cast out from that of which we are a part. Unlike your belief system, I truly believe that we all survive physical death, that we will all eventually be at peace. That we progress for all eternity to become Divine expressions of love. This is a painful process. Be that person you, me, Ghandi, Hitler, or Florence Nightingale. We are all a part of God and as such are Divine and cannot ever be apart form God nor destroyed. We are raindrops to God's ocean.

We truly are loved UNCONDITIONALLY , a concept most people seem to not understand.