Um, Christ died about 2,000 years ago.

AT&T cannot raise prices mid contract without offering you a way out of it that doesn't involve an early termination fee.

I appreciate you having the courage to reply -- it would be nice if you didn't do it as an AC, but I can't really fault you for that.

I think that the Bible, and particularly the New Testament offers pretty good guidance on a lot of thorny moral and philosophical issues (though I reserve the right to disagree at times). I picked up on your assault on "gays" because homosexuality and shellfish are given essentially the same treatment in Leviticus -- both are an "abomination". You could interpret that to mean that homosexuality is bad, or you could interpret it as meaning that homosexuality is no worse than eating shellfish, which most anti-gay advocates do.

The old testament says a bunch of contradictory things as well, which I won't go into here, but I would be happy to discuss at length if you're interested. What I'm more interested in addressing is the new testament and the core values it promotes: that we love our neighbor (broadly interpreted to mean every human being) as ourselves, and that we see spirituality as something that is personal and not political. Nowhere in the new testament did Jesus try to impose his belief system on others. He had followers, but they were free to come and go as they pleased, and governed themselves as they saw fit. Jesus was a revolutionary figure; if he were alive today he would likely oppose all armed conflict and would spend most of his time deriding the rich (as he did during his lifetime). You may think that being homosexual is bad, but the only qualities that Jesus consistently spoke out against were greed, selfishness and inordinate wealth. And if you believe that all the old testament stuff was "washed away", I don't see how you justify being against homosexuality at all, at least scripturally. The new testament is good news for believers. It says, among other things, that you can eat shrimp and be faithful in private. It also means that you should probably take the "beam" out of your own eye before attempting to fix someone else (see Matthew 7:5).

Again, I'm not religious at all, I just know scripture pretty well.

"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's" -- Matthew 22:21

The "God" of your understanding has no place in politics, and if you're really worried about "gays" corrupting society, I think you're pretty misguided. Do you follow all of the commandments of the old testament? Do you still eat shellfish? "But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you." -- Leviticus 11:10

NB -- I'm not religious, but grew up in a very religious family, and I can cite scripture chapter and verse all night long -- I guess I can thank my crazy parents for something!

This is just another in a succession of stories on ./ today that has deeply shaken my faith in democracy and liberty in the civilized world. Earlier today (or maybe last night) there was a story posted about proposed legislation that would require ISPs to log all internet activity of customers in HI for 2 years, which would be accessible to law enforcement (or just about anyone) without a warrant or court order. Add to this the articles about DMCA exemptions for jailbreaking of devices, which are about to expire, and ACTA being signed by 22 European countries. Today, ./ also brought news of the demise of the market for used console games (thanks to Microsoft), the NASDAQ delisting a broadcasting company under pressure from the Chinese government, and a new law that would provide for indefinite logging and retention of online activity of Australian citizens.

SOPA may be on hold, but I fear that we might be losing the war against big content providers and others who want to restrict our rights for financial or political gain. While I appreciate being made aware of these troubling developments, I find today's news to be incredibly distressing and depressing. While the war isn't over, I feel the balance is beginning to shift against us. What else can we do to tip the scales?