Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll

A Christian of 10 months posted on the atheist forum I frequent. His testimony and proof of God included this line. Following is my reply.

I drank, womanized, cussed, took drugs, masturbated, hated people, was selfish and uncaring.

Drinking in and of it's self is not a bad thing, and is in fact encouraged in moderation in the Bible (which also wisely warns against drunkenness for reasons that become obvious to anyone with a brain). Proverbs 31:6 even sanctions the use of alcohol as an escape from misery when it says, Give strong drink to him who is perishing, And wine to him whose life is bitter.

Womanizing with someone elses property is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, fornicating (ritual sex in the worship of other deities) was also forbidden, but other than that the men of Israel were given wide sexual latitude including, multiple wives, concubines (sex slaves), and prostitutes. Penalties for sex with unmarried young women were slight and this was not prohibited in the Big Ten. In the NT Paul specifically allows multiple wives, unless you wanted to be an elder in the church, adultery still had to do with property rights and fornication and sexual immorality still referred to ritual sex in front of idols - later expanded by the church to mean all sex except for procreation, which then includes masturbation. At least now some Christians are allowed to "enjoy" sex with their own wives. I mean wife.

Cussing is a short-hand way of expressing a thought and an intent.It is objectionable to civil discourse much as is someone who p0sts n 133t h3r3 at WWGHA 2 xpress ther thots IMO LOL. And yet jesus cussed a fig tree and it died. Jesus cussed whole cites, "Woe to you Corizan! You are f'd because you blew me off. The fags in Sodom wouldn't have done that". See it may be written all flowery in King James but the thought and intent is the same. He could have said, "F*** you Corizan!" and the Christians would have been scandalized but the people in the city would still be alive, but his intent of his flowery curse was that they be killed. Dead. And Jesus being God we must conclude that they suffered the fate he spoke for them. Cussing is highly compressed cursing, and yet it is harmless except to the FCC to whom it is like Kryptonite. The heroes of the bible cursed people and things all the time. Just don't use the words f***, s*** or b**** when you do it. Hello? Does this make any sense?

The Bible is silent on mind altering drugs - possibly because it is actually about the ritual use of mind-altering drugs - so the best one can say is they fall under the biblical rules for drinking. So from the biblical standpoint, enjoy in moderation (if a substance is known not to allow that then your own powerful brain will conclude that it should not be used, period, right?).

The Christian fear and loathing of masturbation really highlights the sickness within the system.

Hatred, selfishness and uncaringness point to your dislike of yourself, which led to alcohol and drug abuse, which then increased self-loathing and which results in projection on others.

So why did you not like yourself in the first place? For many raised in the church (or in a Christian dominated culture) it comes from being told that all the things in your list above are wrong and displease God resulting in at best your second-rate standing as a Christian or at worst your eternal damnation.

Paul even points out that without the Law there is no sin. Wow. So we could all be enjoying life without guilt if God hadn't made up a list of don'ts, but now that we have it we have to feel bad about every natural desire and every enjoyable thing in our life, luckily Jesus provides a cure for the problem he created. Excellent business model. Sick concept. Convince people they have a problem that only your product can fix. Sadly for most American's the message of "You are a sinner" starts so early they are not even aware of how powerful it is in their subconscious.

The Good News is that whether it is True or not the Gospel FIX works - to some extent, for some people. Sometimes it is permanent. Sometimes it must be taken on faith that it is working. If it is working for you, great. Enjoy the new control you have found. If at some point it seems to not be working, remember this: IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. YOU ARE FINE. YOU ARE NORMAL. The problem is in the system.