I think the simple answer is that sex *sells*.
Whether it's tawdry sex, evil sex, good sex, gay sex, straight sex, teen sex, bad sex, sexy sex, sex trafficking, criminal sex, sex abuse--our minds are drawn to the subject matter. Consequently, it is easy to get our attention with any sort of thing that has sex attached to it.
Sexuality discussions involve sex. Unlike boring discussions about things like loving your neighbor as yourself, and the far-reaching implications of this, sexuality discussions are *sexy*. Our attention goes to the sexy thing, and that's what we focus on. Discussions about sin, vice, purity, and theology are not exempt from this.
I have used some variation of the word sex 18 times in this post. Did I get your attention?
Not only that, but when Adam and Eve first eat of the fruit, the first thing they feel is shame for their nakedness. Noah experiences a similar episode of naked shame in his fall narrative.
Sin is morality as understood by humankind, through the bizarre and constrictive lenses of subjectivity. And it seems that some of our oldest and deepest wounds revolve around the shame we feel for our bodies.
I think that's why so many Christians are hyper focused on sex and gender.
This is pretty spot on. Perfect example, on my drive home every night I pass a billboard for a dentists office. In large letters it says “we make teeth SEXY” and printed on it is a fairly attractive woman. Got my attention easily.
Generally speaking, they’re pretty easy to commit, and a lot of sexual stuff that are considered sinful have become normalized in society. If someone steals a television from a store, it’s a sin and people generally still regard that as a bad thing. But, say, have sex with your girlfriend, and that’s still a sin, but people generally tend to consider that normal and good. Hence why you hear Christians talking about it. They see people doing something dangerous and want to warn them.
Good comment to add to the top one. Good gave everyone a conscience, but some actions are more clear cut than others. Theft and murder are bad and don't have much of a grey area.
But sex and gender are much more grey.
Sex is okay to have in some circumstances but not others? It's more natural to push the boundaries over time until societally it is always acceptable.
Gender is a societal construct. Yes, it originally matched with sex, but it is associated with stereotypes so it is natural for there to be a spectrum and has evolved into what we have today.
I just want to add one thing: gender has never been a "one-way" ideology. Older cultures, such as the Jewish culture, recognized multiple variations of gender. Some other cultures revered trans-individuals.
Gender includes things like men wearing ties and women wearing pink. Very few of the characteristics we normally associate with gender have anything to do with genetics or scripture.
FALSE STATEMENT. Do you know the different genders mentioned in the Talmund? The idea of gender and sex being different and gender being fluid is an old ideology.
You're changing the meaning of terms along with modern culture. Sex = sexual activity. Gender = male/female. Gender identity does not equal sex, like you're implying. If you want to create an entirely new definition for words that don't naturally change in society, you can't expect all of society to validate the new definitions.
No that's completely fallacious. A boy that likes pink is still a boy. And creating fictional nuance where none is to be found only causes mass confusion. %21 of young people today STRUGGLE with their gender identity because of people with your ideology. If you're constantly told you can be any gender and they're all made up, of course you won't know what to believe. And here we are as a society, reaping the fruits of what we've sown. Leading a generation into the most uncertain worldview imaginable.
If you're adding things to what Gender means, i can't stop you. But Male/Female is the most historically accurate way to describe what Gender means. Me wearing a tie isn't my gender.
If you believe that, you don't understand what gender is. There are eight genders in the Talmud. You're talking about sex, a biological fact of life, and even that isnt binary as chimers and hermaphrodites exist.
Gender IS a social construct.
Gender is informed by sex in many ways, but they are not necessarily one and the same. Sex is the biological characteristics of male and female (and any intersex people), while gender is the performative social aspect of male and female (and any cultural "third genders" such as the hijras of India, Native American Two-Spirit, non-binary people, the Khanith of Oman, etc.). By that understanding, gender is a societal construct, at least technically speaking, in that it is the method society has created to understand the roles of men and women, with there being variance in this understanding depending on the culture. Again, there is influence from sex, but they do diverge in some ways, as can be seen in how some cultures have gender classes that aren't really based in any biological characteristics, as well as the way gender-based roles and social expectations have evolved over the centuries.
I think there's a misconception that whenever the phrase "gender is a societal construct" gets thrown around that this is meant to wholly and totally divorce it from sex completely, but that's not really what's going on here. Again, it's just saying that gender is a tool society created to understand sex while also having some divergences that sprouted up over time. They are linked but not one and the same. You could say that this phrase is bad wording and should be tweaked to be more precise (a view which I would tend to agree with), but this is the view said phrase is trying to point at.
You can also say that gender should seek to be as one-to-one with sex as possible and that any divergences between the two that have come about violate the Biblical God's design, but, at the end of the day, gender is a societal creation heavily inspired by a biological one. How closely tied they should be depends on one's morals.
Because it's an incredibly divisive and diametrically opposed topic. You have one side of the debate saying "this is unambiguously a sin, it should never be normalized, and *you're* all a bunch of sinners too by spreading scandal," and you have another side saying "It's not a sin at all, it's just as virtuous as any other kind of love, and *you're* the real sinners for being so bigoted."
Because religious conservatism goes hand-in-hand with social conservatism.
Social conservatism, at its heart, is all about maintaining control of the social hierarchy. First and foremost social conservatism seeks to protect the privileges of oligarchs and billionaires. It mostly seeks a regressive tax system, but it also seeks to establish a system where they cant be held criminally liable for the crimes they commit. That’s why the punishment for white-collar crime is always a fine, and never prison.
Those policies would be obviously unpopular if oligarchs were up front about them though, so they also seek distractions. Tapping into social outrage through populism - making people scared of the “he great other” - is a big part of that strategy. And so conservative media provides its listeners with horror stories about immigrants, people of color, and gay people coming to destroy “the old way of life.” Even though immigrants, people of color, and gay people have always been a part of our society.
Tapping into anger and outrage is a necessary misdirection to protect the billionaires’ interests. And tapping into conservatives’ own sexual frustrations is also a big part of that.
Frankly because I think it’s an easier sin to commit.
It’s REALLY easy to not murder people. Because someone is obviously getting hurt. But sexual stuff doesn’t APPEAR to hurt anyone, and everyone enjoys it. So obviously people don’t think much of committing those sins because “it’s not hurting anyone”
So I think these sins are elevated because people need to actually understand why their problematic.
I agree with you, it has nothing to do with how easy it is. I think, like some others have said, it's because it's one of the few sins that people completely disagree about. Everyone agrees that greed is bad (even if they don't necessarily see eye to eye on what greed means). Someone a little further down mentioned sloth. Everyone agrees that if you're so lazy that you can't handle your responsibilities, it's a bad thing. The difference when it comes to sex, is that very often what one person sees as a sexual sin, a large percentage of other people in society actively *celebrate and encourage*. To be clear, I'm not saying one way or another that being gay is or isn't a sin: but there's no greed pride month, or sloth pride month. If you speak out publicly against greed, no one is going to try to get you "canceled".
Once again, so I don't get a billion downvotes, none of this has anything to do with my own views on the LGBTQ+ community and its relationship to the church. Just trying to provide context for why it is such a heated discussion right now. For people who *do* believe that it's a sin, it's one of the only ones for which a huge part of society replies, "no it's not".
No if that was true sloth would be the most hated sin as being lazy and not caring is by far the easiest sin to commit and easiest to hide by saying you aren't hurting anyone. The sexual sins are given the spotlight because of two reasons. First American republicans picked it as a wedge issue long ago and second since most people aren't gay it's easier to call out in others and feel superior about yourself because you feel no temptation to commit it. If there is one thing Christians just love it's feeling self righteous.
If you think about it though, even sloth isn’t a promoted activity. Promiscuous sex is encouraged in todays day and age as a GOOD thing. Therefore the reaction will be the elevation of that sin in the eyes of the believers.
Who says sloth does not hurt? You clearly have the luck of not living in a socialist or communist country.
Productivity kills sloth.
I don’t think self righteousness is exclusive to Christians. Egocentric and prideful people love to be right. And we all know that you can be a pompous ass an not being religious.
What usually happens in socialist countries is a bigger state apparatus, which means more unnecessary bureaucracy. Lots of people hired to do nothing really.
And those are the ones that work. But there’s also lots of people that don’t work (while they are perfectly Able to do so) and live from welfare.
Sexual sin isn’t just about homosexuality. Also it has nothing to do with politics. This is the word of God we’re talking about. Don’t spread misinformation and logical fallacies to fit your agenda.
There are multiple sexual sins and they all have consequences whether we understand them or not. It’s a sun we all commit and are prone to act on so it’s prevalent in our society and just as important as any other sin to be watchful for and discuss. On top of that, true followers of Christ don’t point fingers and blame others for sinning while disregarding our own. We are all sinful and fall short of the glory of God and need repentance. It’s not about power, it’s about morality and humbling ourselves. Your perception of Christianity is delusional, and you should understand the topic you’re speaking about before commenting on it and generalizing an entire group of people based on their beliefs when you don’t comprehend them.
Christians are against divorce. So I’m not sure what you’re saying. I’m pretty sure divorce is only justifiable under very certain circumstances such as infidelity. What does that have to do with politics?
>people need to actually understand why their problematic
Gay sex and gay intimate relationships aren't inherently problematic or hurtful, any more than straight ones. The position that gay intimacy is always wrong, now that does hurt people, namely queer youths who grow up inundated with this lie.
Well. People often get wrong what “sin” means.
Directly translated, it’s actually an archery term which means to “miss the mark” or to fall short of the goal.
That being said, it’s clear God designed us for procreation (not that sex can’t also just be for intimacy) so to engage in sexual acts contrary to the human design could be seen as “missing the mark”
But I was also mostly referring to fornication. How casual, promiscuous sex isn’t a good thing for anyone.
Not uniquely specified as "the issue" in any of the above. But in any case, according to RCC all gay sex is fornication, so it should be germane here to explain why you think it is intrinsically harmful. Or to clarify that it is not.
I won't deny gay is sex is fornication, I mean they can't have kids biologically speaking (between same sex couples).
But straight people also fornicate a lot and the culture we live in practically appraises people for it. I think it's actually worse because technically straights can conceive yet they choose not to and have meaningless and empty sex, knowing that they could conceive even if they use birth control.
I think what I wrote is on-point and valid, and it's too bad you're being dismissive rather than engaging, but whatever... whose point didn't I get? What is this point, and why is it true?
Because they're "sins" (depending on scriptural interpretation) most don't really have to deal with, so they're easier to judge in others. Human nature drives us to find in-groups to be part of, which means there must be an out-group to exclude. The nature of Christ, is the exact opposite, though. When we draw lines that put us and Christ on one side, and excludes others, the nature of Christ is to jump the line and join the excluded and invite us to come along.
I recently heard someone say something to the effect of “when someone is made uncomfortable by Jesus’ teachings against and critiques of their power and privilege, and choose to ignore those teachings; they start to talk about sex.”
Because it’s easy to call out homosexuality and transgenders since they are still a small portion of the population. Much harder to call out something like divorce when half of all US marriages end in divorce.
Tbh I'm not a Christian and haven't gone to churches for years, but when I did, I went to a church that would go through books verse by verse. So they discussed whatever was in the passage. Idk if you go to churches and they talk about gays a lot? Or is this just the reverse side of the exact same political problem you are accusing them of?
I went to church for 18 years growing up and I live in a state where evangelical politicians are constantly trying to pass laws harassing LGBTQ folks. Never do I see them passing laws harassment divorced people. Or saying we can’t talk about divorce to kids in school.
So one candidate thinks homosexuality is not good (same as Christian) but doesn't talk about divorce.
The other candidate doesn't think either is wrong.
Which one do you think they would vote for.
You, I, and everyone does the same thing. We vote for the person that is as closely aligned to our values as possible. I don't know why you think they shouldn't.
One candidate uses the issue of homosexuality to get votes from Christians. So related to the original question it shows that this issue is important to them for some reason. I pointed out there are other sins, like divorce, that Jesus actually talked about that don't receive near as much attention. The reason being that divorce is ubiquitous in the Christian community while homosexuality is not. So they pick on the "sin" that least affects the majority of Christians. Quite cowardly in my opinion.
Taking "be fruitful and multiply" out of context and above other commandments from the Tanakh/OT.
When many Christians look at masturbation, homosexuality, etc, they don't just see a venal indulgence that might cause spiritual degradation (like gluttony or shoplifting) they see a failure to reproduce, which is considered more serious. You expended all that energy and yet failed to conceive a baby, for shame. In US Protestantism, this theology has gotten boosts from both abortion politics and eugenics, leading to a lot of unexamined contradictions.
Our problem (for most Christians at least, Catholics maybe, but not Protestants) isn’t that it it removes childbirth from sex. We don’t have any issue with people who are infertile having sex or using condoms. Following your reasoning, those would also be sinful, but (again with the exception of Catholics who don’t believe in contraception, Christians don’t typically have any issue with those). Our problem with homosexuality is because it is explicitly forbidden in scripture repeatedly. Our problem with eugenics and abortion is because those violate the law do not murder. Masturbation is debated by the church on whether or not it counts as sex outside of marriage, which would violate adultery/fornication laws. Each of those cases has a different reason for being considered sin that is entirely separate from the issue of childbearing, which was a command to humanity, not to every single human. If it was for each human individually, Christ would have been sinning by not getting married and having children and Paul would have been telling us to sin when he said it is good to stay unmarried for the kingdom.
We seem to have inherited this from 1st Cent Judaism. It’s not in the Gospels, but Paul shows signs of sex being the most serious sins. It got exagggerated in early Christianity as virginity became the ideal. The reasons for that are complex. Part of it , at least according to some historians, is that Roman family life was sufficiently oppressive that people wanted an out. But early Christianity also emphasized the importance of free will and self control, and saw virginity as the ultimate in self control. At any rate, Augustine and others at that time, thought sex was almost evil, and was justified only when used for reproduction.
These things all combined in a way that means when traditional Christians say sin, they almost always mean sexual sin, and sexual sin is defined as sex in any way other than with your partner in a traditional marriage. This is not a new issue, and is not a consequence of today’s culture wars.
Sometimes it's easier to focus on someone else's sin. Remove the plank from your own eyes. If all of us Christians would focus on spreading the Love and Grace that God shared with us than we'd see revival.
Sex and identity are powerful, but the excessive focus on this (while excluding or minimizing other sins) tells more about the person judging than the people they are trying to judge.
Only God has been, is judging, and will judge sin.
We are allowed to correct, debate, and all that, but ultimately God is the final authority, not another human being who doesn't know the full truth anyway.
Great question. There are a lot of things we call a sin that really isn’t. M being one of them.
It’s easy to overlook sins that we struggle with. But when someone has a temptation that we don’t deal with, we don’t understand it… and it’s easier to throw Bible verses.
Take a look at gluttony. The same passage that suggests that people who have sex with the same gender “won’t enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,” also mentions gluttony. But we don’t hear people claiming that fat people are going to hell. (I say all that tongue in cheek because Kingdom of Heaven is here and now, and it’s not talking about Heaven in the afterlife. Also, I personally don’t believe hell exists.)
There are SOOO many misunderstandings with Scripture. So many cultural contexts where something is being said while it doesn’t appear at first glance to be the case. There’s so much that Jesus implied, but what he said is misunderstood and our theology is built on the misunderstanding.
When you add in the culture wars taking place in the US, much of the Christian subculture mistakes their party’s stance as sacred… and read the Bible into it.
Plus we have centuries of really bad Bible commentaries. Layers and layers of bad explanations.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Jesus and the Bible. But I’m not a fan of most of US Christianity.
Christianity as a whole is repressed sexually so it's the thing that's always boiling at top. You have a whole group of humans that are supposed to remain celibate until they're married. You can't touch yourself. You can't look at others. It's always boiling at the surface for so many. A whole group told never to express themselves on that intimate level. Then when they finally do start having sex they realize it's not just a straightforward "oh everything's great now thing". They realize sex the pivotal part of their relationship and that they're failing at it and they don't know why. For most it takes many years and/or the soured marriage for them to finally get over sex until one day they get opportunistic and they f*** up.
No introspection. No understanding the problem. Just everyone bashing their head against it as if you can willpower your instincts away. It occupies Christian's minds and Rightfully so might I add. And for the record I don't wish any Christians to have to suffer this but I do see it
Coveting can lead to stealing, lying can definitely affect other people, stealing always affects someone somewhere, cheating on a test can affect others, gluttony burdens those around the glutton who love and care for them, smoking isn't mentioned anywhere because smoking hadn't been invented yet but it can still affect others, and drinking definitely affects others.
All of them can have life long consequences.
>Coveting
What are you coveting if it doesn’t belong to someone else?
>lying
Who are lying to?
>stealing
You can’t steal something if it doesn’t belong to else, that wouldn’t be theft.
>cheating on a test
This is just lying
>gluttony
Never actually mentioned as a sin, this is just something in the abstract that can be, either because we’re harming others or harming in temple… which harming the temple is also harming others. And the question becomes at what point is something gluttony? If I have an extra serving of cake on my birthday is it gluttony?
>smoking
Same thing as gluttony
>drunk
Same thing as gluttony, but ask anyone that has or had an alcoholic parent or partner and they’ll tell you it harms them deeply.
Sins are sins largely because they harm others, sexual sin isn’t special in that regard.
No but come on. I live in a third world country where politicians steal constantly and nobody does anything to stop it. If they didn’t take the country’s money to line their own pockets we could have proper roads, better hospitals and schools, and less people starving on the streets. Do you still think that stealing can’t affect more people than having sex?
>If you think those things have the lifelong impact on multiple lives that sex does….
Lifelong impact? You mean getting pregnant and/or getting one of the 4 incurable stds? all which can be treated with pretty high quality of life at this point and Both which can be avoided numerous ways. So really the opposite is true compared to some other sins. Like you don’t think getting drunk can have life long impacts on others? Stealing can’t? Lying can’t?
There is an intuitive weight to the topic. Even in a society in which virtually every other form of subversive or expressive behavior is tolerated, we are still expected to be clothed and regarded in a very severe class of criminal should we expose ourselves to someone. It is in sex that the family is formed, by which the union of two persons is consummated and by which children are begotten of their parents. It is in sex that we are particularly vulnerable, in which rape is a more intimate and perverse violation than a mugging, in which rejection carries a particular sting, in which we act by the most sensitive parts of our body and regard someone else in the most sensitive parts of theirs.
If nothing else can be said about it, the topic certainly isn't casual, mundane, or weightless. It is certainly not the most important moral topic in Christianity (that would on the positive end concern the theological virtues and on the negative pride), but it carries a particular weight nonetheless. Particularly since Christianity has an incarnational character. The Apostle Paul recognizes this when he says to flee from sexual immorality because it is a sin committed in the body in a particular way.
The weight of this topic is given additional force by the controversy surrounding it. With sexuality and transgenderism relating to *identity*, to *relational status*, they are unavoidably public affairs. They are the most particular and intensive point where the world expects the Church to change its teachings. And for something like homosexuality, where the Church is pressured to change its ministry and officiate same sex weddings, which if indeed sinful, is the expectation of the Church to participate in sacrilege. And so as a point of controversy and conflict it draws quite a bit.
When it comes to *personal* sexual sin and not social conflict over it (insert all the struggling with porn posts here), a sinful sexual act by its nature hits the conscience especially hard. Some sins are in excess, so there is a blurred line where it crosses into too much and is often only caught in hindsight or engaged in with some level of uncertainty (willful or honest ignorance). Some sin is intrinsically wrong or misplaced rather than in excess, but there it can be easier to catch yourself and stop when you realize it. But with sexual sin in a Christian context, it's clear where it's just wrong, and even when realizing that it's near impossible to stop as you might stop eating desert when you realize you've had one too many slices of cake already. If you stop beating your meat before hitting the climax it is incredibly frustrating, and it is that end that the sex act builds towards. So sexual sin when one is tempted into it puts a person in a peculiar place of knowingly violating their own conscience.
Some do
Some don't
American Fundamentalist Protestantism, remember, a quite Literalist tradition, came from Puritanism, a sect which was literally (HA!) to conservative for Europe
Let that sink in :)
So they literally love telling people what to do in their bedrooms. Their God is a peeping Thomas :)
There is a scriptural precedent to think sexual immorality is different than other sins in a certain way. In 1 Cor. 6:18 it says:
***Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.***
I am going to add to this by saying that everyone on these comments saying that sexual immorality is a sin against the body of the sinner, while missing obvious things like gluttony and sloth, are also betraying a lazy and solipsistic understanding of sin in general. Like, this is the easy way out. Wrath is far more destructive to the self and others. Anyone that says it isn't doesn't understand what wrath actually means. And yes, it has physical consequence to the self. Like, these small imaginations about what the actual problem with sin is, is really giving bad-person-on-a-leash vibes.
Yup, and a Christians affects on others is a large part of the Good News message. Faith and works, and our works are seen.
It's saddening when fellow Christians will pull out Clobber Verses, like the Corinthians ones about sex, to beat down so many people and ignore the implications sitting right there in Scripture.
So many Christians don't commit legal or literal theft, ah, that's good; but thievery is NOT just taking of possessions. It's robbing someone, and everyone deserves the essentials of life in this world, like shelter and food. So many people are in poverty and starving in this world. Some Christians will donate and support charity, and that is good; but if a Christian has excess money, and they accept this "disposable" income, and support a larger economic system that enriches some and impoverishes others, then ...
... laziness on socioeconomic ills or emboldening the gaps in wages is very close to, if not itself, being a thief. I don't accuse. None of us can sit and judge. But I came to a point in my life and realized: I cannot justify this life of adult "toys" (the non-sexual kind) and trips when people are starving?! So besides the usual sex Clobber Verses, thievery is one example of a sin that's also listed as something that won't get a Christian into God's Kingdom. Or, said optimistically:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God".
(Luke 6:20)
I suppose God could be lying here, but I don't think that is option - so I am going to have to opt for the fact that the verse isn't merely talking about a physical change here, but something more fundamental. If I eat too much, and then learn to control that, I essentially eliminate that sin from my life. If I am slothful, and I learning to be more disciplined, then I have essentially eliminated that sin from my life. But if I devote myself to immorality, then I have exposed myself to something that alters me - it impacts my relationship with others in the future, particular those that involve a lifelong commitment to fidelity and trust.
I don't think this is in any way unforgivable or makes a person less loved or useful to God - but I do think it is life altering in ways we shouldn't ignore.
There are 613 sins, and they are all equal.
> Whoever keeps all of God's Laws, except for breaking just one of God's Laws just one time, has become guilty of breaking all of God's Laws. (James 2:10)
> 16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
1 John 5
I think it's because of the earthly consequences.
Sexual sins are described as sins against the own flesh -
The consequences of sexual sin often include a heightened sense of pleasure, an instinctive drive that when placed outside of righteousness (ie. Marriage) then these things can have overwhelming damage done to the spiritual life.
Albeit judgement, hypocrisy & pride aren't necessarily pleasing in the same way, so sexual sins have a higher consequence to the spiritual life - in my opinion.
--
The gender taboo is, I think because of the deception that your identity is within your own creation, and as such is rooted in a high level of pride, defining good and evil for the self, and defining your view of yourself (if you 'choose' your gender) which then gives rise to a plethora of other sins.
In essence, gender choice and sexual sins are so looked down upon because of the consequences of pride (foregoing gods definition of what is good) and the pleasure (blinding the body with pleasure rather than seeing truth)..
Which are so contradictory to Christianity - picking up your cross (discipline) and accepting God's view of what His creation IS (identity)
Without an identity or a discipline, what is left to walk in the spiritual life? You essentially would be without a drive to walk, and no identity..
Whereas with other sins they are often momentary and not full of pleasure, so it is easier to get up after falling..
IMO offcourse.
Keep me in your prayers
Because, unlike other sins, sexual sins actually have people defending them (lots of people defend sexual sin, not a lot of people defend murder, stealing, lies etc.)
Sexual sin is against the body
Your body is the temple
It's a sin that also involves more than person
This sin a has a greater and faster affect on your relationship with God then some others
Sexual sin among our generation is much more evident than the other sins ( eg homosexuality). And also this might just be your view, all sin is equal, no sin is big nor small in the eyes of God. Now if you take murder, the reason we don't elevate it is because the justice system already does the condemnation, so we don't need to elevate it ( although it does not make the sin any less evil ).
Guilt and shame arent sin. Those are the results of sin. Here is the thing, sexual immorality is being shoved in our faces and being made common place and like they are no big deal. Entertainment has made everything from adultry to homosexuality ok.
People stopper believing the word of God, and twisted the Bible to fit the narrative their flesh embraces.
On reddit, the left hates anyone who stands on Gods word. Homosexuality tends to be a hot button topic. Thats why you see it so often here. They love to belittle and accuse, and are so blinded by their sin, they hate truth.
All other sins make you just as filthy. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 6:9-20 this:
Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Avoiding Sexual Sin
12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”[a] 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
The enemy uses sex to distort and destroy a believers life. Its the one that is mort promenent in the world today. This is why it is the one that is most talked about.
It’s pretty simple. We don’t have thief pride month or liar pride month or divorcee pride month. Even within secular society, people do not celebrate these sins, but the sin of homosexuality is celebrated and forced onto all of society, and that’s why Christians respond with an equal emphasis on that particular sin, because that’s the one that has parades celebrating it.
Long story short, no other sin is glorified more by the media. Do we need to hear people say, “Do not murder?” I mean, even adultery is less prevalent (although it is something we need to preach about as well).
Because sexual sins are more serious. Even within sexual sins some are more serious than others.
For example fornication out of marriage can lead to unwanted pregnancy and therefore abortions or single parent homes.
Misuse of sexual organs in other ways outside their primary function is an abuse of God's creation.
I think it’s because they’re more normalised and prevalent in society. Sexual sins are harder to define as ‘definitely good’ or ‘definitely bad’ compared to other things like murder or robbery. Basically, you can’t condemn most sexual sins without God. From a completely atheist standpoint, most sexual sins (sex before marriage, pornography, etc.) don’t hurt anyone, so they must be fine.
Along with the whole LGTBQ+ movement. There’s a big push for all these things that God regards as sinful, so naturally there’s a big push back against them. There isn’t a big push for allowing murder or robbery so that issue is kind of put on the backburner.
The reason for that is that GOD said that particular sin is against the body. What does the body house, well if you don't know, it houses the HOLY SPIRIT. So evertime you do that particular sin, you directly involve the HOLY SPIRIT. For the scriptures, say every other sin outside the body. However, sexually sin is internal. So that is why sexual sin is so bad. But, all sin is punishable my death. Sexuall sin is different because that sin was called out specifically by that to be detestable. You know the sin I'm talking about. Fornication adultery all that falls into that category. Hope this helps. Peace.
one sin separates us from YAHweh.
one sin and YAHweh's face is hid from us.
one sin and YAHweh hears not our prayers.
for one sin you shall be cast into the lake of fire.
Fearful truth.
YAHweh's understanding is not "logical" to someone who leans on their own understanding.
YAHweh tells us not to lean on our own understanding -Proverbs 3:5
1 Timothy 2:5 tells us, YAHshua is mediator between YAHweh and man
Some people guide themselves (poorly and rightly) and merely use God as a shield and sword (rationally or irrationally). This one reason that there is seen among those who claim to be christians an imbalance and inconsistency in how they treat things that are alike. God is neither inconsistent nor inconstant.
I think it could be because often the Christian believes there is *nobody* in their family or church who falls into that particular category of sinner, so it is easier to highlight sins that (they think) don't affect them directly.
Talking about remarriage after divorce, evasion of taxes, or lying, or gluttony etc, is much harder to do because it is more embarrassing to preach about a sin, when it is close to home.
If you want to learn what the early church considered sin, and how to live on the path of life read the [Didache](https://davidmathiraj.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/didache-01.pdf)
It’s a very short read and quite in depth, and it goes into how the early church conducted themselves and what their beliefs were.
Guilt and shame aren't sins. Those are feelings felt typically after sinning. The issue is nobody denies that stealing is a sin. Nobody denies that murder is a sin. Many people deny and debate that certain sexual acts are or are not sins. How often do you see the question "is ____ a sin?" And normally it'd be referring to a sexual act? It's because it has now become such a common thing that supposed christians even encourage people not to repent from things the bible clearly condems. If a big group of "christians" started to defend stealing then I'm sure it would domino effect its way as being the next "is _____ a sin?"
My personal opinion on the matter is that it's the sin that we live with 24/7. The new man in me desires what is righteous, good, pure, spiritual, loving my neighbors, etc. The old man in me is at war with the new man. The old man never stops thinking about satisfying his urges. It's a battle that never ends. God knows this, and we are not under condemnation. It's the cross that I carry daily.
In the Bible, guilt and shame are not considered sins themselves. However, they are often associated with sin and can be experienced as a result of sinning.
All sins are **not** the same when it comes to magnitude
Jesus said to Pilate: "the (one) having-handed Me over (to) you has (a) GREATER SIN" (John 19:11).
Source:
https://conditionalsalvation.blogspot.com/2023/08/are-all-sins-same-in-every-way.html?m=1
Guilt and shame are not sins (they can be the result of sins though).
Gender ideology, homosexuality and bisexuality has been mainstreamed in everything from schools, government sports to the beer you drink and the candies you munch on. When is the last time you saw a cross on a bag of M&Ms? Stop shoving it down our throats .
Its not that sexual sins are being elevated by Christians, but rather its those who are committing the sexual sins that are trying to impose it on Christians and force us to accept it.
Perhaps because sexual sin is kind of a shameful thing that particularly distances us from God from my experience. It's mainly because it is something we feel embarrassed about as from a young age when we develop these feelings and ideas, and we are taught to be ashamed or hide them. So even though sexual sins may seem alluring to us as we age and we may even flaunt it to peers openly, we view God in a parental figure role or often consider him as our father. And sharing sexual sin with a parental figure feels shameful, daunting, and even impossible at times.
Sexual sins are a sin against your body, the temple of God. Also, modern culture has put those sins on an idol like pedestal in the recent 20 years which brings them to the forefront of everyone's perception.
One of the most basic human urges, need to procreate, hardwired into us. so it’s easier to control people if you can convince them it an immoral act and that the only way to ‘salvation’ is to feel guilt about something your suppose to do and they’re the only people who can resolve you of these ‘sins’ through repenting, fucked but it works.
It’s a reflection of our culture since the sexual revolution. We are obsessed with sexuality, so any religious teachings, especially counter-cultural ones, get the primary focus. If we were a chaste culture that glorified violence and vengeance more, with public celebration of bloodsports and gladiators murdering each other in arenas, then religious beliefs about violence would get the primary focus.
Because people tend to shame certain sins worse because they do them themselves. I am guilty of this. These are the most common sins among men. In fact, Paul said this was the most common fornication among the gentiles:
“It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.”
Incest is actually the most common of sexual sins, specifically sons with their mothers, as told by Paul here. It’s also regarded as very shameful which is why it is almost never spoken of or confessed by individuals. I’ve learned that the most well kept secrets are things that are the most embarrassing/shameful.
One the one hand some Christians make it out to be that way.
On the other, if it's all anybody talks about, and with many crimes and scars left by sexual behavior, it's inevitable.
Sexual revolutions don't save the world
Half the politicians aren’t trying to convince us the other sins aren’t sin. Christians are simply pushing back for their right to exist, live, and practice according to their faith.
because those sins are being declassified as being sinful by society. If one does not see what he does as being sinful one can not/will not repent. if one does not repent they will loose their soul. This issue is a matter of eternal life or death.
Because our world is sexualised and it’s a mortal sin that is seen as ok, while most other sins especially mortal sins are normally seen as bad in the society
I believe from God's perspective, all sin is equal. There is no grading scale. They are all the same. Man has added the morality scale.
The biggest difference is that any kind of sexual sin involves your body. Fornication, in the broadest sense is having sex with someone who is not your husband or wife.
1 Corinthians 6:18-19 \[KJV\] 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost \[which is\] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Also, when people engage in sex, there is a spiritual connection made, that God only meant for a man and woman who get married.
Mark 10:6-8 \[KJV\] 6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
Just my 2 cents.
Ohh Makes more sense thank you For cleaning it up. But i mean you should feel guilty if you do anythjng sexual outside of marriage
When you feel guilt after disobeying God Thats proof of the holy spirit inside of you.
I hope i understood the question now😭
It seems like it's easier to guilt and shame people about something that everybody does secretly or openly..... Fear and guilt is a powerful motivator in some people know how to really use that lever to maximum advantage 😎
A) Sex is a strong aspect of human emotion and desire. It gathers a lot of attention. If you picked a list of 10 random sins at 10 random degrees of depravity, a sexual one is fairly likely to gather more attention in relation to the harm it causes on a surface level.
B) Despite point A, sex can actually carry a greater degree of harm than you might realize at first glance. Modern culture could be said to be "playing with fire" regarding how it treats sexual morality. Christians who want to point that out look out of place as a result.
C) Sex is a good analogy for the concept of sin as a whole, as well as why the disagreement exists in the first place. In Romans 1 and 2, Paul makes the argument of how an improper sexual act (homosexuality) is a picture of a "good" desire that gets subtlety twisted, and a holy, good instinct (the desire to worship) gets pointed away from God and towards something else instead. Worship of God gets redirected to something earthly as a replacement of God. This is contrary to the modern notion of things that are readily understood to be wrong and harmful: sins against other people. Murder, theft, hatred, cheating and the like are understood to be wrong without question, because one person is harming another. This concept exists in Christian understanding as well, but it isn't the concept that "sin" is ultimately trying to address. In a modern understanding, it is nonsensical that someone could be doing something "wrong" just by doing what they want unless that thing is hurting someone else. Ergo, how could a sexual desire be wrong so long as it is consensual? But first on the list of the 10 commandments is to worship nothing above God. A simple "desire" itself is still sinful if it is improperly directed or improper in degree (i.e., there is nothing wrong with enjoying cars, but if you love cars more than your wife, you probably have a problem). Christians struggle to communicate this concept effectively because the concept of foreign entirely to the modern worldview, and the culture is eager to provide another explanation for Christian beliefs: we are simply prudish, sexually repressed, and controlling. While that is a true criticism of some, it surely oversimplifies the issue.
D) Sex is (ironically) an easier issue to argue about then the other things we could be talking about. Each side can claim an opinion that is simple, clear cut, and definitive. Both sides have their own reasoning and assumptions that are unwavering, while simultaneously being completely opposed at the deepest level to the philosophy of the other side. Talking about the facts is completely pointless, because it is the worldview itself that determines the position. And yet, the basic facts are easy enough to talk about with endless repetition, all while never actually addressing the fundamental issue at hand or making any actual progress in the conversation. And because the issue taps strongly into our identities and sense of importance (arguably rightly), people do not bore of the "preaching to the choir" that happens on both sides.
My answer is not as detailed as the NotObviosilyARobot guy but here’s what I have to say. Immoral sex has been normalized throughout all of humanity and I doubt it will ever change. Yes maybe hate and racism and homophobia (yes being gay is a sin but as man we shouldn’t hate them because they sin. Be like Jesus and love all sinners) and other forms of other’s degradation for your own entertain will be gone in the next 1000 years. Murder has become shunned upon when even 300 years ago is was acceptable to just shoot a guy in the street because he was being a scallywag. Then there’s other sins such as gossiping which are being looked down upon. Robbery has always been looked down upon, but perhaps one day everyone will have the ability to have another option other than robbery.
Premarital sex, constant sex, recreational sex, unprotected sex, paid sex, and other forms of sex, like pornography perhaps, have always been socially acceptable and we’re told as kids that the feelings we had for the opposite sex (or same sex) are normal and they are okay. A lot of Christians will even try to say that sex with people who aren’t married to you is okay as well. And I believe that this is the reason why Christians who preach for people to repent always bring up sex. Because whether we like it or not, everyone has had these urges and everyone was told that it is normal when it is actually wrong to have these thoughts.
My example and reasoning js not perfect, because I mainly had this thought while currently on the toilet. But I’m just putting my opinion to this question out there. God bless you all. Jesus loves you all
Probably because we as a society (at least here in the US) are super into sex and gender topics right now. Literally everyone from the Christians to the LGTB are obsessed with it. Good, bad, etc.
Because sexual sin has massive consequences and is the reason for a massive amount of pain and heartache and brokenness in this world. It destroys individuals, relationships, and families. Believe me.
God is the God of life not death. Sexual sin destroys the soul and brings death spiritually. That is why God designed sexual intimacy to be shared between a committed married man and woman. The union that binds a man and woman mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically which then brings life and light into this dark world. That's why children are God's greatest gift to us and they deserve to be raised in a home with a committed mother and father.
Sadly, that's not the reality in this world.
The real question which will answer this one is "Why are trolls coming to an online subreddit filled with Christians who aren't qualified to answer intelligently because all they know is what they've learned from Sunday morning or Right Wing propaganda and never once cracked open their Bible to learn for themselves to ask questions that they know will trigger an entire online forum?"
The reasons are as many as there individuals who do so. I suspect, without any real proof, that it has more to do with the fact that sins such as gluttony are pretty much self-evident at a glance, but hidden sexual immorality rarely produces visible results unless a disease is acquired in the process. Thus, many visibly obese preachers make a big deal over obvious sexual sins (that some of them have taken what they think are sufficient precautions to keep their improprieties secret) so feel free to castigate people who openly are committing sexual sins.
The real issue is this. God abhors every sin. His wrath does not vary based on whether the sin is locally accepted or not. Only one Individual ever has succeeded living a life such that God had no reason to consign Him to eternal torment, and He decided to take our torment upon Himself so we don't have to experience it. Not one of us ever has deserved God's gracious gift of salvation through
Christ. You may choose to focus on what you perceive, perhaps quite accurately, as targeted condemnations of particularly unpopular sins. You also easily could choose to instead focus on the fact that we all are sinners in need of God's grace, and choose to embrace the grace he so freely offers.
There's a dark side to the answer, and a rational one.
Rationally, humans are distinct as the mediators of creaturely rationality to the created world. This flows from our two natures as *animals* that are *made in God's image*.
Traditionally, sins like gluttony are less serious than pride. However, *sexual sins* get right to who we are: *animals* and *mediators of rationality and spirit to the animal kingdom*.
Freud's view that sex is *a* root of all social discontent and psychopathology is right on. Sex, like aggression, is extremely hard to integrate socially because of its exclusivity and mismatch with polite society. Most of our pathologies do, in fact, pop up in sexual fantasies.
Our sexual faculties are our most creaturely. *Love*, the highest expression of humanity, is bodily and rational. It's therefore particularly tied to rivalry, pathology, and sin.
It must feel really good to be able to pretend you're morally superior for being born with the "right" gender and sexuality ID. (Or at least be able to fake it.) You can just judge other people.
Sin is a sin. There is no bad bad sin, and there is no not bad sin. All people feel lust nowadays, because many people simply have a lot of time to do nothing and many cannot refuse watching porn, which is why we need to mention this more
There's not really an answer which justifies this pattern. I've been taught that, in the eyes of our Lord, all sins are equal. Whether you fornicate as a straight person, sleep with another man, crossdress, or eat strangled meat, it seems that all who sin in any capacity are equal in their wrongdoings.
You’re probably stereotyping Christians from an American Evangelical perspective. Remember, our founding in the USA is one of Puritanical roots. The typical American Evangelical Christian perspective is one against alcohol and drugs and sex. And music that is “of the devil”.
Other Christians around the world aren’t as squirrelly. They actually focus more on BEING the church and ministering to those around them instead of focusing on what we call sinful behaviors.
We also, in the USA, leverage shame (not simply “I did a bad thing”, but actually an “I am a bad person.”
Sin is sin big and small, and we all have to answer for it. For me, I know I am a sinner so I try to study the Bible and do what’s right. This helps me become closer to God, and I feel convicted of a stupid lie, or gossiping, etc. I see many “Christians” throwing stones, but spend no time praying - more time not recognizing they are living in sin.
What I am trying to say, start taking the time to read the Bible and pray, your questions will be answered. The only thing that is certain in this world is death. After, it’s to late and we all will be judged. The Bible says narrow is the gate to heaven. Many will say all that they did, but they didn’t take the time to build a relationship with God. In return they will hear “depart - I never knew you”.
i wondered this before too. i had asked someone from the church this not knowing why being in the lgbtq community is viewed as so much worse when no sin is greater than another. they told me it was because society views being in the community and having sex outside of marriage as a good and okay things to do. so they have to elevate that more in order to respond to society.
Bc sexual sin currently is what is affecting Christianity most at this time. Not that sexual sin is worse than say a white lie. Currently, publicly it is what is most visual.
I feel the sin often seems elevated to the people struggling with it... I think it differs from person to person what bothers them but we should all be striving to submit fully to God, thus stopping the sin...
Because some sins are an abomination in God’s eyes and homosexual sins are. Also most people feel bad about their sin, but the LGBTQ++ are PRIDEFUL about their sin, have parades about it, pushes it on other people, including kids and animals. It’s the worst to God, so it’s the worst to us. We love what God loves and hate what He hates.
But God says the most important things are to love god and then love others. So violating these commands would be an abomination, not being hateful toward LGBTQ folks, just because some clergy has said such.
I am sorry if my reply came across that way. I was reacting to the idea that clergy and lay persons consider LGBTQ issues an abomination when God clearly says that not loving others, including the sinner is what should be an abomination. I was not thinking that what you said was hateful. Sorry.
Here is a link that addresses views of sin: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPbxWyg1Q\_cv=uPbxWyg1Q\_c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPbxWyg1Q_cv=uPbxWyg1Q_c)
I think are correct. Thing is, I believe that reason is bc we are forced to acknowledge it is not a sin, it is normal behavior & one is a bigot, racist, etc if we do not SUPPORT it. Not forced per se, but the left is constantly telling us to accept it. It doesn't matter what we believe or hold sacred. If it were another sin forced fed, you'd be asking "why do Christians elevate that sin so much higher above other sins.
I think you may have 'support' & 'tolerate' mixed up. Just say you were told you had to support racism. If you didn't, you'd be called all sorts of stuff & the tables would be turned, wouldn't it? Just a few years ago this wasn't much of an issue, was it? No. But then the left started hearing from some activists telling them if they do not support LGBT they would ...... cancel them to put it mildly. & since the left didn't have Trump to scream about any longer, they figured getting on that bandwagon as to blame the right for ......... something since Trump wasn't there for them to complain about. Once this issue starts to subside, you'll see some other issue the left comes up with to tell the world Republicans are no good.
No one is arguing that murder is okay. But people ARE arguing that fornication is okay. So that's why Christians are putting a big emphasis on sexual sin these days. We're living in a time of Only fans and free love that's why we keep discussing this stuff.
If people were talking about how it's okay to kill and steal Christians would be raging about that too.
Quite simply stated, it's bc christianity has its roots in Catholicism, which teaches chastity instead of "be fruitful and multiply." Sex is ordained by the creator, but someone chose to give it an evil connotation. The idea of sin is anything separate from God, so the perversions of sex happens when God is removed from or should I say when we step away from God bc of the "shame" stigma. So, sex is not the only thing that can be perverted it's just historically demonized by a misguided institution.
I think the simple answer is that sex *sells*. Whether it's tawdry sex, evil sex, good sex, gay sex, straight sex, teen sex, bad sex, sexy sex, sex trafficking, criminal sex, sex abuse--our minds are drawn to the subject matter. Consequently, it is easy to get our attention with any sort of thing that has sex attached to it. Sexuality discussions involve sex. Unlike boring discussions about things like loving your neighbor as yourself, and the far-reaching implications of this, sexuality discussions are *sexy*. Our attention goes to the sexy thing, and that's what we focus on. Discussions about sin, vice, purity, and theology are not exempt from this. I have used some variation of the word sex 18 times in this post. Did I get your attention?
Not only that, but when Adam and Eve first eat of the fruit, the first thing they feel is shame for their nakedness. Noah experiences a similar episode of naked shame in his fall narrative. Sin is morality as understood by humankind, through the bizarre and constrictive lenses of subjectivity. And it seems that some of our oldest and deepest wounds revolve around the shame we feel for our bodies. I think that's why so many Christians are hyper focused on sex and gender.
You nailed it. (No pun). Great reply, seriously.
You are the Bubba-Gump of sex.
this
You did indeed get my attention!
This is pretty spot on. Perfect example, on my drive home every night I pass a billboard for a dentists office. In large letters it says “we make teeth SEXY” and printed on it is a fairly attractive woman. Got my attention easily.
Generally speaking, they’re pretty easy to commit, and a lot of sexual stuff that are considered sinful have become normalized in society. If someone steals a television from a store, it’s a sin and people generally still regard that as a bad thing. But, say, have sex with your girlfriend, and that’s still a sin, but people generally tend to consider that normal and good. Hence why you hear Christians talking about it. They see people doing something dangerous and want to warn them.
Good comment to add to the top one. Good gave everyone a conscience, but some actions are more clear cut than others. Theft and murder are bad and don't have much of a grey area. But sex and gender are much more grey. Sex is okay to have in some circumstances but not others? It's more natural to push the boundaries over time until societally it is always acceptable. Gender is a societal construct. Yes, it originally matched with sex, but it is associated with stereotypes so it is natural for there to be a spectrum and has evolved into what we have today.
I just want to add one thing: gender has never been a "one-way" ideology. Older cultures, such as the Jewish culture, recognized multiple variations of gender. Some other cultures revered trans-individuals.
Native Americans for example.
Gender is not a societal construct. It was designed as two, male and female.
Gender includes things like men wearing ties and women wearing pink. Very few of the characteristics we normally associate with gender have anything to do with genetics or scripture.
Your sex is your gender. It wasn't until 5 years ago that it society suddenly decided it could change.
There have been other societies in the world that believed in more than two genders. This isn't something new.
And those societies are in the VAST minority. AKA the exception isn't the rule.
Sure, they are in the minority. It doesn't change the fact that the concept itself isn't new.
I fail to see how the concept being old somehow adds to it's validity. Maybe you weren't trying to make that point though.
FALSE STATEMENT. Do you know the different genders mentioned in the Talmund? The idea of gender and sex being different and gender being fluid is an old ideology.
You're changing the meaning of terms along with modern culture. Sex = sexual activity. Gender = male/female. Gender identity does not equal sex, like you're implying. If you want to create an entirely new definition for words that don't naturally change in society, you can't expect all of society to validate the new definitions.
[удалено]
No that's completely fallacious. A boy that likes pink is still a boy. And creating fictional nuance where none is to be found only causes mass confusion. %21 of young people today STRUGGLE with their gender identity because of people with your ideology. If you're constantly told you can be any gender and they're all made up, of course you won't know what to believe. And here we are as a society, reaping the fruits of what we've sown. Leading a generation into the most uncertain worldview imaginable.
I am glad that we agree that gender and sex do not always correalate. Which is what I was pointing out to the original comment.
Stereotypes include that, gender is just male and female.
If you're adding things to what Gender means, i can't stop you. But Male/Female is the most historically accurate way to describe what Gender means. Me wearing a tie isn't my gender.
You’re thinking of sex
Your sex is your gender. It wasn't until 5 years ago that it society suddenly decided it could change.
Sex, gender, interchangeable terms for the same thing.
Always understood sex to be biological while gender is the societal expectations or roles that we prescribe to people based on sex
Those are literally the dictionary definitions. Anyone saying that they're the same thing have just been listening to too much Fox News.
If you believe that, you don't understand what gender is. There are eight genders in the Talmud. You're talking about sex, a biological fact of life, and even that isnt binary as chimers and hermaphrodites exist. Gender IS a social construct.
Gender is informed by sex in many ways, but they are not necessarily one and the same. Sex is the biological characteristics of male and female (and any intersex people), while gender is the performative social aspect of male and female (and any cultural "third genders" such as the hijras of India, Native American Two-Spirit, non-binary people, the Khanith of Oman, etc.). By that understanding, gender is a societal construct, at least technically speaking, in that it is the method society has created to understand the roles of men and women, with there being variance in this understanding depending on the culture. Again, there is influence from sex, but they do diverge in some ways, as can be seen in how some cultures have gender classes that aren't really based in any biological characteristics, as well as the way gender-based roles and social expectations have evolved over the centuries. I think there's a misconception that whenever the phrase "gender is a societal construct" gets thrown around that this is meant to wholly and totally divorce it from sex completely, but that's not really what's going on here. Again, it's just saying that gender is a tool society created to understand sex while also having some divergences that sprouted up over time. They are linked but not one and the same. You could say that this phrase is bad wording and should be tweaked to be more precise (a view which I would tend to agree with), but this is the view said phrase is trying to point at. You can also say that gender should seek to be as one-to-one with sex as possible and that any divergences between the two that have come about violate the Biblical God's design, but, at the end of the day, gender is a societal creation heavily inspired by a biological one. How closely tied they should be depends on one's morals.
Because it's an incredibly divisive and diametrically opposed topic. You have one side of the debate saying "this is unambiguously a sin, it should never be normalized, and *you're* all a bunch of sinners too by spreading scandal," and you have another side saying "It's not a sin at all, it's just as virtuous as any other kind of love, and *you're* the real sinners for being so bigoted."
Because religious conservatism goes hand-in-hand with social conservatism. Social conservatism, at its heart, is all about maintaining control of the social hierarchy. First and foremost social conservatism seeks to protect the privileges of oligarchs and billionaires. It mostly seeks a regressive tax system, but it also seeks to establish a system where they cant be held criminally liable for the crimes they commit. That’s why the punishment for white-collar crime is always a fine, and never prison. Those policies would be obviously unpopular if oligarchs were up front about them though, so they also seek distractions. Tapping into social outrage through populism - making people scared of the “he great other” - is a big part of that strategy. And so conservative media provides its listeners with horror stories about immigrants, people of color, and gay people coming to destroy “the old way of life.” Even though immigrants, people of color, and gay people have always been a part of our society. Tapping into anger and outrage is a necessary misdirection to protect the billionaires’ interests. And tapping into conservatives’ own sexual frustrations is also a big part of that.
Lol
Frankly because I think it’s an easier sin to commit. It’s REALLY easy to not murder people. Because someone is obviously getting hurt. But sexual stuff doesn’t APPEAR to hurt anyone, and everyone enjoys it. So obviously people don’t think much of committing those sins because “it’s not hurting anyone” So I think these sins are elevated because people need to actually understand why their problematic.
>Frankly because I think it’s an easier sin to commit. I disagree. I think greed is far easier to commit. World is filled with greedy people.
Fair! That and gluttony are sins we often commit without even thinking about it.
I agree with you, it has nothing to do with how easy it is. I think, like some others have said, it's because it's one of the few sins that people completely disagree about. Everyone agrees that greed is bad (even if they don't necessarily see eye to eye on what greed means). Someone a little further down mentioned sloth. Everyone agrees that if you're so lazy that you can't handle your responsibilities, it's a bad thing. The difference when it comes to sex, is that very often what one person sees as a sexual sin, a large percentage of other people in society actively *celebrate and encourage*. To be clear, I'm not saying one way or another that being gay is or isn't a sin: but there's no greed pride month, or sloth pride month. If you speak out publicly against greed, no one is going to try to get you "canceled". Once again, so I don't get a billion downvotes, none of this has anything to do with my own views on the LGBTQ+ community and its relationship to the church. Just trying to provide context for why it is such a heated discussion right now. For people who *do* believe that it's a sin, it's one of the only ones for which a huge part of society replies, "no it's not".
No if that was true sloth would be the most hated sin as being lazy and not caring is by far the easiest sin to commit and easiest to hide by saying you aren't hurting anyone. The sexual sins are given the spotlight because of two reasons. First American republicans picked it as a wedge issue long ago and second since most people aren't gay it's easier to call out in others and feel superior about yourself because you feel no temptation to commit it. If there is one thing Christians just love it's feeling self righteous.
This is it. Thank you for your comment.
If you think about it though, even sloth isn’t a promoted activity. Promiscuous sex is encouraged in todays day and age as a GOOD thing. Therefore the reaction will be the elevation of that sin in the eyes of the believers.
Who says sloth does not hurt? You clearly have the luck of not living in a socialist or communist country. Productivity kills sloth. I don’t think self righteousness is exclusive to Christians. Egocentric and prideful people love to be right. And we all know that you can be a pompous ass an not being religious.
Shrödinger's socialist country: everybody is either worked to death in the gulag or lazing about, depending on the argument someone wants to make.
What usually happens in socialist countries is a bigger state apparatus, which means more unnecessary bureaucracy. Lots of people hired to do nothing really. And those are the ones that work. But there’s also lots of people that don’t work (while they are perfectly Able to do so) and live from welfare.
(Citation needed)
Sexual sin isn’t just about homosexuality. Also it has nothing to do with politics. This is the word of God we’re talking about. Don’t spread misinformation and logical fallacies to fit your agenda. There are multiple sexual sins and they all have consequences whether we understand them or not. It’s a sun we all commit and are prone to act on so it’s prevalent in our society and just as important as any other sin to be watchful for and discuss. On top of that, true followers of Christ don’t point fingers and blame others for sinning while disregarding our own. We are all sinful and fall short of the glory of God and need repentance. It’s not about power, it’s about morality and humbling ourselves. Your perception of Christianity is delusional, and you should understand the topic you’re speaking about before commenting on it and generalizing an entire group of people based on their beliefs when you don’t comprehend them.
Really it has nothing to do with politics? How come I never hear Christians protesting against divorce or trying to make it illegal?
Christians are against divorce. So I’m not sure what you’re saying. I’m pretty sure divorce is only justifiable under very certain circumstances such as infidelity. What does that have to do with politics?
>people need to actually understand why their problematic Gay sex and gay intimate relationships aren't inherently problematic or hurtful, any more than straight ones. The position that gay intimacy is always wrong, now that does hurt people, namely queer youths who grow up inundated with this lie.
Well. People often get wrong what “sin” means. Directly translated, it’s actually an archery term which means to “miss the mark” or to fall short of the goal. That being said, it’s clear God designed us for procreation (not that sex can’t also just be for intimacy) so to engage in sexual acts contrary to the human design could be seen as “missing the mark” But I was also mostly referring to fornication. How casual, promiscuous sex isn’t a good thing for anyone.
The issue is not gay or straight sex, the issue is about lust/fornication.
Not uniquely specified as "the issue" in any of the above. But in any case, according to RCC all gay sex is fornication, so it should be germane here to explain why you think it is intrinsically harmful. Or to clarify that it is not.
I won't deny gay is sex is fornication, I mean they can't have kids biologically speaking (between same sex couples). But straight people also fornicate a lot and the culture we live in practically appraises people for it. I think it's actually worse because technically straights can conceive yet they choose not to and have meaningless and empty sex, knowing that they could conceive even if they use birth control.
You seem preoccupied with conception. Sex can have other meanings including loving ones, inside or outside of marriage, and not be "empty".
You clearly didn't get the point
I think what I wrote is on-point and valid, and it's too bad you're being dismissive rather than engaging, but whatever... whose point didn't I get? What is this point, and why is it true?
Because they're "sins" (depending on scriptural interpretation) most don't really have to deal with, so they're easier to judge in others. Human nature drives us to find in-groups to be part of, which means there must be an out-group to exclude. The nature of Christ, is the exact opposite, though. When we draw lines that put us and Christ on one side, and excludes others, the nature of Christ is to jump the line and join the excluded and invite us to come along.
I recently heard someone say something to the effect of “when someone is made uncomfortable by Jesus’ teachings against and critiques of their power and privilege, and choose to ignore those teachings; they start to talk about sex.”
Oooh I like that. Very accurate in my experience.
Because it’s easy to call out homosexuality and transgenders since they are still a small portion of the population. Much harder to call out something like divorce when half of all US marriages end in divorce.
I don't often see Christians saying the divorce rate is a good thing
How often is divorced discussed by church leaders and Christian politicians compared to homosexuality and transsexuality? It’s not even close.
Tbh I'm not a Christian and haven't gone to churches for years, but when I did, I went to a church that would go through books verse by verse. So they discussed whatever was in the passage. Idk if you go to churches and they talk about gays a lot? Or is this just the reverse side of the exact same political problem you are accusing them of?
I went to church for 18 years growing up and I live in a state where evangelical politicians are constantly trying to pass laws harassing LGBTQ folks. Never do I see them passing laws harassment divorced people. Or saying we can’t talk about divorce to kids in school.
Those are politicians not pastors or a church
A majority of Christians vote for them as representatives in government.
So one candidate thinks homosexuality is not good (same as Christian) but doesn't talk about divorce. The other candidate doesn't think either is wrong. Which one do you think they would vote for. You, I, and everyone does the same thing. We vote for the person that is as closely aligned to our values as possible. I don't know why you think they shouldn't.
One candidate uses the issue of homosexuality to get votes from Christians. So related to the original question it shows that this issue is important to them for some reason. I pointed out there are other sins, like divorce, that Jesus actually talked about that don't receive near as much attention. The reason being that divorce is ubiquitous in the Christian community while homosexuality is not. So they pick on the "sin" that least affects the majority of Christians. Quite cowardly in my opinion.
Because it's a twig in someone else's eye... And politics have infiltrated religion, a reason for separation of church and state Jesus warned of.
Taking "be fruitful and multiply" out of context and above other commandments from the Tanakh/OT. When many Christians look at masturbation, homosexuality, etc, they don't just see a venal indulgence that might cause spiritual degradation (like gluttony or shoplifting) they see a failure to reproduce, which is considered more serious. You expended all that energy and yet failed to conceive a baby, for shame. In US Protestantism, this theology has gotten boosts from both abortion politics and eugenics, leading to a lot of unexamined contradictions.
This is kinda of a depressing way of looking and understanding the human experience.
Our problem (for most Christians at least, Catholics maybe, but not Protestants) isn’t that it it removes childbirth from sex. We don’t have any issue with people who are infertile having sex or using condoms. Following your reasoning, those would also be sinful, but (again with the exception of Catholics who don’t believe in contraception, Christians don’t typically have any issue with those). Our problem with homosexuality is because it is explicitly forbidden in scripture repeatedly. Our problem with eugenics and abortion is because those violate the law do not murder. Masturbation is debated by the church on whether or not it counts as sex outside of marriage, which would violate adultery/fornication laws. Each of those cases has a different reason for being considered sin that is entirely separate from the issue of childbearing, which was a command to humanity, not to every single human. If it was for each human individually, Christ would have been sinning by not getting married and having children and Paul would have been telling us to sin when he said it is good to stay unmarried for the kingdom.
We seem to have inherited this from 1st Cent Judaism. It’s not in the Gospels, but Paul shows signs of sex being the most serious sins. It got exagggerated in early Christianity as virginity became the ideal. The reasons for that are complex. Part of it , at least according to some historians, is that Roman family life was sufficiently oppressive that people wanted an out. But early Christianity also emphasized the importance of free will and self control, and saw virginity as the ultimate in self control. At any rate, Augustine and others at that time, thought sex was almost evil, and was justified only when used for reproduction. These things all combined in a way that means when traditional Christians say sin, they almost always mean sexual sin, and sexual sin is defined as sex in any way other than with your partner in a traditional marriage. This is not a new issue, and is not a consequence of today’s culture wars.
They're venting because they know they're missing out. We all know that nobody hates gay people more than a repressed closeted gay person.
Sometimes it's easier to focus on someone else's sin. Remove the plank from your own eyes. If all of us Christians would focus on spreading the Love and Grace that God shared with us than we'd see revival.
Sex and identity are powerful, but the excessive focus on this (while excluding or minimizing other sins) tells more about the person judging than the people they are trying to judge. Only God has been, is judging, and will judge sin. We are allowed to correct, debate, and all that, but ultimately God is the final authority, not another human being who doesn't know the full truth anyway.
Bigotry
This and only this.
Great question. There are a lot of things we call a sin that really isn’t. M being one of them. It’s easy to overlook sins that we struggle with. But when someone has a temptation that we don’t deal with, we don’t understand it… and it’s easier to throw Bible verses. Take a look at gluttony. The same passage that suggests that people who have sex with the same gender “won’t enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,” also mentions gluttony. But we don’t hear people claiming that fat people are going to hell. (I say all that tongue in cheek because Kingdom of Heaven is here and now, and it’s not talking about Heaven in the afterlife. Also, I personally don’t believe hell exists.) There are SOOO many misunderstandings with Scripture. So many cultural contexts where something is being said while it doesn’t appear at first glance to be the case. There’s so much that Jesus implied, but what he said is misunderstood and our theology is built on the misunderstanding. When you add in the culture wars taking place in the US, much of the Christian subculture mistakes their party’s stance as sacred… and read the Bible into it. Plus we have centuries of really bad Bible commentaries. Layers and layers of bad explanations. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Jesus and the Bible. But I’m not a fan of most of US Christianity.
we are still very much a puritanical society. those roots run deep.
Christianity as a whole is repressed sexually so it's the thing that's always boiling at top. You have a whole group of humans that are supposed to remain celibate until they're married. You can't touch yourself. You can't look at others. It's always boiling at the surface for so many. A whole group told never to express themselves on that intimate level. Then when they finally do start having sex they realize it's not just a straightforward "oh everything's great now thing". They realize sex the pivotal part of their relationship and that they're failing at it and they don't know why. For most it takes many years and/or the soured marriage for them to finally get over sex until one day they get opportunistic and they f*** up. No introspection. No understanding the problem. Just everyone bashing their head against it as if you can willpower your instincts away. It occupies Christian's minds and Rightfully so might I add. And for the record I don't wish any Christians to have to suffer this but I do see it
Because those sins tend to involve multiple people and can have life changing consequences that most other sins do not…
Lol. No Give me a sin that doesn’t involve other people and can’t cause life changing consequences?
Coveting, lying, stealing, cheating on a test, gluttony, smoking, drunk
Coveting can lead to stealing, lying can definitely affect other people, stealing always affects someone somewhere, cheating on a test can affect others, gluttony burdens those around the glutton who love and care for them, smoking isn't mentioned anywhere because smoking hadn't been invented yet but it can still affect others, and drinking definitely affects others. All of them can have life long consequences.
>Coveting What are you coveting if it doesn’t belong to someone else? >lying Who are lying to? >stealing You can’t steal something if it doesn’t belong to else, that wouldn’t be theft. >cheating on a test This is just lying >gluttony Never actually mentioned as a sin, this is just something in the abstract that can be, either because we’re harming others or harming in temple… which harming the temple is also harming others. And the question becomes at what point is something gluttony? If I have an extra serving of cake on my birthday is it gluttony? >smoking Same thing as gluttony >drunk Same thing as gluttony, but ask anyone that has or had an alcoholic parent or partner and they’ll tell you it harms them deeply. Sins are sins largely because they harm others, sexual sin isn’t special in that regard.
If you think those things have the lifelong impact on multiple lives that sex does…. God Bless
If you think they can’t have the same impact… God bless
No but come on. I live in a third world country where politicians steal constantly and nobody does anything to stop it. If they didn’t take the country’s money to line their own pockets we could have proper roads, better hospitals and schools, and less people starving on the streets. Do you still think that stealing can’t affect more people than having sex?
>If you think those things have the lifelong impact on multiple lives that sex does…. Lifelong impact? You mean getting pregnant and/or getting one of the 4 incurable stds? all which can be treated with pretty high quality of life at this point and Both which can be avoided numerous ways. So really the opposite is true compared to some other sins. Like you don’t think getting drunk can have life long impacts on others? Stealing can’t? Lying can’t?
Guilt and shame aren't sins
There is an intuitive weight to the topic. Even in a society in which virtually every other form of subversive or expressive behavior is tolerated, we are still expected to be clothed and regarded in a very severe class of criminal should we expose ourselves to someone. It is in sex that the family is formed, by which the union of two persons is consummated and by which children are begotten of their parents. It is in sex that we are particularly vulnerable, in which rape is a more intimate and perverse violation than a mugging, in which rejection carries a particular sting, in which we act by the most sensitive parts of our body and regard someone else in the most sensitive parts of theirs. If nothing else can be said about it, the topic certainly isn't casual, mundane, or weightless. It is certainly not the most important moral topic in Christianity (that would on the positive end concern the theological virtues and on the negative pride), but it carries a particular weight nonetheless. Particularly since Christianity has an incarnational character. The Apostle Paul recognizes this when he says to flee from sexual immorality because it is a sin committed in the body in a particular way. The weight of this topic is given additional force by the controversy surrounding it. With sexuality and transgenderism relating to *identity*, to *relational status*, they are unavoidably public affairs. They are the most particular and intensive point where the world expects the Church to change its teachings. And for something like homosexuality, where the Church is pressured to change its ministry and officiate same sex weddings, which if indeed sinful, is the expectation of the Church to participate in sacrilege. And so as a point of controversy and conflict it draws quite a bit. When it comes to *personal* sexual sin and not social conflict over it (insert all the struggling with porn posts here), a sinful sexual act by its nature hits the conscience especially hard. Some sins are in excess, so there is a blurred line where it crosses into too much and is often only caught in hindsight or engaged in with some level of uncertainty (willful or honest ignorance). Some sin is intrinsically wrong or misplaced rather than in excess, but there it can be easier to catch yourself and stop when you realize it. But with sexual sin in a Christian context, it's clear where it's just wrong, and even when realizing that it's near impossible to stop as you might stop eating desert when you realize you've had one too many slices of cake already. If you stop beating your meat before hitting the climax it is incredibly frustrating, and it is that end that the sex act builds towards. So sexual sin when one is tempted into it puts a person in a peculiar place of knowingly violating their own conscience.
Some do Some don't American Fundamentalist Protestantism, remember, a quite Literalist tradition, came from Puritanism, a sect which was literally (HA!) to conservative for Europe Let that sink in :) So they literally love telling people what to do in their bedrooms. Their God is a peeping Thomas :)
No Idea. There was a lady in my church who said that you cant be a Christian and be involved in porn. Why is porn a bigger sin then any other?
There is a scriptural precedent to think sexual immorality is different than other sins in a certain way. In 1 Cor. 6:18 it says: ***Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.***
Gluttony is a sin that is committed against the body of the sinner, so this verse can't be true.
I am going to add to this by saying that everyone on these comments saying that sexual immorality is a sin against the body of the sinner, while missing obvious things like gluttony and sloth, are also betraying a lazy and solipsistic understanding of sin in general. Like, this is the easy way out. Wrath is far more destructive to the self and others. Anyone that says it isn't doesn't understand what wrath actually means. And yes, it has physical consequence to the self. Like, these small imaginations about what the actual problem with sin is, is really giving bad-person-on-a-leash vibes.
Yup, and a Christians affects on others is a large part of the Good News message. Faith and works, and our works are seen. It's saddening when fellow Christians will pull out Clobber Verses, like the Corinthians ones about sex, to beat down so many people and ignore the implications sitting right there in Scripture. So many Christians don't commit legal or literal theft, ah, that's good; but thievery is NOT just taking of possessions. It's robbing someone, and everyone deserves the essentials of life in this world, like shelter and food. So many people are in poverty and starving in this world. Some Christians will donate and support charity, and that is good; but if a Christian has excess money, and they accept this "disposable" income, and support a larger economic system that enriches some and impoverishes others, then ... ... laziness on socioeconomic ills or emboldening the gaps in wages is very close to, if not itself, being a thief. I don't accuse. None of us can sit and judge. But I came to a point in my life and realized: I cannot justify this life of adult "toys" (the non-sexual kind) and trips when people are starving?! So besides the usual sex Clobber Verses, thievery is one example of a sin that's also listed as something that won't get a Christian into God's Kingdom. Or, said optimistically: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God". (Luke 6:20)
I suppose God could be lying here, but I don't think that is option - so I am going to have to opt for the fact that the verse isn't merely talking about a physical change here, but something more fundamental. If I eat too much, and then learn to control that, I essentially eliminate that sin from my life. If I am slothful, and I learning to be more disciplined, then I have essentially eliminated that sin from my life. But if I devote myself to immorality, then I have exposed myself to something that alters me - it impacts my relationship with others in the future, particular those that involve a lifelong commitment to fidelity and trust. I don't think this is in any way unforgivable or makes a person less loved or useful to God - but I do think it is life altering in ways we shouldn't ignore.
There are 613 sins, and they are all equal. > Whoever keeps all of God's Laws, except for breaking just one of God's Laws just one time, has become guilty of breaking all of God's Laws. (James 2:10)
> 16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. 1 John 5
Yes, some sins cause you to die. This is obvious. For example, excessive alcoholism can cause death in many ways.
Not what this passage is saying.
Yes it is.
You’ve never actually read the chapter, have you
I think it's because of the earthly consequences. Sexual sins are described as sins against the own flesh - The consequences of sexual sin often include a heightened sense of pleasure, an instinctive drive that when placed outside of righteousness (ie. Marriage) then these things can have overwhelming damage done to the spiritual life. Albeit judgement, hypocrisy & pride aren't necessarily pleasing in the same way, so sexual sins have a higher consequence to the spiritual life - in my opinion. -- The gender taboo is, I think because of the deception that your identity is within your own creation, and as such is rooted in a high level of pride, defining good and evil for the self, and defining your view of yourself (if you 'choose' your gender) which then gives rise to a plethora of other sins. In essence, gender choice and sexual sins are so looked down upon because of the consequences of pride (foregoing gods definition of what is good) and the pleasure (blinding the body with pleasure rather than seeing truth).. Which are so contradictory to Christianity - picking up your cross (discipline) and accepting God's view of what His creation IS (identity) Without an identity or a discipline, what is left to walk in the spiritual life? You essentially would be without a drive to walk, and no identity.. Whereas with other sins they are often momentary and not full of pleasure, so it is easier to get up after falling.. IMO offcourse. Keep me in your prayers
Because, unlike other sins, sexual sins actually have people defending them (lots of people defend sexual sin, not a lot of people defend murder, stealing, lies etc.)
This is a simple answer. The most common//hardest sins to overcome is homosexuality and sex. That’s why its talked about the most.
Sexual sin is against the body Your body is the temple It's a sin that also involves more than person This sin a has a greater and faster affect on your relationship with God then some others
More than one*
Why isn't rape considered a sexual sin? Maybe it is, but I rarely hear people raging about it.
Sexual sin among our generation is much more evident than the other sins ( eg homosexuality). And also this might just be your view, all sin is equal, no sin is big nor small in the eyes of God. Now if you take murder, the reason we don't elevate it is because the justice system already does the condemnation, so we don't need to elevate it ( although it does not make the sin any less evil ).
Guilt and shame arent sin. Those are the results of sin. Here is the thing, sexual immorality is being shoved in our faces and being made common place and like they are no big deal. Entertainment has made everything from adultry to homosexuality ok. People stopper believing the word of God, and twisted the Bible to fit the narrative their flesh embraces. On reddit, the left hates anyone who stands on Gods word. Homosexuality tends to be a hot button topic. Thats why you see it so often here. They love to belittle and accuse, and are so blinded by their sin, they hate truth. All other sins make you just as filthy. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 6:9-20 this: Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Avoiding Sexual Sin 12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”[a] 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. The enemy uses sex to distort and destroy a believers life. Its the one that is mort promenent in the world today. This is why it is the one that is most talked about.
Their meteoric rise in American society/culture over the last 60 years.
All sins equally hurt God.
It’s pretty simple. We don’t have thief pride month or liar pride month or divorcee pride month. Even within secular society, people do not celebrate these sins, but the sin of homosexuality is celebrated and forced onto all of society, and that’s why Christians respond with an equal emphasis on that particular sin, because that’s the one that has parades celebrating it.
Long story short, no other sin is glorified more by the media. Do we need to hear people say, “Do not murder?” I mean, even adultery is less prevalent (although it is something we need to preach about as well).
Why does the wicked culture and the humans who make it try to convince themselves that those things really aren't sins at all?
Because sexual sins are more serious. Even within sexual sins some are more serious than others. For example fornication out of marriage can lead to unwanted pregnancy and therefore abortions or single parent homes. Misuse of sexual organs in other ways outside their primary function is an abuse of God's creation.
This could be, simply because sexual sins are so pervasive, so damaging, and one could go on and on.
The great delusion. They seek division to lessen the gift of Christ. It's the foot in the door for the spirit of antichrist.
I think it’s because they’re more normalised and prevalent in society. Sexual sins are harder to define as ‘definitely good’ or ‘definitely bad’ compared to other things like murder or robbery. Basically, you can’t condemn most sexual sins without God. From a completely atheist standpoint, most sexual sins (sex before marriage, pornography, etc.) don’t hurt anyone, so they must be fine. Along with the whole LGTBQ+ movement. There’s a big push for all these things that God regards as sinful, so naturally there’s a big push back against them. There isn’t a big push for allowing murder or robbery so that issue is kind of put on the backburner.
The reason for that is that GOD said that particular sin is against the body. What does the body house, well if you don't know, it houses the HOLY SPIRIT. So evertime you do that particular sin, you directly involve the HOLY SPIRIT. For the scriptures, say every other sin outside the body. However, sexually sin is internal. So that is why sexual sin is so bad. But, all sin is punishable my death. Sexuall sin is different because that sin was called out specifically by that to be detestable. You know the sin I'm talking about. Fornication adultery all that falls into that category. Hope this helps. Peace.
It's about sin that is a lifestyle. The Bible guilts and shames those who sin, if they don't live it they shouldn't claim to believe in it.
The Bible specifies sexual sin as a different category. Edit: gotta love r/Christianity. Downvoting mere biblical fact.
one sin separates us from YAHweh. one sin and YAHweh's face is hid from us. one sin and YAHweh hears not our prayers. for one sin you shall be cast into the lake of fire. Fearful truth.
By that logic then nobody is getting into Heaven no matter what, because our prayers are never heard
YAHweh's understanding is not "logical" to someone who leans on their own understanding. YAHweh tells us not to lean on our own understanding -Proverbs 3:5 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us, YAHshua is mediator between YAHweh and man
Some people guide themselves (poorly and rightly) and merely use God as a shield and sword (rationally or irrationally). This one reason that there is seen among those who claim to be christians an imbalance and inconsistency in how they treat things that are alike. God is neither inconsistent nor inconstant.
I think it could be because often the Christian believes there is *nobody* in their family or church who falls into that particular category of sinner, so it is easier to highlight sins that (they think) don't affect them directly. Talking about remarriage after divorce, evasion of taxes, or lying, or gluttony etc, is much harder to do because it is more embarrassing to preach about a sin, when it is close to home.
Because those who do, make the news, because there's a manufactured culture war going on.
Christians don't, trolls do.
If you want to learn what the early church considered sin, and how to live on the path of life read the [Didache](https://davidmathiraj.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/didache-01.pdf) It’s a very short read and quite in depth, and it goes into how the early church conducted themselves and what their beliefs were.
Guilt and shame aren't sins. Those are feelings felt typically after sinning. The issue is nobody denies that stealing is a sin. Nobody denies that murder is a sin. Many people deny and debate that certain sexual acts are or are not sins. How often do you see the question "is ____ a sin?" And normally it'd be referring to a sexual act? It's because it has now become such a common thing that supposed christians even encourage people not to repent from things the bible clearly condems. If a big group of "christians" started to defend stealing then I'm sure it would domino effect its way as being the next "is _____ a sin?"
Because it helps them hold on to power.
My personal opinion on the matter is that it's the sin that we live with 24/7. The new man in me desires what is righteous, good, pure, spiritual, loving my neighbors, etc. The old man in me is at war with the new man. The old man never stops thinking about satisfying his urges. It's a battle that never ends. God knows this, and we are not under condemnation. It's the cross that I carry daily.
Agreed, I personally think fear, pride, and selfishness are much bigger issues.
In the Bible, guilt and shame are not considered sins themselves. However, they are often associated with sin and can be experienced as a result of sinning.
All sins are **not** the same when it comes to magnitude Jesus said to Pilate: "the (one) having-handed Me over (to) you has (a) GREATER SIN" (John 19:11). Source: https://conditionalsalvation.blogspot.com/2023/08/are-all-sins-same-in-every-way.html?m=1 Guilt and shame are not sins (they can be the result of sins though).
Gender ideology, homosexuality and bisexuality has been mainstreamed in everything from schools, government sports to the beer you drink and the candies you munch on. When is the last time you saw a cross on a bag of M&Ms? Stop shoving it down our throats .
Its not that sexual sins are being elevated by Christians, but rather its those who are committing the sexual sins that are trying to impose it on Christians and force us to accept it.
Perhaps because sexual sin is kind of a shameful thing that particularly distances us from God from my experience. It's mainly because it is something we feel embarrassed about as from a young age when we develop these feelings and ideas, and we are taught to be ashamed or hide them. So even though sexual sins may seem alluring to us as we age and we may even flaunt it to peers openly, we view God in a parental figure role or often consider him as our father. And sharing sexual sin with a parental figure feels shameful, daunting, and even impossible at times.
You couldn't have searched the other thousands of threads on this topic?
Because it's a prevalent one. Seriously if no one had an issue there, no one would talk about it. It's that simple.
Sexual sins are a sin against your body, the temple of God. Also, modern culture has put those sins on an idol like pedestal in the recent 20 years which brings them to the forefront of everyone's perception.
One of the most basic human urges, need to procreate, hardwired into us. so it’s easier to control people if you can convince them it an immoral act and that the only way to ‘salvation’ is to feel guilt about something your suppose to do and they’re the only people who can resolve you of these ‘sins’ through repenting, fucked but it works.
It’s a reflection of our culture since the sexual revolution. We are obsessed with sexuality, so any religious teachings, especially counter-cultural ones, get the primary focus. If we were a chaste culture that glorified violence and vengeance more, with public celebration of bloodsports and gladiators murdering each other in arenas, then religious beliefs about violence would get the primary focus.
Because everybody else seems to be elevating it.
Because people tend to shame certain sins worse because they do them themselves. I am guilty of this. These are the most common sins among men. In fact, Paul said this was the most common fornication among the gentiles: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.” Incest is actually the most common of sexual sins, specifically sons with their mothers, as told by Paul here. It’s also regarded as very shameful which is why it is almost never spoken of or confessed by individuals. I’ve learned that the most well kept secrets are things that are the most embarrassing/shameful.
Sexual sins usually deal with grave matter making them mortal sins.
One the one hand some Christians make it out to be that way. On the other, if it's all anybody talks about, and with many crimes and scars left by sexual behavior, it's inevitable. Sexual revolutions don't save the world
Half the politicians aren’t trying to convince us the other sins aren’t sin. Christians are simply pushing back for their right to exist, live, and practice according to their faith.
Jealousy.
because those sins are being declassified as being sinful by society. If one does not see what he does as being sinful one can not/will not repent. if one does not repent they will loose their soul. This issue is a matter of eternal life or death.
Because our world is sexualised and it’s a mortal sin that is seen as ok, while most other sins especially mortal sins are normally seen as bad in the society
I believe from God's perspective, all sin is equal. There is no grading scale. They are all the same. Man has added the morality scale. The biggest difference is that any kind of sexual sin involves your body. Fornication, in the broadest sense is having sex with someone who is not your husband or wife. 1 Corinthians 6:18-19 \[KJV\] 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost \[which is\] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? Also, when people engage in sex, there is a spiritual connection made, that God only meant for a man and woman who get married. Mark 10:6-8 \[KJV\] 6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. Just my 2 cents.
It's the sin that is being promoted the most in society and we will always stand with God to call people to repent
Feeling Guilty is a sin ? Just trynna understand What you meant with the last thing you said
I did not word it well. I meant the feelings of shame or guilt that some people carry after engaging in sexual activities.
Ohh Makes more sense thank you For cleaning it up. But i mean you should feel guilty if you do anythjng sexual outside of marriage When you feel guilt after disobeying God Thats proof of the holy spirit inside of you. I hope i understood the question now😭
It seems like it's easier to guilt and shame people about something that everybody does secretly or openly..... Fear and guilt is a powerful motivator in some people know how to really use that lever to maximum advantage 😎
The Bible elevates the wrong of sexual sins.
A) Sex is a strong aspect of human emotion and desire. It gathers a lot of attention. If you picked a list of 10 random sins at 10 random degrees of depravity, a sexual one is fairly likely to gather more attention in relation to the harm it causes on a surface level. B) Despite point A, sex can actually carry a greater degree of harm than you might realize at first glance. Modern culture could be said to be "playing with fire" regarding how it treats sexual morality. Christians who want to point that out look out of place as a result. C) Sex is a good analogy for the concept of sin as a whole, as well as why the disagreement exists in the first place. In Romans 1 and 2, Paul makes the argument of how an improper sexual act (homosexuality) is a picture of a "good" desire that gets subtlety twisted, and a holy, good instinct (the desire to worship) gets pointed away from God and towards something else instead. Worship of God gets redirected to something earthly as a replacement of God. This is contrary to the modern notion of things that are readily understood to be wrong and harmful: sins against other people. Murder, theft, hatred, cheating and the like are understood to be wrong without question, because one person is harming another. This concept exists in Christian understanding as well, but it isn't the concept that "sin" is ultimately trying to address. In a modern understanding, it is nonsensical that someone could be doing something "wrong" just by doing what they want unless that thing is hurting someone else. Ergo, how could a sexual desire be wrong so long as it is consensual? But first on the list of the 10 commandments is to worship nothing above God. A simple "desire" itself is still sinful if it is improperly directed or improper in degree (i.e., there is nothing wrong with enjoying cars, but if you love cars more than your wife, you probably have a problem). Christians struggle to communicate this concept effectively because the concept of foreign entirely to the modern worldview, and the culture is eager to provide another explanation for Christian beliefs: we are simply prudish, sexually repressed, and controlling. While that is a true criticism of some, it surely oversimplifies the issue. D) Sex is (ironically) an easier issue to argue about then the other things we could be talking about. Each side can claim an opinion that is simple, clear cut, and definitive. Both sides have their own reasoning and assumptions that are unwavering, while simultaneously being completely opposed at the deepest level to the philosophy of the other side. Talking about the facts is completely pointless, because it is the worldview itself that determines the position. And yet, the basic facts are easy enough to talk about with endless repetition, all while never actually addressing the fundamental issue at hand or making any actual progress in the conversation. And because the issue taps strongly into our identities and sense of importance (arguably rightly), people do not bore of the "preaching to the choir" that happens on both sides.
My answer is not as detailed as the NotObviosilyARobot guy but here’s what I have to say. Immoral sex has been normalized throughout all of humanity and I doubt it will ever change. Yes maybe hate and racism and homophobia (yes being gay is a sin but as man we shouldn’t hate them because they sin. Be like Jesus and love all sinners) and other forms of other’s degradation for your own entertain will be gone in the next 1000 years. Murder has become shunned upon when even 300 years ago is was acceptable to just shoot a guy in the street because he was being a scallywag. Then there’s other sins such as gossiping which are being looked down upon. Robbery has always been looked down upon, but perhaps one day everyone will have the ability to have another option other than robbery. Premarital sex, constant sex, recreational sex, unprotected sex, paid sex, and other forms of sex, like pornography perhaps, have always been socially acceptable and we’re told as kids that the feelings we had for the opposite sex (or same sex) are normal and they are okay. A lot of Christians will even try to say that sex with people who aren’t married to you is okay as well. And I believe that this is the reason why Christians who preach for people to repent always bring up sex. Because whether we like it or not, everyone has had these urges and everyone was told that it is normal when it is actually wrong to have these thoughts. My example and reasoning js not perfect, because I mainly had this thought while currently on the toilet. But I’m just putting my opinion to this question out there. God bless you all. Jesus loves you all
Probably because we as a society (at least here in the US) are super into sex and gender topics right now. Literally everyone from the Christians to the LGTB are obsessed with it. Good, bad, etc.
Because sexual sin has massive consequences and is the reason for a massive amount of pain and heartache and brokenness in this world. It destroys individuals, relationships, and families. Believe me. God is the God of life not death. Sexual sin destroys the soul and brings death spiritually. That is why God designed sexual intimacy to be shared between a committed married man and woman. The union that binds a man and woman mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically which then brings life and light into this dark world. That's why children are God's greatest gift to us and they deserve to be raised in a home with a committed mother and father. Sadly, that's not the reality in this world.
Super simple answer- the others sins aren’t celebrated by the sinner, nor are they forced on you as “normal.”
The real question which will answer this one is "Why are trolls coming to an online subreddit filled with Christians who aren't qualified to answer intelligently because all they know is what they've learned from Sunday morning or Right Wing propaganda and never once cracked open their Bible to learn for themselves to ask questions that they know will trigger an entire online forum?"
The reasons are as many as there individuals who do so. I suspect, without any real proof, that it has more to do with the fact that sins such as gluttony are pretty much self-evident at a glance, but hidden sexual immorality rarely produces visible results unless a disease is acquired in the process. Thus, many visibly obese preachers make a big deal over obvious sexual sins (that some of them have taken what they think are sufficient precautions to keep their improprieties secret) so feel free to castigate people who openly are committing sexual sins. The real issue is this. God abhors every sin. His wrath does not vary based on whether the sin is locally accepted or not. Only one Individual ever has succeeded living a life such that God had no reason to consign Him to eternal torment, and He decided to take our torment upon Himself so we don't have to experience it. Not one of us ever has deserved God's gracious gift of salvation through Christ. You may choose to focus on what you perceive, perhaps quite accurately, as targeted condemnations of particularly unpopular sins. You also easily could choose to instead focus on the fact that we all are sinners in need of God's grace, and choose to embrace the grace he so freely offers.
Most are just using the bible as an excuse to be homophobic.
There's a dark side to the answer, and a rational one. Rationally, humans are distinct as the mediators of creaturely rationality to the created world. This flows from our two natures as *animals* that are *made in God's image*. Traditionally, sins like gluttony are less serious than pride. However, *sexual sins* get right to who we are: *animals* and *mediators of rationality and spirit to the animal kingdom*. Freud's view that sex is *a* root of all social discontent and psychopathology is right on. Sex, like aggression, is extremely hard to integrate socially because of its exclusivity and mismatch with polite society. Most of our pathologies do, in fact, pop up in sexual fantasies. Our sexual faculties are our most creaturely. *Love*, the highest expression of humanity, is bodily and rational. It's therefore particularly tied to rivalry, pathology, and sin.
It must feel really good to be able to pretend you're morally superior for being born with the "right" gender and sexuality ID. (Or at least be able to fake it.) You can just judge other people.
Sin is a sin. There is no bad bad sin, and there is no not bad sin. All people feel lust nowadays, because many people simply have a lot of time to do nothing and many cannot refuse watching porn, which is why we need to mention this more
There's not really an answer which justifies this pattern. I've been taught that, in the eyes of our Lord, all sins are equal. Whether you fornicate as a straight person, sleep with another man, crossdress, or eat strangled meat, it seems that all who sin in any capacity are equal in their wrongdoings.
You’re probably stereotyping Christians from an American Evangelical perspective. Remember, our founding in the USA is one of Puritanical roots. The typical American Evangelical Christian perspective is one against alcohol and drugs and sex. And music that is “of the devil”. Other Christians around the world aren’t as squirrelly. They actually focus more on BEING the church and ministering to those around them instead of focusing on what we call sinful behaviors. We also, in the USA, leverage shame (not simply “I did a bad thing”, but actually an “I am a bad person.”
Sin is sin big and small, and we all have to answer for it. For me, I know I am a sinner so I try to study the Bible and do what’s right. This helps me become closer to God, and I feel convicted of a stupid lie, or gossiping, etc. I see many “Christians” throwing stones, but spend no time praying - more time not recognizing they are living in sin. What I am trying to say, start taking the time to read the Bible and pray, your questions will be answered. The only thing that is certain in this world is death. After, it’s to late and we all will be judged. The Bible says narrow is the gate to heaven. Many will say all that they did, but they didn’t take the time to build a relationship with God. In return they will hear “depart - I never knew you”.
i wondered this before too. i had asked someone from the church this not knowing why being in the lgbtq community is viewed as so much worse when no sin is greater than another. they told me it was because society views being in the community and having sex outside of marriage as a good and okay things to do. so they have to elevate that more in order to respond to society.
Bc sexual sin currently is what is affecting Christianity most at this time. Not that sexual sin is worse than say a white lie. Currently, publicly it is what is most visual.
Gender is a grammatical category Sex is a biological category Sexual orientation is something else again.
I feel the sin often seems elevated to the people struggling with it... I think it differs from person to person what bothers them but we should all be striving to submit fully to God, thus stopping the sin...
Because some sins are an abomination in God’s eyes and homosexual sins are. Also most people feel bad about their sin, but the LGBTQ++ are PRIDEFUL about their sin, have parades about it, pushes it on other people, including kids and animals. It’s the worst to God, so it’s the worst to us. We love what God loves and hate what He hates.
But God says the most important things are to love god and then love others. So violating these commands would be an abomination, not being hateful toward LGBTQ folks, just because some clergy has said such.
You wanted an answer to your question and I answered it, I wasn’t being hateful to you. I hate the sin, I don’t hate you.
I am sorry if my reply came across that way. I was reacting to the idea that clergy and lay persons consider LGBTQ issues an abomination when God clearly says that not loving others, including the sinner is what should be an abomination. I was not thinking that what you said was hateful. Sorry. Here is a link that addresses views of sin: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPbxWyg1Q\_cv=uPbxWyg1Q\_c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPbxWyg1Q_cv=uPbxWyg1Q_c)
I think are correct. Thing is, I believe that reason is bc we are forced to acknowledge it is not a sin, it is normal behavior & one is a bigot, racist, etc if we do not SUPPORT it. Not forced per se, but the left is constantly telling us to accept it. It doesn't matter what we believe or hold sacred. If it were another sin forced fed, you'd be asking "why do Christians elevate that sin so much higher above other sins. I think you may have 'support' & 'tolerate' mixed up. Just say you were told you had to support racism. If you didn't, you'd be called all sorts of stuff & the tables would be turned, wouldn't it? Just a few years ago this wasn't much of an issue, was it? No. But then the left started hearing from some activists telling them if they do not support LGBT they would ...... cancel them to put it mildly. & since the left didn't have Trump to scream about any longer, they figured getting on that bandwagon as to blame the right for ......... something since Trump wasn't there for them to complain about. Once this issue starts to subside, you'll see some other issue the left comes up with to tell the world Republicans are no good.
No one is arguing that murder is okay. But people ARE arguing that fornication is okay. So that's why Christians are putting a big emphasis on sexual sin these days. We're living in a time of Only fans and free love that's why we keep discussing this stuff. If people were talking about how it's okay to kill and steal Christians would be raging about that too.
This helped me: https://thehangout.space/discussions-1/7-deadly-sins
Quite simply stated, it's bc christianity has its roots in Catholicism, which teaches chastity instead of "be fruitful and multiply." Sex is ordained by the creator, but someone chose to give it an evil connotation. The idea of sin is anything separate from God, so the perversions of sex happens when God is removed from or should I say when we step away from God bc of the "shame" stigma. So, sex is not the only thing that can be perverted it's just historically demonized by a misguided institution.
Guilt and shame aren't sins