Boycott dropped?
The word of the day is that the American Family Association has dropped their boycott of Wal-Mart. Apparently Wal-Mart has made some sort of promise to the AFA.
However, it is obvious that Wal-mart's promise to AFA to "avoid unrestricted donations that might be used for causes Wal-Mart did not endorse" is just a ridiculous conglomeration of words that really doesn't change the store's position. (http://www.localnewswatch.com/benton/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=28303)
That lovingly radical group, Operation Save America is obviously still not happy. (http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/384701564.html)
Take a tip, Operation Save America. Obviously AFA realized that it was biting off more than it could chew and is trying to exit this situation gracefully.
It's not working but still, it's nice to watch.
God and Us
I wish all of my readers all of the joy and happiness this Thanksgiving season.
I also want to give you all food for thought.
One of the most dangerous lies that is spread by the anti-gay industry is the idea that God disapproves of our community.
Supposedly we are an abomination and a stench in His nostrils.
What nonsense.
It took me years to reach my point of clarity regarding my God and my sexual orientation. I know the Biblical verses by heart that supposedly condemns homosexuality and I know what has been said publicly.
I, like so many of us, have gone through the wringer wondering whether or not God hates me. I have wondered many times that if God hates homosexuals, then why did he make me one.
It all stopped one day when I did something I should have done from the start.
I simply asked him.
Part of the problem with religion, particularly Christianity in the United States, is that it is conducted like a typing class.
In typing class, the location of the alphabet keys are drilled into your head until you could reach them without looking at them.
Like typing class, Christianity is done the same way.
We follow a set of rituals until they are drilled in our head. We are told not to question what we are being taught. But how can you have answers to questions without asking?
I think we lose perspective when it comes to who we are supposed to ask. The pastor of your church don’t have the answers. God does.
It is He who we should ask.
I think that when we let others, be it the pastor of a church, a family member, or a televangelist, tell us what God thinks, we are just setting ourselves up for a fall.
My homosexuality taught me to have a closer relationship with God. Dealing with my sexual orientation forced me to close out all other voices who was telling me what God felt about me because only He could give me the correct answer.
And he told me that I am His creation and delightful in His sight.
So when someone throws the Good Book at you, do what I did.
Consult the original author.
1 comment:
I know you wrote this a while ago but I just today found your blog. Like books, when I find a new blog I like to start at the beginning and work my way up to the most current posts.
Normally I don't even comment but I had to in this case, because this is almost exactly what happened to me.
I grew up in a religious family and I spent thirty years of my life (I was aware I was gay at five) being devoted, fasting, reading, praying, studying, and begging to be 'normal', begging God to change me, begging him to send to me the one he had created to be my partner and my soulmate so that I could be at peace. Of course, I assumed at the time that partner would be male, and that when I met him, all of my hidden and 'shameful' attractions to women would just vanish away and I would be 'cured.'
For thirty years, I did that. My soul mate never appeared. When I begged to be changed I got no answer, and when I begged for my one true love I was told only 'when you are ready'.
Finally, miserable beyond words, hopelessly depressed and desperate beyond reason, I did what I should have done in the very beginning. Instead of praying and begging him to be changed, I asked him what he wanted of me. I asked him what his plan was, and why he had not taken these desires from me.
That was when I finally got an answer. 'I will not change what is not broken. You are as I have made you. Be happy.'
I had spent so much time begging for him to change me I had never bothered asking if I was the way I was because that was what he wanted for me, I had always just relied on what my family and preachers and scriptures had all been telling me he wanted. I never actually asked the source.
That was just over a year ago. Within weeks I came out to all my family and friends, and the reactions were overwhelmingly positive, which came as a surprise (even my extremely conservative grandmother who had been pestering me to marry and have kids since I was seventeen reacted with unconditional love).
Very shortly after that, I met the love of my life. I know without a doubt we were made by God to be together. I have never been so close to someone so quickly in my life...it is as if we knew each other for years only moments after having met. We have our first anniversary this wednesday, and are making plans to get married.
I am as God has made me, and he will not fix what is not broken. He loves and delights in me, and I know that he is overjoyed that me and my love can finally be together, as he intended.
You are absolutely right. Far too many people trust the readers and interpreters and perverters of his book...and far too few just ask the author.
Post a Comment