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User:

overtherainbow (36707)

Over the Rainbow
Christian GLBT

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About:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
- John 3:16, KJV

For far too long, opinion in the Western world was that the verse only held true if you fit within certain guidelines. The way things were, it might well have been "whosoever but not..."

Not the gays. Not the blacks. Not the men with long hair or the women who wear pants or the people with tattoos. Not the childfree. Not the liberals. Not anyone who didn't fit within a certain mold that was mass-marketed by the Moral Majority.

Slowly, many previously excluded groups have gained ground, humanity, and acceptance. There is still racism against non-white minorities, sexism against women, prejudice against those who express themselves creatively and do not conform to the conservative appearance. But there is still rampant bigotry and hatred against the homosexual population in the Church.

For too long, we've been told that we are not acceptable in the eyes of God. We have struggled with our sexuality, many of us have tried to 'live right', aka straight. We have struggled with crushing guilt and self-loathing and crisises of faith. We have been told we're in rebellion, that we're not trying hard enough, that we're not good enough for God, that our quest for deliverance from our sinful nature isn't genuine. Some of us have followed the road to suicide. The lucky ones have found peace in accepting their nature and God's grace, and the slow understanding that He made us as we are.

Finding fellowship among our brethern in Christ is a challenge; too many feel that we are wrong, deviant, sinful, an abomination to God, and have twisted Scripture to justify their exclusion of us, their bigotry and hatred.

This is for all of us.

Rules

The rules are subject to change as needed.

No bashing other faiths. No wicca-bashing, no non-wiccan pagan bashing, Muslim or Jewish bashing, nada. And while it is acceptable to bring up concerns about our rights and freedom, especially in American where the Moral Majority and dominionism movement is quite powerful, this is not permission to blanket-bash Bush and other ringleaders.

In summary: discussion of concerns is welcome. Unproductive and unhelpful whining and bitching and bashing and flaming is not.

Don't be nasty. If someone upsets you, try to remember to step away from the keyboard. When you realize a discussion is getting heated, back off -- it's not about getting 'the last word'. If you have true concerns about a situation, contact a moderator and let them do their job, please.

Do not delete posts and comments. Oh, if you mispost to the wrong community, or make a comment full of completely botched HTML, that's fine, delete it. But too often deleting is used as a form of censorship, or running away from a disagreement with one's tail firmly between the legs, and then when people come to the moderators, guess what? The evidence, she is gone, and alas, we can do nothing. If you make a post, let it stand. Do not delete the text to remove what you said. You can edit to add on or correct, but not to significantly change things. As this is not a rant community, I do not foresee a huge problem with this. But here is the rule, so we're all in the know, hmm?

Do not play moderator. You're not a mod? Don't act like one. Don't tell another member what they can or cannot post. I mean, if it's obviously off-topic, like a post complaining about Rachel Ray and nothing whatsoever to do with anything being homosexual and/or Christian in any way, shape, or form, that's one thing. But leaving little bitchy comments to try and create the community you think it should be? Yeah, no. Don't do it. (and yes, the maintainer moderates several very large comms where people do this crap. These rules come from hard-earned experience)

Troll Handling 101: Post recipes and kitten macros if you must post at all.

Don't pull any "my way/tradition/faith/whachamacallit is better than yours" or "you're not a real gay or Christian because I say so" crap.

Don't muck around with font colors and size for your posts or comments. Nobody's that special of a snowflake to require it, and it can make trying to read whatever it is you want to say very, very difficult, depending on a person's vision and monitor condition and a number of other things.

LJ-Cut big or numerous images, all videos, and long posts. Also lj-cut any sex-related posts. Don't know how to? Check out the friendly FAQ. It won't bite, I promise.