Letter to someone who won't respond, but I'll feel better for having written it.
Dear Mr. Clint McCance,
Your recent spate of hateful anti-gay comments and your understanding of what Christianity means has me worried. Not for the children whom you encouraged to kill themselves, and that's mostly due to how cartoonish your anger has come off to the rest of us, but my concern is for your everlasting soul. When you state that you are a Christian that implies one thing: you believe in the teachings and preachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The entire religion is based on the ten commandments of the Torah, then built upon with the teachings of Jesus, who actually gave two new commandments and claimed they were the most important of all.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." He furthered defined that latter one by stating, "As I have loved you, love one another."
Spitting and hissing at children (they are children, sir, be wary of that millstone about your neck) and encouraging them to end their lives, lives that are a gift from your Lord and Savior, does not sound like loving one another. Calling them derogatory names does not sound like love. In fact, it sounds a lot like the word "Raca," and Jesus Christ of Nazareth told his followers in his Sermon on the Mount that calling their brother (which is a general term, for aren't we all children of God and therefore brothers and sisters?) Raca, or a slur, puts you in danger of hellfire. And since you're living your life under the banner of Christianity, I know that hellfire is the ultimate evil as it forever keeps your from your God and your eternal joy and probably would hurt an awful lot. One could logically deduce that a Christian would do all they could to not go to hell.
I always find it curious that devout - some could say rabid - Christians foam at the mouth about homosexuality when Jesus of Nazareth spoke not one word about it, not in any of the four Gospels of the New Testament, which as you know being the devout religious type that you are, chronicles the teachings of Christ both before and after His miraculous resurrection, and in His own words. One could surmise that since Jesus had ascended to heaven and felt it necessary to come back and teach a few more things to His people that He would distill His words to the most essential pieces of doctrine for Man's salvation. And one could also surmise that since Christ didn't discuss homosexuality after His resurrection that it wasn't as key a topic to Him as, say, declaring peace unto His followers and saying for His disciples to "feed [his] sheep." That can obviously be taken literally and metaphorically. Metaphorically means that it's an example to be applied to something else as a representation, and in this case, "sheep" means his followers and all of the people on earth. That includes homosexuals, Lutherans, Bangladeshis, and NBA players.
(I defined that because I noticed that you used a word that doesn't exist, "thereselves" and didn't know if I was using language that you weren't familiar with, and it is very important to me that I feed you this knowledge of your Lord and Savior who promises eternal glory to all that will come unto Him. I'm using the word "feed" to represent the idea of teaching.)
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Now put that in context of saying that you would cast Jesus out of your house, or you hope Jesus would commit suicide or contract AIDS (that's capitalized, by the way) and die a painful and slow death. How will you stand before your maker with love in your heart when you have cursed at your Lord and Savior who shed His blood for you that you might have everlasting life?
"Wherefore by their fruits shall ye know them." The fruits of your labors appear to be hate and evil, sir. Blessed are the peacemakers and the merciful. It would behoove you to spend some time actually learning the teachings and meaning of the words that your God has given you. Focus on Christ so you can call yourself a Christian. Recognize that the one word Jesus used more than almost any other was the word "Love." Love is the key to your soul enjoying everlasting peace and joy. Love is smiling, love is joyfulness, love is embracing those that would not otherwise embrace you, love is putting others before yourself, love is wishing well of others.
Who knows how much time you have on this earth to turn your heart around and open it to your fellow man so that your Lord and Savior can take you into his loving embrace (not in a gay way) for the eternities? Maybe you should start now.
With your best interests at heart,
Laura, a loving atheist.
Your recent spate of hateful anti-gay comments and your understanding of what Christianity means has me worried. Not for the children whom you encouraged to kill themselves, and that's mostly due to how cartoonish your anger has come off to the rest of us, but my concern is for your everlasting soul. When you state that you are a Christian that implies one thing: you believe in the teachings and preachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The entire religion is based on the ten commandments of the Torah, then built upon with the teachings of Jesus, who actually gave two new commandments and claimed they were the most important of all.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." He furthered defined that latter one by stating, "As I have loved you, love one another."
Spitting and hissing at children (they are children, sir, be wary of that millstone about your neck) and encouraging them to end their lives, lives that are a gift from your Lord and Savior, does not sound like loving one another. Calling them derogatory names does not sound like love. In fact, it sounds a lot like the word "Raca," and Jesus Christ of Nazareth told his followers in his Sermon on the Mount that calling their brother (which is a general term, for aren't we all children of God and therefore brothers and sisters?) Raca, or a slur, puts you in danger of hellfire. And since you're living your life under the banner of Christianity, I know that hellfire is the ultimate evil as it forever keeps your from your God and your eternal joy and probably would hurt an awful lot. One could logically deduce that a Christian would do all they could to not go to hell.
I always find it curious that devout - some could say rabid - Christians foam at the mouth about homosexuality when Jesus of Nazareth spoke not one word about it, not in any of the four Gospels of the New Testament, which as you know being the devout religious type that you are, chronicles the teachings of Christ both before and after His miraculous resurrection, and in His own words. One could surmise that since Jesus had ascended to heaven and felt it necessary to come back and teach a few more things to His people that He would distill His words to the most essential pieces of doctrine for Man's salvation. And one could also surmise that since Christ didn't discuss homosexuality after His resurrection that it wasn't as key a topic to Him as, say, declaring peace unto His followers and saying for His disciples to "feed [his] sheep." That can obviously be taken literally and metaphorically. Metaphorically means that it's an example to be applied to something else as a representation, and in this case, "sheep" means his followers and all of the people on earth. That includes homosexuals, Lutherans, Bangladeshis, and NBA players.
(I defined that because I noticed that you used a word that doesn't exist, "thereselves" and didn't know if I was using language that you weren't familiar with, and it is very important to me that I feed you this knowledge of your Lord and Savior who promises eternal glory to all that will come unto Him. I'm using the word "feed" to represent the idea of teaching.)
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Now put that in context of saying that you would cast Jesus out of your house, or you hope Jesus would commit suicide or contract AIDS (that's capitalized, by the way) and die a painful and slow death. How will you stand before your maker with love in your heart when you have cursed at your Lord and Savior who shed His blood for you that you might have everlasting life?
"Wherefore by their fruits shall ye know them." The fruits of your labors appear to be hate and evil, sir. Blessed are the peacemakers and the merciful. It would behoove you to spend some time actually learning the teachings and meaning of the words that your God has given you. Focus on Christ so you can call yourself a Christian. Recognize that the one word Jesus used more than almost any other was the word "Love." Love is the key to your soul enjoying everlasting peace and joy. Love is smiling, love is joyfulness, love is embracing those that would not otherwise embrace you, love is putting others before yourself, love is wishing well of others.
Who knows how much time you have on this earth to turn your heart around and open it to your fellow man so that your Lord and Savior can take you into his loving embrace (not in a gay way) for the eternities? Maybe you should start now.
With your best interests at heart,
Laura, a loving atheist.