Prejudiced: Pre = already, judiced = a form of the word judicial. Pre-judiced = already judged/determined.

I heard the question the other day, "Ever wonder what the Bible would look like if we didn't have thousands of years of tradition around it?". The idea being, whether we want to admit it or not, when we read the Bible, we have a filter in our brain that we subconsciously run every verse through. A filter of everything we've been taught is truth. Be it teachings about proper behavior, appearance, speech, or anything else we've been taught. We read the scriptures too often, looking for things that support what we believe, when we should be looking for what He says.
Be honest with yourself: when was the last time you decided to study something in the Bible, and tried to see what the Bible said, completely dismissing everything you had ever been taught about it?
I know it can be scary to even think about such a thing, because of the fear that you might stray from an important doctrine. But let's be serious, what harm can be done by reading the scriptures with no preconceived ideas on what it says? If what you have been taught is true, the scriptures won't teach you otherwise, right? So long as we stay in the Bible, we can accept anything our study teaches us. Call me foolish, but I believe that if the word of God teaches it, Christians should believe and adhere to it. And if the word of God does not teach it, they should not believe or feel compelled to adhere to it.

I know the idea of putting everything you've ever known aside and just opening the Bible to see what it says (Not just whether or not it supports your beliefs), can be very frightening, because I finally did this just this year, after nearly twelve years of clinging tenaciously to my teachings. And you know what I found? It didn't quite read the way I'd been taught. What's even more shocking is that since I started preaching at age sixteen, I had read through the Bible several times, and studied these very scriptures and doctrines countless times. How did I not see it before? I had always thought I had been taught correctly, and as we all do, I had unwittingly filtered the scriptures through my teachings filter. I had blinded my own self to some truths. Give it a try. You might be surprised at what you find, and if you're not, you know for sure where you stand.
Food for thought.

On an ending note: don't just jump into this immediately, but rather pray as sincerely as you know how, and ask God to give you a perfectly open mind about it all, and then after a few days prepping like this, go for it.

I -think- I understand what you're saying, and let me know if I'm wrong.

I find that a lot of people (Christian and non- Christian alike) tend to look for verses they can wrap up to mean what they WANT them to mean. Instead of looking at the history or surrounding text, they want to pick a line or two and tell others how it says something aside than what it actually does.... dismissing context.

It's a very dangerous thing to mess around with God's Word.  God didn't make mistakes when He gave men the inspiration to write it.  I find people trying to justify sin or compromise by saying that this verse can actually mean this, or that word can really means that.  They're too concerned with finding a reason why THEY are right, as opposed to remembering it is God's divine instruction which is right.  Instead of trying to learn about themselves through God, they try to use God to justify themselves.

They're leaning on men's understanding versus God's words.

Lean not unto thy own understanding, but in all ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct thy paths.

Singelli : First of all, I love the passage you quoted from. It has special meaning to me for reasons that would be too off topic to write here. lol Anyway, yes, that is one of the things I'm getting at, but there is also a little more to it. There is the fact that we rarely try to see what the word says all on it's own. We tend to think of what sermons or lessons we've heard. Or when we see something that seems to disagree with what we've been taught, we dismiss the possibility that it could contradict what we've always been told. Instead, we figure it must mean something else, and begin finding other scriptures to compare it with until we finally make the original verse out to be or say something different. Does that make sense? I'm typing in a hurry, so my answer may not be too well thought out. lol

Well.

The bible itself is prejudged. (Don't even lie, it has a verse in there specifically saying, "Gay people are bad.") And then people warp the words to conform with their own meanings. It's like a prejudged sandwich!

Seriously though, every piece of reading, listening, and looking has always been warped to our own meanings. Oppa Gungham style is thought of as a satire to some people. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years- just like the oppression of science in the Dark Ages. Just deal with it.

TheNameWithNoNumbers :  Yes people apply prejudice to what they read.

Just fyi though, the bible does NOT state that gay people are bad.  ROFL  (Gave me a chuckle with that one!)
It states that homosexuality (the act in and of itself) is a sin.
Huge difference.

But that's off topic.  I just wanted to point it out.  ^.^

Singelli : Well, all sexually active homosexual people are sinners?


Back on topic.


Prejudice is just a natural reflex of humans. People wrap words to their meanings, no matter how "powerful" or "holy" they are. Look at the Crusades. Misinterpretation combined with a few people with influence over others can lead to dangerous things. So yeah.

No. Homosexuality is the act of feeling attraction towards the same gender.  By 'act', I did not mean physical acts.

It's like.... *thinks for a moment*
You can say a thief was wrong for committing a robbery, but that doesn't make the thief himself a bad person.  He might have reasons which drove him to the action (starving family, for example).  This doesn't make the act right or justify the sin.  People make bad judgments and mistakes all the time.  It would be unfair to say that someone is a bad person for making a mistake.

But this also dabbles into the difference between stumbling and living a sinful lifestyle.  It has a lot to do with recognition, repentence, and change. This is sooooo not the place to discuss that though.  LOL

I'm not sure how to better explain it at the moment, I'm sorry.

TheNameWithNoNumbers : I do respect your opinions, but that isn't what the post was implying by the term Prejudice. It was simply referring to a lack of open mindedness in approaching the Bible. As for what you said, the Bible actually quite literally says that homosexuals are no worse people than anyone else. I see that you have encountered people who were hypocritical with the scriptures. I apologize on behalf of all Christians for the behavior of such hypocrites. Such behavior is contrary to scriptures, and I assure you, they do not reflect what the Bible or true Christians teach.

Singelli : Ah, I see. I still think the bible is prejudiced about the act of gay sex. I mean, come on, what's so different about a man and a girl having sex and a man and a man having sex except the way they do it? You're also saying gay sex is a mistake. But we need to stop before a healthy debate flaming occurs and I am tossed into ban space.
Elrinn:Well, I guess it varies from person to person. My mom's a Christian, and she's fine with homosexuals. Still, people aren't closed minded when they approach the bible. They are open-minded in the interpretation of it. So open-minded some are willing to warp what it says to the point where groups like the Westboro Baptist Church is formed. People just DO that.


BUT WHATEVER I DON'T WANT TO DERAIL THIS THREAD MORE THAN IT ALREADY HAS.

This is one of the reasons why I find it highly important for Christians to study hermeneutics. One of the hardest things for someone living in a Christian environment is that if the Sunday School or the parents water down the teachings from the Bible, the child would actually misunderstand scripture and just take what the teacher tells them to be truth. If they do not have their own motivation to study the Bible by its own context and history, their reading of the Bible would be distorted and misunderstood. I've heard a couple of instances in my college when a student who wasn't taught well in the Bible or is lacking the understanding in the Bible, they would learn something in class that is outside of what they were taught and were shocked that they didn't know about it till now.

As in my opinion the best parts of the bible are "do unto others" and "ye who is whitout sin..." Other than that, I think its impossible to follow by anyone 100% even by you good christians, god bless you. The bible was hastly put together for political reasons of the time of the available christian texts. The early christians managed without it for three hundered years, didnt they?

Actually no. The early Christians had the scriptures as well, however at that time the new testament hadn't been compiled, they did have the old testament. Also at that time the old testament contained all that they needed, as there was only one doctrine about Salvation.

Ok this was indeed a reply to the last post, and as always I appreciate the feedback, however I chose not to summon, as it would only take the thread off topic once again. Actually I've only noticed one reply to this thread that WASN'T off topic. I do appreciate all of the feedback, as it's all been insightful in one way or another. However, I also see that we're not getting anywhere with this. So sadly I feel I need to close this. I'll gladly discuss any of this via pm.
Global mods :

Failed summon.  Let's hope mine works.

Global Mods :
Please close this thread.  As usual, people have turned this thread into a personal agenda, instead of actually discussing the topic.

Closed due to Owner's Request.

(First CC post Woo~)

==Closed==