1. Again, marriage=one man&woman=sex.
2. Common for some = uncommon for others.
3. If we began to describe the difference between men and frogs, where would we begin?
My wife read over my previous statement which prompted her to make assumptions I did not intend, so I would like to clarify that the when I said rape was common practice, I was referring to the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Frogs aside, do you think perspective could be slanted in any way for the purpose of building a christian empire? I think it's entirely possible that Sin is grossly misrepresented, and the original context of the word Hell or "sheol" could have been more like dirt/under the ground and changed to the word Hell because there was no translation of sheol as it was an actual name of a thing/place. I feel that the concept of eternal life was a statement that is true for all souls - regardless of their status of sinner or saint.
I believe that the concept of "Sin" is something that defiles YOU as a person and not God; and thinking of it this way, I can think of sin as actually representing things that don't bring you happiness and therefor lead you into a life, and subsequent afterlife, filled with guilt and void of happiness.
This concept is often met with disgust and I feel that it's due to a initial confusion of happiness and pleasure - and therefore people describe scenarios where "sin" is okay because it makes you feel good. On the contrary, Sex is pleasure; Love is happiness. One is quickly fleeting, the other is eternal.
In reality, we're all on equal footing - and Jesus was teaching people how to love themselves and know happiness and one way to fill our lives with happiness is to strive to make others happy. That makes me feel a lot better about society and allows me to be tolerant of religions that are not my own, lifestyles that are not my own, & opinions that are not my own - yet still defend my own beliefs when persecuted.
If by creating a definition of what something is or isn't & therefor telling a person what they can and can't have - I am filling my life and theirs with the opposite of happiness.
