Re: Stopping the attraction?
Submitted by Dakota on April 4 2002 23:34:58
In reply to Re: Stopping the attraction? submitted by sally on April 4 2002 22:48:01
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"Now if a homosexual can change so that Paul says, "That is what you some of you WERE, but now you ARE washed and sanctified and justified," why would that sanctifying and justifying washing not also be available to the pedophile. Is it available to the thief and the drunkard and all other sinners but not to the pedophiles? Why not?" Because you can't put being a thief on the same level as being a homosexual or pedophile. And The complete transformation you speak of just doesn't happen very often. In fact, it's quite rare. I am not a Bible scholar, but I do know that there are MANY ideals in the Bible that are to be strived for but not necessarily ever fully achieved. If you take every single portion of the Bible extrememly literally, then what about passages such as the one that says if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen too many mountains moved recently. You make it sound so easy. Pray and we will be cleansed. But what do you say after we have prayed and we aren't cleansed? Yes we are cleansed as far as how God sees us, but the attractions are still there. What do you tell the homosexual that prays ernestly but is still attracted to the same sex? Do you tell him he didn't pray enough? Didn't have enough faith? Or do you tell him that God isn't ready to change him yet and he must be patient? After all, you did say that God will wash us didn't you? And what about the alcoholic that although not a drunkard anymore, still craves booze? Or the pedophile that doesn't want these attractions but can't get rid of them? So again I ask, what do you tell people that aren't washed as completely as Paul describes? There are thousands and thousands of people with different problems that God does not take away that will be left wondering what is wrong with them or their faith with that kind of preaching. In the real world, very few homosexuals ever become totally straight. Very few pedophiles ever become non-pedophiles. And it really doesn't do any good to quote scriptures such as Paul's that speak of total cleansing. Because that sort of thing JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN OFTEN. So what you are left with is a bunch of hurting people being told by people that don't have that particular problem that they don't have to be what they are if they don't want to be. And nothing changes. The homosexuals are still homosexuals. The pedophiles are still pedophiles. The alcoholics are still alcoholics. And the people that are not any of these are still preaching how they can change if they really want to. Bach gave me a link to a talk Tony Campolo had a while back. It's about homosexuality, not pedophilia, but the issues are the same as far as how the church views them. I don't know if you know about Tony, but he is a highly respected speaker, professor, sociologist, and probably a few other things. I'll post the addy below. BTW....Bach. I hope we have a chance to talk about what was in this talk in chat sometime. http://www.bridges-across.org/ba/campolo.htm Dakota |
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