>Rick, I respect you for the sincerity of your beliefs. And I can tell everyone that I had a number
>of phone conversations with Victor when I was going through a rough time. Without being
>preachy he helped me out. Is that not Christian?


Being helpful is nice. Being loving is nice. Doing nice things is nice. Christians will do those things, yes. But so do others. And doing the same does not save a person.

When Noah entered the ark, up until that very day people were marrying and giving in marriage, most happy occasions, most communal, weeks of planning leading up, large affairs, gala events ... life was proceeding like normal for all. Each person was making wonderful soups, and fantastic breads, and designing new things, and producing beautiful cloths. And not a single one of them believed or knew their fate had been sealed by God who created them until it was too late (despite the century+ of Noah building the ark and explaining to people continually why he was doing it, for Noah was a preacher). They all laughed and mocked him and his family and were consumed by their own unwillingness to take heed of God's warning, suffering eternally God's judgment.

I would've been one of the same. I was a pronounced atheist. I had no place in my life for God because I equated God with the hypocrisy I had seen in my church as a youth of 15 years old. I wanted no part of that evil. And it was only God who saved me. It was nothing I did by myself. I stood there being amazed as is happened to me. I could not believe it. And yet ... it was so simple, so fundamental. It was ... an act of God in my life. And it's the same for all who are saved. People are changed. Internally rewired. Never to be the same again. And from within that change, God then commands us to go out into all the world, teaching people, making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. We are commanded to teach that those who have an ear to hear will hear, that they too might be saved. But it is God who prepares the hearer's heart well in advance of any arrival by me or other Christian to speak the word.

My beliefs are as they are because I trust in God. I didn't used to. I had "good morals" and "good ethics" but I did not believe they came from God. It was just "the right way to be."

And as for homosexuality, I was on the board of an Indy Pride group in the late 90s for a brief time. I believed in gay rights and equality for homosexuals as Victor talks about. I never had many gay friends, a computer guy I can remember named Matt, and that was about it so far as I knew anyway. When I was working for my father as a welder, a co-worker lived at a house by a board member of the Indy Pride group. I actually went to a Pride event in Philadelphia one year. And as a result of my activities with Indy Pride, I learned of a local singer / songwriter named Jessi Curtis. I used to visit a lesbian bar on Thursday nights to watch her perform (she and others played Indigo Girls, Melissa Ethridge, Ani DiFranco, etc., musicians I really liked back then). And I developed friendships with several lesbians. They used to joke that I was "a lesbian trapped in a man's body." And as recently as 2009-2011 I worked with a gay man. He and I were cordial, we went out to lunch a few times. We talked just about every night as we both worked in the office on the night shift, and there wasn't much to do when everything was running smoothly. But all the while I was there he knew where I stood, and whenever the subject came up I would convey what God teaches man about homosexuality. I wasn't mean to him. I didn't berate or make fun of him. And he disagreed with my position, belonging to a church which accepts homosexuals. I tried to show him brotherly love and kindness as best I could, while pointing him back onto the path prescribed by God of repentance. And given the fact that he was continually engaging in sinful activities and had the commensurate mindset around the same, it was hard. It required a lot of prayer. His name was John, and we have kept in sporadic contact since then.

And the lesbians I used to hang out with at that gay bar (Utopia in Indianapolis, back in late 90s, early 00s) eventually took me in after many months of me coming there. I was there to see Jessi and absolutely loved listening to her sing. They used to make fun of me because I would have such an ear for her voice, like I was almost in a trance. But, she was an amazing talent and to see someone perform live like that was quite a thing. But over time I became known as a "harmless" guy to their female troops and they invited me into their groups. We used to sit and play Jenga during the show. :-) Good times, one and all ... but that doesn't change the fact that homosexuality is a sin. And practicing it leads a person focused on the flesh, not on the spirit, and ultimately to an eternity in Hell.

There are no two ways about it. I care about each of those people enough to warn them about the eternal damnation that's coming if they don't repent. And it is against that sin that I teach, and preach, and explain as best I can, so that no person need go there unnecessarily. And I fear God and desire to be able to stand before Him on that final day and say with a clear conscience, "Yes, I tried to guide them back. All of them. I tried everything I could think of, becoming all things to reach them, as best I could."

There is one enemy of man: sin. God is the victor. God overcame sin. God put it away forever at the cross. And all anyone has to do now to be saved is hear and accept that truth. God called out to me and I heard it. I am now a disciple of Jesus Christ, and it is His teachings I espouse to the best of my ability. I do this because I care for people in the spiritual way (eternally) and not just as to satiate their flesh while here upon this Earth. Eternity lasts a lot longer than does even a 120 year life here. The two are not in conflict (love, and rebuke) though they might seem to be if you only have a focus here upon this Earth.