Q: "Can Gay people really become straight?"

Can Gay people really become straight? Only in the imaginations of those who hate Gay people.

And whether it comes from junk-science sources (which are "dishonest and misleading", "unethical" and without real evidence that they work), or junk-Christian sources (which impose human bigotries over the top of God's creation, and proclaim that's what God wanted all along), it's the human idea that Gay people should be different than who and what God created them to be, that needs to change.

Indeed, once the faked and unethical "studies" and mistranslations of the Bible are thrown out, of those who claim to have been "healed" or "brought out" of being Gay, we consistently only ever see:

• Bisexual people who have simply decided to not act on one part of their sexual orientation, and,
• Gay people who have just decided not to be sexually active, but continue the rest of their lives to have the same emotional and biological same-sex orientation they've always had.

Problem with these "cures" is that:

• Bisexual people are like people who are ambidextrous. And just as someone who's ambidextrous can decide to just not use their left hand anymore -- and yet still not be a right-hand-only person -- just so with a bisexual person, who can decide not to act on their attraction for the same sex -- but that doesn't make them into a opposite-sex-only person. No matter how they decide to act on how God created them, or what human-created-ideas about themselves they choose to believe, these folks remain bisexual -- and not same-sex-only people "changed" into opposite-sex-only people.

• People -- both Gay and straight -- decide all the time not to act on their sexual orientations. For example, we see Gay and straight people alike who are single and stay celibate, wanting to wait for a covenanted relationship, or who are married to someone who is out of town or sick or something, and so they wait and remain celibate until their spouse is home or healthy again. We also see Gay and straight people who join certain religious orders and give up any sexual expression for nearly their whole lives. Indeed, all people -- Gay, straight, bisexual -- decide at various times in their lives to not act on their God-given sexual nature -- but that never makes a Gay person straight any more than it makes a straight person Gay.

So, what does all that come down to? This:

Anything "ex-Gay" is simply a lie:

• To oneself, imagining either that one has made God happy by undoing what God created to be, or that one has made God unhappy by being unable to undo what He created to be;
• To Gay people, who are taught by Gay-hating bigots (who represent God as much as the Jesus-killing Pharisees did 2,000 years ago) that the only way they can be spiritually, emotionally, and even physically safe and healthy is to reject the One who stands on their side, and not on the side of those who hate and hurt them; and,
• To straight people, who -- like white people a hundred years ago, many men and most well-off people even today -- get to believe themselves "superior" in God's eyes and in the natural world, as if all of God's creation revolves around what they do with their genitals (or skin color, or gender, or wealth, or...), and who live a spiritual arrogance that hardens their hearts and sets them against God.

And here's the thing that's always the thing, no matter what the topic being pushed at you is:

What do the lives of those telling you "the thing" look like?

We're not talking "are they perfect" here -- because obviously no one is perfect but God, and even the most God-loving and God-pleasing saints have and will sin (just ask David and Paul). No, we're talking here about what the fruit of their hearts are. We're talking about how much good they help God do versus how much damage their human sin-natures do.

In this case, what do the lives of those (we'll just talk about the leadership, here, but this will apply to most of their followers, as well) who promote the "Ex-Gay" thing look like?

Well, we've already seen that they use junk science to promote their hated of Gay people. That's called "unethical" in the human world, but God just calls that "lying". 

And, they tell people that Gays are "sick", "child molesters", and so on, even though there's absolutely nothing beyond their puny little ways of imagining those they hate that "proves" any of that. And God calls that "bearing false witness". 

And, they use Bibles that have been falsely translated and passages that are taken out of their historical, religious, linguistic, and cultural contexts to "prove" God said things that God never said at all. (In fact, they use these same re-makes of God's scripture to "prove" God likes all kinds of things He doesn't really like -- things like war, and oppressing of people based on their race or sex, and taking advantage of and stealing from the poor, and so on.) And God calls that "distorting" the scriptures. 

More, they promote and live legalism, a false (though always very popular) version of Christianity that believes that changing the outside of a person so it's disciplined and looks righteous means the inside is changed and now godly (while true Christianity changes the inside of a person first and completely through Holy Spirit -- not human -- action, and then the outside changes, becoming more and more like the real Jesus). It was legalists that tortured and murdered Jesus, and they are condemned not only by Jesus but also in the letters of Paul and other New Testament writers. God says legalists lie when they say they know God, and are "rebellious", "lawless", "disobedient", "unfit for any good work", "empty talkers and deceivers", people who upset families, and teachers of false Christianity for their own gain.

We could go on -- but what do you say? If an unrepentant serial rapist teaches that you can only become more "moral" or "godly" if you pretend to be someone of a different race, would you become depressed and even suicidal if your skin color never changes?

How about someone who's a lifelong drug abuser, someone whose heart doesn't care how much s/he is hurting self and family? Would you hurt in your heart and hide from the world because that druggie told you God hates you because you like orange juice? 

Maybe if someone has become rich by stealing poor farmers' lands and paying workers starvation wages? Should you stay up nights worrying or start living a trash life because this rich guy says his wealth is "proof" that God loves people like him/her more than you?

I'm thinking you wouldn't fall for any of that. I'm thinking you'd either ignore those people, or tell them to buzz off (or even call the cops) if they kept getting in your face. 

Those who try to tell you that being Gay is wrong, or sick, or immoral, or against God and Bible are themselves people who are spiritually wrong, sick, immoral, and against both God and Bible. And Jesus and others in the Bible say that no one should listen to or follow them. Pray for them? Yes. Love them despite their anti-God living? Yes. Help them see the real Jesus and escape the trap of their false religion? Yes. 

But listen to or follow? NO. 

God created you Gay for the same reason He created some people left-handed, and some people brown, and some people female. Because it made Him happy to do so. Because the whole of His creation proves that He loves variety, and that He demonstrates His power and glory in a universe that shows unimaginable diversity of things and life, from all the way down to the submicroscopic to all the way up the meta-universe level. God is an artist like no other. 

And who He made you to be, is not only a gift to you, and your friends, and your family -- but also to Himself. 

Enjoy.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Why church doesn't - or shouldn't - satisfy

In my life, sometimes by my choice and sometimes not, I've actively belonged to several different church denominations or communities, including (but not only) fundamentalist, roman catholic, charismatic, progressive mainstream, and emergent ones. And though I stopped "belonging" anywhere more than a few years past, in the last several months I've been off and on going along with friends who want to try new churches each week in hopes of finding a "spiritual home" -- so, my thoughts have been stoked anew regarding what's available "in church".

And I find that things just don't change very much.

Oh, what things look like, talk like, or offer changes. The music changes, what you call each other changes, what kinds of religious doo-dads are used changes (wafers vs bread, high tech vs low tech gadgets, etc), and that kind of thing. And every single new generation (yes, including mine, 30 years ago) even comes along to say that everyone who came before just doesn't get the Real Truth (tm) but THEY do, and then they put forward a Brand New Thing (tm) that's Finally Right (tm) -- except that anyone who looks discovers that all that too will in a few years be overrun and trashed by the next generation following (which will itself bad-mouth everything that came before them, and so it goes). So 'round and 'round it goes.

And like a spoon of dry sugar, or day-old fast food fries, it just doesn't satisfy.

And it shouldn't.

Because if it did or does satisfy, it means we really believe:

• "Our ways are better than God's ways." We do like human ways of being and doing better than God's ways. For example, even in churches that claim "everyone's equal" or "everyone's loved" or "everyone's right", the human heart always finds ways to draw lines between who's some kind of pastor/priest/pope and who's not, and to lay out better accommodations for those who are loved just a little bit more than others, and to give kudos to those on the "right-right" team and cut out those on the "wrong-right" team, and so on. And the more organized a group of people becomes, and the longer they've been an organized group, the more full of themselves they become (yes, even the latest "Finally Right" people of today, who are already being overrun by the next "Better Than Thou Who Came Before" generational arrogance). It takes no time at all for us to decide that since doing things our way makes us happier and is easier than God's way, and since God loves us, doing things our way is actually God's way. Bleh.

• "Our church, by pleasing God, is the center of the (or our) universe". Doesn't matter how "good" a person or church we are. Each and every one of us struggles (or should struggle!) against imagining that the godly things we can love, form, build, and do are a huge part of what's important in the scheme of our lives and the lives of others around us -- bigger even than that part of God's plan (which is actually His whole plan) that is so much bigger and greater than any pathetic little thing we could do or be as to make our stuff basically nonexistent. We're victims of our secular and religious cultures, which have taught us to feel good about being Number One, when God would have us feel good about being Number 6,890,490,454 (as of 18:33 UTC [EST+5] Dec 27, 2010). We're taught that things are going right between us and God when we feel emotionally and physically satiated, when God would have us feel things are right between us and God when we're doing what He said to do. We're taught that being loved and valued is the most important thing God can give us, when God wants us to know that being able to love and make others feel valued by God is His greatest gift to us. Because we don't truly have a real understanding of Christ's message that the only way to be on top is to love the bottom, and the only way to be first is to push everyone else ahead of us in line, we can have the most open, loving, and sacred hearts in the world -- but we're still putting ourselves above God.

• Either, "God orders us to oppress women, the poor, Gay/Lesbian people, people of Middle Eastern descent, etc -- so we do", or "Because God hates oppression, we snuggle up to everyone (even those actively harming others among us, trashing our (and God's) whole mission, or steering us away from the Gospel)." Pick one. They're both positions held in high regard by their proponents, but they are two sides of the same coin. They're both wrong -- not only in real-world practice, but also according to New Testament ways we're supposed to be and do in our lives.  

'Course, if we find any of these things to be problems, we're invited to "fix" them by getting into a "conservative" church -- or a "progressive" one. Or by changing denominations -- or becoming "nondenominational". Or by going to a straight church -- or a Gay one. Or even by joining up with one of those "OUR generation figured out the truth all you older folks were too stupid/selfish/sheep-like to come up with) things.

But those things don't fix the problem, because the problem is the rot on the inside, and not the color of the decorations on the outside. Everywhere, it always becomes or stays the same.

And that rot travels with us everywhere we church-plant or fellowship or whatever, as long as we see and understand church (even "un-church") as based in two things:

1. What we can do for God -- like our religious accomplishments, do-goods, etc. -- and,
2. What God can do for us -- like give or protect our crap, make us never have to suffer or be unhappy, put us into trancey la-la's every church meeting, etc.

That's not what being a Christian is all about. God didn't create us or come to die on the Cross so that we'd have the same relationship with Him that pagans do with earth gods and wood spirits. If we are Christians, we're supposed to be doing something different than the rest of the world. We're not supposed to be "better" -- we're just supposed to be about the real God and what He means to accomplish before this is all done.

And when our church is nothing more than a Christian-looking pagan faith?  

Then it doesn't -- or shouldn't -- satisfy. 

A lot of the time, we wail and moan if we aren't having a great church experience. I know, as I've spent enough of my years doing it, and I've sat alongside a number of you while you were doing it too.

What I've discovered, though, is that when I started understanding church, and God, and God's plan, in the way that God shares through Jesus and the Bible (as He put it in its original languages and contexts) -- and stopped obsessing on how I or other human beings would like all that to be instead -- a lot of better things started to happen in my spiritual (and emotional, and physical) life.

Examples? Here's three:

I just see one church now -- one Body of Christ -- one set of Christians. It's been awhile since I've seen lots of individual churches, or any denominations. In fact, though I don't often say anything because I don't want to be rude, at this point in my life I'm kind of embarrassed for people who are really proud of their individual little religious spots or fellowships as if they are anything more than just a little drop in a great big bucket. I'm proud to be a tiny, tiny little speck of a drop in God's great big bucket -- and I'm proud of all my other tiny, tiny brothers and sisters, too.

I also don't worry anymore about whether someone has the right "credentials" to "do ministry". Human beings use "credentials" as a way to manage power and goodies in their religious organizations, and as a way for many to avoid the responsibility God puts on every believer (Human beings buy "No, I just give money each week, and the minister takes care of feeding the hungry, telling people about Jesus, etc", but God doesn't). Today, I judge whether someone is qualified to be a minister based on what they accomplish: did they make someone feel loved or cared about? did they show up with a bag of food (not just their throwaways) for the hungry? did they pass out tracts or talk to their neighbor about Jesus? did they help their persecuted brothers and sisters in other lands, with letters of encouragement or blankets or bibles or...? did they take care of and pray for those who hurt them? are they growing in the fruit of the Holy Spirit (and not following after any spirit that will amuse them with spiritual tricks)? did they do these things making sure God got the glory and thanks, and not them? Then stamped and sealed: QUALIFIED TO MINISTER.

I don't worry about my salvation or begin to lose my faith if I'm long out of some "church". In fact, I realize now that most of my best spiritual growth in my life has either occurred while I was away from any church, or despite the church I happened to be in. That's because churches are full of people whose primary action is to get, maintain, and praise their physical church -- and not really about doing God's work of feeding, caring, loving, and healing. For example, if every Christian church in the world were to sell everything it owned and put it to helping the poor, no one would go hungry, or be without medical care or clothing or clean water or a roof over their head for dozens upon dozens of years. What a testament to God's goodness that would be! Imagine the billions of people who would turn to Christ because of that! But Christians still attached to buildings and religious doo-dads and human organizations haven't yet learned to see and be God's way in the world -- so anyone not following their lead is already potentially in a much more spiritually healthy spot!

And that's what a lot of this comes down to:

It's NOT a good thing to be satisfied with something that's crap.

It's not a good thing to enjoy smoking cigarettes. It's not a good thing to drink and drive. It's not a good thing to ignore our conscience. And it's not a good thing to be happy in a church that makes God sit quietly in a back pew somewhere, only bringing Him up front when they want Him to make someone speak in tongues or to guarantee tithes will keep coming in or to pronounce two people married.

Not satisfied in your church? Good! More time for Jesus.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday Thoughts

[Since so many links are now going out over my twitter page, I don't want to duplicate efforts here. So instead I'll share something else each Friday..]

Someone once asked the Sadhu Sundar Singh if he enjoyed the honor his friends gave him as a minister of the Lord. He answered:

"When Jesus entered Jerusalem, many people spread their clothing and palm branches on the street to honor the Lord. Jesus was riding on a donkey. In this way, the feet of Jesus did not touch the street adorned with clothes and branches, but instead the donkey walked over them.

It would have been very stupid of the donkey if she imagined that she was very important. It was not for her that the people threw their clothes in the streets."

Corrie ten Boom continued:

"Stupid are those who spread the good news of Jesus and expect to receive glory themselves. The glory should go to Jesus. The more people came to this godly man after his meetings, the more the Sadhu Sundar Singh withdrew from the crowd, to be in the silence where God spoke to him. No sensation. No show. He brought them the living Word, Jesus."

With our remembering and rejoicing in Jesus coming into the world, I give thanks to God for elders like the Sadhu Sundar Singh, who point the way, but never stand in the Lord's light!
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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

If Christians were Christian - 004 (An Unreal Dream)`

Billy Graham (Wikipedia)

[This is a continuation of my series "If Christians were Christian (an Unreal Dream)". You can find the rest of the series here]. 

The Ugly Reality:

My grandparents took me to see Billy Graham once, when I was a little kid. In the fundamentalist church they were raising me in, Billy Graham was one of the Really Good Guys, an ee-VANNNN-gelist above all others. And I have to say that every once in awhile, forty five years later, I'll still watch one of his now-ancient "Crusades". His most basic message is indeed sound (plus it's fun to shake my head at what we fundamentalists were wearing and doing to our hair way back then).

Problem is, Billy's Gospel stops short -- and that means, left to its own, it misses the mark. The Gospel he preached never went (or goes) far enough to proclaim people all the way to Jesus Christ. He's like someone who let's you see the first 3 minutes of a 2-hour movie, and then turns the projector off as if there's nothing more. Here's an example, from his friend George W. Bush's book:

“[Billy Graham] made it clear that the path to salvation is through the grace of God. And the way to find that grace is to embrace Christ as the risen Lord -- the Son of a God so powerful and loving that He gave His only Son to conquer death and defeat sin.”

Now see, on its face, combined with Billy's trumpet calls about sin, that's true Gospel. But that's only where a human heart first gets the message to veer off in a new direction. There's a lot more that still has to happen to change that human heart into a (truly) Christian one. Stuff like:

• Learning to give up the great things we get from the world's/devil's "wise" ways (like the fun of having more than others, of having wars or counting how blessed we are to be able to live in a "God-fearing" country, or of ignoring the pain and suffering of those who are weaker than we are), and learning to instead glory in God's foolish "the least of these" ways; and,
• Admitting in the actions of our lives and not just our mouths -- not how wonderfully loving, spiritual, and/or righteous we are -- but what smiling jerks-who-can't-be-trusted we are nearly every moment of every day; and,
• Letting the Holy Spirit start washing all the self-congratulatory, human-approval-seeking, and ever-please-my-senses poo out of our hearts so we can start shining with the Light of the World.

The fact that Billy Graham not only didn't preach that full message, but hasn't gotten it yet himself, shows in his public life and in the public lives of those he's always hung around with. Billy has always preferred to soothe the consciences and proclaim the glory of presidents and other big people of the world who willfully and repeatedly break not only national and international law, but also every speck of God's law, defending and ordering murder, lying, stealing, defaming the name of God, bearing false witness, oppressing others, and more -- all because they like how it feels, and because it brings great financial and political gains to them and their friends. And he's promoted and defended them, abusing his image as a "Man of God" to do so.

Billy Graham, like so many who have only tasted a tiny part of the real Gospel before veering off into something false and worldly, is a servant of Caesar and of Caiaphas. Much as I will always have a soft spot in my heart for him, I still have to recognize and say that he has proclaimed only that part of the Good News that doesn't question his loyalties or biases -- or those of his friends. He's simply been a very well-off, right-wing American who is a good speaker, has a religious bent, and likes to tell people Jesus is the same.

The Daydream not to hold your breath for:

If Billy Graham were a true Christian leader:

• He would never have been as popular and idolized as he has been and continues even now to be, because those who speak God's real truth are never well thought of in the world. However, he would have spent his humble preaching time leading people to not only believe in Jesus' salvation, and not only abhor superficial sin, but to also-also-also go to the Real-Deal and fully embrace the anti-world heart-change required to be a real follower of Christ. He would have judged how well he and others were doing according to Bible teachings, and not by how many false-seekers showed up each Crusade to pad his numbers.

• He wouldn't have been a "conservative" (or a "liberal"), or a republican (or a democrat or an independent or a socialist or an anarchist or...). He would have simply been a Jesus-based Christian, one whose answer to every problem was turning the other cheek, doing unto others as he'd like done to him, caring for enemies, standing up for the oppressed, ridding oneself of materialism, worshiping God for how different He is from our unholiness (instead of presuming He and we have so much in common politically and economically), and constantly telling people how different Jesus is from everything else they can imagine. 

• He would have gone to his friend George W. Bush's book signing and, broken-hearted, wept over how far George has wandered from Jesus, begging George to repent of his war crimes, destruction of whole nations, murder of millions, the bald-faced lies in his book, and so on, and to instead surrender to the real Jesus Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to make him into the man God really wants him to be, so that he could truly be saved.

• He would have come to repent himself of all the worldly ways he has not only formed his own life, but also put forward to others as a "valid" way to be a "Christian". For example, he would never have accepted the $200,000 US salary he's paid even today, and he would never have built up a "ministry" empire for his heirs to continue making a rich living from (his son Franklin, continuing in his father's only-partly-Gospel work, accepts $260,000 US a year from their religious corporation).Those things would have been about making and keeping a name in the world for oneself, and so Billy's real Christian heart would have dropped them like a rag full of mucus. 

• He would have publicly renounced the not-really-right teachings he's spent so much of his life putting out before, telling the world something like, "Being just another human being, like you all are, I really messed up. I overwrote Jesus' values with the values of my culture, and by doing so I taught a combination of myself and the devil to you, and called it Jesus. I'm REALLY sorry about that. And now, if you still have a heart to listen, I'd like to tell you about who Jesus Christ really is..."

There's still time to join the rest of us in real repentance, Billy (and George)! There's still time to seek out and find the REAL Jesus, and to accept the changes He wants to make to ALL our hearts. 

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Q: "Doesn't the Bible say Gay marriage is wrong?"

No. But it does say that most of the people who claim to be God's Best People are going to remake His rules to fit their own egos, make up stories about bad things that aren't, and just be generally the most God-rebelling people on the planet.

In fact, Paul even writes:

"To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." (Titus 1:15)

And – not a surprise – that includes those who trumpet most loudly that Gays are impure-icky and God isn't ok with them getting married in ways that actually protect their families.

Here are some of their remakes -- not only of God's rules, but also the reality He created -- along with why they aren't true:

Idea # 1: God doesn't like Gay people.

Wrong. God loves everyone, and chooses to save Gay people all the time (as evidenced by the fact that Gay people receive His Holy Spirit all the time, and yet remain happily, healthily, Gay). God just isn't as selfish and self-obsessed as most people want Him to be, so people who don't like Gay people just need to get over the idea that the world is only ok, safe, and normal when it looks, talks, acts, and dresses just like their version of what straight people look like, talk like, act like, and dress like (for certainly there are a lot of straight people who don't want to be associated with the lifestyle choices that Gay-haters think makes them "godly").

More, the only way Gay-haters are able to say that the Bible condemns Gay people is by changing the Bible words from what God put there to what they want it to say instead, and by ignoring the real context of what was being written about. They will answer to God for that -- not only for changing His Word, but also for using their false Bible to make Him look bad, and for driving people away from the real Jesus.

Idea #2: There's one idea of what "traditional marriage" is, and it's always been the same.

Wrong. Here's just three examples:

• Unlike today, only a short time ago traditional marriage didn't involve the government at all. Before that, no government gave a hoot who you married, when, how, or why. Instead, marriage was just like it is in most traditional cultures today: an agreement between people who may or may not have even been allowed to choose each other. Straight couples (even conservative Christians ones) don't live by that today. Instead, they want the government to regulate their marriages so there are tax breaks, legal protections when a spouse is injured or killed, rules about when and how spouses can split, and so on (and these are the things Gay families need, as well, in today's world).

• Modern marriage rules are completely different from traditional versions. In Bible times, for example, people made their marriage agreement, but then lived apart and stayed celibate for some months (that's why pregnant Mary was still living at her parent's home even though she was already married to Joseph, and that's why technically Joseph could have had her stoned to death for adultery, even though they weren't living as husband and wife yet according to our modern rules). Our modern marriage rules say that the marriage is real and can only be broken with divorce once the couple have been sexually intimate with each other. But in the Bible, the marriage was real and could only be broken by divorce way before that, in what we'd almost call the "engagement" period today. Think the divorce rate (especially among conservative Christians) is high now? Imagine if our culture required divorce to break an engagement! There are also a million different ways that people in traditional and modern cultures show they are married, in the expectations they have for each other and that society has for them, and so on. To believe that only one way of being or doing something is the "traditional" way of anything only means one is so self-focused s/he doesn't see they aren't the center of the human cultural universe -- and the only "tradition" that shows is plain old human sin. 

• In Bible times, and in many traditional cultures even today, marriage could be between one man and one woman, but it could also be between one man and two or more women, or even sometimes between one woman and two or more men. It could even be about one man and two sisters (check out Jacob, for example, in the Old Testament). Remember that in traditional cultures, marriage is more about economics than anything (that's why it wasn't until about 100 years ago that the law stopped counting women and children as only economic units, without any more rights than a toaster or an automobile, within a family). So having more spouses meant you had more money, but it also meant you had more workers (spouses, children) to work your farm or business. Today, modern people – including conservative Christians – have rejected this super-focus on economics for happy, healthy family life (and that's not a bad thing). Sure, we want our families to be financially sound, but very, very few of us in western Christian cultures today marry someone we have absolutely no love or sexual attraction feelings for, just because we (or our family) thinks that person will be a good worker in the restaurant we own, or will make lots of babies that (once old enough) we can use to chop vegetables and wait tables so we don't have to hire staff.

Idea # 3: Gay marriages will harm straight marriages, or lead to people marrying animals and such.

Did allowing interracial marrages harm same-race marriages? No. Yet that's exactly the kind of false conclusion this kind of argument demands. No where in any part of the world where Gay marriages have been allowed has it made any difference to straight marriages at all.

And the animal thing? Nowhere in any part of the world where interracial marriages or Gay marriages have been allowed has society or the law degenerated into bestiality, or incest, or anything else normal people find repugnant. The whole idea is insulting and sinful, in the same way that saying "Allowing Black and white people to marry will lead to birth defects and the degeneration of the white race" is.

Idea # 4: Marriage is for making babies (or, for protecting babies already born).

Does any church (even the most conservative ones) or any law test straight people for fertility before allowing them to marry? What about the obvious cases where straight people won't be having children when they marry – like older couples, or people who have had disease or injury or surgery that prevents them from making babies? Does the Vatican't or the Family Faked-Research Council or even the Supreme Court of the USA stand up to angrily denounce non-fertile straight people marrying? Of course not. But that's, they say, because all straight marriages are "still open to the possibility" of making a baby. And that, my friends, is just a made-up argument a child would make. Like, (add appropriate pout) "Mommy! Robby shouldn't get to have any cookies because I might get hungry someday!" Please.

As for protecting children already born, we have to say again that the law doesn't say straight people who don't have school-age or even adult kids aren't allowed to marry. But also needing to be considered is that many Gay and Lesbian people also have children (either from before they realized they were Gay, or because they've adopted children), and those who demonize Gay marriage are actively blocking children of Gay parents from the same protections that children of straight parents get. How typically false-Christian!

Idea # 5: Gay families can be just as protected with civil unions and such – they don't need actual marriage

This would be true, except for the thousands upon thousands of local, state, and federal laws and protections that automatically go with marriage, that do not and never will go with civil unions and the like. Compare that to my wife and I, for example, who had to pay several hundred dollars to a lawyer to draw up legal documents that will hopefully protect us in only six ways (and sometimes people with such documents still have to go to court to enforce them – which doesn't help if your partner is dying in the hospital and needs you NOW). Since no one is going to go to every local, state, and federal legal jurisdiction in the nation and around the world and make them update all their laws, statutes, and ordinances to say "civil union" in addition to "marriage", nothing but an actual legal marriage is ever going to give the protections all families need today.

There's also just the whole bigoted idea -- struck down regarding race and sex -- that "separate but equal" is a good thing. If we don't buy that having "black-only" drinking fountains just as good as "white-only" drinking fountains takes care of any problems racism causes, then we can't buy having "Gay-type" civil unions and "straight-type" marriages take care of any homophobia problems. 

Idea # 6: Churches should say what marriage is, not the government

We've already covered how government is so much a part of marriage now -- and how even conservative Christians like and insist on it being that way. But here's the other part of all that: which churches should get to say? Christian churches? Well, sorry Bud but not everyone is Christian. So, should straight-only marriage laws only apply to Christians, allowing Gay people who aren't Christian to get married? How about other kinds of churches? Should the Moonies get to decide who you marry and how? How about letting the Mormons decide how the Southern Baptists run things from now on?

Which leads to...

Idea # 7: Allowing Gay marriage will force Gay-hating churches to perform Gay marriages (or will prevent Gay-haters from being able to say they hate Gay people)

What a crock. Churches have always been allowed to be as bigoted, sinful, and cultish as they wanted to be.

Ever tried to get married in a traditional Roman Catholic church? Is your intended not already Roman Catholic? Then the Roman Catholic Church can legally refuse to marry you. Want to marry someone of a different race? Maybe you're Jewish and you want to marry a fundamentalist Christian? Or you're part of a rich church and you want to marry a homeless person you met doing shelter work? In most conservative churches, it just ain't going to happen. And no law that says you can't discriminate against people because of their race, religion, economics, and so on has or will ever stop churches from marrying or not marrying people as they chose.

As for the speech issue – anyone checked out the horrid hate speech allowed in racist, homophobic, and sexist websites and books and such these days? Absolutely no one is blocking people from being just as demonic as they'd like their mouths and hearts to be. Same will continue to go for homophobes, as well.

Idea # 8: Allowing Gay marriages will hurt children.

This is a variation of the old "Gay people are pedophiles" bigotry. It's been debunked a million times. Yet there are still people who claim that Black people aren't as moral as white people despite a mountain of evidence showing otherwise, and there are still people who claim that Jews are demonic financial swindlers despite another mountain of evidence showing otherwise. In the same way, there will always be people (including Black people and Jews) who claim that Gay people are more dangerous to kids than straight people are, and so on. That's just part of the way the devil rules things (until Jesus comes again), and the way that religious and non-religious human beings alike buy into his devil-crapola.

Bigotry is a mutant brain leech that just doesn't fall off without a fight.

What this all comes down to is this:

Straight people who believe they are more special than Gay people don't want to admit that everyone is special, and everyone deserves the same rights, responsibilities, and protections as everyone else. As members of civilized society they should know that. As Christians, they should embrace it.  

More, while many people value what they can see and what their bodies can do (e.g., going to a religious building each Sunday morning, avoid saying curse words, having sexual relations that result in offspring, etc.), God actually values what's not so easy to see, and where our hearts are. 

God IS interested in marriage, because He's interested in the promises we make, and how well we keep them and care for those in our charge. Being married – making a covenant with another person whether Gay or straight – means things like: being monogamous, because it's the loving, godly thing to do; sticking it out in our marriage even when our spouse is sick, a pain in the rear end, or even old and/or no longer physically attractive, because that's the promise we made to him/her and to God; and caring as dearly as Jesus would for our spouse and any children that are part of that relationship.

God IS interested in marriage, but not because one person has one kind of genitalia and the other has another kind. God is interested in marriage because God created human beings to bond together, and because our modern culture says we can and should be doing that with one other person in a most special covenanted way – and He means for us to take covenants as seriously as He does.

God is for Gay – and straight – marriage. As we should be too.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday links 12/17/2010

Some Christmas flamingos we added to a friend's lawn :-)

I've jumped back onto my twitter account, so a lot of daily links and comments are showing up there if you are interested. (I'm told there's also an RSS feed of my twitter tweets?). If you're on Twitter, send me a direct message!

Because of how deeply corrupt and sinful the world has become these days, it just remains so important to take a look at things behind what the most obvious or most popular answer is. For example, it turns out a lot of the people getting "caught" trying to do or plan some kind of "domestic terrorism" in the USA are actually being set up by governmental authorities to do these things so they could get "caught". But if we only look at the official version of things, we're going to believe that the real threat to us is the foolish people (or diseases, or whatever) getting nabbed in these nets (when their real threat is tiny or nonexistent), when it's actually the ones who are being "tricksy" (meaning, the powerful who are not only getting people to do bad things, but also lying and exaggerating to justify greater and greater control over everyone). Just as important is recognizing this kind of corruption and evil is also a big problem in the religious world. If we're only going to see or believe the official, obvious, or most popular answer to what Jesus wants, when He's going to show up to clean house, whether or not He condemns Gay people, and so on, then very often we're going to misinterpret what the real threats are to our salvation, to our brothers and sisters, to our world. Or, we're going to become more and more immune to what's around us and just stop caring about anything but ourselves. Either way, we're going to think we're doing all right, when actually we're working for the devil side of things.

I love photography (especially stuff like this, and this. This is also cool because it's photos of something else I love: dioramas). I do a little bit of it myself now and then, but nowhere near the quality I so admire in so many others. Here's a link page to some tips for everyone on how to take better pictures -- and make them even more cool.

God's universe, just showing off again. 

And another hero.And some more.

The story I have in my head and heart this week is about seeing our way past frustration:

Corrie ten Boom said that when she visited the Soviet Union many years ago, no one would talk with her about Jesus because the communists had spies everywhere. One day a young woman she met in a public park even warned her that the tourist hotels were all bugged and tape recordings made of what was said in each room, so those were the least safe place for anyone to listen. Everyone was afraid, and Corrie was so frustrated, not being able to tell anyone about Jesus! She feared she'd wasted her whole trip. 

But as she sat in her hotel room that night, she noticed the mesh top of a microphone, buried in the floor. She decided that if these were the only people who wanted to hear what she had to say, she would share Jesus with those spies who were listening! Every night she would get on the floor and preach into that little microphone, not knowing if she was having any effect at all.Until, that is, the morning when she realized two Soviet officers were sitting next to her at breakfast. She could tell from how they hovered that she had indeed been sharing the Gospel, because these two men were there to "investigate".

Only God knows how many God-rejecting communists heard the Gospel message either from Corrie's lips, or from the recording tapes made of her hotel room? And only God knows how many came to Christ, because she didn't let frustration stop her from doing what was in her heart to do!

What's frustrating you this week? What are some ways you can turn things around and make good anyway?

Have a great weekend, and I'll be back here next week!

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

If Christians were Christian - 003 (An Unreal Dream)

[This is a continuation of my series "If Christians were Christian (an Unreal Dream)". You can find the rest of the series here]. 

The Ugly Reality:

Wow. The Southern Poverty Law Center, long noted for its stance against and documentation of hate speech and actions in the USA, finally got around the naming some of the most Jesus-loving and God-obeying aggressively and viciously Gay-hating and anti-Christ organizations of our day for their garbage. And, unlike most "progressive" and "advocacy" groups around the United States of America in the last twenty years, it's actually had backbone and courage enough to stand up for what it did.

The moral psychosis of the Religious Right today is amazing not only in its willingness to break every command of Jesus over the heads of "the least of these", but also in its howling accusations that anyone who recognizes it for what it is -- a culture of evil -- is actually "persecuting" and trying to "defame" and silence it. Never mind that its actually the Religious Right doing the persecuting, defaming, and trying to silence. Truly, friends, people with schizophrenia (who struggle honestly with pain) don't have delusions like this (which are about causing others' pain, and feeling mighty blessed in doing so).

The Daydream not to hold your breath for:

If the Religious Right today were really Christian:

• It would recognize that using junk "science" and falsified "studies" to "prove" anything is LYING. 
• It would recognize that using those false facts and figures against another person or people is BEARING FALSE WITNESS. 
• It would recognize that even if it does think the Bible condemns Gays, women, Blacks, or (insert "least of these" group oppressive "Christians" want to pick at on any given day), its response should be within its own communities and churches, and not out futzing around making deals with the devil to force the world into "its" own mold (and it would notice that "its" mold seemed, strangely enough, to look just like the devil's) -- because to do anything else would be BEING CONFORMED TO THE WORLD.
• Since it would realize something was wrong in its heart, it would be digging anew into the remakes and other versions of the Bible its created, to root out all the false teachings it had inserted into the Word of God and taught to so many even non-Christian others, because not to would be being a FALSE TEACHER.
• It would be struck to the floor with repentance over how poorly it has treated other human beings, and how badly its misrepresented the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it had REJECTED THE REAL JESUS.
• It would be self-policing against all this kind of anti-Christ nonsense in the future, not denying the Holy Spirit at work within the lives of Gay Christians whom the Lord has proclaimed part of His people, because to do so would be to DENY GOD THE RIGHT TO DO AS HE PLEASES.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Q: "Am I going to hell for supporting war?"

I've had some questions sent to me lately, all of which sum up to: "Is it a sin to be part of war?"

The world has an answer to that. Even almost all of the Christian religious world has an answer to that.

And in both cases it's the same:

"No. It's not a sin, as long as it's done for a good/godly reason."

For most of my life, that was my answer, as well.

The reasonable human answer

Centuries ago, the Roman church hierarchy (historically a lover of war and apologist for death and oppression) came up with its "Just War theory" to document when it's said to be godly to go to war and when it's not -- and, as is nearly always the case in matters of money, oppression, and war, nearly all Protestant organizations are and have always been in agreement with the Roman church in this.

So, for example, here's what the great learned Pharisees and Sadducees scholars in theology and hermeneutics from the Roman hierarchy have to say in their current document of official self-justification about when it's godly to kill other people with war:

1. "The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
2. all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
3. there must be serious prospects of success;
4. the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition."

Jesus' answer

Here's the thing, though: absolutely none of that is justified by anything in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. None.

Those four reasons do sound great -- even to me! I was never a pacifist (if the Navy would have taken uncloseted Gay people when I got out of high school, I would have finished my twenty years about 12 years ago). I mean, if some nation is attacking us, and doing "lasting, grave, certain" harm, and diplomacy and bribes aren't making it stop, and attacking back just might work, and we can kill bad people but not too much -- why not go to war? That's certainly what I was saying on the morning of September 11, 2001. I was even nodding my head back then when others were saying that going to war would actually save lives, by killing other people who are killing other people. And if those bad people are killing innocent people (and I was just as certain as everyone else I knew exactly who they were), then our going to war against the bad people could even make us heroes!

But that's all human reasoning. Once again, none of it is justified by anything Jesus or anything in the New Testament covenant says that's meant for all those who claim the title "Christian" for themselves. 

Instead, we as Christians are given instructions completely different from what makes sense in and to the world, and completely different from what God's people were told to do while under the Old Covenant:

You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:38-48) 

But are you really "not conformed to this world"?

I had to learn this myself:

One of the big deals about following Christ is that it is supposed to make us different from the rest of the world. And the rest of the world? It's all about "good" reasons for going to war (meaning, killing people and helping others so they can kill people). The rest of the world is never about refusing to return evil for evil, never about taking the spiritual high road above one's attacker, and never about loving and caring for those who attack and hate you, even while they're attacking and hating you. In fact, the rest of the world thinks -- including nearly all the "Christian" world -- thinks Jesus' commands on this are foolishness.

So, if we go the human way (even the Christian human way), and attack back or support attacking back? That's actually against Jesus -- or, as the Bible calls it: 

Anti-Christ.

So if we stoop to believing that being "different" than the world is in how we dress, or what lingo we use, or where we went to college, or whether we get up regularly on Sunday mornings to spend a few hours at our favorite religious building, then truly -- we're spiritually sunk, and we've not qualified for heaven!

Being different under the New Covenant means that our hearts and minds are so transformed by the Holy Spirit within us that we don't accept the world's reasoning any longer. As true Christians, we're supposed to be past going after the old world-ways of doing things that were part of us before we were saved (including the old world ways of resolving disputes and responding to evil). 

All because if we still love the world's ways of being and doing, we aren't loving God.


Counter-arguments for being able to kill people and go to heaven anyway

Now, some put forward the argument that since Jesus is God, and God doesn't change, and God OK'd war sometimes in the Old Testament, and when Jesus comes back He and the good angels are going to war with the evil people and demons still left on the planet (whew! taking another breath!) -- all that means it is ok for Christians to go to war.

This is one of those answers that looks really smart on the surface because it quotes lots of Bible verses and talks about doing God's work and so on. But no matter how many scribes ThD's it took to come up with this argument, it just totally poo's on the commands God gave Christians. Nowhere does Jesus say that we are to attack those who attack us, or hurt those who hurt us, or hate or be angry at those who hate or are angry at us. NOWHERE. In fact, He says just the opposite! And He emphasizes that He's making a new way for God's people when He's saying all that stuff like "You have heard... but I say...". So the only place there is justification for Christians to go to war and believe it's God-sanctioned is within our own pathetically sinful and dark hearts. And the only way to argue for war being OK is to pretend that what God said to us when we were spiritual babes (Old Covenant) overrules what God says to us when we are (supposed to be) spiritual adults (New Covenant). Arguing this, then, is like a grown man claiming that it's OK to still use diapers instead of the restroom because Mom told him it was OK when he was two years old.

Others argue that since governments order war, and Christians are told not to disobey the government, that means we have to go to war when our government says to.

This is always an interesting argument, because the people who use it never really mean it, because if their government told them they had to become communists, or give their money to pay for poor kids' schools, or stop discriminating against people who are different from them, they'd either die first or act ferociously to change the government, rather than obeying it! So, yes, this argument is a crock, simply because it's fake from the beginning.

Even so, there is a very simple answer to it, and it's one they use themselves whenever it works for them in other ways: God's commands overrule human laws and governments. Since Jesus commands "turn the other cheek" and "love (not kill) your enemy" and "do unto others...", any human government order to hurt or kill people is to be lovingly, peacefully disobeyed (while human government orders to pay taxes, for example, are to be obeyed).

I recently heard another argument for supporting war: if we don't, then our soldiers will become demoralized and more likely to be killed. But shouldn't someone doing something sinful be demoralized about it? When we sin, shouldn't we get that "Uh oh, this ain't right!" feeling in our gut? In fact, we're not only supposed to get it, we're also supposed to listen to it and act on it. It's the pain that's telling us to get our spiritual hand off the hot stove burner -- NOW. It's supposed to make us stand up and make a different choice. And if we realize killing other people (even our enemies) is against God's commands for Christians, then our repentance -- our turning around -- as Christians involves no longer killing (even if that means being punished for it by our human government, etc).

And finally, some argue that going to war is OK for Christians because Jesus wasn't a "sissy" or a pacifist. And it's true that Jesus wasn't a sissy, and He wasn't a pacifist -- quite the opposite, in fact. Anyone who thinks it takes more courage and honor and discipline to hunt someone with a gun or drop a bomb on a city or poison people with chemical or radiation weapons than it does to refuse to stoop to violence even when hurt by violence has no idea what real courage and honor and discipline are all about. And -- sorry -- you just can't say that standing up to human evil requires returning violence for violence-- unless you are also prepared to call God a wuss.


God is smarter than we are, when it comes to human violence (and everything else)

The world done even "good" human ways is a sorrowful, ugly place -- for everyone:

For the soldiers themselves: 

• No one can join a mass killing venture and not have their hearts hardened so they can do and make it through what isn't normal for normal people to do. Normal people have to be put through techniques similar to those used by cults, to break down their normal aversion to killing other human beings and harden their heart. 
• But the hardened heart (and the psychological games used to keep one's feelings locked away) is a terrible, risky thing for its owner, leading even individuals who've participated in "good" wars to all sorts of mental and emotional issues, including alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, murder at home, violence at home, even more love and glory (or the opposite: ignoring the implications) of violence, domination, and killing, and more.  
• War hurts and kills the people who soldier in it.

For non-soldiers caught among soldiers:  

• There's no glory for a normal, healthy, godly heart in the light of bodies and minds mangled, burned, poisoned, and otherwise attacked by bombs, bullets, chemicals, biological weapons, radiation, war-caused famine, war-caused diseases, and psychological attacks. Even in "just" wars always - always, always - far more civilians are killed and hurt than soldiers. In World War II, for example, between 50 million and 70 million people were killed -- yet only about 20 million of those were actual fighting soldiers. So somewhere between 30 and 50 million non-soldier adults, children, and babies (figures don't even count the unborn babies) -- meaning mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, coworkers, and so on -- all died at the hands of individuals who had decided to be soldiers. That's the same as if people who decided to be soldiers killed every single man, woman, and child now living in the states of  California, Illinois, AND New York. Have a friend in Chicago? Dead forever. Mom live in San Francisco? Gone, never to draw breath again. Pregnant sister living in upstate New York? Sorry, both gone. But hey - it was all part of a "just" war, right!
• And of course, that only counts the deaths. War always also means women, men, and children are raped and gang-raped by those who decided to be soldiers (even by those supposedly on their side!). More, women's, men's, and children's bodies are tormented and tortured, resulting in lifetimes of mental and physical disability, by people who decided to be soldiers. The ability of the earth and local infrastructure to provide for local people's food, water, and shelter is destroyed by people who decided to be soldiers. 
• All civilians dead and physically, psychologically, and spiritually mutilated by those who choose to be soldiers in order to do "good", in "glory" and "honor", for "God".

For God: 

• Many of these hurt and killed non-soldiers are people who've never heard the Good News of Jesus Christ -- but they have heard the "Good News" of "Christian" Militarism in the bombs, bullets, torture, rape, and murder of themselves and their people. The name of God is blasphemed because of the actions of "Christians" who have re-written the Lord's commands so that they are indistinguishable from the world's way of doing things, so they "justify" war and all the atrocities that always, always, always come with it. 
• When we are "Christians" who go to or support war, we are woeful stumbling blocks to God's plan. 

So what's the better way?

If we really mean to be Christians, then how about Jesus' way!

• Those who've hurt themselves -- mentally, physically, spiritually -- by being soldiers need our love. By killing and participating in all the other ugliness that comes from even "just" war, they are sinners. But so are we who haven't decided to war -- not only in how we've supported war or those participating in its horrible sin, but also in the millions of other ways there are for human beings to separate themselves from God (if you're partnered, have you cheated on your spouse? if you're a police officer, have you lied or tricked someone to get them in jail? if you're a doctor, have you written prescriptions for drugs that did more harm than good? If you are a Christian, have you avoided helping others see the real Jesus Christ?).We need to help people get out of soldiering, and to heal the wounds they've inflicted on their minds, bodies, and souls by choosing to soldier. We need to give and help them find forgiveness, confessing sin to God and turning to and obeying our Master, Jesus Christ, as we all must do.

• Those who've been hurt (mentally, physically, spiritually) by our killing actions, or our support for killing actions, need not only our love, but our reparations. As individuals and as a nation, we have not taken responsibility for our evil actions against them. We've stolen their lives and living from them. We've stolen their loved ones away from them. We've stolen their future away from them. In the ways we can find possible, we need to put our money, time, and hearts into making it right for them. And from now on, we need to truly love them even if they are our enemies. We need to love them especially if they are our enemies, just as God loves us when we are His enemies.

• And to God -- to God we owe deep, on-our-faces repentance for our disregard for life that leads us to ignore the reality of war and glorify its horrors; for our anger that leads to hate; for our lack of faith and disobedience that prompts us to hurt others back; for our killing what He created in His own image. 

Will we go to hell for supporting war? 

Yes, if we allow it to be an unrepentant sin. Yes, if we allow it to harden our hearts, so that we can feel justified as a Christian who murders, or so that we can ignore the terror and death it brings to all concerned. Yes, if we allow it to be a way of disobedience, and of re-writing God's way to make it appear to match our own.

Yes, if we can't or won't become the Christians we claim to be. 

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday links 12/10/2010

Hawaiian bobtail squid

It's often said that Gays and Lesbians need to be "out" so our friends and family and coworkers can see how normal we are, so fewer people will hate or despise us. Here's a great article from a former Gay-hater talking about just that. 

Who isn't needing to save some money -- and some heat -- this winter? We used to do this all the time when I lived in the frigid midwestern USA. Now it seems everyone can benefit to one degree or another, outside the warmest band at the equator!

At last, some science behind what people are mostly getting when they so much enjoy "going to church" -- and it isn't God. Turns out belonging to a human community -- having a social circle, in other words -- is what makes people in churches happier than those outside, and not so much the God stuff. In short, when people "in church" have the social ties and friendships that most people in our alienated society do not have these days, they are happier. We need to keep that in mind when it comes to our longings: are we truly longing for God, or for the human fellowship we might find in a religious organization? (This study also shows why people "in church" are so hot to get more people in, even to claiming that "church" = "God", and leading people to just most religious stuff without figuring out the God stuff themselves: it expands and justifies their social circles).

Do you enjoy writing, but have gotten "off track" lately? Here are a couple of writing bloggers who will be helping get folks back on track for 2011, during the month of January -- and all for free. 

It's true that people have anticipated the end of the world a million times in the past, and many use that as reason to discount any End Times ideas today. But there's a big difference between then and now, and it shows up in articles like this (and this, and this, and even this and this). Yes, there has always been pollution and war and so on in times past, but never before have chemical, nuclear, biological, and other technological "advances" been set waiting in the wings while their potential for nation and world-side destruction and suffering and oppression grows beyond comprehension. Is this reason for us to fear or obsesses on the End Times? Absolutely not. But it is reason to understand the truth of the Bible and why we need to keep ourselves devoted always and only to our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Well, it's official: our brains decide what we will see before we see it, and then we see what we expected to see instead of what's there (wha..?) Of course, stage magicians have known all this for some time!

More of God's creation showing off -- this time, the sun. This week people have also been talking about God's solar powered hornets, His squid with cloaking devices, and one of the moons He placed around Saturn. God is so awesome!

There aren't that many squirrels where I live now, but if you've lived where there are lots you know squirrels aren't always the brightest lights in the bucket at getting themselves across traffic safely. Here are some folks who built and have been maintaining a squirrel bridge for their little fur-friends. Awwww!

Just US $25 will get a Christmas Care Package to some of our persecuted brothers and sisters in India.

Until then, People get ready - Jesus is coming! Soon we'll be going Home!

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

If Christians were Christian - 002 (An Unreal Dream)

[This is a continuation of my series "If Christians were Christian (an Unreal Dream)". You can find the rest of the series here]. 

The Ugly Reality:

Recently, a pastor/priest/pope decided that a really good way to demonstrate Christ to the people around him was to take away the ability to afford seeing a doctor from 19 people whose families he didn't like. So, to please his god, he did some hatemongering, and some bearing false witness, and some rebelling against government authority he didn't like in order to get just enough others on his band wagon to make his dream other people's nightmare.

All in God's name, of course.

Unfortunately, in his eagerness to make God seem like a evil jerk, and his enthusiasm to spit on Jesus' teachings, he didn't get all his legal i's dotted and t's crossed -- and he also managed to take away the ability to afford seeing a doctor from some 200 people whose families he does like, as well.

Does he regret hurting people he does like in order to hurt people he doesn't? Of course not. That would require having the Holy Spirit -- and not an evil spirit -- in one's heart. Instead, he says he only did "what's right". He also reminds everyone that we now have to respect his will, which he re-made into the governmental "will of the people" -- even though he hasn't respected anything at all.

The Daydream Not to Hold Your Breath For:

If this pastor/priest/pope was part of a real Christian community, a number of the people of his church would have noticed and felt deeply against his ungodly feelings toward others and the lack of the real Holy Spirit in his heart. They would have individually, lovingly admonished him, reminding him of Christ's tale of the Good Samaritan, and of how we Christians are to remain separate from the world rather than becoming so entangled in it that we start taking on its hate-filled and oppressive attitudes and values. 

If this pastor/priest/pope wouldn't repent, the church would have called in the elders of the church to strip him of any authority in the church until he was healed, and then to pray for him, and to exorcise him, as needed. 

If he still would not repent and allow the real Holy Spirit within his heart, with great sorrow and prayers for him to return to the real God, they would have removed him from fellowship and sought to see what they could do to repair the damage he'd done to God's name and all the families who'd been stolen from.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

3 great things about the End Times

It's amazing how much "stuff" is out there these days proclaiming the End Times right around the corner, isn't it? And everywhere it's all about how terrifying they will be. I mean, just cast an eye over these Google images for "End Times"! Not a smiling face in the bunch... (until you get to the parodies, that is). And we just hear more and more specific dates for when Jesus is coming back -- as if millions of Christians all around the world just stopped taking their Savior seriously (oh, wait... most Christians stopped doing that about 1,900 years ago).

Of course, all those terrifying images are supposed to scare the non-Christians. They're supposed to make them understand just how desperately they need to be just like the people who put out all those scary images of shrieking babies and so on. Unfortunately, it's not really working because most non-Christians associate shrieking babies with Christian war-lovers and right-wing Christian family abuse.

In fact, all these freaky End Times warnings really do is:

• scare the Christian people who put them out, 
• embarrass the Christian people who want to pretend there won't be an End Times,
• make non-Christians believe they have to be against Jesus to be good people, and 
• just generally put a real bummer on everyone's spirit. 

Blah.

Now, there really will be an End Times. And beyond saying they really will be the most horrendous time ever seen on planet Earth, pretty much everything else about them (like, when did/will they start, how will they play out, and so on) is entirely, lovingly debatable even by good Christian people who really know their Bibles and history (despite what we're constantly told by those of Christian Corporate Media).

Still, despite differences of opinion about how the End Times are or will play out, I find three great things we Christians should always remember (and be telling our non-Christian friends and neighbors) about the End Times:

Great Thing # 1 - Jesus and the Bible are far more interested in making sure we know how to make it to and through the End Times, than with specifics on what's going to happen and when.

God wants as many people as possible to make it to heaven. But He knows too that no way could we human beings ever really understand the full depth of what's going to happen, even if He told us every last detail in vivid color. We'd still argue about it, and confuse it, and re-imagine it, and re-translate it, and so on (especially if we have theology degrees or church positions). I mean, He can't even tell us something simple like "turn the other cheek" without us turning it into something else entirely! 

So, just like we don't explain to our kids the how's and why's and histories of, for example, making ourselves presentable to the world each morning, but instead just give them directions like "Brush your teeth", "Wash your face", "Comb your hair", and "Put your school clothes on" -- in the same way God gives us the directions we need to make ourselves presentable for His heaven.

Jesus tells us about the End Times, for example:

• Don't get tricked or discouraged by what only looks like and pretends to be Christianity (most people will become false Christians, or they will either never choose or will choose to leave the real Jesus because they confuse Him with False Christianity).
• Don't be afraid when big bad things start to happen (that's just part of the whole plan, and Jesus will make sure you're off-planet before He starts its big "remodel").
• Don't worry about being persecuted -- expect it even, if you're still among those hanging on to the real Jesus (No matter how it happens, if it happens, just go with what the Holy Spirit puts in your heart, and keep hanging on to Jesus).
• Keep sharing the Gospel and caring for other people until Jesus comes (stay focused on what's really important, and don't start getting lost in worry, boredom, time-wasting, or sense indulgence and be caught spiritually napping when He arrives).
• Don't try to figure out when Jesus is coming back (God's doing this by how He counts time, not by how you do).
• Everyone will know it when Jesus comes back (so don't chase after reports of where He supposedly is, or fear you've missed it somehow).
• When you see Jesus coming in the clouds, stand up tall and lift up your head! -- this is the best day of your life on this planet!

And that's a lot more human-friendly than if God had said: "Work out exactly what every single cryptic End Times prophecy means before I get back!"

Great Thing # 2 -- just like there are overwhelming and scary labor pains in birth, but then the miracle of new life for a baby, there will be overwhelming and scary labor pains for the End Times, but then New Life for us and the earth.

The Bible says after Jesus comes and rights everything, because the earth itself will finally be completely filled with knowledge of the Lord, even the animals that previously ate other animals will now only eat plants, and peacefully right alongside those animals they used to prey upon. Imagine! Lions eating straw alongside cows. Little children playing quite safety right next to cobra nests. Packs of wolves napping next to little lambs. The earth itself will finally be set right, once again.

The Bible also says that after Jesus makes everything right again, God will wipe every tear from our eye. It says there will never again be death, mourning, crying, or pain. Even more, every brokenness in our bodies will be erased, our bodies made new just like Jesus' resurrected and glorified body was.

When it's time for God to rip the devil-bandaid off the world, just hang in there, knowing that soon and very soon, you are going to see the King -- and then expect only the joy you've earned by toughing it out!

Now, I fully understand the need to let people know there are scary things in store for those who continue to enjoy evil and insist on doing things their own way (instead of God's way). But that's only the subplot to a much larger story.

Jesus didn't come to die an agonized death on the Cross so that human beings could be scared of going to hell, did He? Of course not. He died on the Cross because God loves every person on this planet, no matter what they've already done, no matter what they will do in the future, no matter what they think or ever will think of Him.

Jesus came and died an agonized death on the Cross so that every person who chooses to can be freed from the Roach Motel of sin the devil has placed around this world.

And that's what needs to be shared with ourselves, our friends, our families, our neighbors, and even strangers on the street:

"Friend, there's something really bad coming not too far in the future. And Someone Really Big would like nothing better than for you to know how to avoid it..."

 So, here's Great Thing # 3 about the End Times -- you.

Remember that part of what Jesus said about not being tricked into believing in False Christianity (and make no mistake -- even people who hate False Christianity believe in it, or they wouldn't confuse it with the real thing)? Remember that most people are going to be tricked? The # 3 great thing about the End Times is that you have a chance not only to not be tricked yourself, but to also help others either not be tricked, or get un-tricked, before it's too late.

So, while you are modeling the real Jesus for people who don't know the real Jesus, leaving soul-safe tracts laying around on park benches or bus seats so people can read and think about the Lord privately, helping Gays and straights understand what God really thinks about them, and so on, you can be doing the work God has assigned each of us to do, in preparation for His coming again. 

What are some ways you are already doing God's work to plant seeds of understanding for others regarding the real Jesus, and the real Scripture as God gave it to us? What are some new ways you might be able to help out? Is there someone who needs prayer? A hug? A friendly ear? A fresh look at Scripture?

What can you do to make things great for others, regarding the End Times?

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.