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Comment by mcv | Hacker News Reader

> You would be hard pressed to not find someone who hasn't given money to a church in some form, and equally hard pressed to not find a church which is not anti-gay

You're not looking very hard. Churches vary a lot, especially once you start looking outside arch-conservative US. There are churches that have gay vicars. Lots of churches have not had any anti-gay activity. The WBC is not exactly average.

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It's a fair jump from "Anti-gay" Church to WBC. So you go to a hippy church, that's great. You said it yourself, churches vary a lot but most side on the homosexuality being a bad thing.

I don't go to a hippy church at all. In fact, the church I go to is member of what's generally considered to be a pretty orthodox reformed denomination. But it's not American, and maybe that's what makes the difference here.

I'm not claiming that nobody in my church is anti-gay. I know of another orthodox reformed church in Amsterdam where some people have objected to a lesbian couple's participation in some sacraments. I don't doubt that in more rural areas, that attitude is more common. But it's not remotely universal.

But I wouldn't even count the more liberal church of the late famous Dutch gay TV presenter and vicar Jos Brink as a "hippy church".

So you're dutch... that explains your arrogant anti-american sentiment. The only point i am trying to make is you should try to understand a person's culture before understanding their actions.

For what it's worth, i'm from Canada.

Because people are making so much effort to understand Christianity here. All I'm saying is that the claim that all churches are anti-gay unless they are hippy churches, is plain false. If it seems true where you live, then maybe that says something about the culture where you live. Don't blame that on some general Christianity straw man.

You really think supporting homosexuals is a common trait in churches anywhere? "Being gay isn't bad if you don't act on it." Oh, yeah, sure. Totally not anti-gay.

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gay/long.htm

Anyone who thinks this book is golden is anti-gay no matter how they spin their politics.

Careful with these goalposts, you're destroying the turf.

That's the fun thing about most religious folks. They pick and choose which parts of <HOLY BOOK> to follow. Not to pick on anyone in particular, but ever heard the term "Cafeteria Christianity"[0]? It seems that following the entirety of a religion would be rather hard unless you quickly dive into the sticky situation of saying which parts are valid and which are not.

[0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cafeteria_Christianity

Yeah, it's so hypocritical to only follow the words of Jesus Christ, and ignore all the older stuff that's contradicted or overridden by Jesus. Like they don't even know why their religion is called Leviticianity.

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