The Lost Shepherd

Re: Duke at 1.16 today. I don't that I'd go quite as far as you have in this comment. None the less, I recognize the truth in at least part of what he wrote.I have a strong spiritual nature which has led me on an interesting journey. I found myself as a student of the Bible. It is a wonderful collection of stories which I believe have universal application. That the stories overlap with those of other people, places, and times does not detract. I see it as evidence of truth. We are all interconnected, we seek for essentially the same things, we agree on what is important. What is disturbing is that so many people arrogantly claim to have full understanding of the Bible and that it means precisely what THEY say it means and diverse opinions are a ticket to hell. A large portion of the Bible is very political. Certainly the disputes between Peter and Paul were for power and control. I find Paul's claims and teaching to be suspect. Yet millions of people beat up on other people based on Paul's writing. And that is what is so objectionable about the Haggards, the Palins, and the Dobsons. Their agenda is frightening.

I was walking down the street at lunchtime one day and there were two people getting paid to hold up a sign that said SHAME, SHAME. SHAME. They didn't know anything about it other than the fact that they were getting paid to hold it up. they handed me a flyer that condemed trade unions or something to that effect. The point is they didn't rally care what it said, they just wanted the cash.
Then I ran across an article on the web about Dr.Charles Roselli, a genetic research scientist from The Oregon Health and Science University studying the mating habits of sheep, and a light bulb went off in my head. Ok, now stop laughing, I'm trying to be serious here.
P.E.T.A. as we all know by now as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is objecting to the research. Why? well, it seems that Roselli's research has uncovered some interesting facts about the rams in the herd. About 8 percent of the rams aren't interested in mating with the opposite sex sheep, the rams are gay, and P.E.T.A. was really quick to pounce on the fact that Roselli was euthanizing sheep and looking at their brain tissue to understand why. Not exactly catch and release kind of research. Roselli uses about 18 sheep a year in his research, a far cry from the 4 million or so cultivated wordwide for food and wool.

Why would P.E.T.A. zero in on Roselli?. Maybe this will explain it better. P.E.T.A. asked its membership to write this letter to the university president. "I find it appalling that experimenters are cutting open and killing gay sheep in an attempt to 'cure' homosexual tendencies in animals. These experiments also carry the insidious implication that homosexuality in humans needs to be cured."

Roselli's research is really more about understanding animal populations and saving endangered animals from extinction rather that trying to stir up the gay rights pot as P.E.T.A. apparently is. The Image of a fuzzy, helpless animal getting ripped apart by a mad scientist is a powerful one, and I guess P.E.T.A. needs more sheep stories to feed to its own sheep like followers.

The Honorable R. Albert Mohler Jr, President of the Southern Baptist Seminary enters the room about this time, throws his card on the game table and spews out his version of the now infamous Roselli research.The plot thickens. Mr Mohler supports Rosseli"s research because he thinks it could lead to the ground breaking discovery that being gay could somehow be reversed before birth. And I thought the people holding the banner were weird. This guy has a whole flock of potential banner wielding sheep at his disposal if he can drum up a good enough argument and then "bang" before you know it we could have designer babies popping out all over the place. Just choose your colors and a sexual preference and its on its way in only nine short months.

I guess I'm in the wrong business or something, sitting here at the computer while these brainiacs are pulling in boatloads of cash.

The culture of the evangelical church has a life of its own beneath which "normal" folks are having to lie, cheat, and invent artificial personas so they won't finded themselves branded a "sinner" and/or banished to the wilderness. Isn't it time we all just took responsibility for our own lives, our own actions, and our own personalities in defiance of this artificial mechanism called the 'church'? As long as the 'church' can wave the carrot of reward or a magical way to escape from eternal damnation, it's keeping people thinking and acting like scared little 5-year olds. I think its hie time we grew up.

When Ted Haggard reads all these comments, he will realize it's his second chance to "Bring all us lost sheep together" and there we will go again. It doesn't matter what the issue / or lack of that he's interested in, he just wants to pick your pocket. What better way than to pretend he has a moral problem only God can help with, when he in truth doesn't have a problem at all. By the way, what "INSURANCE" co. does he work for now?

I think that no matter how committed to the Lord a believer is, over the years we will be tempted sorely to stray into illicit behaviours, and I think the only reason more of us don't is that the opportunity just didn't present itself as fully as it did to Ted.

gloriously wrote -- We need to really pray for Mike's lost confused soul that he will come clean and repent before the Lord.


What arrogance! I was always taught to pray for divine guidance in prayer, the will of god, "thy will be done," not my will be done...has that changed recently?

Very brave admission by Ted to admit his giving leash to his "darker (homosexual) tendencies". He's right, we all preach against what we don't believe in and know to be wrong , but are none-the-less attracted sinful behavior. Well, at least we can claim that we are not robots !

And then there's Mike Jones' laughable and ludicrous complaint that he hurt the gay community and owes them an apology ! The great dragon himself could not have said it better. We need to really pray for Mike's lost confused soul that he will come clean and repent before the Lord.

We will be less likely to get the answer to "What day did you decide to be straight (or gay, or bi-) than we ever will find out why GWB decided ti wage war a on Iraq. Personally I think the latter is a much more interesting question since we we will never get an answer to the former. Have a little pity for Haggard. He's trapped and obviously doesn't know it or want To understand it. People like him just won't accept the science behind it al, let alone the notion that God just may have made them what they are.

It's amazing to me how heterosexuals never have to prove they were born that way, but will continue their nonsense that gay people were NOT born gay. You can vote everything gay out all you want. It won't change a thing. Gay people are born everyday in the world and that's a fact.

DUKE613

You really need to confer with the Jews about the Bible for the Torah is the first five books of my Bible. Why dion't you confer with them - I'm sure that the orthodox rabbis will be more than happy to educate you on the areas you already lack in.

gold point wrote -- They can argue religiously, since anyone can believe in any fairy tale they want to in America, but anyone who is trying to come to a real understanding of the issue based on evidence instead of bigotry might be able to see some reality instead of blindly agreeing with those who parrot the phrase "Homosexuality is a choice."

So, what was your point, again?



My point is then why concern yourself with the behavior of others that you disagree with? Unless of course there is other motivation...

You can't change your sexuality and denying it won't change that reality. Haggard is gay. It's unfortunate that his very being is such a source of torment for him.