Educating fundies

[GatoRojo]

Hey there :) I'm pretty new as a poster here but I've been reading all this here snark pretty much since I discovered fundieland.

About a year ago I started emailing a fundie girl of my age (18). She's not from a fundie royalty family (although I think I saw them appear once or twice on the old board?) but she's one of 11, in a courtship, family does the ATI/IBLP thang, go to the homeschool conferences...you get the idea :P I don't want to name names, because this girl is actually really sweet and I figure my presence in her life might at least show her some different opinions. But....

I want some ideas on how best to break it to her that for me, gay is okay! She bought it into the conversation, in a Sodom and Gomorrah type way (just reminded me of Dan Savage :D) and I went with the line that more love in the world can only be a good thing - in response she helpfully explained she didn't mean when guys were just friends with other guys, she meant when they were having sex. Yep, that was what I meant too :? But I'm not sure how to actually educate her on this one without pushing her away.

A fundie style flounce in honour of my gay besties is tempting, but I really would rather try and explain this in the best most rationalist (its a word... :whistle: ) way. I think I may have actually given her ideas about gun control before, so she's definetely got potential! Any ideas of arguments I could use?

[yewchapel]

Ultimately, people have to decide for themselves. I don't think making friends with someone with an agenda in mind is good or honest - I object to evangelicals do it for converting but I think it's wrong when anyone does it.

There are many resources out there that show positive examples of homosexuality in the Bible. For someone from a Reformed Christian background, I would use www.gaychristian101.com/ .

[valsa]

Maybe point out examples of love in the Bible between people of the same sex. A beautiful example is the love between Ruth and Naomi. Even a lot of heterosexual couples borrow parts of Ruth's declaration of love for their own wedding vows:

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

Whether one thinks Ruth and Naomi where romantically or just platonically in love- how would the addition of mere sex suddenly make a love that pure something evil?

[YPestis]

The best way to convince people gays are ok is to introduce them to gay people. Stereotypes melt away when they realize gay people don't spend their days in clubs wearing assless pants. Maybe invite her over with some gay friends to have dinner, or take her out for a fun activity. The main goal is to show her that gays can love, cry cook, and enjoy a good movie like any straight person.