Easter Weekend Thoughts
With Passover and Easter in the air, lately there has been a lot of religious talk in the air. I recently heard a newstory on NPR about African-American preachers who are joining the republican party because they are against homosexuality. It reminded me of a funeral I went to for a gay co-worker, who also happened to be African-American. All of his friends were in the audience and his aunt got up to the pulpit and said to these poor guys who were grieving, hurting, "y'all need to get right with Jesus." To say I was offended would be an understatment. I hardly imagine a funeral is the appropriate location to lecture against homosexuality.
I'm tired of certain religious people preaching against homosexuality but saying nothing about sex before marriage or having children out of wedlock. According to most religious texts, these three things are equally, "sinful" no one thing is above another (actually fornication and adultery are mentioned A LOT more than homosexuality in the Bible). So why pick on one, "sin of the flesh?" I think it's because these homophobes are hypocrites, I'd love to know how many of them actually saved themselves before marriage. I could probably count the total on one hand. Why don't these ministers get as angry about how much people disregard sex before marriage? Why is there no outrage for other, "sins?" Just as they go to gay men's funerals to cause problems, why don't these, "religious people" go to a hospital everytime an unwed mother is giving birth so they can scream obscenities and spew hatred? Is she not also committing a, "sin?" Once again people want to rant and rave and scream for change, as long as it doesn't affect them. Every time I think about this, my blood boils - I'm so sick of the hypocrisy of red state America!
"He who is without sin should caste the first stone" - Jesus Crist, peace be upon him.
posted by Virginia Gal @ 8:32 AM
12 Comments:
I'm totally with you on this young lady. I don't believe homosexuality is chosen, I believe homosexuals are born and if they're sinning in their lifestyle then God really put a huge load on their shoulders to expect them to live apart from who they are.
Do people who spew hateful things feel better afterwards? I can't imagine that if you were really following New Testament teachings, you definitely would not be walking around spewing hatred at random people - but then I'm pretty close to being a heathen anyway.
The church that I sing at is very open and affirming to the LGBT community and we have many gays and gay couples attending, many very involved in the life of the church. We also have a lot of families with small children and it always makes me feel better to know that at least these kids won't be growing up with that baggage of hatred.
The sin in this scenario is the anger and hatred spouted by this woman in the name of Jesus.
VG,
Speaking as a gay man, you can not imagine what it's like to hear so called religious people spout this kind of thing.
That's like telling me that I am a bad person because of my eye-color! I had no choice in the matter.
I joke a lot on my blog about the fundies but deep down, they horrify me. It does not matter if they are fundamental Christian's Jews or Muslims; the whole lot of them are are angry, rotten people. Remember when they hung those two gay teens in Iran? -- Or how about that preacher that shows up at gay men's funerals holding up those “GOD HATES FAGS” signs...
More so, do blacks in this country have such short memories that they can not recall when religious leaders in the South were pointing to Biblical passages to support segregation (and further back they did the same thing to support slavery).
I wonder, when the zealots (of every stripe) have taken care of the gays, who will they turn their jaundiced eyes towards next?
Amen sister VG.
You're my hero!
:-)
Our old church was LGBT affirming AND ministered by a black man. That was something that I think a lot of our gay congregants really appreciated and drew them. But ultimately, that was one of the big sadnesses when he left. A much needed open and affirming black minister was no longer in the pulpit in our area. (sigh)
I will say though that a lot of these churches who condemn homosexuality equally condemn premarital sex, adultery, etc. I remember a coworker of mine in Oklahoma telling me that before he was allowed to sing in his church choir, his pastor made him apologize to the congregation for fathering a child out of wedlock when he was 18. This was a kid he eventually got custody of and whom he took care of as best he could all along. He changed churches, thank God.
Likewise, when we were Southern Baptist, our pastor and his wife got divorced; simple incompatibility, nothing vile. About 1/3 of the congregation felt they couldn't be shepherded by a divorced person, so they left. My parents who were on the verge of leaving because they could no longer stand the way the SoBaps were sliding into ultra conservatism ended up keeping us in that church another 2 years, solely to provide him moral support. I'm thankful that they did so: took me years to figure it out, but they were teaching me more about the gospel in their steadfastness to one persecuted than those who scoffed our pastor for divorcing.
Oh, no stones from here.
Brenda - Yes, I can't imagine someone would choose this "lifestyle" it's hardly easy. God works in mysterious ways, somethings we humans are not meant to disect.
Random Kath - that is awesome about your church! I hope the children from this church are the kids who lead the country in the future, cause they give me the most hope for something positive.
Merci - oh hear hear, I hate when people use religion to cloak their own fears/hatreds. To me that is a form of blasphemy!
Pax - oh yes when the Gays are no longer the target who will be next.. it reminds me of that poem about how they kept coming for people and I said nothing etc. Religious zealots of all creeds scare me - I don't think they particularly care about religion as much as having power for themselves. And yes, I'm saddened that some of these black preachers seem to have forgotten how the Bible was used in the past to sanction hate and violence and fear.
Tony - oh thanks, (blushing abashedly) glad I'm someone's hero : )
Molly - Your parents rock! Well I say if you are going to rant and rave about one sin, you should keep it equal and rant and rave about them all. Of course I don't believe in ranting and raving at any of these items, which is where my bone of contention comes in. Thankfully in Islam we are dealing with a whole different set of issues so these things never come up (hell we are just trying to stay out of Guantanmo Bay for trumped up charges).
Joe - good to know - I try to live by that creed now, cause I'm aware of how many sins I do commit daily.
Divine - I thought it was not nice, as her nephew was gay also but what are you going to do?
Religion causes far many more problems than it's worth.
I have to agree Adham, it was meant to solve problems but for some reason it works in reverse. Shame.
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