Canada: Praying publicly and reading from the Bible is preaching hate?
We read:
"Tensions have erupted between residents of an east-Toronto neighbourhood and a church group accused of preaching hate outside the home of a local same-sex couple.
Over the weekend about a dozen parishioners were confronted by about 10 residents of the street. Local resident Geoff Skelding captured the moment on video and posted it to YouTube -- allegedly after the group prayed outside the home of the gay couple and condemned them as sinners.
The confrontation took place in the Leslieville neighbourhood near Dundas Street East and Greenwood Avenue. It's the same community where the church, Highfield Road Gospel Hall, is located.
In the description of the video he posted to YouTube, Skelding said the parishioners have been active in the area for years. "Apparently they have been grouping in front of a couple's house and reading their bible loudly for the past 7 years," he wrote.
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I guess noisy preaching and praying could be annoying but the underlying Christian teaching that moves the group is to hate the sin but love the sinner. And if you can't hate sin, that's about the end of Christianity.
The people concerned are clearly ones with very strong Biblical beliefs and are trying in fact to save the souls of the sinners, not trying to project hate at them. They are just practicing their religion. And the Bible-based religion concerned is the sort that America was founded upon.
If they gathered before my house and endeavored to save me from my atheism, I would go up to them, shake them by the hand, thank them for their good work, assure them that they will get a blessing from their Lord for it, but tell them that I have thought about it long enough for them to be wasting their time on me and suggesting that they find someone who is more likely to respond to their efforts.
And whatever result that had, at least I would be setting an example of Christian behavior and not projecting hate at THEM!
And I am not fantasizing about treating Christians fundamentalists civilly. When Jehovah's Witnesses call at my door, I always greet them in a friendly manner and immediately ask them if they have put out any useful reference books on the Bible recently. That throws them completely off track and we simply move on to a civil discussion of their reference publications. I even buy something sometimes. Some of their books can be quite useful in finding Bible texts relevant to a given subject.
"Do unto others ...." is a pretty useful rule of behavior even for an old atheist like me. It's a rule that works well for everyone as far as I can see. But I am a conservative atheist. It's sad that Leftists seem to be too full of hate to use that rule too.
9 comments:
"In the description of the video he posted to YouTube, Skelding said the parishioners have been active in the area for years. "Apparently they have been grouping in front of a couple's house and reading their bible loudly for the past 7 years," he wrote."
OK, if that statement is accurate and true, then these people are guilty of harassment. I would call the cops and get a retraining order against the entire church.
If someone is on the street and speaking to passers-by, then fine, they can go out and preach all they want. But if this is part of some coordinated effort against one individual, or a certain couple, then this has got to stop.
I understand that people have a particular belief in a variety of things and I don't care. But that does not give anyone the right, regardless of how religious they may be, to continue a pattern of harassment in which they attempt to change specific people from who they are to what these church members agree with.
When living in a secular world, ruled not by the word of god, but by the consent of the governed, then there must be limits to how you express your religious views. There are plenty of cases here in the US where this occurs: polygamy and human sacrifice come to mind immediately.
I mean, aren't the variety of western hating muslims just expressing their religion and therefore should be left alone to spread their message, because after all, they are just trying to let us know what we need to do in order to get into heaven (if it even exists in the first place). I'll admit, it's not the best analogy, but only because the difference is only a small order of magnitude.
""Do unto others ...." is a pretty useful rule of behavior even for an old atheist like me. It's a rule that works well for everyone as far as I can see."
So therefore you're saying that the people being harassed should group up near the home of the people doing the reading and they should read something themselves?
Well I can get behind that and I would recommend reading Canterbury Tales. Especially the Wife of Bath and a few of the steamy reads that book holds. Then we'll see how long that Christian nicety holds up.
"They are just practicing their religion."
At what point does "just practicing...religion" does it go from something quaint, to something criminal? Is that your true belief, or does it only apply to christians? What if it was a muslim prayer group who did the exact same thing? Just reading verses out of the koran in an attempt to change these people's lives? They are not doing any different, what then?
Hate the sin, love the sinner? Fine. Y'all have fun with that. Someplace else. Where those of us that do not want to have you cramming the idea that how we live our lives in a free country is a "sin" down our throats.
I love how twits like these pick their targets. I've been living with my ol' lady for a decade now. Some pricks like to confront her about how we are living in "sin", but they never say a word to me. Of course, she's a girl and I'm a 260 lb inactive Marine and biker.
The people that throw blood on rich women in fur coats don't say a word about my leather jacket either. Go figure...
I'm with most posters here.
I am all for these people being able to practice their religion in the public fora but targetting individuals and over an extended period of time is not on.
I agree with all the above too! It's not far removed from the Phelps' behavior - and they would use the same disingenuous excuse about hating the sin and not the sinner, and only concerned for people's souls. Not so long ago people's bodies were tortured to rid them of sin and demons, all for the good of their immortal souls!
I'm surprised Jonray has taken this position. There's free speech and then there's harrassment. Do Jehova's Witnesses that visit his house ever congregate outside and condemn him for being a sinful heathen? And not once but over an extended period? Would Jonray really be so polite to them if they did?
TIme to turn on the sprinklers and get the hoses out.
I believe in "love thy neighbor," if I need to speak to my neighbor I knock on his door, I don't bring protesters nor cause a scene for the entire neighborhood to see.
This is bad PR for the Christian group, no different
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