Give your friend a gift card to see a masseuse so they can get themselves out of the knots they have put themselves in trying to defend one of God’s many, many contradictions with modern society mores.
Your reply: “Since you know exactly what God is thinking and are speaking for Him, please give the definitive translation for the words: arsenokoites and malakoi. Well educated Biblical scholars have not agreed about what they exactly mean, but since you seem so much more knowledgeable than they, please translate the original Greek.”
Or the standard list of ten:
- Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, liposuction and air conditioning.
- Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
- Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
- Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
- Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
- Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.
- Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
- Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
- Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
- Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans…
An anti-abortion protestor tried to convince me Jesus was against gay marriage. I asked him where did Jesus say that. So he turns to Cornithians.
I pointed out that was PAUL not Jesus. Then I brought up Leviticus’s laws. “Oh, but that’s Old Testament. That no longer applies.”
Pick-and-choose Christians, I call them.
Nah, unfortunately I’ve seen examples that were a lot frothier than the OP’s.
If I were in the OP’s place, I would probably respond with a link to a site that rebuts those claims, much as I might post a link to Snopes.com in response to someone who posts a false rumor or urban legend.
Matthew 7:1, “Judge not that ye be not judged.”
John 8:7, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
Imagine, ME citing the New Testament.
I saw one list of things that it sounded like quotes from people against same-sex marriage, with supporting verses from the Bible, but it was actually arguments from 40 years ago against interracial marriage. You could ask why the people 40 years ago using Bible verses against interracial marriage were wrong, but people using Bible verses against same-sex marriage today are correct.
It’s very unlikely you’d change the poster’s mind, but you might get other Facebook friends you see it and think a little about it.
I’ve successfully pointed out that the issue is not gay sex but gay marriage. We’re not discussing making being gay against the law. We’re discussing whether gay people deserve to be treated as second class citizens. And the Bible has a lot more to say about how you should treat your fellow man than it does about homosexuality.
The Bible does not say you should treat sinners worse than your fellow Christians, but almost the opposite.
1 John 4:20
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Christianity’s concept of marriage hasnt been set in stone since days of Christ, constantly evolved, concept and ritual in ancient Xian church liturgical documents…in churches/cathedrals throughout Christendom, from Ireland to Istanbul, Rome itself, gay relationships were accepted as valid expressions of God-given love/commitment to another, celebrated, honored and blessed, through Eucharist in name/presence of Jesus Christ. search: ‘When Same-Sex Marriage Was a Christian Rite’
I like this one!
I go for that, plus: “The bible mentions a prohibition on homosexuality alongside a prohibitions on eating pork and wearing mixed fabrics. If you really want to cast the first stone, I’d make sure you’re not in trouble for any of those first.”
And then sit around feeling like you’re Jed Bartlett 
Over 3000 times the Bible very specifically says in writing to feed the poor and heal the sick. Nowhere does it specifically in writing prohibit gay marriage or abortion. Somehow the Christians who make money off of being Christian insist that abortion and gay marriage are the top priority of our government, which they insist was founded as a “Christian nation.” (It most certainly was not founded as a Christian nation, but was founded by Christians.) When these pretend Christians take the written instructions of God to have the government feed the poor and heal the sick with as 3000 times as much importance as funding anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage efforts, then I will start to not consider them fake Christians. But their hatred of the poor and sick and worship of money says more to me about what they truly believe than anything else. Jesus feed the hungry and healed the sick. He did not condemn abortion or gay marriage even once.
Acts 15:28-29 deals with Christains not having to folow the pork and mixed fabric rules. Pretty sure black pudding is still out though.
You know I’ve denied it for a long time, but I now believe gay marriage really is a threat to straight marriage. A friend of mine just went to a gay wedding and she posted pictures of the food. Damn, straight people have got us thinking their little faux-French dishes and fancy-sounding salads are the norm, but there was SIXTEEN(!!!) bite-sized portions on one plate, all different! Gay marriage is awesome!
Pick up the pace, straight people! You’re losing badly!
Just tell them if they adhere to such a strict version of the bible than I’m sure cheeseburgers and shrimp are off limits to them as well.
Pretty much all of the above, and I have my own little question that the bigots have yet to answer:
Given, that Jesus’ sacrifice essentially erased all those Old Testament laws (“It is done”), except for the 10 Commandments, Then why, if God hates gays so much, isn’t there an 11th commandment against being gay?
As has been pointed out already, we can refer to the words of Jesus, concerning homosexuality: " ".
A link to other charming laws on the Book that are in Lego and thus easily understood:
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/index.html
If any modern European nation introduced laws that told under what circumstances you could rape a woman or beat a servant to death or kill your child, that nation would be considered absolutely barbaric and there’d be all kinds of sanctions and probably a war. Why is the land of the Old Testament given any more respect when it has the same laws?
Look, if you want to run the government via the Bible, go live in a theocracy. But be warned: They are the worse governments ever.
Matthew 22:37-40.
[Jesus said] "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
This is simply false. Nowhere does Paul say “this only applies to right now.” That’s something your FB friend just threw in there unsupported. Paul says right in verse 9 “But if [unmarried and widows] cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” In verse 17, he says “17 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.”
Y’see? All the churches! If God called you as a slave, stay a slave. If you were uncircumcised, stay that way. If you were gay, stay gay.
And it’s pretty clear what you’re supposed to do about uncontrollable passion: “36 If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married.”
Remind your FB friend that the debate isn’t about being gay or not being gay. The Bible is clear on that. What the debate is about is whether you should be gay and married or gay and umarried. Those are the only two choices on the table. And Paul is equally clear about that - if you’re going to be having sex, you have to get married.
I take no stance on gay marriage. I could care less.
However I will translate the Greek words for you:
Arsenokoites is actually two words: Arseno = Male, and Koites = Bed. It’s old Greek slang for “Malebedders”. This is why some translations say “Men who go to bed with other men”
Malakoi is even simpler. It means “Soft”. The implication is that men who are homosexual are “soft” (effeminate).
I don’t think scholars have a problem with the translation, but they might disagree on what the euphemism are supposed to mean (does manbedder mean “men who bed other men”? or something else? Does calling a man “soft” mean he’s being called gay? or does it mean something else?)