http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible3.htm

I think everyone should read the Bible. It’s an excellent argument for atheism.

You can call me a bigot, Karl, even an insidious one, but if you are saying that my belief that gays need to be treated completely equally under the law is based on opinion and interpretation, you are wrong. Sorry, but it is not my opinion that gay people just ARE who they are. That is simply a fact.

I agree with your analysis of both Archie and Meathead. As you stated, “Most viewers failed to realize that Micheal Stivic (a.k.a. “Meathead”) was also a bigot.”

I admit to the values I prefer, and try to hold to, which includes not saying I’m tolerant of some people but not others. To me that indicates an accident waiting to happen from not checking one’s own blind spot.

I guess Mindy needs to label POTUS Obama as a bigot as well. I essentially hold the same views concerning gay marriage as he does. At least, I think I do.

The most insidious bigots will not admit that they could possibly be bigots because they are fighting against the ignorance of others. They assume their own biases aren’t based upon anything other than the correct perspectives concerning matters which are essentially opinions and interpretations.

You and other religious zealots treat gays with hatred and intolerance. That is bigotry. Fighting against ignorance is NOT bigotry. Insisting that Christians leave non-Christians alone to practice whatever belief system they hold is not bigotry. Insisting that all religions should be able to be honored with out one religion being held over the others is not bigotry. I am in favor of any and all religions being observed by the believers of each - without any of them insisting that others are less.

You hide behind your incorrect assumption that homosexuality is a choice, so that you can lump it in as one tenet of a belief system and feel free to teach against it, rail against and discriminate against it. But you are wrong. And until you have spent time with gay people and talked to them at length and made a real effort to understand who they are, you have absolutely no right to insist that what you think you know about them is true. That is absurd.

Your bigotry is based in the same kind of thinking as used by those who defended slavery as acceptable because Africans and their descendants were “less than” on the humanity scale. They based that on no real qualifications at all, just a physical difference as slight as skin color. But back then, those who disagreed were met with the same vehement ignorance as you display about gays. And until those who would discriminate base their bigotry on something more than an “ick” factor, I will continue to rant about it. And call it as I see it, which is what I did when I called you a bigot.

My assessment stands, and no, I do not believe that we are all bigots. I don’t believe that most Christians are bigots. Just some of you.

A serene man accepts that which he cannot change.
A strong man changes that which he can,
And a wise man knows the difference.

This saying predates Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer by several centuries. Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer” adds much to this concept and is an excellent encapsulation of the Christian Existentialist philosophy, upon which the 12 step program of AA is based.

The idea expressed is that a person can only be responsible for his or her individual actions, and that it is not possible to be in total control. One should not bear the responsibility of events beyond the scope of his/her control but should learn top live with it.

Karl, A bigot is a person who attributes a set of stereotypical characteristics to people based solely on a small subset of observable characteristics. It is obvious that the character Archie Bunker in the old sitcom “All in the Family” was a bigot. Most viewers failed to realize that Micheal Stivic (a.k.a. “Meathead”) was also a bigot.

We are all bigots in the eyes of other specific people if we consider that people can and do have different values that don’t agree with each other.

The extent of our being labeled then as a bigot stems from how we try to convince other people to take our side or the highway.

I really think I try to respond in less bigoted ways than those who hold values different from mine, but I might just be fooling myself to agree with my friends (mutual bigots) for that matter.

Your rationalizations are not supported by the text.

Numbers 31:14-18
“And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host…And Moses said unto them, have ye saved all the women alive?….Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
“But all the women children, that have not known a man…keep alive for yourselves.”

Deuteronomy 3:6-7 (”Israel destroys people of Bashan”)
“And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sibon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.
“But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.”

Joshua 6:21 (The destruction of Jericho)
“And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.”

These passages are pretty clear. There are plenty more, but I don’t want to bore everyone with this dismal litany.