Response to Max's Fear and Loathing number 2:

I'm sorry, but I have to comment on Fear and Loathing #2. Everything was going fine until our noble homophile implied that Jesus deserved the scourging he got for "preaching anti-gay hate".

To put it in familiar terms - What the hell? Jesus was preaching to a society that lived and breathed the Old Testament, the same couple of books that unfortunately preserves and propagates statements like this one (see Lev.20:13): "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable." Aside from the fact that Jesus said absolutely nothing about homosexuality, it was a homophobic culture, and the people who instigated Jesus' crucifixion were as homophobic as their culture dictated.

Whether the homophobic culture of Christianity is outdated or not, the torture Jesus got wasn't for preaching something everyone already agreed with. Incidentally, Jesus' tendency of reaching out to prostitutes who were considered at least as bad as homosexuals back in the day is probably an indication of what he might have preached to and about them.