From Annella: Reply #189 on: September 24, 2010, 08:07:03 pm
Mackenzie, your right. Being gay is not genetic. It's a lifestyle choice. I'm sure though that science will try to prove otherwise.
Being gay is a chosen sin (Biblically), that's why we as Christians are against it. Isn't it funny how everything actually comes down to either a belief in God's Word or not? Even if you don't believe the Bible, doesn't the gay lifestyle go against the natural order of things? Things that we never would have accepted just 20 years ago are being shoved down our throat with "you will accept this or else"! I preach against homosexuality, because of what I read in the pages of God's Word. I can't say it's okay, when the Word of God says the opposite. I've been told I could be arrested for preaching this and put in prison......so be it! No way will I call evil good and good evil.......never!
We have many "saved" former gays in our assembly. Some have AIDS. A very talented Music Director comes to mind as I write this. God has actually healed some from AIDS, as they turned around their life, and dedicated it to God. Two of my dearest friends are former gays. They, and everyone that came out of that lifestyle told me they "chose' it. Some even confess of "inhabiting" spirits.
I have not gone back to insert ever single thing you replied back to me with. There are references to things in here that are NOT in the above quote, but you did say them to me. This thread has grown leaps and bounds and I am not going to get every single thing quoted here. If you want to say again that I am "twisting your words" because of that, so be it. Your words haven't gone anywhere and I don't twist them to begin with - I reply as to how I see and interpret what you say. So, here we go....
You stated I had seen your views/statements, as on here before this and the in depth dialogue with Amy about it. I went back and looked and found some posts from a thread on “Babies” in August. I made ONE post about birth control NOT being covered by insurance and then I STOPPED posting in it and never read the rest so I DID NOT see what you wrote then. As I said, IF I had seen it then, I would have addressed it then. You are making presumptions as to what I have and haven’t seen.
You believe and said you ‘know’ I am upset because you called it a sin. Firstly, you do NOT know what I am thinking, so do not presume [again] that you do. You may call it a sin or whatever you choose. I never said you were talking about MY work with AIDS/cancer patients. That is NOT what upsets me about this post. I would expect nothing less from a hardline christian like you than for you to say being gay is a sin/sinful because it goes against God’s Word.
You believe that people are not ‘born gay’. Fine - I won’t waste any time educating you on the infinite number of genetic anomalies that occur and are the cause of gender confusion, mutation, etc. You state you have many saved former gays in your assembly. To that I say NO, you do not. What you might have are some who at one time decided to experiment with it, were doing drugs or other lifestyle choices that put them in a different frame of mind or situation and they found themselves doing something they normally would not have. It could be a lot of other influencers or events. The bottom line is this: anyone who is actually gay, is NOT, under any circumstances going to become heterosexual.
There IS NO SUCH THING as a used to be gay. So, they either WERE NOT gay or because of the misery put upon them by society they no longer could cope with saying they were gay, so they are now pretending they are not. A truly gay person, female or male, does not change that anymore than YOU waking up tomorrow and deciding YOU are now a lesbian.
You mentioned, “God has actually healed some from AIDS”. There is no healing/cure for AIDS! There are states of remission that may last for certain periods of time. This is especially true now with some of the newer anti-recombinant /anti-retroviral drugs, receptor antagonists, and regimens out there - thankfully more are being isolated and developed every day. Medically, there is NO comparison to being diagnosed as HIV+ today to what that meant even just 10 years ago. Ten years in medicine is a relatively short time and especially when talking about something that is now a worldwide pandemic - sooo much has changed. There is a HUGE difference between a positive carrier of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and actually having AIDS. So, these ‘healed’ people? They may have been positive for HIV, are taking the recommended course of treatment, and are still NOT to the point of full blown AIDS. It can now take some recently or newly diagnosed HIV infected many years to go into a diagnosis of AIDS and if they are able to get one of the newer treatments as soon as they are diagnosed, it raises their life expectancy
to an average of around 30 years - that is dependent on them being extremely healthy, having an extremely strong immune system which is able to fight the virus much longer, and also having the financial resources available to even get treatment. Without medical treatment, even the healthiest individual will go into a diagnosis of AIDS in 10-15 years and death will occur relatively soon due to the body shutting down all organs necessary to our life systems one by one.
All these statistics are based upon an absolutely ideal situation in all aspects of the person’s life and that rarely is the case. Did you see ‘life expectancy’ in there? There is NO cure.
If I were one of these gays in your church who was healed, I would owe it to every single person in my life to tell them about it! I can’t and won’t propose to get you to believe that prayer and your god cannot remove AIDS from anyone, but I know, in every bone in my body, that what you have stated as ‘proof’ is a pile of hogwash. Trust me, I deal with religious fervor from families and friends on a daily basis. If I know there is a strong religious ideology, you may find this hard to believe, I adamantly encourage them to pray and/or do whatever is within what they view as their’s and their god’s power to help. My lack of a faith in a god does not enter into it. I will say it is not what you all see on TV or in movies. It takes every ounce of strength I have to watch what my patients go through and especially the kids. I will also say that when religion gets in the way of our treating, there IS no leeway. On more than one occasion (after all the years as an N.P. it is probably thousands by now) we have all used the “WE will save their *bleep*, then YOU can save their soul!”
You say you speak out against homosexuality and are willing to go to prison if necessary. What then makes YOU any different than the Fred Phelps of this country and this world? He and others like him say they are doing it in the name of god and the bible and, unless I am mistaken, so do you? You may say you are not as fanatical as he/others are, but the bottom line is still the same - homosexual people are wrong in their lifestyle and are sinners. I would venture a guess that the large numbers of gays who overdose, infect others out of anger, become absolute sociopaths, and/or commit suicide because of all of your [collective] views have done the ultimate double whammy, eh? As I said, what you have written does appall me, but I am entitled to how I feel, just as you are.