{"id":627592,"date":"2010-01-11T19:13:14","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T00:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010767986_ugandaandgays.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-11T19:13:14","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T00:13:14","slug":"uganda-and-gays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/627592","title":{"rendered":"Uganda and gays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Homosexuality itself is a \u201cdeath sentence\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Evangelical Christians are falsely accused of inspiring a \u201cdeath sentence\u201d for homosexuals in Uganda, [\u201cUganda and gays: a malicious blasphemy,\u201d Opinion, Jan. 8] even though the Christians were only trying to heal them.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, gays have a perpetual \u201cdeath sentence\u201d hanging over their heads. According to the American Medical Association, the average life expectancy for active homosexuals is about 20 years less than for heterosexuals. It\u2019s a medical no-brainer because when you do things that the body is not designed to do, it causes diseases and infections at uncommon levels, therefore shortening the life span.<\/p>\n<p>Homosexuals need to rethink what they\u2019re doing so they can live longer.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 Clark Chase, Monroe<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this case, Bible is wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Bible usually gets it right. Sometimes it gets it wrong. Loving your neighbor as yourself is a good idea. Killing your neighbor based on how your neighbor loves is wrong.<\/p>\n<p>In your Jan. 8 editorial, you reflect on the shock of three evangelists. It is the natural result of their biblical views. The Bible can be used to teach some awful ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Alternative interpretations of such scripture as Leviticus 20:13 are very important. What the scripture says is: Death \u201cif a man lies with a man as with a woman.\u201d It says nothing about homosexual orientation.<\/p>\n<p>Applying it to today is a matter of interpretation. Any translation of the Bible that uses the word \u201chomosexual\u201d has been translated to further a political agenda. I was surprised and pleased to learn that the King James version of the Bible does not include this word anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>The Hebrew and Christian scriptures say a lot of things that need to be interpreted. In some cases, the scriptures need to be rejected, whether interpreted literally or in other ways.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 John J. Shaffer, retired pastor, Stanwood<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Homosexuality itself is a \u201cdeath sentence\u201d Evangelical Christians are falsely accused of inspiring a \u201cdeath sentence\u201d for homosexuals in Uganda, [\u201cUganda and gays: a malicious blasphemy,\u201d Opinion, Jan. 8] even though the Christians were only trying to heal them. Ironically, gays have a perpetual \u201cdeath sentence\u201d hanging over their heads. According to the American Medical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2Dgs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}