Then follow the picture you posted. Religion leaves you blind and bound. Be free.

Reconciling the former with the latter is a lot easier and much, much healthier than doing it the other way around.

In the unlikely event that you haven't read it yourself, the book of Leviticus also decries tattoos, piercings, shrimp, 60% cotton t-shirts, select shaving, and crop rotation. It was written some three or four thousand years ago by people who thought the world was flat and the sky was a backlit canopy with holes punched in it. The warnings against certain types of food and behavior were for safety - saying 'God says that's a bad idea' has a lot more weight than 'hey, I wouldn't do that.' Putting these and other warnings in the OT was a way of ensuring the survival of the religion and its followers.

We can clean things now. We eat crops grown in rotated fields, wear clothing with three or more types of thread, and eat food more than three days old without getting sick. Why would any one outmoded survival tactic still be valid when the rest are safely ignored?

Alright by saying what I said up there I wasn't implying that I was going to try and change myself in order to fit one of those groups. I only stated that being Christian and gay was difficult because a few people in each group that I mentioned before are highly uneducated on the opposite subject. I have been treated differently by SOME homosexuals because of my Christian beliefs and treated differently by SOME Christians because of my sexual preference. I know what I believe, I only put that up there to apologise for any offense taken by anyone who read the poem.

Here in Italy there's still a lot of prejudice due to 'moral concerns' and especially the power of the Church. I agree with the Church in some points, but I'm no Christian any more because I think that the Church justifies its own ideas, which are 'human' ideas, with a divine background, which is not there, in that case. A lot of things from the Bible, then, are taken literally, while it is recognised that the Bible is highly allegorical and had to be a sort of 'manual' for the unlearned, at the beginning. There's nothing wrong in admitting it, but they don't, and they derive their ideas on homosexuality and contraceptions by parts of the Bible that in my opinion are not significant, if we consider Jesus's revolutionary message of universal love, which came after that. There are parts of the Old Testament that are all about war, then, do they justify that too?

You don't have to agree with the church to be a Christian. The church is a building and a business, you should be your own church. Every thing in this world is a human idea. There is that that we "know", that we truly know. So I reject everyone elses reality and substitute my own, because who says everything looks the same through another's eyes? I mean is red really red to you? Or could it be yellow? Or blue? hahaha I love doing this, rambling on about how nothing we know actually exists, it is good fun. Prove It, hahaha.

Well, we have different words for this. In Italian, a Christian (or rather a Catholic) is one who follows the Church. Then, we of course have people who believe, but not in the Church, but they don't call themselves Christian, because, if you're a Christian and you don't believe in the Church, how do you consider things such as Baptism and the Mass? Catholics argue that if you're a real believer you NEED them
(Yeah, I can also mess up people^^)

That's the thing. The Catholic faith is very backwards. I can't call it Christianity if they consider God and Christ's love a burden on them. I guess my views on this are biased because I grew up a Methodist and Methodists are WAY laid back about stuff. They love, forgive and forget the things a lot of people like to dwell on. HMMM, Just what Christ taught. Sorry if that offends, but Methodism is more Christian than any other form of Christianity I have tried out. Believe me I have tried most of them. That is about it for me. I may not reply for like a week if you reply again. I will be gone until the 6th of June.

That's the thing. The Catholic faith is very backwards. I can't call it Christianity if they consider God and Christ's love a burden on them. I guess my views on this are biased because I grew up a Methodist and Methodists are WAY laid back about stuff. They love, forgive and forget the things a lot of people like to dwell on. HMMM, Just what Christ taught. Sorry if that offends, but Methodism is more Christian than any other form of Christianity I have tried out. Believe me I have tried most of them. That is about it for me. I may not reply for like a week if you reply again. I will be gone until the 6th of June.

It's important to have faith and hope.

Most people who follow a religion don't seem to understand their importance, and it's so...well...disappointing, to say the least.

To judge others based on their own beliefs...do we as humans have a choice but to do so?

I don't know....I hope there is a way to destroy the small impulses of judgement......but I think you are right....I think we have to judge people.....mainly because of the way society has gone....

I think it's a shame that when you post something religious, people comment trying to devalue your faith rather than comment on the work you created. People don't do that to XianJaguar.

Your own work? Wow! Beautiful, in my mind it sounds like it could be a great christian rock song with the right tune, or it could work at the choirs and organs type of song too. :)

PS: You shouldn't have to apologize for 'offending' someone for beleiving. I like flipping it around.

"I'm offended that you're a Christian! What are you, stupid!?"
"I'm offended that you're being an asshole and trying to control me and force your own beliefs on me!"

I know, not a very christian thing to say, but it sure leaves them at a loss for a comeback.

I had it posted earlier in the description that I was sturggling with my faith and being gay. That is where a lot of the stuffs came from. Man, I forgot what I was talking about

I originally wrote it for my cousin who drums for a band in Iowa. The used it as a hardcore call and response song.