Wormwood said:
Aaron,
I encourage you to report every time there is a comment that you feel is inappropriate or abusive. Hopefully, one of us catches it, but reporting it will ensure someone will look into it. You are correct in that we will try to be fair and not show special privilege to those that agree with us on a subject if they are being abusive and inappropriate. I do not disagree that it is inappropriate to call someone a fool. Again, I will remind everyone to be respectful toward one another on this forum. There is no excuse for name-calling or abusive comments.
I'd like to call attention to the above comment and promise made by a moderator here since that seemed to be thrown out the window yesterday in many of the comments made to me.
[SIZE=11.5pt]Enlightened nations and people now know it to be of the utmost evil to persecute gay people over how they are born, and who they wish to join in love and life with, which is why court after court, and the Supreme Court itself have ruled and will rule soon on upholding their equality, dignity, and worth of love and life.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11.5pt]For those who constantly attack gays as being somehow subhuman, here's some history for them that shows very differently: The very foundation of Democracy itself, in the birthplace of Western Civilization itself.. was started by two males who were in love with each other.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11.5pt]The association of homosexuals with democracy and the military was intense and widespread, extending from Harmodius and Aristogeiton, a pair of lovers who founded Democracy by overthrowing the last tyrant of Athens, to the noted generals Pelopidas and Epanminondas, to the great military genius Alexander the Great and his male lover Hephaestion.[/SIZE]
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Of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, no less acute a mind than Plato’s observed that: “Our own tyrants learned this lesson through bitter experience, when the love between Aristogiton and Harmodius grew so strong that it shattered their power. Wherever, therefore, it has been alluded to be shameful to be involved in sexual relationships with men, this is due to evil on the part of the rulers, and to cowardice in the part of the governed.”[/SIZE]
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For hundreds of years, larger-than-life statues of these founders of Democracy towered above Athens, as impossible to disconnect with the city as the Statue of Liberty is impossible for us to disconnect with New York.. and young male lovers from England to Egypt, and across the entire Classical world would journey there to pledge their faith and love to each other, underneath those statues.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11.5pt]Gorgidas, the leader of Thebes created the Sacred Band, composed of 300 men, who were all paired lovers. They were known as the ‘sacred band’ because as Plutarch later explained, “even Plato calls the lover a friend inspired of God.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11.5pt]Philip of Macedon and Plutarch recounted how the greatest heroes in the Greek’s own history were all known to prefer other males rather than women: Meleager, Achilles, Aristomenes, Cimon, Epaminondas, Asopichus, and Caphisodorus.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11.5pt]Even Hercules was famous for his male lover, Iolaus, who fought by his side. In Plato’s ‘Symposium,’ he noted the eagerness of the great warrior Achilles to join his lover and military partner in death as an explicit parallel to a wife’s being willing to die for her husband. Their bones were burned and mixed together in a gold amphora, as was done in the case of married heterosexual couples.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11.5pt]Aristophanes said that “..males who prefer other males are the finest men because they have the most manly nature. Their behavior is due to daring, manliness, and virility, since they are quick to welcome their like.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11.5pt]Plato and numerous other classical authors attested to the military value of armies made up of lovers. When Epaminondas fell in battle at Mantineia, his lover died beside him. One of the most formidable and feared Theban warriors of the early Classical Era was Kaphisodoros, who was part of the Sacred Band.[/SIZE]
Here, then are textual references for long-term (in some cases life-long) homosexual relationships in the Greek texts.
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Orestes and Pylades, -Orestes is the hero of the Oresteia cycle. He and Pylades were bywords for faithful and life-long love in Greek culture. -see Lucian (2nd C. CE): Amores or Affairs of the Heart, #48[/SIZE]
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Damon and Pythias -Pythagorean initiates -see Valerius Maximus: De Amicitiae Vinculo[/SIZE]
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Aristogeiton and Harmodius -credited with overthrowing tyranny in Athens. -see Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Book 6[/SIZE]
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Pausanias and Agathon -Agathon was an Athenian dramatist (c. 450-400 BCE).It was in his house that the Dinner Party of Plato's Symposium takes place. -see Plato: Symposium 193C, Aristophanes: Thesmophoriazusae[/SIZE]
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Philolaus and Diocles -Philolaus was a lawgiver at Thebes, Diocles an Olympic Athlete -see Aristotle, Politics 1274A[/SIZE]
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Epaminondas and Pelopidas -Epaminondas (c.418-362 BCE) led Thebes in its greatest days in the fourth century. At the battle of Mantinea (385 BCE) he saved the life of his life-long friend Pelopidas -see Plutarch: Life of Pelopidas[/SIZE]
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Members of the Sacred Band of Thebes -see Plutarch: Life of Pelopidas[/SIZE]
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Alexander the Great and Hephasteion -Atheaneus, The Deinosophists Bk 13[/SIZE]
That said, many Christians today are guilty of being just like the Pharisees, as they use scripture as a weapon and to persecute others, while ignoring every teaching and command that is inconvenient for them to follow. The following teachings describe them well, in addition to the 2nd most important commandment of all Scripture, that they ignore every day while thinking they are condemning those who disagree with their teachings, or who question their actions to hell.
Matthew 5:22
“But I guarantee you, if you are even angry with a brother or sister, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court.
Whoever calls another believer a fool will answer for it in hell-fire.”
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”
He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And
the second most important commandment is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
Matthew 23-4
“They (the Pharisees both ancient and modern)
crush other people with unbearable religious demands and yet themselves never lift a finger to ease the burden.”
Matthew 18:21-22
“Then Peter came and said to Him,
“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him,
“I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven!”
Matthew 23:13
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.”
Matthew 23: 15
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!”
For those who wish to constantly rebuke me, since I am not one who hates, attacks, and persecutes people over how God created them, and who they love, and since I don't seek out personally other members on their threads to do so, we will just have to respectfully agree to disagree on who needs to be rebuked.