First of all, thank you again, Number 5, for being willing to state your beliefs. I thank you for your courage and love and willingness to continue the conversation.

I have to say that I believe that the word of Jesus supercedes the Old Testament for me. I also believe that the Bible as we know it was written by men (women wrote things, but their viewpoint was excluded from the current Bible). And that these men were a product of their times. I say this not in an effort to change anyone else's belief, but so you all understand my viewpoint and can take that into account. :-))

I'm also not truly comfortable with Paul (author of Romans and Corinthians). To me, faith is a gift from God (or Henrietta). Romans 17-32 talks about the worship of idols, and, yes, that "God gave them up to degrading passions," including, but not limited to, homosexuality. Paul goes on to talk about other kinds of wickedness (evil, murder, strife, etc.). To me, this is Paul talking, not God. But, for those, like Number 5, who take a viewpoint more literal than mine, her stand makes perfect sense. (I hope I'm interpretting this correctly, Number 5. I don't mean to speak for you in any way.)

My wish would be for those who do take this passage more literally (present company excepted!), is that the rest of the passage would take on equal weight. We could then see the end of "every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice...envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness...gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless."

Now wouldn't THAT be a beautiful world!

Thank you all for your loving voices...Take what you like and leave the rest.

Casey