[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

The day will surely come when God, by Jesus Christ, will judge everyone's secret life."

ok, not to be a smartass, but i find that statement quite fucking oppressive-- god the busybody! quit snooping!

about the rest of the stuff, i know there are arguments against reading that "I am the way, the truth, and the life" passage in such a narrow way-- but it's so easy to read it in many ways it becomes a free for all.

which brings us to the fact of scriptural interpretation-- there's so much and there's so many contradictions, anyone can find something to explain anything they do. the bible has been used to justify slavery, to kill homosexuals, to wage "holy" wars...

too much of a mess to sort through, in my opinion. i'm much happier with reasonable laws on a civil society. in spite of lawyers and their own twisted interpretations. sure, civil society isn't perfect, but it doesn't make claims on my secret life.

now, if you want to be a nice person, etc, you sure don't need the whole apparatus of a church. i understand that not everyone is that way though, and my parents for example get some sort of relief or reassurance or consolation or guidance or encouragement from their sunday church. so as long as people keep their religion to themselves, i'm not opposed to it. but when they try to stop gays from marrying (see: california prop 8) and promote other various atrocities (child abuse via the teaching of creationism in science class), i have to weight if they do more evil than good...