Do Christians Get to Choose who to Serve?

In Arkansas, HB1228 is about to hit our governor’s desk to be signed in to law. Should he sign it, it would allow people and businesses to refuse to serve others based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

There are many things that I believe are wrong with this bill (it has a slope so slippery, you could slide from here to the gulf coast on it), but what is so surprising about the bill is the support it has gotten from many Christians. I didn’t realize that anyone who is Christian thought that we get to choose who we serve.

I get that as a business owner, you may want the ability to choose who you do and do not serve. And perhaps at times, religious beliefs play into that.  But I don’t think you can claim to be Christian AND refuse to serve people. It’s just not theologically sound.

Jesus never refused to serve anyone.

Not the leper

Not the hemorrhaging woman

Not the woman at the well who had been married five times

Not the Centurian solider whose daughter was dying

Not the Gentiles who didn’t keep the Jewish laws

Not the hungry

Not the blind

It’s of one of the hard things about being Christian–loving people that are hard for us to love and serving people that we don’t really want to serve. Loving people who don’t follow our rules. Serving people who believe differently than we do. It’s a part of the whole journey with Jesus thing.

So if you want to make the poor business decision of refusing service to people you don’t like, then best of luck to you. But don’t bring Jesus into it. Being Christian doesn’t give us the right to refuse to serve anyone. It means we are compelled and commanded to serve them all.

–Rev. Anne Russ

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41 thoughts on “Do Christians Get to Choose who to Serve?”

  1. The woman at the well served Jesus but was surprised he spoke with her because she was a Samaritan – but she was not an activist for having multiple “husbands” and Jesus did not – by his actions- endorse her behavior.
    Another was the woman caught in the act of adultery – he helped her and did not agree with those who would stone her -BUT he did not endorse her behavior either.
    If our religion identifies sins we are to help/serve the sinner with the intent to provide a witness to “the Way” but not to provide a path for them to continue in sin.

    1. Amen Bob
      That’s exactly true, we are not serving those people because we don’t want to endorse or promote their lifestyle, not because we hate them not because were bigots, it’s just because it’s our belief that their lifestyle is wrong. We are to love them and show them love but we do not have to endorse nor should we endorse a lifestyle of sin, Jesus never did that. May the Lord continue to lead and guide us by his word. Blessings to all

      1. “but we do not have to endorse nor should we endorse a lifestyle of sin, Jesus never did that.”
        Sir, you are committing a logical fallacy and as such, your argument is made illogical and has no veracity. Also corellation is not causation. Understand? Let’s proceed as if you do.

        It is not NOR SHALL IT EVER, EVER, EVER BE that you may impose, by thought or deed, YOUR value system, that you ASSUME is perpetually aligned with The Most High, every second of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of YOUR singular life, on to another human being, whatever their belief system, ANY judgement whatsoever. To do otherwise is for you to throw yourself INSTANTLY into the camp of anti-God, or anti-Christ if you prefer,(‘anti’ merely meaning ‘against’), as you have been COMMANDED as a believer, a disciple of Christ, NOT to do!

        Now, either He is your Lord or He is not, but I suggest, brother, that you worry more intensely for the log in your own eye than the thorns in the eyes of those around you, lest you too position yourself alongside the sinner, unbeliever human beings in the LGBTQA communities, or ‘lifestyles’ as YOU call them, in God’s eyes which see ALL and thus, using the measure you use, condemn yourself to the fate you see for them in your mind.

        Do not judge, lest you be judged and the measure you use WILL BE used against you as well.

        And while I’m at it, I’d suggest you ponder this…My name is often on their lips, but their hearts be far from Me.

        And this…

        ‘And these three abide: Faith, Hope, and Love. And the GREATEST of these is Love.

        God approved Paul’s words, I imagine you’d say. Well then, He approved the idea that Love was a greater thing than EVEN YOUR FAITH.

        Satan spreads dissension, and that serpent tongued liar does it by sneaking into your fears, your ethics, your personal revulsions and whispers smoothly until you are screaming “CRUCIFY!”. He sure pulled it off at the Salem witch trials. He sure pulled it off through the syphillis ridden, anti-Semitic, anti-Gypsy, anti-handicapped, and anti-homosexual delusions of a little narcotics addict named Adolph Hitler, and he has many, many, many times pulled it off through true believers of the fundamentalist kind. So fundamentally believing, they’d break people’s bones on a rack till they accepted Christ and stopped being sinners. Be careful brother. Your ego wants anything in the world but to be nailed on a cross. It’s why Jesus did it for you. Did He do that so you could decide was who’s sins were more vile or because you don’t have the omniscience to REALLY KNOW?

  2. This is amazing! This is what I have been saying all along. It’s truly wonderful to find a religious leader willing to say this out loud and put it in writing. Thank you so very much!

  3. What did Jesus say about who He helped? “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Everyone else had to get in line, literally and figuratively.

    Jesus served only the repentant. When the Canaanite woman came to Him, begging for help with her suffering daughter, Jesus ignored her, until she cried so much that He finally told her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” It was only after she humbled herself and showed faith that she received her request.

    Paul tells us, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” Further, Paul quoted from the Old Testament, in which God reminded His people that they were to be separate:

    14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
    15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
    16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
    17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you….

    (2 Corinthians 6:14-17)

    You don’t get to make the decision for us what who we are to serve in this world. God told us, and what God tells us contradicts what you tell us.

  4. Certainly Jesus refused to serve some people… how exactly did he “serve” the pharisees and money changers in the Temple? Jesus served those in trouble or who were downtrodden, not those who were popular, wealthy, or powerful. To say that he “served” the powerful is an abuse of the word “serve”. He *confronted* them and their haughty behaviors.

    The question is, am I downtrodden because someone won’t sell me a cake or flowers (for whatever reason)? If that’s what counts as “downtrodden”, then surely we’ve solved things like hunger, poverty, unequal education, unequal access to medical care, rape, murder, etc.

    Or, is this matter, simply one of many causes celebre, trotted out by a group that is demonstrably more wealthy and powerful than average. Am I supposed to submissively serve the powerful, as you imply, or am I supposed to confront them in their error? Even if you believe I should not *confront* them (for who knows what reason), you should at least agree that I should have the right to not *support* them in their error. Jesus didn’t help people sin when he served them.

    1. You asked: “The question is, am I downtrodden because someone won’t sell me a cake or flowers (for whatever reason)?”

      I would suggest that African-Americans who were refused service at a lunch counter or sleeping accommodations certainly thought so.

    2. “The question is, am I downtrodden because someone won’t sell me a cake or flowers (for whatever reason)? If that’s what counts as “downtrodden”, then surely we’ve solved things like hunger, poverty, unequal education, unequal access to medical care, rape, murder, etc.”

      I’ve not seen such an absurd statement in some time. Again, it’s a logical fallacy. Again, causation and correllation are NOT the same things. And you’re straw manning like crazy.

  5. This is NOT a religious issue. It is a right-wing political issue. They do not want to interact with anyone that might not believe in the exact same political agenda as themselves (revealing just how fragile those politico-religious agendas are). But the reason this junk will all be thrown out eventually has to with the U.S. Constitution, not one of the man-made religions like Christianity, islam, Judaism, etc. While all man-made religions incite xenophobia, and provide some means of justifying hatred/killing of “infadels”, our Constitution seeks to counteract that madness. Thanks to our Constitution people of any race or creed will be served when they sit at the lunch counter. What all this “denial of service” crap in Arkansas and Indiana really means is that far right wing conservatives have made the mistake of showing their true racist, bigoted “colors”. Just like they only see what they want to see in “Holy Text”, they only see what they want to see in our Constitution. It is our Constitution that is the law of the land, not any holy text or sincerely held religious belief. Thanks to the wisdom of our Founding Fathers when developing our Constitution, we not only have freedom “of” religion we also have freedom “from” religion.

    1. The real point about what our Founding Fathers did for us is: That for any Government to be “Just” & “Fair” it must be free from those who would “Invoke the Power of God” to control the Government for the benefit of a few at the cost of those judged not to be worthy… What we are really seeing here is politicians paying for the votes that they bought from the “So Called Christians”… As a “Multi-faith Minister” I honor that God sent the message to us in many ways to reach all of her children with the messages on how we should live. Early in my life I could not understand how several different Religions could claim to be the only way to God’s comfort, wisdom & help. When in my late 20’s at a very low point in my life trying to find a way to overcome several weaknesses in my character, I was exposed to the idea used by most of the 12 step recovery programs That; We are powerless over (insert noun here ) and that a “Higher Power” could restore us to “Sanity”…
      Years latter after seeing proof that “God answers prayers from those who ask for help to try and live a life usefulness” I kept trying to understand what was the true “Book of Holy writing’s “. Was it the Bible? The Quran? The Talmud? Or the Writings of Buddha? …. After praying for an answer for several months, I got a reply that hit me hard: This is what I heard, make of it what you will.
      “There be Truth in all of them child, But Only That in ALL of them IS Truth” .

      4 Years ago after seeing so many things being done by people who claimed to be “Christian” that I knew in my heart to be as wrong as the Christians who used the Bible to justify Slavery, Bigotry & Hate, I found that I had to start telling People that I am a “Non-Christian, Multi-Faith, Minister”, to separate myself from these hateful people who are Claiming to be Christian…

      The United States of America was the first attempt to provide a Government that did not base it’s Right to Rule “By Devine Right” and to make the Claim “All Men are created equal”…They did not get it all right the first time but Powerful People and Religions have been trying to make it fail ever since then. This present wave of insanity is just another attempt to tear us apart and make our government fail… They Think they want Christian Laws, Christian Rulers…. But I ask you , What type of Christian? What will happen to the other Christian’s? Please people go look at what has happened when the Government says “This is the Religion of the Country”, anyone ever read about the 30 years war? Look at the hatred that used a twisted interpretation of the Quran to kill thousands of us on “9-11” and then send thousands of our young men and women to war….

      Please Christians, look at how you are being used…. Who is using you?

    2. Well, technically Mike, it wasn’t until some laws in Virginia were made and whose language had to be reconstructed that freedom FROM religion came to be. It initially said ‘OF religion’. But your point is exactly correct in that this is geo-political interests at work, rather than any concern for Gods feelings. Also, the Puritans, who founded the Colonies, or were partners in it, had no interest in the separation of church and state at all. They had EVERY interest in THEIR version of Christianity being the ONLY recognized religion (as others who came in from England and Germany were different faiths. And, we see this same mentality at work today and certainly rampant since the 1980’s fundamentalist takeover of the Republican party. Since they form the majority interest, they’ve been pushing ever since to be the ‘party of morals’ rather than the fiscal conservatives they were primarily known for being. In any event, the politicians have been exploiting ‘christianity’ and its member base in order to dig in economically against workers rights, workers compensation law, (in Texas as of 2012 there were only 5 work comp attorney’s in THE ENTIRE STATE!), which affects, the worse, undocumented workers; the erosion of employee benefits and IRA’s, the relief of banking fraud, the speedy destruction of natural resources, and, of course, the erosion of civil, women’s, children’s and animal rights laws as well as voting rights (which affects the ppor and disabled the most, two groups which rarely vote in favor of corporate interests)…the list goes on and on but, according to many of these ‘god fearing’ conservatives it’s all because….Jesus.

      THESE are the ‘believers’ who wouldn’t know what doing Christs work nor walking His very poor, very humble path meant if it jumped in the shower with them. And NOW their big fear is…the gays!?
      It’s absurd and dark and vicious. It’s a lot of things. But it definitely ain’t Christ like. You’re right on the money Mike and I am very encouraged by your voice.

  6. this is a very sad state of affairs. Welcome every religious nut case and clog your courts with frivolous lawsuits and allow everyone to mistreat everyone and anyone on any grounds. You are driving people and business from your state….sad excuse for Christian ethics!

    1. Totally agree, but you know what? We need help. YOUR help. Please DO write our politicians and tell them exactly how you feel and get as many signatures as you can from anyone you think would consider traveling to or move here. And if any of you do, maybe look online to see when the handful of us here that need help are holding a public rally, you could come help and lend your support? 🙂

  7. I am so sick of people trying to twist this to make it seem like Christians are suppose to turn a blind eye to what has been explicitly stated in the Bible to be a sin.
    Yes, Jesus associated with sinners and tax collectors. Yes, he helped them, but he did NOT condone their actions! He told them to repent and be baptized! He didn’t say…just keep going on with what you’re doing. He didn’t help them to continue in their sin!
    The majority of people that have been sued by same-sex couples had sold goods to them. They simply refused to participate in a what is suppose to be a religious ceremony.
    They offered the names and numbers of other people who could help them. They weren’t mean to them, they politely said, as a Christian, I cannot participate in something that the Bible says is wrong. By doing so, it would appear that I am condoning what you are doing.
    We are being told on a daily basis that we have to accept everything and everyone. If we don’t, we are bigots. If I tell my child that stealing is wrong, am I being Judgemental? No! I am teaching them right from wrong. Doesn’t mean I don’t love them. It means I do love them and care about them!
    When you force someone to provide a good or service against their will, you are making them an indentured servant…a slave. You take away their liberty and no man has that right…only God can do that, because he gave us our liberty.

    1. Dale, I pray that you never are required to live under any Government controled by any Religion… I have lived in such places, seen people live in fear of real abuse, by the “Church” it still is happening today. Men who seek power rarely seek God… They will find someone to tell them that what they want “Is God’s Will” by twisting the words in one of the Books of Holy Wisdom…

    2. What the hell does YOUR religion have to do with selling something to someone who doesn’t hold your beliefs? That shouldn’t even come up! Even if someone walks in holding the hand of their same sex partner, how is that infringing on your religion for you to sell them, say, dinner at your restaurant? If a man walks in wearing a turban, is it your right to refuse him service because he is Sikh? I thank all the powers of the universe every day that I’m not American. When are you going to realise that people are people and is not your right to choose which ones are “sinning” or “living wrong”. Too many of you people really have never gotten past segregation in your hearts, you’re just finding new ways and new people to hurt and draw a line between you and them. Sickening.

    3. Why do you presume that, as a business owner, you have the right to decide who is sinning? In your business, you interact with the public, and as long as they are following the law of the land, you have no right to discriminate based on their lifestyle. It simply does not make any sense. And yet, you continue to bring religion into it, as though you follow everything in the Bible literally! How about this one: If your brother, son, daughter, wife, or friend tries to get you to worship another god, “thou shalt surely kill him, thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death.”? (Deuteronomy 13:6). Get over your blind bigotry, and stop using religion to justify it.

    4. Isn’t providing alternate vendors also enabling their “sin?” What if a gay married couple wants to buy a bed for their home? Will the Christian mattress store owner be able to turn them down? What if one of the grooms bought shoes for his wedding from a Christian owned shoe store? What if the couple planned a vacation (sharing accommodations of course)- could the travel agent turn them down. What if the Christian aided them in “Sin” and didn’t know it? That the CD of music from the Christianvendor and a flea market was bought because it contained the song for their first dance?

      How far do we take this? What if the cake owner sells cupcakes daily to a straight woman but that straight woman is doing it as part of a binge-eating thing and also to make her co-workers jealous. What if the guy at the phone kiosk sells a phone to a guy who will use it to gossip or contact sources who will help him with tax evasion?

      Unless the product or service you offer is sin in and of itself it is not condoning anything to sell it.

    5. So, you’re comparing someone’s sexuality and/or gender, something that has been proven to be born with, the same as lieing, stealing, and slavery?

      You just compared your supposed minor infraction of refusing service to SLAVERY?

      I can’t. I just can’t fathom such ignorance as you are revealing.

  8. The presence of Judas at the Last Supper is a profound argument in favor of an open Communion Table. Jesus excluded nobody. Ever.

  9. Well, did Jesus attend Roman orgies to “serve” there? No. He never attended an event where sin was actively encouraged and participated in. Can a photographer provide his services at a wedding without attending the wedding, the reception, and many events before and after? No. Can you find one similar example of Jesus attending and helping out with an event specifically designed to celebrate sinful choices for a sinful lifestyle?

    1. Your bigotry makes you blind to your own contradictions. First, gay marriages and orgies are not even remotely similar. By even mentioning this as an example, you are giving away how febrile your imagination is. Second, Christ helped everyone who was in need, without making his help conditional on their changing their lifestyle. What is very obvious from your remarks is that you have read the words, but you don’t understand the message. In case you are wondering what the message is, look up Mother Teresa, and her lifelong efforts to help those in need, regardless of whether they were criminals, prostitutes, drug addicts, or – horror of horrors – gay.

      1. I have read the words and understand the message. Christ defined marriage as one man and one woman for life (both parts of which are missed by large portions of the population) and any sexual relationship not within the confines of His definition of marriage is sin. Claiming He would provide services to folks who explicitly want them to encourage their sinful choices is a lie.

        Christ’s biggest help to those in need was to help them see the error of their way and turn from sin, never to encourage them to continue in sin. Did He help sinners? Yes. This is akin to a bakery serving everyone that comes in (which many do). Did He ever once help someone who came in and said “Jesus, help me celebrate my past and future sinful behavior?” No, which is what folks are trying to avoid when asked to help celebrate a homosexual “wedding.”

        I find it fascinating that folks like you refuse to look at what Jesus actually did and didn’t do and instead try to spin what He did and didn’t do to make it fit your desires. Jesus never condoned sin, Jesus never condoned homosexuality, Jesus explicitly defined marriage as a heterosexual relationship, and Jesus explicitly defined sex as only appropriate within the confines of a monogamous heterosexual marriage. None of those assertions is disputable if you read the Scriptures.

        1. This is the problem with you ranting about sin: you, and others like you, weave a fantasy that is based on your particular biases, and then you justify what is bigotry, pure and simple, by calling it religion.

          Did Jesus ever go and bake a cake for a gay wedding? No. Did he sell flower arrangements to a gay wedding? No. Equally, did he tell people like you to discriminate against gay weddings? Again, no. So you can read whatever you want into the words of the Bible and justify any action, or lack thereof.

          You claim Jesus defined marriage as between one man and one woman for life, and anything else including divorce as sin. He did not – see Matthew 19:11-12. That is why I maintain that bigots will find a way to justify their prejudices, regardless of how much their ideological foundation is undercut.

          Perhaps the only thing left to say is that I wish you the best, and I hope some day you reflect on your propensity to focus on the perceived faults of others to recognize that you, like the rest of us, are not without sin.

          1. Not to mention, ‘Scott’, that you clearly think ALL sins are knowable, by yourself….of course. Brother, consider recent legislation that permits business owners to discriminate against ‘the gay’. So, a man in a business suit goes into the men’s clothing store and is sold a tie by a fine, God fearing Christian like yourself. What you didn’t consider is that man bought that gift for his husband. Pretend your ‘gaydar’ wasn’t working. You just committed an act of homosexuality by COLLUSION if we are to use YOUR logic.

            The truth is ‘Scott’, you don’t know and cannot ‘tell’ who is homosexual and who isn’t, but you WANT an excuse to, in God’s HOLY name no less (which is blasphemy, brother, I warn you), force COMPLETE STRANGERS to you to be shunned based merely on what you suspect. That is the sin of Pride. Also, did Jesus not say He comes as a stranger? And do you understand the reason Gomorrah and Sodom were punished was the REFUSAL to be hospitable to strangers? It had NOTHING to do with sexual carnality, initially. Also, the men who came for the hosts guests IDENTIFIED AS HETEROSEXUALS. So, maybe lieing to their sin list while you’re pulling that log out of your eye.

            May God grant you long life, health, and happiness…for His name’s sake.

            For HIS name, Scott…not yours.

          2. I read and re-read Matthew 19:11-12 – Jesus says that “from the beginning” God created male and female so that a man would join his wife (singular) and states that divorce and re-marriage for any reason other than adultery IS sin. So, Jesus says marriage is one man and one woman for life. You apparently don’t like Jesus’ definition, but that doesn’t change the fact that He used it.

            You call anyone who disagrees with you a bigot, when the truth is that you are just as prejudiced as those you excoriate. Oops.

        2. Scott, do you also follow other disciplines of the bible or is homosexuality your only cause that brings you to action? Do you believe the millions of men and women who have been married then divorced for non biblical reasons are now sinners where you should treat them just the same as those homosexual sinners? Because all sins no matter how “small” are equal, we have to treat divorcee’s for non biblical reasons the same as the homosexuals and refuse any and all service to them too because if we don’t then we are actively encouraging them to sin which means we are ghasp helping people sin against the bible. I highly suggest you cut any ties witj someone who is divorced or remarried, you don’t want to be seen as condoning such sinful behavior do you?

          Now this is just one example of hundreds of instances each and every day where a person comes in contact with a person who has sinned in some way, we have to use our best judgment to weed these sinners out so we aren’t encouraging that behavior so we can live our lives free of celebrating sinful behavior to save ourselves when it comes time to see our heavenly father.

          1. I treat all sin the same – I condemn it as Christ did. You can’t know all sin (as someone claimed I believe up above), but when you DO know of a sin, you must condemn that sin. This is especially true among those claiming to be Christians. Read what Jesus says about judging – He says that we are not to judge hypocritically, but that we are to “judge righteous judgment.” I have heterosexual relatives who are living together out of wedlock. We do not visit them, and we have told them they need to fix their lives. I have heterosexual relatives who cheated on their spouses and got divorced and re-married. I have nothing to do with them other than trying to convince them of their sin.

            So, for all of you who think that surely there can be no Christians who are consistent in their positions and surely this must just be about homosexuality, you are wrong. Many of us are concerned with righteousness, ass God is. Does God forgive? Yes, when we repent. Just for grins, go look and see how many times repentance is commanded/preached in the gospels. You might be surprised.

            So, Jesus says marriage is one man and one woman, Jesus tells us all to judge righteous judgment, and Jesus tells us all to repent. I missed the part in there where He said that we should knowingly condone and encourage sin. Oh wait, it wasn’t there.

        3. Scott, you are a bigot. You need to understand that you are not special, nor are you God’s representative on this planet. The reason my disagreement with you is not the same as your prejudice is because you are coming up with a miasma of nonsense to treat certain people worse than others, regardless of whether they have done anything against you. I can call your prejudice bigotry and still not be prejudiced because my reaction is based on your discriminatory behavior, not on your private beliefs.

          As for Matthew 19:11-12, I suspect you don’t understand this: “Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” Further, these are passages in a book that was written hundreds of years ago. You really want to run your life based on what a story from hundreds of years ago tells you? Do you not understand that the book isn’t meant to be taken literally? If you don’t, how are you different from the ISIS killers?

          1. I get it now. You’re not actually a Christian, you’re just someone who hates Christians and wants to tell them what to do. You either believe the Bible or you don’t, and it is clear where you fall on the spectrum. As a Christian who has read and re-read and deeply studied the Bible, I am the first to admit that parts of the Bible are poetry and are meant to be viewed as figurative language, but the Gospels are not figurative. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, you don’t simply dismiss what He says as just “a story from hundreds of years ago.”

          2. While you march on your self-righteous path, accusing everyone who points out your flaws of hating you, look at yourself. You are not without “sin”, and you know what Jesus said about that (John 8:7), don’t you?

            Unlike deeply hypocritical people like you, I don’t find it necessary to run people through a “sin test” to deal with them with love and respect. It is due to hateful, closed-minded people like you that the world has so much strife. The irony, of course, is that you cause that strife in this world, against people whom you directly affect, to better your chances of getting to the mythical kingdom of heaven.

            As I said before, I see no difference between your orthodoxy and that of the killers of ISIS. You both believe in literal interpretations of stories from long ago, and call it the word of God. Both of you have problems dealing with people who don’t agree with your beliefs, with the ISIS killers obviously winning hands down by being sadistic executioners.

          3. So, you dodged the question, set up a strawman argument, and made an ad hominem attack. Trifecta! Guess what? You just admitted you can’t debate this logically.

            Are you a Christian? Yes or no? You still didn’t answer that, because the plain answer is that Christians don’t dismiss Jesus’ teachings as “stories” from “hundreds of years ago,” yet you didn’t want to admit you aren’t a Christian because you know nobody on a website discussing Christianity would pay any attention to you if you admitted the truth. You have claimed that I am bigoted, yet you offer no evidence other than your beliefs, which is circular reasoning as well as setting up a straw man (what you claim I say/believe), then you compare me to murderers.

            Congratulations, you have shown who the intolerant bigot is by your words, and it’s not me.

            John 8 is a story about Jesus not allowing a woman to be used as a pawn, because He knew they did not actually care about sin, they just cared about trapping Him. You missed the part at the end of that story where Jesus says “Go and sin no more.” Oops.

          4. Oh, yet another bigoted accusation from a bigot – and with another claim that others, not you, are illogical. So your logic extends to claiming that I have to prove I am a Christian before I am allowed to call you out? Guess what? It’s none of your business! I am not the one telling people they are “sinning” because they don’t believe in my fire-and-brimstone version of religion.

            It is instructive to see how you squirm when faced with those parts of the Bible that prove you to be a bigot. You ignored the part about not casting the first stone, because it would appear that you are a habitual caster of stones. Let Jesus tell people not to sin. You are not Jesus, and you have no right to sit in judgment.

      2. Excellent and intelligent response Jay. Sometimes the only way through fertile irrationality is with Logic.

        Calling themselves Christians does not MAKE them Christians. Not by a long shot. I pray they will wake up from their slumber one day and see that.

  10. Sometimes a cake is just a cake.
    Will you not sell me a cake because I had pre-marital sex?

    1. If they won’t, trust me: they’ll lose those greenbacks they REALLY worship to someone who WILL. So, cake will still flow through the land lol

  11. What happened to women being silent in the church??

    A woman shouldn’t be teaching men. In general, this post is BAD doctrine, taking out parts of the Bible to suit her purposes.

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