So Saying That Folks Should Follow Christian Morals is NOW A Firing Offense

Robertson said homosexuals are:

'ruthless', 'full of murder', 'arrogant' and liable to 'invent ways of doing evil'.

So he didn't suggest people fire them, beat them or shun them, he just left it up to God-fearing people to do what they must.

The ironic thing here is that a lot of the people who are upset about Robertson's remarks concerning the sinfullness of homosexuality don't buy into the Christian notions of sin and hell anyway.

The ironic thing here is that a lot of the people who are upset about Robertson's remarks concerning the sinfullness of homosexuality don't buy into the Christian notions of sin and hell anyway. So what do they have to get upset about?

The Robertson family resides in the state of Louisiana, which passed a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. Still, according to public policy polling released in August, 56 percent of its residents support some sort of legal recognition, marriage or civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
http://www.eonline.com/news/491973/glaad-responds-to-phil-robertson-s-gq-comments-regarding-homosexuality

The ironic thing here is that a lot of the people who are upset about Robertson's remarks concerning the sinfullness of homosexuality don't buy into the Christian notions of sin and hell anyway. So what do they have to get upset about? If someone told me that Zeus will condemn me to Hades for my failure to sacrifice to the gods of Olympus, I imagine that I would find it difficult to register even a slight degree of indignation. And I dare say that if someone told me that Xenu will condemn all homosexuals to a volcano because they're "full of murder" and they "invent ways of doing evil," I'd react in much the same way.

'It seems like, to me, a vagina - as a man - would be more desirable than a man’s anus.

'That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.

He wants this kind of publicity--he's got a new book coming out,
and Duck Commander is going to launch their own line of guns,
and he wants both to sell well.

What if he said to a room full of people you know who look up to him as an authority figure "You know that Joe guy? His heart is full of hate and he is liable to sit around and think of ways to do evil." Would you take it personally?

What if those people started throwing rocks at you while you were running? How about if one of them decided that you were no longer needed at your workplace?

But then Robertson wasn't telling people to go out and stone homosexuals to death. As long as he wasn't advocating action, he was just expressing an opinion. I have a pretty broad tolerance for opinions, even stupid and hateful ones.

Falwell: blame abortionists, feminists and gays
Guardian
Wednesday 19 September 2001

The Rev Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson set off a minor explosion of their own when they asserted on US television that an angry God had allowed the terrorists to succeed in their deadly mission because the United States had become a nation of abortion, homosexuality, secular schools and courts, and the American civil liberties union.
Liberal groups and commentators denounced their remarks yesterday, as did President Bush, who has long enjoyed the political support of the two evangelists.

"The president believes that terrorists are responsible for these acts," said a White House spokesman, Ken Lisaius. "He does not share those views, and believes that those remarks are inappropriate."

Yet Mr Falwell's and Mr. Robertson's remarks were based in theology familiar to and accepted by many conservative evangelical Christians, who believe the Bible teaches that God withdraws protection from nations that violate his will.

Several conservative theologians and evangelists said in interviews yesterday that they agreed with the basic notion but rejected the idea that mere humans can ever know which particular sins lead to which particular tragedies.

The Rev R Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a friend of Mr Falwell, said, "There is no doubt that America has accommodated itself to so many sins that we should always fear God's judgment and expect that in due time that judgment will come. But we ought to be very careful about pointing to any circumstance or any specific tragedy and say that this thing has happened because this is God's direct punishment."

Mr Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church there, was in Washington yesterday in a service at the National Cathedral at Mr Bush's invitation.

He released a statement on the controversy, saying: "Despite the impression some may have from news reports today, I hold no one other than the terrorists and the people and nations who have enabled and harboured them responsible for Tuesday's attacks on this nation.

"I sincerely regret that comments I made during a long theological discussion on a Christian television programme yesterday were taken out of their context and reported and that my thoughts - reduced to soundbites - have detracted from the spirit of this day of mourning."

What Mr Falwell said on Thursday on The 700 Club, while chatting with the programme's host, Mr Robertson, was this: "What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be minuscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."

Mr Robertson responded: "Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

A few moments later Mr Falwell said: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularise America, I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' "

To which Mr Robertson said: "I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government."

James Robison, a well-known evangelist in Euless, Texas, and host of the Christian television programme Life Today, emphasised a different catalogue of what he saw as sins: arrogance in relationships with third world countries, plundering other countries for resources while supporting their despots, and indifference to others' poverty and pain.

"Any time you get away from God, you do become vulnerable," Mr Robison said. "Bad judgment always leaves the door open to perpetrators of pain."

Among evangelicals, the terrorist attacks have unleashed renewed calls for repentance, prayer and spiritual revival.

"Many people are calling this a wake-up call, and yet it doesn't help us respond to God to somehow feel that we've been chastised by this," said Steve Hawthorne, director of WayMakers, a prayer ministry in Austin, Texas.

"It might be wise for us to examine our lives and our hearts and our practices."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/19/september11.usa9

I have a pretty broad tolerance for opinions, even stupid and hateful ones.

Then I'd certainly have a problem with those people. But then Robertson wasn't telling people to go out and stone homosexuals to death. As long as he wasn't advocating action, he was just expressing an opinion. I have a pretty broad tolerance for opinions, even stupid and hateful ones.

When you start scapegoating, and blaming, various groups for the "moral decay" of the country, which Phil Robertson was also doing, you get pretty close to advocating that people throw stones, or put them behind electrified fences, as one Baptist pastor said he would really like to do last year.

And, when you start blaming them for God's wrath against our country, and blaming them for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson did in 2001, you're advocating flat out hatred for those groups, and you are throwing stones.

But that doesn't mean people should remain silent in response to stupid and hateful opinions, it simply means those opinions have a right to be voiced. Not remaining silent helps to keep hateful opinions from turning into hateful actions.

As long as he's talking about sin and damnation, I don't have an opinion about that one way or the other.

I disagree with the idea that Robertson was not advocating action. The logical conclusion of his speech is that good Christians must take action against those thinking of ways to do evil.

Convincing people you are a danger to the community is the first step. You're surprised that people, Christian and non-Christian are upset with Robertson's words, but the alternative is to leave them out there unchallenged.

To me Engineer is just trying to find some justification to harm someone who would dare to say correctly that the bible does not look upon homosexuals with any favor and condemn such people.

I just heard on the news that tonight it will be as cold in Chicago as it is at the South Pole.

Try to stay warm.

Quote:

But then Robertson wasn't telling people to go out and stone homosexuals to death. As long as he wasn't advocating action, he was just expressing an opinion. I have a pretty broad tolerance for opinions, even stupid and hateful ones.

When you start scapegoating, and blaming, various groups for the "moral decay" of the country, which Phil Robertson was also doing, you get pretty close to advocating that people throw stones, or put them behind electrified fences, as one Baptist pastor said he would really like to do last year.

And, when you start blaming them for God's wrath against our country, and blaming them for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson did in 2001, you're advocating flat out hatred for those groups, and you are throwing stones.

Quote:

Falwell: blame abortionists, feminists and gays
Guardian
Wednesday 19 September 2001

The Rev Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson set off a minor explosion of their own when they asserted on US television that an angry God had allowed the terrorists to succeed in their deadly mission because the United States had become a nation of abortion, homosexuality, secular schools and courts, and the American civil liberties union.
Liberal groups and commentators denounced their remarks yesterday, as did President Bush, who has long enjoyed the political support of the two evangelists.

"The president believes that terrorists are responsible for these acts," said a White House spokesman, Ken Lisaius. "He does not share those views, and believes that those remarks are inappropriate."

Yet Mr Falwell's and Mr. Robertson's remarks were based in theology familiar to and accepted by many conservative evangelical Christians, who believe the Bible teaches that God withdraws protection from nations that violate his will.

Several conservative theologians and evangelists said in interviews yesterday that they agreed with the basic notion but rejected the idea that mere humans can ever know which particular sins lead to which particular tragedies.

The Rev R Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a friend of Mr Falwell, said, "There is no doubt that America has accommodated itself to so many sins that we should always fear God's judgment and expect that in due time that judgment will come. But we ought to be very careful about pointing to any circumstance or any specific tragedy and say that this thing has happened because this is God's direct punishment."

Mr Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church there, was in Washington yesterday in a service at the National Cathedral at Mr Bush's invitation.

He released a statement on the controversy, saying: "Despite the impression some may have from news reports today, I hold no one other than the terrorists and the people and nations who have enabled and harboured them responsible for Tuesday's attacks on this nation.

"I sincerely regret that comments I made during a long theological discussion on a Christian television programme yesterday were taken out of their context and reported and that my thoughts - reduced to soundbites - have detracted from the spirit of this day of mourning."

What Mr Falwell said on Thursday on The 700 Club, while chatting with the programme's host, Mr Robertson, was this: "What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be minuscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."

Mr Robertson responded: "Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

A few moments later Mr Falwell said: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularise America, I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' "

To which Mr Robertson said: "I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government."

James Robison, a well-known evangelist in Euless, Texas, and host of the Christian television programme Life Today, emphasised a different catalogue of what he saw as sins: arrogance in relationships with third world countries, plundering other countries for resources while supporting their despots, and indifference to others' poverty and pain.

"Any time you get away from God, you do become vulnerable," Mr Robison said. "Bad judgment always leaves the door open to perpetrators of pain."

Among evangelicals, the terrorist attacks have unleashed renewed calls for repentance, prayer and spiritual revival.

"Many people are calling this a wake-up call, and yet it doesn't help us respond to God to somehow feel that we've been chastised by this," said Steve Hawthorne, director of WayMakers, a prayer ministry in Austin, Texas.

"It might be wise for us to examine our lives and our hearts and our practices."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/19/september11.usa9

Being a "true believer" doesn't mean Robertson should be shielded from the reactions of those who find his comments offensive, or those whose beliefs differ from his.