Past versions of the same story

A growing number of Christians are finding it harder and harder to believe that God has a fundamental problem with cohabiting before marriage, even when they do not accept it as ideal.

A growing number of Christians are finding it harder and harder to believe that God has a fundamental problem with divorcing your spouse to marry your true love, even when they do not accept it as ideal.

A growing number of Christians are finding it harder and harder to believe that God has a fundamental problem with not believing in the Virgin Birth, even when they do not accept it as ideal.

And on and on. And I would answer “no” to all four of his questions (strange that he identifies capitalism with lying about how much you gave to the apostles). If the teachings of Christ and the commands of God don’t matter for church fellowship, then nothing does. And the idea that they don’t, by the way, is pretty new, because most of us have decided that God didn’t really teach much we could understand, and so most of what what we believe and practice is just stuff we made up.

Further, there is little that angers me more than modern Christian attitudes toward celibacy. His argument basically boils down to, “If you’re born that way, we can’t possibly tell you not to have sex.” What about heterosexual men and women who can’t find someone to marry? I shouldn’t ask the question, because the reality is that most churches assume they are sexually active and just don’t talk about it. So what’s that mean for those of us who made the mistake of thinking that “you shall not commit adultery” doesn’t have exceptions for unmarried people? Are we freaks?