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 Anderson Cooper's coming out provoked the author to send a tweet that triggered some strong reaction.
July 5th, 2012
01:11 PM ET
My Take: Will there be gays in heaven? Will there be fat people?Editor's Note: Craig Gross is the pastor and founder of XXXchurch.com and is the author of seven books. He just turned 36 and is no longer a hip 20-something pastor from California. By Craig Gross, Special to CNN After Anderson Cooper came out this week, I posted a link on Twitter to a story that included this quote from Cooper: “I love and am loved.” As I said in my tweet, Cooper is one of my favorite journalists. I was honored to once be on his show. After I tweeted I got e-mails and a direct message asking the same question: "You still like him now?" I was saddened by that reaction and started thinking: What would happen if we read the Bible and, instead of highlighting certain passages, we took it all for what it is - truth. In 1 Corinthians, the Bible says don't indulge your body with food or sex: “‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,’ and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” My Take: The Christian case for gay marriage I deal with people who indulge their bodies with sex. I’ve done it for 10 years with XXXchurch.com, helping people caught up in porn addiction. If you indulge your body with sex via pornography, affairs, strippers or hookers, and your secrets are exposed, you will not be preaching on Sunday. Sexual sin is not tolerated in our churches. If clergy are caught in these things, they’re disqualified. What if you indulge your body with food? Well, then you can pastor some of the largest churches on the planet and have the most successful broadcasts on the religious channels and sell a lot of books. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Same biblical passage, same sin. Why is one accepted and one rejected? Why is it that religious folks want to camp out on a few things rather then all things? Why do they believe that the gay guy goes to hell but the fat preacher who builds some of the largest churches in the world makes it to heaven? I have no problem bringing my fat friends to church; they fit right in. Our Los Angeles church has doughnuts to eat during worship service, which makes the hymns we sing sound so much better. My Take: Why many Christians focus on homosexuality I coached my son's soccer team last year. My assistant coach is a lesbian. My son became great friends with her son, and my wife and I have become good friends with his mom and her partner. We played on three teams this year with them and have spent time in each others’ homes. Could I bring them to church? Absolutely not. Most evangelical Christians don't have gay friends. We just have gay stereotypes and we base our beliefs on a few biblical passages, ignoring passages about things that people in the church really struggle with, like food and other addictions. The problem is that the church has only one answer for homosexuality: Don't be gay. Come as you are, but you'd better not be gay. But you can be fat. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter Most Christians believe you should just help your friends to not be gay when, in all honesty, only Christ can do that. I love my lesbian friends. Let’s say I share Christ with them and they accept Jesus - or maybe they already have. Where do they go to church? There is no way I would send them to an evangelical church, because not everyone would treat them the way they should be treated. But if they attend a gay church many Christians look at them as crazy. People will push you to take a stand one way or the other on homosexuality, but no one has ever asked me to take a stand when it comes to fat people. The goal shouldn’t be to change anyone's sexuality. Ultimately, I believe homosexuality gets blown way out of proportion in our churches. If we would all see gays as fellow sinners instead of “others,” there wouldn't be a need for gay outreach, because they would already be incorporated into our community based on a shared need for Christ. God loves gays and Jesus is for them. God loves the fat preacher. Homosexual activity and overeating are both sins - just like speeding, gossip, lying and cheating. I think I did all of those just today. All are forgivable in Christ and, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, can be changed. Just remember that change does not happen overnight. Have you ever seen someone lose 100 pounds overnight? The process takes time. When it comes to the Lord, it’s nothing less than a journey of sanctification. And wherever you are at on that journey, I think there should be a place for you at church. Because there’s probably one in heaven. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Craig Gross. |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Who cares? Christianity is nothing but mythology for the feeble and weak. As people evolve, it will eventually die out.
You have the same belief like Adolf Hitler. I hope you will never get the same power.
Hitler was a Catholic.
And Hitlers rise to power was funded by the catholic church
Hitler also believed that 2+2=4. Just because Hitler believed something doesn't mean it was wrong.
@TruthPrevails 🙂
Adolfo was baptized Catholic, but turned apostate during his youth. As an adult Hitler was a so-called Neopagan. Together with his highpriest Alfredo Rosenberg he wanted to establish a pseudo-Jesus, which was a strong and proud Germanic ruler (masterrace). The real Jesus was meek, humble and loveable and thus the opposite of Hitler or the Germanic pseudo-Jesus.
@Who invited me?
I guess the main reason for Hitler's raise was Germany's defeat of WWI (according to David Clay Large). The German military need a big gob to spread its stab-in-the-back legend and found it in Adolf.
At first Hitler was promoted by the German military.
Rainer: My understanding is that never denounced his belief in a deity of any form, it doesn't matter what god or gods he believed in, he was an evil man who believed in something greater than man kind and used that to commit crimes against humanity.
I'd asked you what you believe in Patrick. By reading your post, I know I'd get a lie for your answer.
Matthew 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me and go balls deep: thou art an offense unto me: for you taste salty to God.
"Adolfo was baptized Catholic, but turned apostate during his youth. As an adult Hitler was a so-called Neopagan"
Complete BS. Hitler wrote extensivelt about his christian faith. Have you ever read Mein Kamph?
Hitler exterminated non-christians, h omo se xu als, immigrants, atheists and non whites. The only people he spared were white christians. He believed he was doing gods work and that the jews were responsible for killing jesus.
My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow my self to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice
-Adolf Hitler 1922
“National Socialism is not a cult-movement– a movement for worship; it is exclusively a ‘volkic’ political doctrine based upon racial principles. In its purpose there is no mystic cult, only the care and leadership of a people defined by a common blood-relationship... We will not allow mystically- minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else– in any case something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our programme there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will– not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord… Our worship is exclusively the cultivation of the natural, and for that reason, because natural, therefore God-willed. Our humility is the unconditional submission before the divine laws of existence so far as they are known to us men.”
Adolf Hitler 1938
So many disgusting, ignorant comments on this article...comments coming from people who should not be allowed out of their homes to join the rest of the general public. I loved your opinion and this article alike. This world could use a lot more love and tolerance regardless of one's religious views.
As a Christian, I feel that some people spend more time closing God's heart than opening their own. It is not the role of Christians to change people, it is their job to spread the good news and lead by example. Don't hate the person or the sin. Don't hate at all. Love the fact that we all have a chance to redeem ourselves through something bigger than humanity. While we are on earth, let's help those less fortunate and do what is right.
Mystery of faith: We shall love the person, but hate his or her sin. This needs some skill and makes life interesting.
"We shall love the person, but hate his or her sin"
Actually Gandhi said that and it's not in your bible.
@YeahRight
Ain't that right that Gandhi took it from the Bible?
"Ain't that right that Gandhi took it from the Bible?"
LMAO! It's not in your bible.
"Why do they believe that the gay guy goes to hell but the fat preacher who builds some of the largest churches in the world makes it to heaven?", Mr. Gross said.
Nowhere in the Bible we can read that overweight is a sin. Probable reason: The cause or overweight don't has to be bulimia (addiction for food) always, but can have also other causes (disposition, diseases, lack of exercise, etc.). In no case we should judge fat people. Only if we observe that someone eats much too much, we should exhort him.
Of course, gluttony is a deadly sin like gayness, whereby it is more difficult to assess, if someone suffers from gluttony than from gayness. Of couse, a fresser or muncher will never enter heaven. Heaven is the eternal tenement of the people, which have been cured from their maladies by God's Grace, that means by faith in Jesus and his death and resurrection.
If I had a greedy or gay workmate, I would never hate him, but treat him very kindly. The only thing, which I could not accept, is, if he or she would like to join the Church without repentance. Inside the Church shall be only people, which have been reconciled with God by the gospel of Jesus Christ:
God, the Father, delivered God, the Son, Jesus, for our sins and raised him from the dead for our justification.
Everybody who believes that and gets baptized becomes righteous (not only a label of righteousness, but righteousness in daily life affairs). They who believe get a new life from God for free, which is not in conflict with the law or the commandments. Christian love is the fullfillment of the law.
The mystery of baptism: We get metaphysically connected with Christ's death and resurrection. We die for the sin and enter Christ or receive the Holy Spirit. By the power of Christ's death and resurrection we overcome our body, which is sinful in itself. Even if we have a gay or a greedy body, we can overcome its sin, because Jesus Christ is stronger than our sinfulness. If one has yet received infant baptism, he shall refer to it and not get baptized again.
Rainer Braendlein – Where does the Bible say that h o m o s e x u a l i t y is a sin?
@Casey
Just read Epistle to the Romans, Chapter 1.
Except, of course, that being born gay is no more immoral, wrong, or a sin, than being born left-handed, or black. Of course, not to long ago, the religious nutters claimed that being left handed was a sign of the devil, and being black was the mark of Cain.
This is simply one more thing, in a long list of things, that the religious folks, and their god, get completely wrong.
Rainer Braendlein – Paul's letter to the Romans needs to be read in context in order to understand what it is really saying. In Romans 1:21-28, Paul talks about people who refused to acknowledge and glorify God (v. 21), the worshipping of idols (v23), people who were more interested in earthly pursuits than spiritual pursuits (v.25), people who gave up their natural, innate passion for the opposite s e x in search of pleasure (v. 26-27), and people who live lives full of covetousness, malice, envy, and hatred of God (v. 29-31).
H o m o s e x u a l i t y is a natural part of human s e x u a l i t y (for verification, check out the APA website). This reference is talking about h e t e r o s e x u a l people who gave up their natural orientation to have s e x with people of the same gender in what Paul calls, "Their search for pleasure." It is not talking about gay people who naturally are attracted to people of the same gender.
"Epistle to the Romans, Chapter 1."
Nowhere in there does it condemn a gay person as we know and understand it today.
Rainer Braendlein interesting you say this but your Christ was gay. lol
People don't go to heaven, souls do. Bodies, no matter what condition, are left behind.
~
Believers get a heavenly body, St. Paul says.
There is no heaven for anything to go to. There is no such thing a soul. Both are biblical and neither have ever been proven to exist.
Believers get a heavenly body, St. Paul says.
.
Your faith is in man and misplaced.
TruthPrevails, you need to stop reading that man made trash you follow.
Matthew 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me and go balls deep: thou art an offense unto me: for you taste salty to God.
Amen.
Fake HeavenSent
The real one is pathetic enough.
You aren't even funny.
Why don't you go beat up some girl scouts?
The real HS is a complete loon without any help. She thinks anyone else who steals her special 'handle' must be me. Friggin' brainless. If she weren't such an obnoxious jerk, nobody, including me, would steal her stupid name. The more she whines about it the more trolls will do it.
How stupid are you, HS, that you can't figure that out?
"Why don't you go beat up some girl scouts?"
Not as fun
What would really improve the world is if you arrogant know it alls would stop speaking for your god. So many christians honestly act as if they were learned disciples instead of just another group of ignorant humans using their so called faith to bolster their own prejudices and fear.
I get the point of what this man is 'preaching' but how much better a message it would be if he simply said he loved his fellow humans regardless, instead of sending the message that fat people can be hated too, cuz the bible says so!!
Heaven? Folks, aint no such place.
How could civilized people think some fat white man and millions of dead people sit up there in the clouds? Be real – I've flown LOTS of airplanes, and never saw anyone in the clouds.
But, I sure hope there is cause there would be millions of beautiful teenage virgin chicks, AND NO LAWS! Iwould eclipse Wilt the Stilts record in the first month. YeeHaw!
Sly, heaven is in another dimension. You can only get there when you die and your spirit goes back to God. If you keep looking for it while flying, you may get there sooner than expected.
HeavenSent
funny how heaven only went to another dimension AFTER the development of the telescope. Before that it was herecy for you to say what you said and your religious associates would have likely tortured you to death "in the name of God"
I fully agree that a sin is a sin is a sin. No exceptions. I agree all sin is forgivable (except of course the unpardonable one). I have exception when people say they were "born" gay/lesbian. I take exception when people say it is okay.....natural. It is not natural or right fora man to be with a man or a woman to be with a woman. Even if a person does not believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, they surely are smart enough to know it takes a male and a female to pro create. This is the "natural" way. I am overweight and I know it is a sin. I have an addiction to food. However, I pray to God to help me overcome my sin. I find it hard to talk to people or witness because of my weight.( I am about 60 Lbs over). I do try very hard to overcome my problem. I don't accept it and say " oh well, I was born with fat genes". And by the way. The world IS just as hard on the overweight as it is on the gay/lesbian. We just don't make a political issue over it!!! Thank you.
Pray to god while running. You will lose weight faster. Or you could just run, that will work just as fast.
I sympathize with your weight plight and hope you can rise above this with God's help and persistence. The truth of the matter is that you likely do have a genetic predisposition toward overeating, which makes your struggle more difficult, but not impossible to overcome. I do take issue with your stance vis-a-vis gays. The vast majority certainly do not choose this as a lifestyle. They are born that way. You do know that this phenomenon has been with us for all time, right? And imagine several hundred years ago the stigma that was associated with it. Who would voluntarily choose to subject themselves to such intense ridicule/shunning or worse?
It really doesn't matter what you think, the facts are the facts, people are born gay and no matter how much you would like to believe that is not the case it simply doesn't change anything. I know two lesbian couples who both have pregnant partners. Ever heard of invitro? Not all hetero couple can have children either nor do they choose to. A relationship is about loving and being happy, not always about pro-creation. To state your distaste and disapproval is bigotry and it makes a poor christian of you.
Name*Teresa – Where does the Bible condemn h o m o s e x u a l i t y ?
To say it is not natural for someone to be born gay is to deny reality. There are gay people all around, and that is the way they are. The same as you did not choose to be straight, they did not choose to be gay.
As far as nature is concerned:
there is normal, in this case male and female can procreate.
There is abnormal: The case where a man or woman cannot procreate due to some failure of a physical process
and there is not normal: trying to procreate with 2 men or two women
S e x is not just about procreating it can also be an expression of love/ passion between two (or more) people. since we undertand the process by which it happens, gay and lesbian couples can have children by putting this process in motion
I wish you well in your battle with your self image. Perhaps a little less time worrying about gay people and a little time with a therapist who might teach you how to love yourself better might be in order.
@Teresa – I actually have therory based on absolutely no factual data whatsoever, but here it goes; The gay/lesbian gene may be a natural response from nature to slow mankind's re production rate. We are very successful at survial. We are numbered in the billions. We are over-populating the Earth. As opposed to sterilization, nature flipped the attraction. Be attracted to your same s ex, and you have no desire to procreate. I think it's wonderful. It does slow the reproduction rate naturally. But of course a gay couple can still have a baby through artificial medical means, but that's a work-around to the original design. And gay couples also do a lot of adopting. A wonderful thing, because they will give love to one that would've been neglected. So to me, the 'sin' has hidden benefits for mankind in general.
"The world IS just as hard on the overweight as it is on the gay/lesbian. We just don't make a political issue over it!!! Thank you."
Well DUHHHH! Gays don't have the same civil rights as you do. duh! Marriage was defined by the US Supreme Court as a civil right. Recognized federal civil rights law in the United States is grounded in the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court. By this standard, marriage has long been established as a civil right.
The operative constitutional text is section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868. The relevant passages read as follows:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws
A federal appeals court on May 31st ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional because it denies equal rights for legally married same-sex couples, making it likely that the Supreme Court will consider the politically divisive issue for the first time in its next term. This most likely will be decided in the courts and since most courts keep ruling in gays favor they should be able to over turn all the unconstitutional laws prejudice bigots have been trying to pass.
" I have exception when people say they were "born" gay/lesbian. I take exception when people say it is okay.....natural. It is not natural or right..."
Fine. In that case, since you state that it is not natural, you need to explain why it occurs across nature.. It occurs in 1500+ species of mammals, fish, birds, insects, and other vertebrates and invertebrates. This is the very definition of natural.
Also, since you claim that gays are not born gay, and in fact then choose to be gay, the onus is on you to provide the citations to peer-reviewed scientific research that shows gays choose to be gay. And thus, by corollary, that we straights choose to be straight.
So far, I've asked literally thousands and thousands of times for one of you folks to do this – to post the scientific evidence that supports your claim. Sadly, after all these thousands and thousands of requests, not a single solitary one of you has ever posted a single solitary citation. Not one. Not once. Not ever.Why do all of you keep claiming this as fact, yet refuse to support it.
If we ask you folks to tell us why it's a sin, you jump right in with your various miss-interpreted bible verses. Yet when we ask you for your actual evidence, you refuse to answer.
It's just sad.
Name*Teresa, good post.
Amen.
"I pray to God to help me overcome my sin. I find it hard to talk to people or witness because of my weight"
The reason you are fat is because you pray about it.
Here's a tip.
The next time you think about praying to lose weight, don't.
Exercise instead.
Every time I think about doing something ridiculously dumb and useless as praying, I get on my bicycle instead.
Instead of praying I ride my bike, or I lift weights, or I do yoga. I have advanced osteoarthritis so I can no longer run, but I keep in shape doing other exercises.
If you keep praying to lose weight, you will die fat and young.
Praying does nothing. Exercise will make the weight come off and change your entire life.
Derp is hellbound along with his dirty Asians
Amen
Can someone please write a book called Common Sense II and call for all people of the world to declare themselves free of government and religion and have a peaceful world non corrupt government with no religious ties or crazy crap so that it can function for the needs of the people and also declares all humans are equal? Lets get along and advance science a few thousand years faster than our current pace. Let everyone be part of our civilizations daily advances.
Everybody smoke kush
Yes Bama because if everybody in the world smoked a joint at the same time the world would finally know peace for a couple of hours...I think they need to start putting THC in the water supply.
Soican, Jesus wrote the truth about life and hereafter allowing everyone to obtain His wisdom. It's obvious from your post, you've never read it.
Point well taken.
Fat people do not recruit other people to be fat...they do not drag anyone to hell along with them.
and gay people do?
And gay people aren't likely to convince me to leave my wife for a man. What's your point?
They do if they create a culture. Obese parents could possibly do harm to their children if they allow them to participate in their eating habits (that depends if the parents are obese due to diet). So, in essence, 'dragging them to hell with them'.
Quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read. Gay recruitment is a scare tactic employed by churches. I've never been approached by a gay person who was recruiting or proselytizing. Christians on the other hand.....
dr.kno – S e x u a l orientation is not a choice according to the American Psychological Association. You cannot "recruit" someone into being gay.
"gay people aren't likely to convince me to leave my wife"
Awe babe, I feel so loved now :-). At least I know you would never give me up for Logano. lol
Fat People don't recruit-they are recruited by Fast Food
"I've never been approached by a gay person who was recruiting"
I was proposition in a bathroom on the Atlantic City Expressway once.
Does that count?
God is a fat gay black man.
That would be hilarious. Can you imagine all of the fundiots standing at the pearly gates having to get past Big Bruce Johnson.
Roddenberry 68:12 We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.
God does not make mistakes. He endows us with free will, and our free will is impinged upon by both good and evil influences. There is no denying that there is both goodness and evil in the universe. Our challenge, as I see it, is to latch on to the goodness and to at least meditate on and try to grasp some of the grace and mercy which is available through the positive force.
Kush 1:5 puff puff pass
Sirach 15:14
When, in the beginning, the Lord created human beings, he left them free to do as they wished.... He has placed fire and water before you; reach out and take whichever you want."
Apparently this is lost on entertainers like Roddenberry or theological amatures like Dawkins and Hitchens.
deGràsse Tyson 1:1 God is an ever receeding pocket of scientific ignorance.
Fundamentalists are running out of places to hide from reality.
"Roddenberry or theological amatures like Dawkins and Hitchens"
Yeah I'm sure you are intellectually superior to that bunch.
There is no such thing as heaven, you people are wasting your lives wondering if fat people go to a place that has never existed. Gay people don't go to hell because there is no such thing as hell. The Bible is a lie.
Why did you even write this article? All it did was give people an excuse to make fat jokes. You could have written a classier article without jumping on the obesity band wagon. Have you gone into a grocery store lately? Have you noticed mostly poor people are fat? Have you noticed that a bag of apples is $5, but a bag of chips and a 2-liter soda is $2? I'm disgusted that you are both a Christian and wrote such a sorry article, and you –as well as the GOP –are the main reasons why, despite my unshakeable faith and belief in Jesus (and the Buddha, King, Malcolm X, Gandhi and all the rest) is why I will not call myself a Christian. Do better fool.
The author of this opinion piece wasn't simply picking on fat folks, he was pointing out that gluttony is very clearly marked as a sin in his alleged holy book and yet, none of the "good" christians try to keep others from overeating – they often encourage this particular act. While other human characteristics which are not so clearly defined in that book are vigorously attacked by these same good xtians.
Great article...remember – God made you gay, but he didn't make you a fat lard.
Will gays go to heaven? Why not! Myself being neither fat nor gay would also like to go there. I would only have one request. I would appreciate if the gays there kept their contton-picking hands off my private parts.
Only God knows the answers, we need to concern ourselves with whats going on in our homes and not anothers.
But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that if you catch a man sleeping with another man it's up to you to stone them to death. Do your research. The Bible is a horror story.
Of course not. Mayor Bloomberg says so
gay people will go to heaven like everyone else but god will wake up with a condom in his ass
fat people go to heaven also but its called something else . mcdonalds.
You need kush in your life