Double Standard: Helen Thomas and Israel

Another entry in the Double Standard. How is it that Democrats get a free pass on Anti-Semitic comments? What Conservative could get away with making the same statement as Helen Thomas. "Get the hell out of Palestine!"

Wrapping My Head Around Lost

So here is my understanding of what Lost was all about.

There's this island. It's a special island that lives and breathes through a series of intense electromagnetic wells. At the center of the island is its heart.

The island selects a guardian to protect its heart.

A long time ago, the guardian was a woman who we'll call Mother. Bored with her job, she happened upon two babies and decided to raise them as the new guardian. The babies where Jacob and the Man in Black. Being the manipulative mother that she was, she gave both sons certain power. For both they received eternal life, but for Jacob, she gave him the ability to set the rules for which he could govern the island.

The Man-in-Black banishes himself to live with the visiting humans. He discovers that they are evil and want to use the power of the island for their own good. The Man-in-Black allies himself with the visitors in order to use their knowledge of how to harness the island as a way to get off the island.

Mother, disturbed with the news, stops the Man-in-Black and purges the island of the visitors. Thus stopping their efforts. A fight occurs. Mother dies leaving Jacob as the new guardian and the Man-in-Black becomes the smoke monster and determined to see Jacob fail as the guardian. His mission is to kill the island.

Jacob now in charge has set the rules of a new game. There are two objectives: one, prevent the smoke monster from killing the island. Bring more and more visitors to the island to show that man is not inherently evil but can make the right choices.

Jacob brings Richard Alpert, Danielle Rousseau, Widmore and Gang, the Dharma Initiative, Yemi, Desmond, Oceanic Flight 815.

Interestingly enough, the Dharma Initiative is the most evil of the group. As scientists, they've been able to find each of the individual electromagnetic wells and built research stations on top of them. Each station has its own uniques purpose.

At one point they breached a well (The Incident). As a result they had to build the Swan Station on top and punched numbers into every 108 minutes and this caused all pregnant women on the island to die during child birth.

Because the Dharma initiative was getting close to finding the heart of the island. Jacob was forced to purge the island of the Dharma initiative and start over with Oceanic 815.

He carefully selected candidates and got them on the flight. Many of these selected candidates lived sad and troubled lives and they were often met with tragic deaths.

Soon the candidates, were whittled down to Jack and Hurley. After killing the Smoke Monster, Hurley becomes the new guardian after Jack sacrifices himself to resurrect the island from death.

With Hurley in charge and able to set the rules, he honors his friends from Oceanic 815 and especially Jack because he felt that Jacob had really screwed up their lives to play this stupid game with his brother.

Hurley creates the flash sideways. In the Flash Sideways, he gives each of his friends a chance for one week to be with the person they loved. Sayid and Shannon, Sun, Jin and Jeon, Hurley and Libby, Sawyer and Juliet, Ben, Danielle and Alex. Every except Jack and Kate. As Jack moves on from life to death, Hurley brings everyone together to let Jack know that he didn't screw up their lives but made their lives better. Jack even had a son David to show that he was not his father.

Conversations with My Daughter 2

OK, this one is pure torture to me. The kid and I are coming home after shopping at Walmart and Sam’s Club. It’s a 20 minute drive home. I decided to buy some cheese for the kid and a bag of Ruffles for me.

 

The Kid: Daddy, hungry.

Me: What do you want?

The Kid: Daddy, hungry.

Me: Do you want some cheese?

The Kid: No…Daddy, HUNGRY!!!

Me: What would you like?

The Kid: Mey Mey!

Me: What is Mey Mey?

The Kid: Mey Mey. Daddy hungry (very high pitch scream).

Me: Do you want chips?

The Kid: Nooooo! (even higher pitch scream)

Me: Do you want Chicken McNuggets?

The Kid: Yeah!

Me: Thank God.

 

Pulled off freeway.

Two Minutes Later

 

The Kid: Daddy Hungry.

Me: I know we’re almost there. Chicken Nuggets.

The Kid: Nooooo!!!! Mey Mey!

Me: What? What the *(&#! Do you want?

The Kid: Mey Mey

Me: Cheese.

The Kid: No

Me: Chips

The Kid: No

Me: Banana

The Kid: No

Me: Crackers

The Kid: No

Me: Orange

The Kid: Yeah!!!

Me: Oh come on. Orange? How in the world is Orange a Mey Mey?

The Kid: Laughter

Me: Say Orange

The Kid: Orange

Me: What do you want to eat?

The Kid: Mey Mey

 

She’s so lucky, she’s so cute.

Conversations with My Daughter

OK, everyone hates these cute-things-my-kid does stories, but here we go:

 

The Kid: Daddy, Tee-Vee

Me: What do you want to watch?

The Kid: Blu-blu

Me: You mean "Blues Clues"

The Kid: Yeah...Blu-blu

Me: Say "Blue"

The Kid: Blue

Me: Say "Clues"

The Kid: Clues

Me: Say "Blues Clues"

The Kid: Blu-blu!

 

We've been having this conversion for 7 days straight.

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life

No better way to say this that just to say it. I've been let go. Discharged. Nixed. Axed. Shown the Door. Got my pink slip.

Yes, I've joined the ranks of the millions of unemployed Americans in the Obama-nation.

Before I go any further, I have no ill feelings for the Credit Union. Honestly, they did me a favor. After the most trying time in my 16 year tenure, I just lost the will to grow in my job. I'm not blaming anyone, but I was just got tired and I could not fight anymore.

You know you're done when you work for just a paycheck and health insurance. My joy has always been in coming home, playing with the kid and performing on the weekends.

Now I get to turn my life into a cliche and start a new chapter in my life. I've can live comfortably for a few months and decide exactly what God wants me to do next.

Well, anyways, the first stage of grief is denial. I'm pretty sure this is where I'm at now. I feel like I'm on vacation. I switch between the feelings that I don't have to go to work on Monday and oh, crap, I don't have a job.

Now's my chance to start a new adventure. Time to start something new. Can I find a 9-to-5 in this economy? Can I find a job that I can be happy with?

So what's the first thing I did when I got home? I bought an exercise bike. I was going to do this anyways with the money I made taking photographs on the cruise. No real reason to not do this. I really need to increase my cardio and reduce my gut.

Religious Abuse and Other Factors Leading the Irrelevancy of the Church

Before I begin, I feel I need to make some unnecessary disclaimers. I, Alan Ng, am a conservative born again, evangelical Christian with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. After you read this and the other blog entries, you can call me whatever name you want, it will just fall off my back.

I became a Christian in the 1980's just before graduating from high school. I was swept up and took part in the popularity of evangelicalism. I loved my Christian t-shirts and listened to only Christian music. I drank milk from Christian Cows (Steve Taylor Reference). I listened to Focus on the Family, Chuck Swindoll and Chuck Smith. I protested abortion (as I still do today) and The Last Temptation of Christ. And like all good evangelicals, I'm a Republican.

These last few years though have been trying times, not for my faith but for my faith in the church. My faith that the church can remain relevant and paint an accurate picture of Christ.
Much of my attention today has moved away from church and church involvement to the ministering to the needs of those abused and discarded by the church. The song They Will Know We Are Christian By Our Love comes to mind. What does the world see, when they see Christians.

What I see today from Christians has little to do with showing Christ's love to a fallen world, but more about maintaining a pure and godly lifestyle and forcing others to live that way too.

When I talk to people who have turned away from Christianity, I hear stories of the Church letting them down and the Church constantly judging them. The reason rarely have to do with Jesus Christ himself.

In future blogs, I hope to get into detail with this topic, but before then I would direct you to my writings about Homosexuality and Christianity. All of the criticism that I've received never once treats a gay person as a person in need of Christ, but as a person whos lifestyle will prevent them from ever become a Christian and now their sole goal is to destroy the family. This is a huge leap to take.

As an evangelical my life's goal is not to protect America's legal definition of a family. My goal is to be salt and light in this world and share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

More on this later.

Three Important Life Lessons I Learned in Seminary

That’s right. Little known fact about me, but I graduated from seminary. If you’ve been reading my blog lately about my support of Gay Marriage and Why I Hate Praise Music, you’re probably surprised that I have a Masters Degree in Christian Education. And not from a liberal seminary. My degree comes from a very conservative seminary. I will keep my school nameless in order to protect the seminary, but all of my friends know which one it is.

So have I turned my back on my religious training? No, I haven’t. I may be “an instrument of the devil,” but I certainly have not turned my back on my training, nor my faith.

You may ask, how can a praise-music hating, gay-loving Christian, still call himself an “evangelical.” It’s easy and I learned it all from seminary. Here are a few truths that I learned in seminary.

God Hates Legalism

Jesus showed compassion and judgment. The problem is that the evangelical church today has it backwards.

Believe me I’ve studied the Gospels for a long time. Please do what I did and look at times when Christ interacted with the lost and when he interacted with the religious leaders, the people who represented God.

Christ showed nothing but compassion to the lost. He NEVER EVER showed judgment to the lost. In John, Jesus meets the woman at the well. She had numerous husbands and was living with a man. Christ came down to her level and told her about living water. She was trying to feel complete in her life through love and sex. Instead, Jesus told her that only God could fill that emptiness in her life. Jesus pointed out that he knew why she felt empty inside and that she used love and sex from numerous men to fill that emptiness.

You also see in the gospels that when Christ healed the sick so that God would be glorified. Christ never had a pre-condition when it came to healing. He did not expect the lost to repent and then be healed. He healed and exclaimed “go and sin no more.”

Christ showed nothing but judgment to Religious Leaders. To the men, who had “God-given Authority” Christ has the harshest words. Why? These men had taken God’s law at this point and interpreted the law to fit their own need and lust for power or as a way to keep themselves on a higher pedestal than their flocks.

The classic is the Sabbath. Being a Religious Leader (the Pharisees), meant that your followers had to listen to you to understand the law. Stop there for a second, that’s a lot of power right there. People come to you to tell them what God says. Whatever you say, people will believe that is what God thinks you should do. My friends, that’s POWER.

The Pharisees criticized Christ for healing the sick on the Sabbath. God can only heal 6 out of 7 days? Christ fed the masses on a Sabbath.

I learned in Seminary that whenever the New Testament uses the term “false religion” the writer was always referring to Legalism (with the exception of 1 John). Christ hated legalism to such a degree that he labeled it false religion. Legalism is the idea the salvation comes from following a set of rules. The Religious Leaders at the time not only had God’s Law from the Old Testament, but over time had twisted and mangled the Law to meet their self need for power.

The Letter of the Law vs. the Spirit of the Law

When I became a Christian in high school, I did not really know that much about God. I didn’t know what it meant to be good. Sure I had ideas, don’t hurt others, don’t lie, etc. but aside from that how was a Christian supposed to act?

I had friends at my church tell me what to do. Here’s how you pray. Start with “Heavenly Father” and end with “In Jesus Name, Amen.”

I was at chapel and I had a stack of books to carry, I was told to place my Bible on top of the stack. This way I was respectful of the Bible.

I was told to dress up every Sunday and wear a tie. I was told that I needed to be baptized. I was that rock music was un-godly. I was told to only listen to secular music. I was told that Amy Grant back-slided because she produced a rock album.

So I rebelled. I wore tennis shoes instead of dress shoes to Sunday service and in my most controversial move, I played Contemporary Christian Music during our High School fellowships end of year slide show for which I was never allowed to choose music again.

If I loved God with all my heart, mind and soul, why was wearing tennis shoes a sign of disrespect? Why was the use of drums and an electric guitar in songs a sign that the artist didn’t love God.

I just protested by saying don’t question my faith because I won’t wear what you want me to wear or listen to the music that you want me to listen to.

Sure plenty of scripture was thrown at me. Many of it had more to honoring God than telling me that dress shoes was more appropriate to tennis shoes. (p.s. this church I attended today uses drums and the majority of people don’t wear ties to worship.)

What about the law? Jesus said that He came not to do away with the Law but to fulfill the Law, meaning he died to free us from the Law. But at the same time the law existed for a purpose. The Law illustrated to us how we could live a Godly life. The problem is that there were thousands of rules to follow and we’d go nuts trying to comply with the minutia of each verse.

God understood this and sent Jesus to come to earth to show us how a person can live a Godly life. Christ lived a sinless life, to show that it was possible. He never violated the law.

This still doesn’t help. I’ll explain. Christ’s example in fact simplified the law down to two important tenants. Once, Love God with all your heart, mind and soul. Two, love your neighbor as yourself. Your interpretation of the law and scripture should be measured on these two tenants. This is why we can eat pork and shellfish without fear of sinning. We should only fear the heart attack and mercury poisoning.

I describe the usefulness of the law this way. The law is a series of brush strokes. As each brush stroke is applied to the canvas slowly the image of God appears. When all of the brush strokes and used and you step back you see a good representation of God and living a Godly life. Up close the individual stroke means very little. But has a whole, we have a good idea of how God is.

Evangelism and Spreading the Word

Ironically, as an Evangelical Christian, this last point should hit us. The Book of Acts tells us to “Go into all the world” preaching the Gospel (or Good News). This Gospel is a message of Salvation and a message of Love that God showed through dying on the cross for our sins, because we were unable to save ourselves.

As people, we have one job. Live a Christ-like life.

As Christians, though, we have one job. Share the Gospel and let other know the joy of the Christ-like life.

I bring this up because on a global level the tale of man’s history, the fate of world so-to-speak, is completely in God’s hand. We have not influence over it. Whether we blow ourselves up in World War III or drown ourselves because of Global warming, this is God’s plan and nothing will change it.

Our job is share the Gospel with God’s children (which is everyone on the planet) and help them grow in their faith. Our job is not to create a Christian world, because I will guarantee you it will not happen. I’m not being pessimistic. Read Revelation and you know a Christian world not nothing going to happen anytime soon.

This is the main reason, why I am for Gay marriage and why I’ve resisted the urge to say whether I believe homosexuality is a sin or not. Because it doesn’t matter. All people are created by God. God desires that all people come to have a relationship and receive salvation. No exception.

You will not find examples of Jesus standing at a street corner holding a “Yes on Prop 8” sign. You will not find Jesus showing up on television calling homosexuality an abomination.

Conclusion

I have not been in a paid role in Ministry for a long time. In fact, I don’t know a ministry that would hire me based on things I’ve written in my blog. That’s fine with me. I have a wonderful wife and family and I hope to raise this family as Christ would.

My hope in writing this is that you understand the stances that I take and things that I do are consistent with everything that I’ve learned and believe about Christianity.

I invite your comments. Even that negative one. And yes, I reserve the right to publish or not publish your comments. This is America for crying out loud.

Intolerance - Not Just a Conservative Problem

As a lifelong conservative, I’ve been labeled as intolerant. In some cases, rightfully so. I think conservatives and Christians have been intolerant of the gay community.

But liberal are even worse when it comes to intolerance. Believe me, I have a lot of liberal friends, who still view me as the enemy for my views.

The dictionary defines “intolerance” as “unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs, persons of different races or backgrounds, etc.” Here’s the challenge to my liberal friends, whose do you respect that has a “contrary opinion” to yours.

I have a very long list of Liberals, whom I have a healthy respect for.

Let’s look at true examples:

Whole Foods is one of the leading providers of organic and healthy food. Being the meat-eating conservative that I am, I rarely step into a Whole Foods store. The CEO of Whole Foods has recently explain why he is against President Obama’s health care plan. “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Now Whole Foods is being faced with a boycott of 25,000 Facebook users. This online petition states “Whole Foods has build its brand with the dollars of deceived progressives. Let them know your money will no longer go to support While Foods’ anti-union, anti-health insurance reform, right-wing activities.”

I ask you, how is this not an act of Intolerance. In fact, maybe if we ate more organic food, we wouldn’t have a health crisis. (oh god, did I just say that?)

Glen Beck on Fox News has a boycott campaign launched against him because he called President Obama 'racist" for his remarks about the police acting "stupidly". Fair statement? Who cares. What happens if liberals call President George W. Bush "racist"? Oh wait, they did and did of alot.

Nancy Pelosi called demonstrators at town hall meetings as being “un-American”. Since when does vocally demonstrating at political arenas label you at “un-American”. So if we apply Pelosi’s logic to Code Pink during the Iraq war, then Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan is “un-American”. Liberals, you can’t have it both ways.

I could easily call Code Pink “un-American” since they demonstrated against our involvement in obtaining the freedom of Iraq and defending our nation against terrorists, but I can’t. They have every right to demonstrate for what they believe in. (No matter how wrong they are)

I can cite a few more personal examples of intolerance, such as the time I was hated by my friends when George W. Bush beat John Kerry. But understand, that’s just “the pot calling the kettle black.” Oops, I think that was a racial slur.

The War Ends Now: A call for a real Gay ministry discussion

I recently ran into an old friend on Facebook (not old age, but old having known her almost 20 years. My friend, Misty, blogs about similar issues regarding Homosexuality and Christianity, plush she’s a hellalot smarter than me.

Anyways, she posted a link to this interesting article. In short, a church that almost split and lost their rental property because they allowed a Homosexual family to actively participate in their church. Here’s a link: Covenant Stories: No Right Answers

What makes this sad is that as a whole Evangelicals have no ideal what to do with God's children who are homosexual. We are consumed with purging the church of sin, instead of sharing the gospel. What God do we want to portray?

I feel bad for the pastor as he puts it, “It seemed clear to me that I was a symbol for her of the church that had turned them away.”

I keep mentioning to my critics to consider how Jesus dealt with the lost and sinners. He showed nothing but love and compassion. I defy anyone to show me a time where Jesus spoke harsh words of judgment when speaking to the lost, either in a crowd or individually.

On the other hand, every instance that Jesus had harsh words to say was too the religious leaders, especially when it came to legalism. By legalism, I mean coercing their flocks and followers to behave in “Godly” ways in order to maintain good standing before God and entrance into heaven.

One of the things that I learned at my popular conservative Christian seminary, was the with the exception of 1 John; anytime the writers (Jesus or the disciples) mentioned false religion, they always referred to Legalism as the false religion.

Nowhere in the Bible have I ever been commanded to stand at a corner with a sign condemning homosexuality or to ask homosexual visitors to leave or to “unfriend” them (using a Facebook term).

I was commanded to show love, compassion, share God’s sacrifice to the lost.

So again my evangelical friends, how does God want us to reach out and minister to the gay community.

My Life Invested in Star Wars - Part 1

I was in a discussion recently about all of the time I’ve spent in line waiting for movies. I like to think I’m a movie buff and I know that I’m a huge Star Wars geek. I’m going to document here the amount of time that I’ve spent in line waiting for a Star Wars movie.

Episode 4 – A New Hope. This was the one that started it all and it was only known to me as Star Wars. Released in 1977, I was barely 10 years old. To this day, I am now a huge fan of horror movies and I’m still scared to watch them. I thought Star Wars was a horror film. During the summer of 1977, I was hanging with my Dad at this office in Palos Verdes. Needless to say, I was bored out of my mind. My older brother and his friends were going to see Star Wars and I definitely didn’t want to go. My dad, more or less forced me to go with my brother. We drove down to the South Bay Galleria in Torrance, bought our tickets and walked right in. I instantly became a fan. Also this would be the last time that I walked directly into a theater to see a Star Wars movie.

Amount of time in line: 0 minutes.

Episode 5 – Empire Strikes Back. The rumors were true. There would be a Star Wars sequel. Other rumors included Darth Vader being Luke’s Father and the Millennium Falcon blowing up. Also, that Frank Oz would be the puppeteer behind Yoda. I was a huge Muppet fan. I really don’t remember who was with me for this showing, might have been my younger brother, but we returned to the South Bay Galleria and stood in line for 2.5 hours (a full showing) of Star Wars before barely making it inside.

Amount of time in line: 2.5 hours.

Episode 6 – Return of the Jedi. The end of a saga. I made the mistake of seeing this movie on Memorial Day. It’s 1983 and I’m a sophomore in high school, my friends and I basically took the bus back to the South Bay Galleria. We were prepared for a long line. We brought games to play in line because the frustrating part of the line is that it doesn’t movie until they let you into the theater. We were playing Cosmic Encounter, which I found in the garage the other day. And other role playing games. Yes, I played AD&D. We stood through 2 showings. Arrive at noon and didn’t get our seat until 5:00 p.m.

Amount of time in line: 5 hours.

Times have changed. Every so often I’ll drive by the South Bay Galleria and tell my wife, there used to be a building there and I saw the first 3 Star Wars movies there and spent almost 8 hours in line.

Growing up there as a kid, there were only 4 places to see movies for a total of 30 screens and I traveled by bus to get there. Today, within a 20 mile radius of my home, I can go to well over 200 screens. Blockbusters like Star Wars will play ever 30 minutes, instead of having to wait 2.5 hours between shows.

Times have changed. Next time, but rest of the saga.

Alan Ng - Instrument of the Devil (hazards of Christians supporting Gay Marriage)

I’ve had a few people kind enough to respond to my posts about Gay Marriage. I’ve decided to take a new approach to these criticisms. I found a company that will animate these e-mails for me. So here’s the first one.

Not only am I an “Instrument of the Devil” but I am quite the Svengali with my words. Boy, I wish this was true. Millions would come to Christ with my charismatic, yet hypnotic words.

Bridging the Gap Synchroblog - Christianity and Homophobia

This is my contribution to today’s Bridging the Gap Synchroblog. Today, I’m proudly joining dozens of other Christian bloggers to talk about bridging the gap between Christians and the homosexual community. Please take a moment and check out the New Directions ministry.

I’ve been intentional in my blog about not addressing whether homosexuality is a sin or the spiritual state of homosexuals for two reasons. One, the debate can not be resolved easily nor will it be resolved anytime soon. Two, for the purposes of this blog, it’s irrelevant. Whether you believe it’s a sin or not, as Christians it’s not up to us to stand in judgment over the world and deny the rights of our fellow human beings. We were never given that authority by God.

I’ve always considered myself to be a good Conservative Christian.  I did not grow up in a Christian family. I accepted the Lord in high school. When I turned 18, I became a Republican and voted for Ronald Reagan. I was an ardent supporter of ministries dealing with the family, such as “Focus on the Family.” I went to seminary where I converted from a fundamentalist to an evangelical (if that’s a change at all). All this to say that from the very beginning of my Christian walk, I was told that homosexuality was a sin.  I would listen to Focus on the Family and hear them tell me how homosexual community is trying to destroy the family. I became a Christian in the 80’s at the start of the AIDS epidemic and was told that this is God’s judgment on homosexuals (which I never really believed). And as time passed, I was warned of the Gay Agenda to not only destroy the family but to directly attack Christian churches and my faith.

For the most part, I believed what I was being told. So what has changed?

As I read some of the blog of those participating today, we all share something in common. We all actually know people who are gay. In my other life, I perform improvisational comedy in San Diego. It was there that I befriended my first of many homosexual friends. Then I found that I have close family members who are gay. Every time I have an opportunity to be with one of my friends, I wonder what I have got offer as a Christian?

This brings me to today’s topic: Christians and Homophobia

I used to joke about this. “I’m not homophobic, I’m just afraid of gay people.” Soon this joke became very real to me.  If there’s one thing that I can say to the Gay Community is that “we don’t hate you, we’re just afraid of you.”

So why are we afraid? I’ve was told on numerous occasions, that the last sin of a society before it falls is homosexuality. Then I’m pointed to Sodom and Rome. The truth is that they didn’t fall because they allowed same-sex couples to get married. They fell because they were a god-less society that used sex for god-less reasons, like rape and hedonistic pleasure. It’s a very different picture than two people of the same sex making a lifetime commitment to each other.

I was also told that the Gay Agenda seeks to destroy the family. That’s also not true. Whether or not, we allow same sex marriages to exist, my wife, daughter and myself will still be a family.

But why do we have to share marriage with the gay community? My answer is “Why Not?”

Schools will teach children that society accepts homosexuality as normal.  Yeah, schools are teaching evolution and allowing kids to get abortions without parental notification. Why, as Christians, have we allowed the public school system to teach our children about values, when this is clearly our job as parents.

They are going to revoke tax exempt status, allow churches to be sued, shut down churches that speak out against homosexuality.  Even if this is true and your church is being attacked because of your messages denouncing homosexuality, I have a question for you. Is this why your church exists? To end the scourge of homosexuality? If it is, I would challenge you to rethink your purpose as a church.

In a recent blog, I mentioned that the church has three real goals on earth. Matthew 22:36-40 – Love God and love your neighbor. Act 1:8 – Share the gospel to the world. Ironically, you’ll find an excellent explanation of these goals in Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.

I’ve always been bothered by the fact that the message is stop and put an end to the sin of Homosexuality, but never in that message do I hear love your neighbor or share the Gospel. How has it that we’ve drawn the line in the sand and made homosexuality the unpardonable sin? How is it that when we find out a person is gay, that we need to “speak the truth in love” and point out their sin and move no further until they repent. How is it that the evangelical Church has no strategy at all for reaching the Homosexual community with any kind of real plan for sharing the world?

We will risk our lives going into Muslim countries in the name of the Lord, but we won’t bother going into West Hollywood or Mission Hills.

I’ve found that interacting with my gay friends is no different interacting with my straight friends. They are all people with individual stories and with an emptiness that life just can’t fill. And I have a message that Christian is the living water to quench their thirst.

I take that back, there is a difference; I have no church that I can take a gay friend to without being judged or told to repent. Or where they are going to be stared at and in many cases not asked to come back unless they’re willing to repent (believe me if they’ll do it to my divorced friends, they do it to my gay ones).

My Challenge to the Evangelical Church. Let’s get back to what we’re called to do and come up with a real ministry to homosexual community. Let me start you off. Head into the homosexual community. Meet individuals. Talk to them. Listen to their stories. Share with them your story about how God changed your life. Let God speak through you. Let God do the rest. And finally, end the war.

The War Ends Now - Response to Gay Parenting

I was responding to faktb and I like what I wrote, so I moved my response to this blog. You may want to read the original blog and comment.

You asked, "a child should have a mother and a father (and not two females or two males as parents)?"

In America there are millions of children who do not have a mother and father. There are children being raised by no parents, by one parent and believe it or not, just because a family has a mother and father, that doesn't make it a healthy family.

We can go back and forth talking about what makes the best family relationship, but that doesn't solve the problem for the millions of children who don't have a mother of father.

Are you saying that a single parent is better than homosexual parents?

Are you saying that an abusive home is better than homosexual parents?

Are you saying that a child is better off lost in the foster care system than being raised by homosexual parents?

My child has been exposed to a few gay couples. She's doing quite well and was not harmed. Believe me, she's going to be exposed to a lot of things in her life and she'll survive because she has great Christian parents.

This leaves the question, can 2 homosexuals make good parents, the answer is yes. I invite you to watch this video.

The War on Homosexuals Ends Now - The Christian Perspective on Legislating Morality

As a Born-Again, Evangelical Christian, I must admit that I would love to live in a nation that basis it’s morality on Christian values. I strongly believe that following that values and moral set by the Bible is the formula for a nation's true success.

This will one day happen (i.e. Second Coming of Christ). Until then, what kind of a society should Christians create? More so, what does this have to do with homosexuality?

I believe in legislating morality. I believe that there should be laws and punishments based on Christian morality, but the truth is I live in a country that is not comprised of Christians. The United States is comprised of Christians, Muslims, Athiests, Buddists ... you get the point. As a Christian I can not enforce my faith on those who don't agree with me.

Matthew 22:36-40 states:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

All of laws of the Bible can be summed up into two categories: Love God. Love your neighbor.

I have two issues that I'm pretty passionate about today: Abortion and Equality for Gays.

I am very Pro-Life. I do not believe in abortion as a form of contraception and as a father of a daughter born to teens, I believe every life is precious.

I am in support of equality for gay. Primarily, I support Gay Marriage in America.

So if I'm an Evangelical Christian, then how can I be against abortion and for gay marriage.

It's simple. When it comes to legislating morality, you can't legislate the "Love God" commandments. You can not create laws that force Americans to worship the God of the Bible. You can not create laws that force American to accept Christ as their savior, to not work on Sunday and tithe 10% to the church (insert tax comment here).

What you can legislate is the "Love your neighbor" laws. We can write laws that punish those who would hurt their neighbor. This is why murder is illegal, stealing, lying under oath, etc.

Abortion kills another human being out of convenience.

But what about homosexuality? We addressed that in a recent blog. Two consenting adults who love each other and want to get married is "loving your neighbor" (literally in some cases). No one is hurt physically, emotionally, or mentally.

Most Evangelical Christians believe that homosexuality is a sin. This sin would be classified as a "Love God" sin. It's wrong only because it's not the way God designed marriage.

Here's something to think about. If homosexuality is a sin in God's eyes, then you have to accept that divorce is a sin and we would write laws that make divorce illegal. If we're so adamant about outlawing gay marriage then you need to be just as adamant about making divorce illegal.

Divorce has done far worse damage to the Christian family then gay marriage could ever do.

The War Ends Now - Homosexuality and Speaking the Truth in Love

I want to respond to a few comments from my friend, faktb.

The other day I expressed my love and friendship to my lesbian friend. But at the same time, I politely let her know that homosexuality is not right. I felt that this is what Jesus would have done. What do you think? Do you think Jesus, after communicating his love to her, would have told her that homosexuality is right? (View Original Post)

I hear this a lot from Christians. It's this whole concept of "speaking the truth in love." Most of the time I find this statement pretty empty. To me "speaking the truth in love" actually means "judging a person's lifestyle without yelling."

Politely telling your lesbian friend that homosexuality is not right, is not really speaking the truth. It's casting judgment on a person's lifestyle. If you look through the gospels, the only time Jesus every cast judgement upon anyone, he did it to the religious leaders. He never judged the lost.

Read any interaction Jesus had with the lost, you'll see a very different story. Let me point you to John 4, the woman at the well. At no point did Jesus state that adultery was right or wrong. The truth that he spoke of in love was about the woman's spiritual condition. She was "thirsty" and used sex as a means to fill that thirst...to find intimacy. Jesus identified Himself as the source of eternal water to quench that "thirst." Jesus understood that it was not the adultery that he needed to address but the emptiness in her life that only Christ could fill.

You mention your lesbian friend. My questions to you is what kind of friend are you. You've been very good about pointing out her sin, but can you tell me how she became a lesbian. Do you understand the inner struggle she had coming to terms with her homosexuality? Do you understand struggle of coming out? Do you understand the emotional pain she feels whenever she has to deal with judgemental people such as us, Christians? Can you understand mixed message of Christ she's getting when told that she'll never have a true relationship with Christ as long as she chooses to live this way.

Sure, we have the Bible, the Sword of Truth, but you have to remember that we're not supposed to use it as an actual sword.

On several occasions, you ask would Jesus support Gay Marriage, would Jesus have told her that homosexuality is right. The problem with your question is that Jesus never have brought these issues up because he knows that one's sexual orientation is not the problem. The problem is how do we fill the emptiness in our life. Fortunately, you and I have found Christ. Now, we need to let everyone in on our secret.

Online Journal Moved

I'm trying to clean up my blog a little so I moved my online journal to my main website at www.mypalal.com. If you want to know what I'm doing day to day visit Alan Ng's Online Journal.

The War Ends Now: The Gay Christian

I have a question. Is it possible to have two evangelical Christian believers that agree about everything regarding Christ, the Bible and Salvation, but one of the believers be homosexual.

I hate to break it to you but it is possible and it does exist. But if one of the believers is gay, is he really Christian? How can you answer this question any other way than yes.

Watch this video and think about it.

I Hate Praise Music: Revisited

For some reason my blog on "Why I Hate Praise Music" has gotten a lot of attention and I wrote the thing almost two years ago. One of the comments that came back to me was something about a child that sings "Jesus Loves Me" off-key and just bad it's not cute, this is worship. I've had many comments to this effect, basically good or bad as long as God is being praise it's worship.

OK, I understand that worship comes from the heart. I'm not questioning anyone's motive. But then again, take a step back and place yourselves in the shoes of the unbeliever.

The real reason I'm writing is that I'm watching "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here." And the most public Christian that we have in the world today is Spencer and Heidi. Thanks Guys for the help and setting up back a few centuries. Believe me, I get it. I can't judge their hearts, but I can tell you how stupid they look in the name of the Lord.

Maybe I'm lacking a little faith, but someone please explain to me how their obnoxious behavior is exactly bringing the lost to Christ. Maybe when I read the life of Christ, I'm not exactly seeing this kind of heavy handed preaching.

Ok, now you all can be made at me again.

The War Ends Now: The Prop 8 Debacle - What went wrong with California Gay Marriage

Well today was a big day on the Gay Marriage front. The California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8 banning Gay Marriage in the state. Boy, are people angry (and happy).

Just for the record, I’m an evangelical Christian and I support Gay Marriage. I’m also a conservative Republican, and I support Gay Marriage.

So what went wrong? Why is Gay Marriage still banned? How can we change this?

Taking Shortcuts

The problem is that rather than going to the normal method of passing legislation and having it signed by the governor, we have maverick politicians think they can bypass the State and US Constitution.

Gavin Newsome’s Mistake

The first mistake was by Gavin Newsome. Right or wrong, in 2004 Mayor Newsome authorized the issuance of marriage licenses in the city of San Francisco. His intentions were right. He acted upon what he perceived was a civil rights issue. The problem is that he was making a decision that would affect the entire state and the California Supreme Court shut him down and annulled the marriage certificates issued.

The problem is that the mayor of San Francisco can not rewrite the laws of the state. He does not have the constitutional authority to do that. It’s what we call a political stunt.

California Supreme Court’s Mistake

On May 15, 2008, In re Marriage Cases, the California Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision somehow managed to find that marriage is a fundamental right in the California Constitution and held that a statutory ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

Again, right or wrong, the Supreme Court angered the conservative masses because declared the redefinition of marriage in a document that wasn’t there. In other words, the authors of the California constitution did not include consider the LGBT community as having these fundamental rights. (We can debate this, but I just want to point out why there was such fervor in overturning this decision with prop 8).

The Christians Mistake

This mistake is obviously Proposition 8. Many people who know me, know that I’m a fervent non-believer in the Proposition system. It is not the job of the people to legislate; it’s the job of our state representatives. I elect people to do this job for me. Unfortunately, Prop 8 passed and was upheld the by Supreme Court.

Where Do We Go From Here

It’s easy…we have to change the law and despite what I said about Prop 8, I will support a proposition giving marriage right to the LGBT Community.

NOTE TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY, you can not get what you want by taking shortcuts. You’ve got to change the hearts and minds of Californians. I’ll warn you now, THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE EASY, but it’s the only real way to get what you want, EQUALITY, and make it stick.

I’ve made it a goal of mine, so speak to the Evangelical Christian community in hopes of getting them to reconsider their impressions of the homosexual community and bring you the rights you deserve.

The War Ends Now: All Sins Are (Not) Equal or Gays are not Rapist and Pedophiles.

I want to take a moment and address a point my friend made on my past blog. It has been easy for Christians to lump sexual sins together. In fact, it was called out to me. In my first response, I mentioned pedophile priests and predator youth group leaders.

Faktb said: “So let’s be clear to express our disapproval of pedophile priests, corrupt youth pastors, and yes, homosexuality.”

That’s my problem, I don’t believe you can lump homosexuality with the other sexual sins.

All my Christian life, I was told that sin is sin and God hates them all. That’s true. But you have to admit that some sins are worse and have greater repercussions, especially the sins that can change and alter the life of the victim of that sin. My child lying to me about hiding my car keys has little comparison to rape.

Be that as it may let’s go down the list of sexual sins:

• Rape – Physically forcing a victim to have sex with you. Violating physically another person.
• Sodomy – See Rape.
• Pedophilia – Physically forcing a child to have sex with you. Coercing a child into having sex.
• Molestation – Physically touching a child for the assailant’s sexual pleasure.
• Incest – Physically forcing yourself upon your child. Coercing your son/daughter, niece/nephew, etc. into having sex.
• Child Pornography/Exploitation – Capturing the image of children in lewd and suggestive position for sexual pleasure.
• Homosexuality – Two people of the same gender expressing their feelings in the same way two people of opposite genders do.

Try as you might, but you’re comparing apples and oranges. The first six sins on the list are sins against another human being. They are actions of violence, power, manipulations and the ultimate in selfishness. It is one person forcing their will upon another in a heinous and violent way.

You bring up the example of Sodom and Gamorrah. Sodom was not judged because it was a city of homosexuals. It was judged because the citizens had become so hardened in their sinful life that they decided they would attempt to rape God’s representatives.

The “sin” of Homosexuality on the other hand is not a “sin” of violence, but a sin against God’s design. In the beginning, God made us male and female in order procreate. God wanted humans to grow in numbers and the only way to do that was for male and female to “hook up” in a marriage and produce children. Look at all of the verses in the Bible regarding homosexuality and you’ll see that the “sin” is one of design and not violence.

So my fellow Christian believers please refrain from comparing Homosexuals with rapists and pedophiles.