Joel Osteen Maintains Homosexuality as Sin

bphomefree »

Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:53 am Agree: 4   Disagree: 5

Reading the often hateful and cynical comments toward those who preach or minister to others is familiar, as I once was one of those folks. I didn't go thru a conversion but I now see the common thread woven into the holy garments of every single non-hateful church. What I saw in Osteen's response to Larry King was a man who understands that no one church has a patent or exclusive on salvation. To insist otherwise is just plain arrogance, and shows a supreme ignorance of other paths to our God that so far you simply haven't been thoroughly exposed. Learn more, ask questions before providing your canned answers.

Pride, Hubris, Ego, Dogma. All are merely words for selfishness and describe the largely narcissistic attitude that, "I'm right so I get to go to heaven, but you're wrong, so you're not." What kind of uninformed, isolated fool honestly still believes that they have been so blessed by either pure dumb-luck to have been born into; or circumstances to have been surrounded by; or mere fate to have blithely stumbled upon, "the only right way to salvation" - everyone else be damned. What small minded baboons still believe that there is only one way? Can't you see how each sect even within "your way" amended its beliefs to appease the constituency of it's time or leaders - or are you simply ignorant of its severe changes? Does it make you feel stronger, more powerful, more entitled or superior to feel your way to be the only way??? My guess is yes, probably, and there's mountains of psychological and sociological evidence to support this phenomena - otherwise you'd have to share "the way" with another message, messenger, or form of greatness, and that would rock your smallness to its core (or the priests/kings who made the rules you blindly accept). Saying aloud, "I don't know for certain... but I have strong intuitions and beliefs" makes you stronger, not weaker - and it certainly makes you a more loving individual.


C'mon folks. Get out of your rut - get over yourselves and your prejudices. Read more from sources and thinkers outside your current dogma. Not doing so is Slothful, Prideful, and Not even loving of your neighbor... and it's just plain foolish. You may, in fact, be reinforced in your previously held views... but I highly doubt it. Expanding our little brains is a one-way trip, we will never return to exactly the same small town from which we departed but rather, we become acquainted with a grandness and mystery that we always knew was larger and more amazing that even those who came before us had been able to see.

Joel Osteen Maintains Homosexuality as Sin

bphomefree »

Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:51 am Agree: 1   Disagree: 3

Reading the often hateful and cynical comments toward those who preach or minister to others is familiar, as I once was one of those folks. I didn't go thru a conversion but I now see the common thread woven into the holy garments of every single non-hateful church. What I saw in Osteen's response to Larry King was a man who understands that no one church has a patent or exclusive on salvation. To insist otherwise is just plain arrogance, and shows a supreme ignorance of other paths to our God that so far you simply haven't been thoroughly exposed. Learn more, ask questions before providing your canned answers.

Pride, Hubris, Ego, Dogma. All are merely words for selfishness and describe the largely narcissistic attitude that, "I'm right so I get to go to heaven, but you're wrong, so you're not." What kind of uninformed, isolated fool honestly still believes that they have been so blessed by either pure dumb-luck to have been born into; or circumstances to have been surrounded by; or mere fate to have blithely stumbled upon, "the only right way to salvation" - everyone else be damned. What small minded baboons still believe that there is only one way? Can't you see how each sect even within "your way" amended its beliefs to appease the constituency of it's time or leaders - or are you simply ignorant of its severe changes? Does it make you feel stronger, more powerful, more entitled or superior to feel your way to be the only way??? My guess is yes, probably, and there's mountains of psychological and sociological evidence to support this phenomena - otherwise you'd have to share "the way" with another message, messenger, or form of greatness, and that would rock your smallness to its core (or the priests/kings who made the rules you blindly accept). Saying aloud, "I don't know for certain... but I have strong intuitions and beliefs" makes you stronger, not weaker - and it certainly makes you a more loving individual.

If you want to see something which will not only build, reinforce, and justify your faith (no matter its source) watch the 12-hr series, "The Power of Myth" by wise sage and scholar to many a minister and professor, Joseph Campbell. You will realize what your intuitions have been telling you all along - that the duality, the duplicity, the metaphoric symbolism of the simultaneously beautiful and horrific (make God angry and he floods the earth kids and all) allegorical Bible tales, create a truthful-hypocrisy (love your enemy, but turn to salt for looking upon God??) which can split into 200+ sects within 2000 yrs of the Christian story alone.