Liberals: Should parents be prohibited from teaching their kids the Bible?

[Nation]

I partially agree with Ebowed here, Carl. In God's eyes, a sin is a sin -- you're still doing something that God does not want you to do.

Naturally, to people, a murder is much worse than premarital sex. We're much more greatly affected by it than two people having premarital sex, so a heavy punishment comes across, and that is acceptable.

But in God's eyes, a sin is a sin. Since sinning is what separates us from God, it shouldn't matter what sin we choose -- it's still there, and God still sees it.

[Nation]

Well there's clearly an obvious difference between venal and mortal sins. Something like disobeying one's parents doesn't wreck as much havoc has raping somebody. Catholics, correct me if I'm wrong, but Catholic teachings IIRC made the distinction that venal sins will land you in purgatory, and mortal sins will send you to an eternal Hellfire.

A sort of "felonies vs misdemeanors" kind of thing.

I've got my own personal philosophies on the issue, but the only Biblical evidence that I can think of offhand is Matthew 12:34 (google it to find some better examples), which compares an evil action to hatred in the heart.

:
"You snakes, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."


-----------

Now, I also don't proclaim to know whether this is true or not. It may very well be that God doesn't consider all sins to be equal --- that verse may just be saying that God considers thoughts as well as actions when judging (I can't recall the adjacent verses in Chapter 12)

Galations says something about how "cursed is the man who does not read EVERYTHING in the book of the law," which seems to be saying that all sins come equally under God's judgment.

[Nation]

Most liberals are Christians if you look at the stats. Since about 86% of America is Christian

Bull.

86% of Kerry voters are religious, 72% are Christian.

http://election.cbsnews.com/election2004/poll/poll_p____u_s__all_us0.shtml

I think what Richius was getting at is that although some folks may CALL themselves Christian (even 72%) it's a relatively small percentage of them that even go to Church, let one bothering to pray, attempt to live a Christian lifestyle).