Thursday, May 17, 2007

Phase two of editing almost done

In all of the chaos about hate crimes legislation, ENDA, and Falwell's death, I almost forgot to give updates about the original reason this blog was created: my book.

I am sending the new batch of galley edits to the publisher Monday morning. It has taken me so long because this is the last round of editing and I want to make sure everything is perfect or at least close to perfect.

This means not only editing my galleys for grammatical errors but also checking my sources and information yet again.

It's a very meticulous process.

Also, I am developing a new web page. When this blog began in September, I originally wanted it to focus on the progress of my book. Since that time and over 7500 hits later, it has branched out into something more. I am proud of this blog.

While I continue to post here, my new webpage will focus solely on my book, including excerpts and an explanation as to why my book is vital to the lgbt community.

I will keep you posted on this. Until then, please keep reading and supporting me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good evening Mr. McEwan!

Congratulations on the progress of your book and best of luck as you develop your new web page.

I noticed that in a few posts you quote Jesus. Just a few questions:

1) Would you consider yourself a “Christian”?
2) How do you define what or who is a “Christian,” and based on what authority?
3) Is the practice of homosexuality compatible with Christianity?

Thanks and have a great night!

AJ

BlackTsunami said...

Hey AJ

Thanks for your kind words.

To answer your questions:

1. i am an agnostic. I did quote Jesus because his comment about loving your enemies is one we should all follow, no matter what religion one may prescribe to.

2. I cannot define Christianity. There are several different interpretations. I do have a problem with folks like James Dobson and the late Jerry Falwell assuming that their idea of Christianity is the only true form of Christianity.

3. I don't know what you mean by "practice of homosexuality." I think phrases like that come from the assumption that homosexuality is defined by sex acts. Homosexuality is an orientation, not necessarily a sex act.

But to answer your question, I feel that homosexuality is compatible with Christianity. It is only my opinion based on the fact that neither God nor Jesus said anything about homosexuality. Moses condemned it in the Old Testament but only as a part of a group of laws that we no longer follow. Some say Paul condemned it but the word homosexual is not in the Bible. It has been added by folks who feel that Paul was talking about gays but that is up to intepretation as to what he actually meant.

Please bear in mind that Paul also agreed with slavery.

Sodom and Gommorrah has also been used to condemn homosexuality. Of course other intepretations say that the two cities were destroyed because of their total wickedness and that fact that the men desired to rape the men who visited Lot was a manifestation of this wickedness, not necessarily a condmenation of homosexuality.

But that is only my opinion. I also personally think that those who are Christians need to talk to God himself in prayer rather than interpret the Bible on their own.

BlackTsunami said...

Dear readers,

AJ just sent me a very long answer back. To make a long story short, I chose not to post his or her reply.

Let me explain why:

This web page was not created to debate personal religious beliefs about homosexuality.

The purpose of this blog is to expose how the anti-gay industry exploits personal religious beliefs to pass along junk science and cherry picked portions of legitimate studies about the gay and lesbian community. These lies are used to affect public policy.

AJ asked me a question and I answered it. However, I refuse to get bogged down in a discussion regarding personal religious beliefs; it has nothing to do with the purpose of this blog.