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carlanime
in this particular post:
Yrs. truly is straight. I should know. I've spent thirty-one years in this body and I've been to an all-girls Catholic school for four of them, plus several years of membership in my local YWCA. Last time I took any kind of test or assessment to determine where I fell on the Kinsey scale, I came out at something like 0.2.
Right now I'm a Roman Catholic, although I'm seriously considering joining the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America instead. Christian denominations, both of them. (No, I don't care what you think about Catholicism and its positions on Mary or the saints. It's still a Christ-centered denomination, so get over it.) Neither one's known for fuzzy thinking or foo-foo feel good handwaving of doctrinal standing.
So understand me, please, when I say this: I don't give a tin-plated fart if you, personally, are straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, heteroflexible, celibate, furry, xenophilic, vegisexual, any of those things. Really, I don't. I'm fine where I am, you're fine where you are, all's well on that front as far as I'm concerned.
But if you, personally- you who are reading this now- are a homophobe, or one of the 'God hates fags' people, or believe that AIDS is some kind of divine punishment for immorality, or can argue with a straight face that it's better to take an adopted or foster child from a stable home with two gay parents and put that child in an unstable home that happens to be captained by two straights who're likely to divorce each other or get violent, or to put that child in the foster care system in general... any of those things?
Bugger off, okay?
Your point of view is unwelcome, and cruel. Yes, you may well point to segments of the Old Testament indicating that one is not to lie with a man as one lies with a woman on pain of quite a lot of rocks. That's in the same book as the rules about not eating shrimp, the rules about no wool/linen blends in fabric, and the rules about the horrible things you're supposed to do to the daughter of a priest if she dishonours her father before marriage. Mind if I go through your closet and your refrigerator? You know, just in case.
We will now pause for an edited interjection: this is directed at those who self-identify as Christians. I'm not Jewish. Never have been. I was a member of Hillel House at college but that was because I went on their initial tour- they had nice stained glass windows- and they made us all fill out membership cards before they let us leave. I've studied the religion as part of a religion major at the university level, but that does not make me Jewish, and it certainly does not give me any kind of authority or licence or even personal experiential viewpoint from which to address questions pertaining to the Jewish faith. The point I am trying to make in the above paragraph is not a strike at those who adhere to the Book of Leviticus. It is a strike at those who think they can pull out sentiments from Leviticus to back themselves up, but then turn around and ignore everything else in the book. That's not how it works, and it cheapens the beliefs and efforts of the people who do follow the whole thing.
Back to the original body of the rant.
Look, if you're so hot on Christianity, find me one place- one- where Jesus himself said anything at all specific about gay people or homosexual anything. He had other things on his mind. You know. Feeding the hungry. Giving drink to the thirsty. Clothing the naked, uprooting the unjust social order. Forgiving the sinner-
Oh, yeah, that one. Forgiving, see, this is not the same thing as hounding and yelling at and protesting. Jesus wasn't so big on the 'you're bad you're horrible you're awful' approach to sin. He was more of the 'okay, lady, you did things that were wrong, I see that you're very sorry, so I forgive you, but don't sin any more'. He saved His wrath for hypocrites and for members of the social order who considered themselves upright and just while the rest of the country went to Hell in a handbasket.
Jesus came to the tax collectors- extortionist little bastards that they were- and the prostitutes. He touched lepers and he shared His wisdom and forgiveness with a Samaritan woman who had been married multiple times and was living in an extramarital relationship. He even- and this one is important- extended healing to the household of a Roman centurion who approached him in faith and humility. A Roman. You know. One of the people who were sort of oppressing the crap out of Israel? The ones who were ruling the Jews and installing kings of Israel as puppet rulers? Yeah, those Romans. He had pretty nearly every reason possible to tell the guy 'piss the frell off', but nope; the centurion sent messengers to plead the case of his slave and said he was not worthy to have Jesus under his roof, but please please please could he help oh please I know you can do it, sir, only say the word. And sure enough, Jesus healed the guy's servant.
He wants humility, guys. He wants faith. He wants people to reach out and embrace each other in kindness and forgiveness. He wants us to do for other people what we want done for ourselves- to set things right through kindness to those in need, and truth to those in power, and examination of ourselves for the purpose of changing that in our hearts which is sinful and atoning for what we've done.
He does NOT, to my knowledge, have the SLIGHTEST bit of interest in screeching our damn fool heads off at people who score higher than a three on the Kinsey scale.
You try using His name or His Father's name as a means of backing up your desire to see the homosexual population of the Earth go quietly into that good night, and I don't want to hear from you. Ever.
That's all.
Yrs. truly is straight. I should know. I've spent thirty-one years in this body and I've been to an all-girls Catholic school for four of them, plus several years of membership in my local YWCA. Last time I took any kind of test or assessment to determine where I fell on the Kinsey scale, I came out at something like 0.2.
Right now I'm a Roman Catholic, although I'm seriously considering joining the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America instead. Christian denominations, both of them. (No, I don't care what you think about Catholicism and its positions on Mary or the saints. It's still a Christ-centered denomination, so get over it.) Neither one's known for fuzzy thinking or foo-foo feel good handwaving of doctrinal standing.
So understand me, please, when I say this: I don't give a tin-plated fart if you, personally, are straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, heteroflexible, celibate, furry, xenophilic, vegisexual, any of those things. Really, I don't. I'm fine where I am, you're fine where you are, all's well on that front as far as I'm concerned.
But if you, personally- you who are reading this now- are a homophobe, or one of the 'God hates fags' people, or believe that AIDS is some kind of divine punishment for immorality, or can argue with a straight face that it's better to take an adopted or foster child from a stable home with two gay parents and put that child in an unstable home that happens to be captained by two straights who're likely to divorce each other or get violent, or to put that child in the foster care system in general... any of those things?
Bugger off, okay?
Your point of view is unwelcome, and cruel. Yes, you may well point to segments of the Old Testament indicating that one is not to lie with a man as one lies with a woman on pain of quite a lot of rocks. That's in the same book as the rules about not eating shrimp, the rules about no wool/linen blends in fabric, and the rules about the horrible things you're supposed to do to the daughter of a priest if she dishonours her father before marriage. Mind if I go through your closet and your refrigerator? You know, just in case.
We will now pause for an edited interjection: this is directed at those who self-identify as Christians. I'm not Jewish. Never have been. I was a member of Hillel House at college but that was because I went on their initial tour- they had nice stained glass windows- and they made us all fill out membership cards before they let us leave. I've studied the religion as part of a religion major at the university level, but that does not make me Jewish, and it certainly does not give me any kind of authority or licence or even personal experiential viewpoint from which to address questions pertaining to the Jewish faith. The point I am trying to make in the above paragraph is not a strike at those who adhere to the Book of Leviticus. It is a strike at those who think they can pull out sentiments from Leviticus to back themselves up, but then turn around and ignore everything else in the book. That's not how it works, and it cheapens the beliefs and efforts of the people who do follow the whole thing.
Back to the original body of the rant.
Look, if you're so hot on Christianity, find me one place- one- where Jesus himself said anything at all specific about gay people or homosexual anything. He had other things on his mind. You know. Feeding the hungry. Giving drink to the thirsty. Clothing the naked, uprooting the unjust social order. Forgiving the sinner-
Oh, yeah, that one. Forgiving, see, this is not the same thing as hounding and yelling at and protesting. Jesus wasn't so big on the 'you're bad you're horrible you're awful' approach to sin. He was more of the 'okay, lady, you did things that were wrong, I see that you're very sorry, so I forgive you, but don't sin any more'. He saved His wrath for hypocrites and for members of the social order who considered themselves upright and just while the rest of the country went to Hell in a handbasket.
Jesus came to the tax collectors- extortionist little bastards that they were- and the prostitutes. He touched lepers and he shared His wisdom and forgiveness with a Samaritan woman who had been married multiple times and was living in an extramarital relationship. He even- and this one is important- extended healing to the household of a Roman centurion who approached him in faith and humility. A Roman. You know. One of the people who were sort of oppressing the crap out of Israel? The ones who were ruling the Jews and installing kings of Israel as puppet rulers? Yeah, those Romans. He had pretty nearly every reason possible to tell the guy 'piss the frell off', but nope; the centurion sent messengers to plead the case of his slave and said he was not worthy to have Jesus under his roof, but please please please could he help oh please I know you can do it, sir, only say the word. And sure enough, Jesus healed the guy's servant.
He wants humility, guys. He wants faith. He wants people to reach out and embrace each other in kindness and forgiveness. He wants us to do for other people what we want done for ourselves- to set things right through kindness to those in need, and truth to those in power, and examination of ourselves for the purpose of changing that in our hearts which is sinful and atoning for what we've done.
He does NOT, to my knowledge, have the SLIGHTEST bit of interest in screeching our damn fool heads off at people who score higher than a three on the Kinsey scale.
You try using His name or His Father's name as a means of backing up your desire to see the homosexual population of the Earth go quietly into that good night, and I don't want to hear from you. Ever.
That's all.