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Matthew 13:55 56 is also an interesting passage:

"Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?"

The Jews killed Jesus... we wouldn't have done that. We would have destroyed his credit rating.

An extremely irreverent friend of mine used to say, "That's right. We Jews killed Jesus. And when he comes back, we'll do it again, and you'll all have to wear little electric chairs around your necks."

And technically... if God mandated that Jesus die for Mankind's sins, isn't that something of a suicide?

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Not to steer too wide off topic, but that there is one of most preposterous aspects of Christianity that is repeated time and time again like it's something wonderful. 

Matthew 13:55 56 is also an interesting passage:

"Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?"

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No Christians deny that Jesus had brothers and sisters.  There are disagreements about how they're related to him, whether its half-brothers and sisters, step-brothers and sisters, or first cousins, but nobody denies their existence.  James the brother of the Lord was the first leader of the church in Jerusalem, vis a vis the book of Acts and Paul's epistles, and the book of James was traditionally ascribed to him.  Jude was also traditionally ascribed to one of Jesus' brothers.  And traditionally, Jesus' sister Salome was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of the disciples James and John.

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Not to steer too wide off topic, but that there is one of most preposterous aspects of Christianity that is repeated time and time again like it's something wonderful. 

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This idea grows out of Cur Deus Homo, written by Anselm in the 11th century, and is only the belief of a segment of Christianity, albeit a significant segment of Western Christianity.  The more common view of Christ's death was based on pre-Christian Jewish theology of martyrdom, developed out of books like II Maccabees.

The idea also grows out of Messianic legend not saying anyhing about the True Messiah being arrested, tortured and killed. Early Christians had to vamp.

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If there was no historical Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified by the Romans, why would they have 'had to vamp'?

I listened to an interview with Caitlyn Jenner today on the Norm McDonald podcast.  I love Norm.  Hilarious guy.  But I was rather disturbed to learn, perhaps later than some, that Caitlyn is not only a conservative Republican but extremely religious.  I can't wrap my mind around that.  At all.  An LGBT person who lives in support of the Republicans who is also a practicing Christian.  Her defense is that she'd rather try to convince Republicans to accept LGBT people than to convince Democrats that smaller government and less taxes are the way to go. 

OK.  She's fortunate.  She's got millions that she wants to protect.  But isn't that worthless if the party you choose to affiliate yourself with decides to strip your fundamental rights?  Worse, you choose to follow a god at all, but align yourself with Christianity which, let's be fair, hasn't been the nicest with regard to anyone not propagating the species in the "correct" way?  Yes, before anyone jumps in to defend some Christian churches as being welcoming to LGBT, that's hardly the norm.  And when they do?  I've been to enough in my lifetime to know that they aren't looked at the same as the "normal" folk.  It's part of their "outreach" but not really the kind of people they want to attract UNLESS they can ultimately show them the "error of their ways".  

As charming as Caitlyn was in the interview, I was fundamentally disturbed by her foundation and remained confused with the notion of wanting to be a part of an institution that really wants absolutely nothing to do with you, be it Republicans or Christians, except  for your money.  

I had no idea about this until your post, but it does seem very, very bizarre.

Jenner aside, I have read accounts from LGBT people on social media who felt that some churches were tolerating them rather than accepting them.

The word "tolerance" is an odd one, often used here by the media to describe LGBT people. Yet I think it's the wrong word. I tolerate a fly or wasp hanging around my beer in a pub garden; I tolerate a poor driver doing 20mph in a 40mph zone; and I tolerate a loud drunk at a bus station. Tolerating is putting up with something you really don't care for (and we all bloody hate an insect flying around our beers, right?).

"Accept" is a better word. And I really doubt many churches accept LGBT people.