I will agree that Cal Thomas is both bold and articulate, having said that I must add that I often disagree with his opinions.

But hey, since his self assurance stirs up both thought and emotion in the paper's readership I also agree that his column should continue to be printed.

I agree, Jan. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press means that all sides have a right to present their opinions. I don't agree with those who think homosexuals should repent of the "sin" of being homosexual. That is like saying you should repent for being white or black.

Religion is very simple to me. Love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself. God will judge us, not man.

While Cal may invoke praise from the right wing choir, I find him mostly a comic figure or a lightning rod for intolerance on most issues. Rarely does he show any compassion for those who have opposing views, but rather he is a man whose world is "black and white".

Couldn't write about Cal without mentioning the EXTREME COMBOVER! What's that all about? Even the SBC has abandoned the combover and gone with a more urbane comb "back". If Cal were to dive in a pool, and come up over at the ladder, I'd venture a guess that he's got a three foot strand of hair coming from somewhere in the nether regions!

Being white or black is not a sin.

True; neither is being born homosexual.

Carol. We are all born with the tendency to sin. Practicing homosexuality is a sin according to scripture. But you already know that so I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

"Practicing homosexuality is a sin according to scripture. "

So is eating shellfish, and that's yet to stop me from hitting that sweet, sweet peel-n-eat action.

Denz,
Where do you get the best peel and eat shrimp in Greensboro/Guilford County? I could eat boiled shrimp 3 meal per day---Shrimp & Grits, etc.

are Christians today required to live by the letter of the o.t. law ? or can a Christian eat shrimp without it being a sin ? man 'o live the Jews couldn't even keep the law and to them it was given !
i'm curious why we constantly hear that keeping o.t. law is required of Christians today ? are there any Christians who blog here that believe in the finshed work of the cross, which purchased our salvation thru the grace freely given by God ?

"i'm curious why we constantly hear that keeping o.t. law is required of Christians today ? "

I would imagine (it's my thought, anyway) that you keep hearing it because some would have all ascribe to some aspects of OT law, while ignoring others.

Denz,
I'm dying here. Where do you get the best boiled shrimp???

At home.

Carol,
I'm coming over to your house! My wife and kids do not eat seafood and I love shrimp! See you about 6:00 tonight!

I go to Capt'n Bills, Libby Hill, and Bonnie Kays when I can, but that is NOT often. I cook my own shrimp when I go to the beach, as I can get away with it---shrimp boil with neighbors etc.
At home, I am a prisoner to eating seafood out. Now: Where is the best place to get boiled shrimp in Guilford County??

Denz, thanks for the insightful reasoning in the above posts.

As I recall my reading of Christian scripture/s, I believe that the words, "I have not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it," are attributed to Jesus. So then with a logical reasoning of those words, then the Law is complete and grace abounds.

Sin is not necessarily a specific act or deed as it is more of a generalization of one's life. While we try "name" specific sins, I believe that Carol points out the "grace" aspect very clearly.

Shalom

denz,
do you believe the o.t. speaks against practicing homosexuality ?
do you believe the n.t. teaches that we can eat any food ?
do you believe the n.t. speaks against practicing homosexuality ?
the glbt faction consistently puts the homosexual lifestyle agenda in the publics views.they march, they parade, they flaunt their gay lifestyle in full public view for the entire world to see. they want us (straight believers) and governments to accept and condone their lifestyle and for many, what they do and how the "put in your face" is very offensive. now i've heard carol ask repeatedly, how do you explain adultery . to which i would say, in my near 60 years of existence i personally have never seen a 'adultery pride' march or adulterers pushing for governments to provide special entitlements. imo if adulterers had the same m.o. as the gay crowd, they would probably find just as much resistance. i am a divorced remarried man who has consumated my second marriage and i am not an adulterer. i believe yellowdog on many occassions has defended well the fact that scripture in both o.t. & n.t. speaks against homosexual practices.there are some here that say they are Christian but do not believe the bible is divinely inspired and when a fundamentalist(me)quotes scripture to support my pov, they say it doesn't count b/c the bible was written by a bunch of guys....yet...these same people use scripture to support their personal convictions, go figure. i've said it before and i'll repeat, imo only if you believe the scripture is God's word (divinely inspired), should you use scripture to support your Christian beliefs, or else you're putting your faith in what a bunch of guys said.
for any Christian here who believes they are still holden to the o.t.(jewish) laws concerning "what" you can eat( denz i believe this is you ).....are you aware that everything food item placed in their mouths then must be kosher. any idea of what kosher involves ? here a quick few tid bits ( if there are any orthodox jews out there and i'm incorrect, please correct me ). 1) kosher is not any particular food but rather the processing of any food. 2) some animals may not be eaten. 3) the animals and birds which may be eaten MUST be killed in accordance with jewish law. 4) you cannot eat sausage with eggs, b/c dairy and meat are not allowed to be eaten together. 5)if a fork touches a piece of meat it CANNOT be used to to eat anything dairy. 5)you can't eat any grape product unless made kosher by a jew. 6) you can't wash any plate , knive, fork, spoon etc. that has come into contact with any meat in the same dishwater that has been used to clean that skillet you cooked eggs in and the list goes on ! so if you as a Christian trying to observe jewish law concerning your diet, worrying about 'what' to eat is only the tip of the iceberg.
in the jewish mitzvot there are 613 mitzvots (commandments) that you must keep up with daily (and yes one of the 613 mitzvots addresses homosexuality) - remember the scripture says "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all." see you might begin to see why the apostles said this about trying to yoke Christians with jewish law - "Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?"
all i can say in conclusion is ...thank you Jesus for the grace you impart to us vicariously, amen !

DD, the best boiled shrimp are found at home, usuallly perched on the rim of a bloody mary. :)

Buz, you make some interesting points, but I believe we've found the heart of the matter:

"the glbt faction consistently puts the homosexual lifestyle agenda in the publics views.they march, they parade, they flaunt their gay lifestyle in full public view for the entire world to see. they want us (straight believers) and governments to accept and condone their lifestyle and for many, what they do and how the "put in your face" is very offensive."

I have the same problem with the Irish.

I believe you are correct in your assessment, Denzien. Cherry-picking biblical scriptures to support one's own agenda or focus is the norm here in blogland.

Buz,

Apparently you and I have a different understanding of the "gay agenda". You see, I did not think their purpose was to gain your, my or the government's approval of their lifestyle. I was under the impression they could care less what anyone else thought about the way they were born. I thought they were "in your face" to bring awareness to the fact that they are being discriminated against, not by you or any one individual, but by the laws of our land.

If equal rights, under the law, is offensive to you, I'm sorry. To support equal rights for all God's children is the only way I can live with myself.

Yvonne, succinctly and politely put if I do say so myself.

Shalom

Look back at the headline on this thread:

CAL THOMAS PROVIDES BOLD VOICE FOR TRUTH

.....he also provides quite a challenge for his barber too!

"But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." Matthew 5:32 See also: Mark 10:11-12

Buz, how can you possibly say that you follow the Bible's teachings literally? How can you accuse others of picking and choosing? I freely admit that I pick and choose. That's because God gave me a mind and a free will and because I have opened my mind and heart to him/her.

I certainly don't judge or condemn those who choose to divorce and remarry although I have been married for 43 years to the same man, but if you are a Bible literalist, you can not ignore this passage. Just because you were born heterosexual doesn't make you any better or worse than those born homosexual. If you think sexual orientation is a choice, you have never known or loved one who is different from you. We are all made by God. He has a plan for all of us.

Well said, Carol and Yvonne, and much agreed.

"Buz, how can you possibly say that you follow the Bible's teachings literally?".........

carol, how can you say i don't follow it literally ?

and why do you quote/believe the words that some men wrote. what makes these mens words more valid than any other mans words ? (you've avoided answering this question in the past).

carol let's deal with some FACTS :
1)you don't know if the bible is God's word
2) you do believe a bunch of men wrote the bible
3) you do believe the bible contradicts itself
4.) you do admit that YOU cherry pick which
scriptures are correct

so when you quote "But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." this should be a moot point to you, as you already claim these words were written by some men, so they cannot possibly have any divine truth or eternal consequence to you.....but those same words to me do in fact have divine & eternal meaning b/c i believe they were inspired by God thru the Holy Spirit and given to a bunch of men, who wrote this stuff down (i.e.the bible) and thus it becomes the word of God to man and instruction for righteousness, suddenly those words have POWER b/c God gave His stamp of approval. let us not forget that Jesus is called "The WORD of God", therefore every word He spoke was Gods word (jh.3:34).Jesus himself was subject to the words of the o.t. witnessed by the fact that He fulfilled the prophecies written about him. you have stated in the past that you believe the teachings of Jesus are God's will for your life.....the only way (that i know of) for that statement to be correct is for you to believe that what Jesus said in the n.t. was what God directed/instructed him to say, which would mean that scripture is inspired of God. how could uninspired men possibly know what God was thinking ? you have to take a stand (read here rom.14:5, paul says everyone needs to be fully persuaded in their own mind)on whether the scripture is inspired by God or was written by some men. you cannot have it both ways.
i expect others to come to your defense (and that is fine with me) and accuse me of cherry picking scripture ( isn't that ironic ! )but i am really interested in what you have to say concerning my observations.

Buz, I am merely pointing out to you the lack of logic in your arguments about the Bible. You say you take it literally, I say that I don't. You condemn homosexuals using the Bible, then you ignore the scripture about divorce. I say that I pick and choose, you say you don't. If you will think about it, we both do. Everyone does. Some just don't admit it.

I quote the verses that touch me at times. I ignore those which don't make sense to me. I ignore those which people use to hurt others. I quoted from Matthew for your benefit. I don't consider divorced people who remarry to be committing adultery. However, the Bible clearly says exactly that.

How can you explain this to me?

carol,
you stated " I don't consider divorced people who remarry to be committing adultery. However, the Bible clearly says exactly that. "
apparently the little "condition" that is in that scripture you quoted has gone unnoticed by you. here is the scripture you quoted "But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery."
here is the "condition" which exempts believers from committing adultery...."except sexual immorality".....you see when my first wife left me, she went into a sexual relationship with another man (actually she may have been in that relationship while we were married) and my current wifes ex-husband had been sleeping around in their marriage. in both cases neither i nor my current wife "cheated" on our spouses. so you see sexual immorality on my ex-wifes part and on my current wifes ex-husbands part provides both of us the exemption allowed by Jesus. so you asked "How can you explain this to me?". i now ask you ...did i ?
you pointed out my lack of logic in my argument concerning the bible.
Logic : the science of the formal principles of reasoning.
my question to you is ....how much principle of reasoning did you demonstrate when you completely missed the 'condition' which Jesus permitted in the scripture you quoted to me and then accuse ME of bad logic ?
imo my principle of reason for my statement " i am a divorced remarried man who has consumated my second marriage and i am not an adulterer." demonstrated that i understood the scripture you quoted, therefore my logic did not fail.
once again i would ask you...why is anything in the bible important to you in your faith walk, seeing that mere men wrote their ideas in a book ? only when scripture is held to the highest standard (i.e.divinely inspired)is it permissable to be used to defend your faith. and thank you for your last response.

Buz, thanks for sharing your story. I understand your logic now. I was never judging you, just wanting clarification.

I am sorry you had an unhappy marriage and am happy you have found someone to share your life.

People divorce and stay in marriages for many reasons. Many divorce because of mental and physical abuse. Many marry young and fall out of love. Many are selfish and aren't willing to work on their marriages. I think the high divorce rate causes much unhappiness.

I still wish you would consider that homosexuals are made that way by God, for his own reasons. We don't have to understand the reasons. We do need to love and accept them for what they are, God's children.

carol,
to close out this conversation, first thanks for your comments. your heart and compassion are never in question as far as i'm concerned, i've stated before i believe we can all benefit from much you say.
i will agree that there is much God does and is doing which escapes my understanding. i hope you understand that the reason i am against homosexual relationships is simply that i find in scripture God condemning it....therefore using good logic i could never believe that God would cause someone to be homosexual and then condemn them for His workmanship. when i was in the workforce one of my closest colleagues/confidants was a lesbian and on many occassions she and her partner were welcomed into our home right along with my straight friends. she was one of the most non violent people i ever knew and her work ethic could never be questioned. her hope was to have a lifelong monogomous gay relationship with her partner (which btw did not happen). so i hope you might begin to see that for me it is possible to hate "that sin" but be entirely able to carry on a caring relations with that person. as far a i'm concerned being gay does not define the whole person, it designates attributes of that person to a specific model. what you mistake in me as judging is really me trying to adhere to Gods word as i believe it is revealed to me. i wish you a pleasant day..........

Buz, I may not agree with you on this one, but I find myself compelled to thank you for the reasoned, rational, adult responses you give here.

Thanks for keeping the conversation interesting and above a 3rd grade level.

denz,
i don't get many compliments...so i'll take 'em when i get 'em - thank you.
i'm strong on many of my beliefs/convictions and to some here it comes across as arrogant...of which i assure you, i am not. i'll be trimming some hedges for awhile, will catch y'all later.