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From: david@ssc-vax.UUCP (David Norris)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Sub-human Christian attitudes
Message-ID: <814@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Feb-84 15:15:20 EST
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.814
Posted: Thu Feb  9 15:15:20 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Feb-84 07:41:24 EST
Organization: Boeing Aerospace, Seattle
Lines: 54

"Speaker" (who are you, anyway?) responded to (?)

>	The "not my will but Thy will be done" attitude makes me
>	sick.  How anyone who is human could even attempt to cast
>	aside his own judgements, loves and values, I do not
>	understand.
>
> I submit that such people are not fully human.  People are
> always looking for a God to take away their troubles, fears,
> or solve their deepest inquires... this God takes many forms.

I suppose I will have to be lumped in this catagory.  Personally, I am glad to
have a loving God who takes away my troubles and fears; it makes life worth
living.  

But I wonder about those who believe that they have to give up treasured
beliefs and loves to accept Christ.  What kinds of judgements, loves and values
do you think you will have to give up?  You don't have to give ANYTHING up to
become a Christian; God wants you the way you are.  The hitch?  You will find
that, as you grow closer to God, you will give up some things you never thought
you would.  

I have found this to be a common reason to reject Jesus, but I don't think it
holds much weight.  If you cherish a particular value, God may not ask you to
give it up.  If you believe God will ask you to give it up, you must search for
the reasons behind such a belief. 

Let's take a case in point, a value that might be disputed.  Homosexuality is
a good one; I think we can agree that we disagree, anyway.  A homosexual knows
that, if he accepts Christ, he will be asked to give up his sexual preference.
Let us also assume that he sincerely believes that there is nothing wrong with
homosexuality.  What reasons might he have for not accepting Jesus?  There are
many superficial reasons:
	1) fear of response from friends, family, others
This one doesn't flush.  It implies that an individual is more concerned about
his image than in his ideals.
	2) doesn't really believe in God 
This is another argument, and has little to do with his personal values.  The
fact that he is a homosexual should have little to do with his belief in God. 
You can't say you don't believe in God because you are a homosexual;  existance
(or non-existance) of a Supreme Being does not depend on one person's values.
	3) fear that a real God will ask him to give up his lifestyle
To me, this is the only argumentable answer.  But it implies that the person is
making a free choice to reject God.  I suspect that this is rather rare.

Since I am sub-human, I have probably left out some other reasonable responses
to this question.  Seriously, do you *really* believe that others are sub-human
to cast aside his own values, if God asked him to?  This implies a relationship
with the Almighty, and would make the individual super-human, not sub-human,
don't you think?

	-- David Norris        :-)
	-- uw-beaver!ssc-vax!david