Carlene

I don't know...because I've never heard one of their ministers say, "We cured a homosexual last week." I've heard fundamentalist ministers say that, but not mainstream Christians. And by fundamentalist, I mean those branches of Christianity that interpret the Bible literally. Fundamentalists ARE "out there", as compared to many other Christians. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing....my church is pretty far off the norm, too. Heck, we don't even get classified with the rest of the believers in Christ....the choices are always "Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, or Other". I never understood that....why can't they just say "Christian or non-Christian"? What stereotyping is that? Did I say that people who disagree with me on the issue of homosexuality are mentally impaired? Gee....I certainly hope not. My own church officially denounces homosexuality, too. I don't agree with that position, but I still love my church. Do you have any reformed homosexuals in your church?

I know, but I don't think their motives were suspect. I thought it was a bizarre power struggle - the husband against the parents. He (the husband) had already moved on with his life. What would it have cost him to just let those people spend their days taking care of their daughter, if that's what they wanted to do?

The TS case was hard for me, opinion-wise. Withholding food and water from my disabled daughter would be, probably, something I just couldn't do. I could take my child off a respirator without a second thought, if their condition was irreversible. I have no problem with DNR orders, and I could even administer analgesic drugs in a dangerous dosage, if my child/spouse/parent was in excruciating pain. But I don't think I could starve them to death. That's not to say that I would try and prevent someone else from making that decision for their family member. I just don't think I could do it.

So is sin. At least the medical community has reached a consensus as to what constitutes deviant sexual behavior. Christians rarely agree on anything, outside their own little group.

How are your public schools funded? The lion's share of my property taxes go to the local ISD.

These people may not consider themselves abnormal, but they certainly understand that society does embrace their behavior. And for obvious reasons, they generally would prefer NOT to harbor these feelings. "Paraphilias are: sexual fantasies urges and behaviors that are considered deviant with respect to cultural norms..." "Although several of these disorders can be associated with aggression or harm, others are neither inherently violent nor aggressive" "The boundary for social as well as sexual deviance is largely determined by cultural and historical context. As such, sexual orientations once considered paraphilias (e.g., homosexuality) are now regarded as variants of normal sexuality; so too, sexual behaviors currently considered normal (e.g., masturbation) were once culturally proscribed" (Source: Psychiatric Times) Exhibitionism: the recurrent urge or behavior to expose one's genitals to an unsuspecting person. Fetishism: the use of non-sexual or nonliving objects or part of a person's body to gain sexual excitement. Partialism refers to fetishes specifically involving nonsexual parts of the body. Frotteurism: the recurrent urges or behavior of touching or rubbing against a nonconsenting person. Pedophilia: the sexual attraction to prepubescent or peripubescent children. Sexual Masochism: the recurrent urge or behavior of wanting to be humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer. Sexual Sadism: the recurrent urge or behavior involving acts in which the pain or humiliation of the victim is sexually exciting. Transvestic fetishism: a sexual attraction towards the clothing of the opposite gender. Voyeurism: the recurrent urge or behavior to observe an unsuspecting person who is naked, disrobing or engaging in sexual activities, or may not be sexual in nature at all. Other rarer paraphilias are grouped together under Other paraphilias not otherwise specified and include telephone scatalogia (obscene phone calls), necrophilia (corpses), partialism (exclusive focus on one part of the body), zoophilia (animals), coprophilia (feces), klismaphilia (enemas), urophilia (urine). Actually, it was about half a century ago. That surprises me. I thought fundamentalists were all about witnessing and sharing their conversion experiences. I've seen lots of them talk about how they used to drink and do drugs and even prostitute themselves, but none who claim to have been cured of homosexuality. What I said was, why is it that no one else, except fundamentalists, ever meets these people? Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians.....why haven't any of them ever met a reformed homosexual? I think that's strange. It's like Big Foot. There is one small group who claims to have seen him and every time there is a new "sighting", it's one of those people who already believes - never a neutral bystander or a previous non-believer.

No, I am absolutely not interested in investing in foreclosed property. I owned rental property at one time. I hated doing evictions.

Transvestites, transsexuals, various fetishes, pedophiles, necrophilia, bestiality...those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. It's been a long time. I have no idea what qualifies as "abnormal", and I suspect that the term is no longer considered PC, except for blatantly deviant behavior. I don't believe that homosexuality is "abnormal", but that's an opinion I formed for myself, not one I adopted from someone else. Anything is possible. It's possible that you know gay people who are "passing" for heterosexuals, so as not to be persecuted by narrow-minded bigots. Perhaps they do. I have not personally met any of them. I wish I had. I would like very much to talk with them about this issue. I find it very interesting that the only people who claim to know these gay-turned-straight individuals are the fundamentalists. Why do you suppose that is?

I am familiar with tax deed sales, but where I live, at least, the mortgage company almost always pays the back taxes so as not to lose their investment. The rare piece of property that is not encumbered by a mortgage does not go cheaply. Which counties do you invest in, for the most part?

But what would the real estate taxes be on that house?

My real estate tax is less than $4000 per year on a house valued at $175,000. That's with a homestead exemption and my DH's over 65 exemption. How does that compare to other areas of the country?

Actually, we Texans owe Oklahoma a huge debt of gratitude. It is what keeps the great state of Texas from sliding into the Gulf of Mexico because...... OKLAHOMA SUCKS! ******This is a joke, and an old one at that, so don't anyone take it personally. Texas/Oklahoma rivalry is an honored tradition. You are welcome to even the score by posting your favorite Texas jokes, and I promise not to take offense.*******

My sales tax, state and local, is 8.25%. But remember, we have NO state income tax.

GASP!!!! You toured "something or other" in San Antonio???? Do you mean the sacred-to-all-Texans shrine of the Alamo??? As far as I know, tejas is Spanish for "friends" and was the name given the region we now know as Texas.

Actually, we think we are still an independent republic.

I feel the same way about many other "groups", including Jews, LDS, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Atheists. The only Christians I lack respect for are the ones who proclaim loud and long that no one else is going to heaven. I have no problem with their beliefs....only with their actions.

The coalition of great thinkers: Catholics, Atheists, and homosexuals. Talk about your unlikely bed-fellows!!!!

LOL....I understand. My daughter, her husband, and another couple went to dinner to Celebrate their friend's BD. Then they went to a "gentlemen's club", because Brian (the birthday boy) wanted to. Now, Brian is very good-looking, but not as gorgeous as he thinks he is. The waitress came over and, pointing to one of the "dancers", said, "Sheena would like to give you a table dance." Brian assumed that someone had mentioned his BD. He was obviously flattered, nonetheless. "Thanks," he said, "but I don't think so. I'm here with my wife and..." "No," the waitress said, cutting him off in mid-sentence, "not you, HER," and she pointed to my daughter. Never has the male ego deflated more quickly than Brian's did that night.

If you truly had a choice, you would not have been disgusted - you would simply have given it due consideration, like an invitation to lunch, and then stated your preference. "Realizing" you are heterosexual (or homosexual) is quite the opposite of "choosing" to be one.

LOL....great minds think alike, TOM. After I hit the "submit" button, I saw your post. Good job, dude.

Would all the heterosexuals taking part in this discussion please take a moment to share? At what point in your life did you decide to live a straight lifestyle? I, for one, never experienced such an Epiphany. I never made a choice regarding my sexual orientation....it just WAS. I have not studied homosexuality. I took a course in college called Abnormal Human Sexuality, but right off the bat, the instructor told us that homosexuality was not one of the topics we would be studying, since it's not considered, by the scientific community, to be abnormal sexual behavior. I have known a number of gay people, and at some point in their lives, most tried to "choose" not to be gay. One hundred percent of them failed. So...what do you think? Did they just not try hard enough? Is that all it takes - more commitment, more determination, more self-discipline? Gee....that sounds familiar, doesn't it?

I feel your pain. We also fly non-rev and it gets increasingly harder each year. My DH has family near Orlando but we can't fly into Orlando because of Disneyworld and the cruise lines arriving/departing. We have to fly to Tampa, rent a car, and drive to Orlando. But on the up-side, they are still flying! And they have not deep-sixed their defined pension plan, like so many others.

If only stupidity were against the law. Then we could indite Ann Coulter.

The KKK also wears sheets. What people wear has nothing to do with their behavior. Scottish men wear "skirts", women wear skirts - that doesn't mean that Scotsmen are effeminate. I have heard middle-eastern men referred to as "towel heads". Their headcoverings are less offensive to me than those God-awful, dirty, grimy, gimme caps you see all over the rural South. I have heard Asians called "rice eaters", Mexicans "beaners", Germans "krauts", etc. Japanese made cars were once known as "rice burners", until they proved themselves to be more reliable than their US counterparts. Americans are particularly quick to define people by their ethnic traditions. The richest, most powerful nation in the world and the best we can come up with is "rag head"? How sad is that?

I could be wrong, but I think "homophobe" might be a label.