Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-tools!dickau From: dickau@tools.DEC (Martin Dickau) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Christian singles Message-ID: <189@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 03:09:10 EST Article-I.D.: decwrl.189 Posted: Mon Dec 10 03:09:10 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 04:45:48 EST Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: DEC Engineering Network Lines: 52 I'm sorry to see that Chuq, who has always appeared reasonable to me, equates all Christians and their beliefs with Jeff. I, too, am a Christian. I was brought up in a Christian home, where we read the Bible every night. I would venture that I am probably as devout as is Jeff, yet I rarely agree with most of what he has to say. Without going into a deep religious discussion, let me just say that there are many variations, or sects, of Christianity. They share a common belief that belief in Jesus Christ will bring them to eternal life (if I may make a gross oversimplification). The reason there are so many different sects is that they disagree on the biblical validity of each other's stands on a wide range of issues, including those of interest to single adults. To say that "Christians" are intolerant or "Christians" tend to label people as sinners is unfair, to say the least. Some of us Christians take to heart Christ's admonition "Judge not, lest you also be judged; condemn not, lest you also be condemned;..." (I believe that is Luke 6:37, but I have no Bible at hand here to check). To give you an idea of how bad some Christians can get, though, I once went with a girl I was interested in dating at the time to her church's young adult bible session. The question they were dealing with was "Should a Christian date a non-Christian?" I was apalled when the leader of the discussion answered "No" and set out to prove it. And the group of a dozen or so went right along with her!! She sat down with a Bible and "proved" that the Bible said that dating, or at least marrying, a non-Christian was bad. I, however, was able to take the same Bible and "prove" just the opposite. And my proof had the added benefit of agreeing with my gut belief that the most basic Christian tenet is to love everyone, no matter what they are like, no matter what they say, no matter what they do. During college I have had a number of girlfriends. One was Christian, two were Jewish, one was not anything. I have had a live-in girlfriend (yes, my mother, who is a devout, VERY CONSERVATIVE Christian not only knew, but did not ban me from the family for even a moment), and sometimes I am active sexually, while other times I am not. Chuq may consider this a modified form of Christianity, but I have never felt that my religious beliefs in any way conflict with the lifestyle I am pursuing. That includes my love life. There are some things I would never do, perhaps as a result of my beliefs, such as having two SOs at the same time. That, however, is my decision for me and for my life, and I have not more right to apply it to anyone else's life than anyone else has a right to apply their beliefs to mine. That's where I tend to be intolerant. Doesn't have the slightest thing to do with being a Christian, though. -- Martin -- UUCP: ...{ucbvax,decvax}!decwrl!tools!dickau ARPA: dickau%tools.dec@decwrl.ARPA ENET: TOOLS::DICKAU "Just a pebble in the avalanche of life"