Sexually explicit images are quite useful for blackmailing.

I thought it was a pretty clever idea.

This also applies to people with large amounts of debt - which IIRC is one of the most common reasons people are denied clearance. See here for more info (scroll to "Vulnerability to Coercion"): http://www.dhra.mil/perserec/adr/falsification/falsification...

I think there was a guy that was caught spying recently that had a gambling addiction.

there will always be something taboo in society to blackmail people with.

And yes, there always will, but I think that homosexuality as a taboo has been exploited, specifically.

Your original statement seemed to suggest that it is still a taboo because those who wish to exploit it want it that way. The cause is not power brokers, it's everyone (or enough of everyone) who makes taboos' shamefulness persist.

I felt that while both can be weapons, there is a concrete, perhaps subtle difference between the two.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010

Now you are just being silly. The USSR sent homosexuals to the gulags. China considered homosexuality to be a mental illness up 'til 2002, it is only when they started to become capitalist that they relaxed! In the UK it is the right-wing Tories that are bringing in gay marriage.

Attitudes towards homosexuality are simply not correlated with left-right politics.

yes, it is part of our species favoring r-selection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory

(progressives are the ones who favor K-selection)

Nurture vs Nature.....

I don't think this is anything but a negatively nurtured situation....

"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28)

"If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death." (Leviticus 20:10 NIV)

"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you." (Leviticus 25:44 ESV)

So, um, not a great book to pull random quotes from as a source.

Perhaps it's because it's not really a religious issue (just using that as an excuse).

Biologically people are repelled by homosexuality and attracted to adultery. That affects their state of mind, and they look for a reason for that and catch upon religious arguments.

What people get upset about is a cultural variable that is not consistent across times and places. Plenty of times and places, people have gotten at least as upset about adultery as about homosexuality.

Other times and places, not so much.

I get that it's the "in" thing now to hate on ancient texts to seem smart but ...

Quoting a writing from the ancient Jewish leader Moses is equivalent to studying the history of the peoples in those times and locations. Please, note that basically ALL nations used an enslavement "banking" system that basically boiled down to: You pay off your credit card by working for the creditor for a few years (or for however many years the owner thought was sufficient).

It has absolutely nothing to do with recent American slavery traditions embedded in deep racism and superiority complexes.

The only similarities are the translation of the word: slave.

The economics of ancient cultures was drastically different from how it has been for all post-1600s Bank of England cultures. :P

I don't think that anybody is distressed by the Code of Hammurabi, but that is because there are not people going around sincerely stating that they believe the Code of Hammurabi to be timeless and perfectly just, and Hammurabi himself to be someone to look to for ethical or moral guidance.

It is only when the historical context of ancient documents is purposely ignored or denied that those ancient documents become the targets of modern criticism.

Matthew 5:17-18

"Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished."

The "law or the prophets" is, of course, everything written in the Old Testament, where different chapters were attributed to the different prophets already in Jesus' time.

He makes it even stronger:

"Ye have heard that it was said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery': but I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28)

Verily, read thine Bible, if you believe it's inspired by God. Read it yourself. Don't believe what others interpret.

Or maybe accept that we shouldn't take that book too seriously?

Christians have absolutely no responsibility towards the Mosaic Law and only strictly towards the teachings of Jesus (whom they declare their leader).

Paul says this in a letter to a group of new Christians living in Collosae (modern day Turkey)sometime in the mid 1st century (50-60 C.E.) [0]

[0] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A1...

But back to the topic, tell me, do you approve what GCHQ did?

As an atheist from an "orthodox Christian" background (as opposed to protestant, baptist or the catholic church), I cannot really understand why people who call themselves Christians even quote the Bible, and seemingly only awful anachronistic parts, as opposed to the New Tastement.

Perhaps they should call themselves "Mosians"?

That wasn't what I was taught in my particular brand of Christianity, but having read the book I can totally see where other denominations pick it up. They aren't hallucinating or imagining hateful things in that book, it's all in there, ready to be reinforced or erased and excused, depending on which particular interpretation you take.

I think that reading the bible and coming to the conclusion that the god described in it hates homosexuality (among any number of other things) and that Jesus did not reverse those prejudices is perfectly reasonable. It's also somewhat reasonable (though far less so I think) to take away the idea that the Christian god is genuinely all loving and that Jesus absolved that god of all of it's sins (wasn't he suppose to do that for humanity instead? But it seems like he is most often invoked to absolve the christian god of his sins...).

(That of course isn't to say that I believe the sort of hateful Christianity seen prominently in certain parts of America (and other parts of the world) is acceptable. While I think their interpretation of the Bible is reasonable, I think it is _unreasonable_ for them to believe the Bible is divinely inspired, or that the god they read from those pages is worthy of being worshiped.)

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Jesus speaking in Matthew 5:17

Jesus affirmed the law and called people further into true righteousness, which can never come from following rules, but requires a transformation of the heart that only God can accomplish. That is what He is talking about in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5).

I don't see heaven and earth passed away, so the laws of the prophets still hold according to Jesus himself. He said that. Written one sentence after the one you quote claiming the opposite. So you decided not to believe what Jesus said. Fine with me. I believe the Bible is written by humans and that the humans invented all the gods.

But anyway we should discuss what GCHQ did with webcam streams of at least millions of people! What is your opinion on that?

This is obviously off topic from the original post, but hopefully it's a valuable conversation. It's actually a really important point that is reiterated throughout the New Testament explicitly and foreshadowed throughout the entire Old Testament.

This is a short helpful explanation http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-christ-fulfilled-and...

Last time I checked, heaven and earth were still here.

Yeah, the GCHQ thing is jacked up but not surprising. The connectedness and anonymity of the digital world and its increasing integration into our lives makes for some pretty scary scenarios.

The Bible can be made to say anything.

[1] http://bibviz.com/