tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post7324365183392015830..comments2024-03-20T08:06:18.312+00:00Comments on Benny's Blog: Employing the politics of fear ...Benny Hazlehursthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11106740133903626260noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-54974717698844226762011-06-18T20:02:32.164+01:002011-06-18T20:02:32.164+01:00@Simon:
Thanks for your comment and I am glad you ...@Simon:<br />Thanks for your comment and I am glad you found the post helpful. I do think that prejudice has a lot to do with it, but I also think that my fellow evangelicals need to more Bilical, rather than picking and choosing which scriptures to enphasise and which to forget.Benny Hazlehursthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11106740133903626260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-48799572636762586542011-06-18T19:59:12.678+01:002011-06-18T19:59:12.678+01:00Hi everyone - sorry I have been off line for a day...Hi everyone - sorry I have been off line for a day, but it sounds like a good discussion has been going on.<br /><br />@Nathan and Suem:<br />I would agree with everything that Suem has said. The word 'Bisexual' refers to orientation rather than any particular domestic arrangement. Bisexual people are attracted to both men and women but for almost all the bisexuals I know (including my wife) they do not seek to use this as a license to have 2 partners (one of each sex). My wife and I are equally committed to being faithful to each other.<br /><br />In this whole debate, we focus too much on sex, and too little on love. Bisexual people can fall in love with either a man or a woman. Like Suem, I believe that God's ideal is monogomous faithful realationships.<br /><br />Unfortunately however, such a Christian commitment (ie marriage) is not available to bisexuals or homosexuals who fall in love with someone of the same sex.<br /><br />It is arguable that making Christian marriage a possibility for people in same-sex relationships will encourage more LGB's to embrace a positive Christian ethic.<br /><br />God Bless<br />BennyBenny Hazlehursthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11106740133903626260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-32466212223006256012011-06-18T13:41:46.974+01:002011-06-18T13:41:46.974+01:00Hello Suem,
I think we are on a similar wavelengt...Hello Suem,<br /><br />I think we are on a similar wavelength re:faithfulness. That's good to know! I also understand how divorce is a sad and unwanted outcome for some - it is not the ideal, but a sad reality of life.<br /><br />As for an open-marriage, while I understand how that could be viewed as OK from a secular/humanist position, I cannot see how open-marriage squares with the marriage vows a Christian would take in church (as Benny listed them). I not think Christians have authority to re-interpret "faithful" or "monogomous" to mean "consenting adults can do as they choose, and the Church must accept this." Open-marriage is not an option for Christians.<br /><br />Faithful and monogomous have one meaning - as I think we agree. Open marriage, while something a couple can choose, contradicts this meaning - the two are incompatible, I feel.<br /><br />NathanNathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13148534850859015565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-5641282421018248182011-06-18T12:45:27.181+01:002011-06-18T12:45:27.181+01:00Thank you Benny for a straightforward and sensible...Thank you Benny for a straightforward and sensible piece. The irony is that if we took the Bible as unthinkingly literally as Peter Jensen would have us do then incest, as in the family of Adam and Eve, and polygamy, as in great swathes of the Old Testament, would be the Biblical standard. Could one be forgiven for thinking that the anti-gay rants we hear from conservative christians really have nothing to do with the Bible but are simply prejudice dressed up to look like Biblical theology?Simonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-56268978947439634072011-06-18T11:37:06.103+01:002011-06-18T11:37:06.103+01:00Hi Nathan,
I don't know what you mean by "...Hi Nathan,<br />I don't know what you mean by "we"- I am not part of any authority or "system" policing other people's behaviour.<br /><br />But, for what it is worth, I would personally think that a bisexual man (married to a woman) who had sex with another man would be committing adultery. I think if you marry someone, that entails sexual faithfulness on both sides. I think this should be the Church's advice for gay, straight and bisexual.<br /><br />I also recognise that people fall short of that ideal and believe the Church is more tolerant of that nowadays( ie remarriage after divorce.) It is a more difficult matter if both parties in a relationship have an "open marriage" and they feel that is not unfaithfulness for them. I have grave reservations about that, but ultimately it is a private matter between those individuals.Suemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03128736092253293640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-76566245461717166122011-06-18T09:18:53.423+01:002011-06-18T09:18:53.423+01:00Hello Suem,
I appreciate your response. Maybe Ben...Hello Suem,<br /><br />I appreciate your response. Maybe Benny will add more detail, but again can I then clarify a point?<br /><br />Are you saying that, for example, a Christian bi-sexual man married to a woman, we would expect to be sexually exclusively faithful to that one single woman for life, and any relationship with anybody else would be straight and simple adultery and unfaithfulness which broke the marriage vows?<br /><br />NathanNathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13148534850859015565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-44080135249890077492011-06-17T22:39:04.801+01:002011-06-17T22:39:04.801+01:00I feel I am pushing in a bit here! It is a common ...I feel I am pushing in a bit here! It is a common misunderstanding that bisexual people have to (or indeed wish to) simultaneously have a partner of each sex in order to feel fulfilled. A heterosexual person may be simultaneously very much attracted to very different body types (for example slight small breasted women and curvaceous women), but as long as someone is sexually and emotionally happy in the relationship they are in then it doesn't folow they will be unfaithful or feel the need to be - although, of course, many heterosexuals do...<br /><br />It is just the same for bisexual people who usually settle with one partner, either opposite or same sex, rather than being in some sort of multiple set up. Sometimes bisexuals are faithful, sometimes not - just like gay people and straight people.Suemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03128736092253293640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146780325302102876.post-61725771575800897942011-06-17T14:42:18.175+01:002011-06-17T14:42:18.175+01:00Hi Benny,
Could you clarify something for me, sin...Hi Benny,<br /><br />Could you clarify something for me, since I am not totally clear on everything you have said here. You rightly point out that part of the marriage vows are:<br /><br />"... forsaking all others, be faithful for so long as you both shall live."<br /><br />This rightly demands faithful, monogomous, life-long relationships.<br /><br />How do bi-sexual people do this? Do they deny one part of their desires, and only have one partner for life? Or do they have two partners, and "faithfulness" then means "faithful toward two different people at the same time", and so is redefining "faithful" to mean "not monogomous"? <br /><br />How does this work? I'm not clear.<br /><br />Thanks. NathanNathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13148534850859015565noreply@blogger.com