I am not in the habit of writing posts that haven't been deeply thought out, but here is one. The rest will be written later.
At Mass, we were encouraged to sign a petition for Illinois defining marriage as being legal union only between a man and a woman. I couldn't do it, somehow, and spent much of the afternoon and evening in meditation and prayer.
Can't anybody see that this business with gay marriage is the lepers all over again!?
Oh, God, painful. And we "Christians" want to do it again, how blind are we! I will not, cannot be silent on this. People might start hearing from rocks otherwise.
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18 comments:
Julie,
Stay strong. Sometimes we must use our own feelings and intuition as to what is right and wrong, rather than what we are told.
Peace
Julie,
The Republican Party is good at focusing people's attention on values instead of issues that affect them deeply. This is basically politics interfering with religion, or you can flip it and say it's religion interfering with politics. Personally, I believe it to be politics interfering with religion. After all, the homosexuals have a right to their own lives. Live and let live. All a marriage is is a social and legal contract between two adults. The lines blur because marriage is defined in the Old Testament. However, the New Testament states in Acts that Jewish Law doesn't apply to the Gentiles. The Laws were made for Man, not Man for the Laws. Wasn't this one of Jesus' retorts to his critics pertaining to not eating on the Sabbath? I've seen something similar with Science. I've seen homosexuals trying to prove that their condition was due to nature rather than nuture in scientific articles. I think it's a bit more complex than that, but gays were using Science to gain legitimacy and not take some responsability for their decisions. I think that some individuals are born gay. They don't have a choice. It's genetic, or may be due to environmental influences (chemicals - estrogen mimics) on their development in the womb. Others, though, choose the lifestyle. I've heard stories of women who were rape victims who chose to be lesbian due to the trauma of rape. Either way, they shouldn't be persecuted. I am trying to show you though that politics seems to be affecting human endeavors that it usually leaves alone. You will likely find that the people against gay marriage are Conservative Republicans. Now ask them the following question. Which affects you more as a person, the government giving tax breaks to oil companies for R&D or gay marriage? The no-brainer is the former. We all pay higher prices at the pump and the oil companies aren't passing any savings on to us the consumer, but everyone's attention is on gay marriage. Our government is doing nothing to wean us from imported oil. Gay marriage hurts no one.
My sister even asked me to vote against gay marriage which I didn't do. I didn't vote for it either because I didn't take the time to vote. Her church told her to. So, you aren't alone. It's come and gone in Texas and the gays lost. It's a complete lapse of critical thinking and spirit as well. Hopefully, wise heads will prevail.
John
and where did the problem begin in the first place...is it an issue with 'gay marriage'...or 'marriage'...is marriage a religious tradition that everyone has become swept up in as being the gospel truth and now even gay people are scratching at the gates, simply to feel ïncluded", or is their a deeper Truth that has nothing to do with a piece of paper, a ceremony...but everything to do with Love...not the Exclusive love of a certain other but a Devine Love of all.
All the bickering amongst each other over who loves who and who is the sort of thing you can observe in any kindergarten playground...so the bodies are bigger, the vocabulary a little more sophisticated but the arguement, just as unconscious as it ever was...
People will always tell you what to do, how to act, and what to think, because it then justifies their own doing and acting and thinking, and I think God loves variety but people don't. If you choose to make your own decisions, there are consequences, yet your consciousness can help us all live with greater love.
Jesus did what He did out of Love and Compassion and because it was the right thing to do. You recognize how wrong this is. You are speaking out. There isn't much more you can do except be a voice of reason and try to not make it any more of a problem than it already is. Only you will know what is the right thing to do at the proper time. This is the problem everyone faces at some point in their lives and life being life, you will always have more challenges awaiting you. The best you can do is get it right the first time and not have any regrets. If people ignore you or worse, vilify you, when you know deep down that they are wrong, then have compassion on them for they know not what they do. You have to live with yourself, but don't let others' unconsciousness pollute your beautiful soul, or pressure you into changing your stance on the matter.
Sadly, a little known fact is that there is more in the bible, against the opponents of gay marriage, than there is against homosexuality, Far More.
Julie:
Amen. Said beautifully.
Andrew
Blessings to you for standing your ground and not signing. Much love as you and the church wrestles with this.
I can't believe that the same people who want the church to stay out of economic policy think it should take an active role in social policy. These folks like to pretend that only "liberals" want a watered down version of Jesus. Of course, their watered down version of Jesus only contains the few parables that can easily be turned into crappy motivational posters and the nine or ten obscure biblical references to various homosexual practices of the ancient world, none of which remotely resembled gay marriage. Stay strong!
Perhaps it is worth recalling that Christianity and Churchianity are two quite separate religions these days.
One of these may be superfluous to needs.
Can't remember where I heard this but the quote goes: 'Biology loves diversity but society hates diversity.'
Julie,
I applaud you for not signing!
Even Darkness intrudes
in the Sanctuary of Light.
She took a stand
against Darkness.
A dazzling flame
among many candles.
Tho some were extinguished
momentarily by the Dark.
Her flame remained bright!
Defiant against the Dark!
Okay so I have here fifteen comments... so far... So I'm tossing thoughts back at you all and hopefully they don't sound too flippant or whatever... but whatever.
Peishan You rock too. Some Christians believe the Bible is the inspired word of God recorded by men... some believe it is infallible, some believe that only the Bible is a source of... I don't know what... I mean, yeah. Interpreted by people... shhh, don't want anybody to catch on... *wink*
And don't get me started about the lack of respect for marriage. That's painful too.
Goatman Thanks and peace. I still don't know a lot of things but I know a couple...
JBMoore Yeah I think there are some bigger problems... aren't there still people starving in the States, and more of those than there are gay people? I mean at least we know we can help the starving folks...
blow'n Hi and welcome and thanks for commenting... yeah, marriage is totally a religous tradition, and no matter what some traditions (coughcatholicscough) aren't likely to start giving recognition. The vocabulary, sadly, is often perhaps not at a kindergarten level but not much beyond middle school.
Corewell Welcome to you also! The Bible's a lot like statistics - use it to say anything you want.
JBMoore Yeah not much to do besides the right thing, and encourage those who can be encouraged... God bless the pastor, he's gonna have me to talk to. I've been villified before, for standing up for (gasp) not being mean to people! Ha. Whatever. For every person who despises me, I'll gain the respect of someone whose respect is worth having... in the long run.
Jim haha, who knew. There's a lot of stuff in there about loving folks... people who say it's not about love or hate, well duh - that's the problem! (Or it's about fear and hate and they're lying - different problem.)
Andrew Thanks bro.
Trev Thanks. Gonna need a lot of love to fix this one... it's comin' down from the Illinois bishops... how much are the pastor's hands tied I don't know.
Lucretius Glad to have you here too. I'm gonna go on a stupid church people rampage (not to mention I've listened to, like, half a dozen of their podcasts at work the last couple days). There aren't a lot of people who get the gospel, geez, there's a quote for every purpose.
Alcuin Holy majoly, where these new people coming from! Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside... (Aight, yeah, I'm kind of in a weird mood here, don't mind me...) Alcuin there's everything to be said for recalling that difference.
Rob Isn't that the truth. Why...
Stacey Thanks dear, I appreciate the support. It's not like anybody really saw me not sign, here, so don't anybody think I had to be all bold... just told this sweet lady next to me in the church choir, no thanks, I can't do this.
JBMoore Haha, I gotta start posting three times a day to give you something to keep up with. It's really not so dramatic as that - haven't sucked it up and done anything that scared me. That stuff takes courage and defiance.
Julie,
Big things start with small things. Saying No to the Saducees, saying No to Caesar, pinning complaints against the Church upon a door for all to read, sitting in the wrong seat in a bus because you are too tired to sit in the Colored Section. Nothing ever starts big. It just takes one thoughtful person to take a stand at the right time. That's all.
This isn't the first time the Catholic Church has told people how to think, and it won't be the last. You have to live with yourself and your conscience regardless of what a Bishop decides or thinks. Bishops are still human after all, all to human. You'll be fine.
Many blessings
So Julie, I'm not sure you've given us much insight into the comparison between lepers and gay people. It seems many people are interested in taking a stand against hypocrisy in the church (or bigotry or stupidity) and who would like to be for any of those things? But how are gay people like lepers? Jesus was not afraid to touch lepers but he didn't leave them as lepers either. I understand your petition rebellion. Now what about the people. To call a gay person a leper is to invoke imagery of decay and disease which cannot be left alone if one is truly compassionate. Where does your analogy end?
Wow. I'm saddened to hear of such discriminatory politicking in the Church in Illinois, but quite gladdened to hear of your gutsy stand for what's right.
Blessings to you.
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