OK, this one is NOT about divorce. At the moment, I am EXTREMELY ticked. On page one of Google, if you type in “Tyler Clemente”, an article shows up by some MORON who is claiming that A) being gay is a psychological disorder, and B) its his OWN fault for killing himself, because of his mental illness of “being gay”, and not being Christian.
To quote Dennis Miller: “I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but…”
Look, folks, I GET religion is a fundamental thing for many people, I DO. I get that MANY Christians feel the Bible is the undiluted word of God, handed down verbatim. So lets look at this from THAT angle first:
So, you believe the Bible is the EXACT word of God. YES it DOES say that a man shall not lie down with another man, so IF someone is gay, and doing that, they are, in YOUR eyes, committing a sin. ITS NOT YOUR JOB TO PUNISH THEM OR JUDGE THEM.
Lets be VERY clear here, if you are going to believe the Bible is the EXACT word of God, then you need to listen to it and QUIT BEING SO DAMNED JUDGMENTAL. If you feel HATE towards people who are gay, if you want them PUNISHED legally, if you want to TELL them how to live their lives, then you ARE NOT BEING CHRISTIAN. Its not your job to judge. God doesn’t care what YOUR opinion on the matter is and its between THAT person and God.
“Judge not that YE be judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall BE judged; and if what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matthew 7: 1-2
What ticks me most about MANY people who CLAIM to be Christians, is that even WHEN they say the Bible is the exact Word of God, they STILL cherry pick the things they take away from the Bible. So you think gays are sinning, and you think you need to do something? You know what? CLEAN UP THE CHRISTIAN HOUSE FIRST! Get rid of the Jerry Falwells, the Oral Roberts, and the Pat Robertsons who are PERVERTING the Word of God. Get rid of the people who preach hate, intolerance, pride, and that its OK to be RICH. NONE of this stuff is in the New Testament, folks! ITS NOT. Get rid of the adulterous ministers….THAT one breaks one of the Ten Commandments, being gay DOESN’T.
“Well, we have to forgive all those ministers guilty of adultery, because they said they were sorry.”
BULLSHIT. The ONLY thing they are sorry about is they got CAUGHT, and now their source of an easy life of limousines and Rolexes has suddenly dried up!
Jesus was NOT a millionaire. He didn’t ask his followers to give Him all kinds of money to spread His word. He didn’t live in a fancy house and have the fanciest chariot. You CANNOT read about Jesus’s life and think you are Christian while you are trying to get RICH. This trend in American Fundamentalism that says its ok to get rich and still be Christian…hey, you want to believe that, fine…but that’s NOT whats EXACTLY in the BIBLE!
“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:24 EXACT WORDS!
“Physician health thyself” Luke 4:23
Anyway, so you think someone ,who is gay, is going to Hell. Great. I get that. YOU still have NO input in the matter. God is not going to come up to YOU and say “Hey, what do you think? Burn them forever?” God is NOT going to punish YOU for THEM being gay, folks. So, if in your secret heart of hearts, you are thinking Tyler Clemente DESERVED what happen to him? NOT CHRISTIAN BY YOUR OWN SELF-PROCLAIMED STANDARDS.
Lets lay this out in CRYSTAL clear terms: There is NOTHING in the Bible that says the United States is the new Israel. God doesn’t care about countries, Jesus didn’t care about your nationality, and its not gonna matter ONE damn bit, when you die, if you lived in the US or Ethiopia. A relationship between YOU and God is just THAT: You and God and NO-ONE ELSE!
“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” John 18: 36
“But this country was founded on Christian Ideals.”
Yeah, like burning people as witches, owning slaves, and thinking if you weren’t a white, educated male over the age of 21, who owned at least 10 acres of property, you had NO right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
STUDY YOUR HISTORY!
From its earliest inception this Country “mouthed” the words of Christianity, as it killed and lied to Native Americans….Our founding fathers? I hate to tell you this, folks, Thomas Jefferson was a ruthless bastard who manipulated Burr and Hamilton into their duel and then hounded Burr to the ends of the US. REAL CHRISTIAN! I could sit here and list out the other founding father’s flaws, but if you actually care, you can look yourself.
If you want to claim this country was founded on some great Christian ideal, STUDY THE FACTS, they are there and easy to find. Women and NON-whites were PROPERTY, children were used to perform dangerous work, and ALL wars were divine, even for BOTH sides of the Civil War. Our founding fathers, our ancestors, were HUMAN, with all the failings that implies. Going to church for an hour on Sunday does NOT make you a Christian, when the rest of the week you are NOT living your life by those principles.
Sorry, I am getting into a tangent here, back to my point: Being gay is NOT a psychological disorder, and ANYONE who has had friends who are gay, and talked to them about this KNOWS this. Folks, I am as STRAIGHT as they come, but I have had MANY gay friends, spent MANY hours discussing this with them. I guarantee, if you are some “holy roller” you have friends who are gay, but are afraid to tell you, because they KNOW YOU WILL JUDGE THEM.
“But allowing gay lifestyles and gay relationships destroys traditional family values.”
When HALF of all marriages end in divorce, when we think ADULTERY is an ACCEPTABLE fact of American life? Give me a BREAK!
What destroys traditional Family Values are people NOT being parents, NOT being spouses, and NOT realizing when you marry, you are part of something BIGGER THAN YOU. What destroys family values is the indiscriminate pursuit of wealth, that has become the norm in our culture, so that people need to work 60 hours a week just to SURVIVE. So they are not able to be there for their spouses and kids.
If you REALLY are concerned about the destruction of traditional family values, how about you actually LOOK at the ROOT CAUSES, instead of blaming a group of people who don’t even AFFECT this decline? Blaming Gays for the decline of family values is just like Hitler blaming the Jews for the original economic problems in 1930’s Germany. Its creating an EASY boogeyman, so we think there is an easy fix to what is a complicated, and delicate issue. There is NO quick fix to what has happened to family values, and the causes and symptoms have absolutely NOTHING to do with GAYS! People who make this claim are simply not using the brains God gave them!
“Well, gays are trying to force their agenda on us.”
Um….I will grant there are groups of people, who are gay, and wish to promote certain agendas….like the Log Cabin Republicans. Folks, to thinks ALL gays have ONE UNITED agenda is just SILLY. That’s like saying all STRAIGHT people have one united agenda. We don’t, and they don’t. Their overall views on life, love, politics and our country, are as varied as everyone else’s.
“Well, if we recognize gay marriages, then we have to allow bestiality, and pedophiles and all kinds of sick things!”
As someone who did debate for years, let’s call this argument what it is: A slippery slope argument. Here is the KEY defining line when we talk about legally recognized relationships: CONSENT. Two adults, gay or straight, both CHOOSE to be in that relationship. Dogs can’t choose, children can’t choose, consent is NOT there. END OF ARGUMENT! (It really is a silly argument, also employing what is known as the “straw man” technique.)
“Being gay was defined as a psychological disorder until 1973, when gays pressured the psychiatric community into changing it!”
Yeah, well there are a TON of things that used to be called psychological disorders, folks. And things called disorders NOW that are just RIDICULOUS. Psychology is NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE. Never HAS been. It is roughly equivalent to where conventional medical science was right after the U.S. Civil war. Every OTHER science has a starting point: “1+1=2”, or RNA, or “E=MC2”. There are seven or eight DISTINCT schools of psychology, and ALL have a DIFFERENT “1+1=2”. You have structuralism, behavioralism, Freudism, Eclecticism, etc. When they have a SINGLE starting point, then and ONLY then can they be a science with the ability to proclaim FACTS!
“You have done a fine job of cherry picking the Bible yourself!”
Yup. But you know what? I DON’T believe the Bible is the undiluted word of God. I base this on YEARS of study as to how the modern Bible came to be, if you REALLY want to go down that path. The Bible as we KNOW it did NOT come about till 300 years AFTER Jesus’s death, with the Council of Nicaea. A group of MEN sat and DEBATED what books should be in and what books should be out. Early Christianity involved MANY divergent points, books, and beliefs. Ideas like “The Rapture” did NOT enter Christian main stream philosophy until the 1800s. If you want to claim God inspired that group? You mean like He inspired the Spanish Inquisition? Or the Crusades?
And if you STILL want to argue against gays based on the fact we are a “Christian” country and we need “Christian” rules…WHICH Christian, folks? Catholic? Baptist? Jehovah’s Witnesses? Mormons?
And before MANY of you say “Those last two AREN’T Christian!!” …..You just MADE MY POINT! THEY believe they are. So now, what you are REALLY saying is “This country should be based on what MY ideas of being Christian are!”
Folks, Faith is something that is personal, it can be deep, but it is NOT universal. If it was, there would be ONE Christian sect, ONE Jewish sect, ONE Muslim sect, ONE Hindu Sect and ONE Buddhist sect. That is SIMPLY NOT THE CASE. Even within Christian denominations, there are many individual beliefs.
And Exact Bible Christians? The WHOLE POINT OF BEING CHRISTIAN IS ABOUT THE NEXT LIFE, not THIS one!
Now, unless you think I am being ANTI Christian, I am NOT. I happen to know and admire so MANY truly CHRISTIAN individuals. Personally, what I DON’T admire are the people at the TOP of organized religions, manipulating, and using that religion for material gains, be it power or wealth. POWER CORRUPTS! History shows this time and again! If your beliefs are well and truly held, and based on study of faith and fact, I ADMIRE you for holding those beliefs! As long as you are truly LIVING those beliefs!
MY Christian beliefs are certainly NOT conventional. But here is what they are: BASED ON YEARS OF STUDY. I have studied EVERY major world religion, their history, their faith, and based MY conclusions on what I took away from that study. But within MY faith, I also believe this: I could EASILY be wrong! I happen to believe in a loving God who would forgive me for BEING wrong, as long as I was sincere. I also believe She would forgive anyone else if it turns out I was right, and YOU were wrong, and She would be there for you anyways. If you think I am going to Hell for those beliefs? That is YOUR right…but if you think God is going to ask your personal opinion, when I die, about where I go? Um….Good luck with that! (Especially since I believe in reincarnation, not Heaven and Hell! And YES many Christians DID believe in Reincarnation, again, till the Council of Nicaea. STUDY HISTORY!)
THIS is what the United States should be: A shining example of how a CIVILIZATION should act. A place that TOLERATES divergent view points, lifestyles and choices that AREN’T HARMING OTHER PEOPLE! Faith is faith, it is INDIVIDUAL and PERSONAL. But a COUNTRY is about how a GROUP of people choose to interact and how they have RIGHTS WITHIN that civilization.
I am NOT saying gays should have the legal right to marry in a CHURCH. That is the CHURCH’S choice. But if you honestly believe that a person could be a GOOD person by EVERY OTHER STANDARD you could pick, ASIDE from being gay? SHUT UP AND LET THEM CONTRIBUTE TO MAKING THIS COUNTRY A BETTER PLACE!
Let them CHOOSE to demonstrate a commitment to a STABLE LOVING CONSENSUAL relationship and LIVE YOUR LIFE. GOD will deal with the aftermath, NOT YOU!
What happened to Tyler Clemente was despicable. What happened to Matthew Shepard was despicable. ANYONE who CLAIMS to be Christian, yet takes JOY in the suffering of OTHERS, or wants to sit in JUDGMENT of their lives? I hope you and Jerry Falwell are very happy together BY YOUR OWN STANDARDS.
This creeping zealotry in American Christianity is quickly heading towards the level of Islamic Fundamentalism. As AMERICANS, we should believe:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
As CHRISTIANS, what you believe, what FAITH you have, is YOURS. But you do NOT have the right to declare YOUR belief of what is BEYOND this life is how EVERYONE else should have to live their lives! You can TELL people your beliefs, the good and the bad, that you think someone who doesn’t HOLD those beliefs is going to Hell…but that’s where it ENDS: WITH TALK. You want to convert people? Then LIVE A CHRISTIAN LIFE and they will see by YOUR EXAMPLE.
And, lest you think I am only singling out Christians: To all of you, who at this time of year, start bitching about people saying “Merry Christmas” or there being Manger displays in towns? Shut up, grow a thicker skin. “Peace on Earth, Good Will towards Men (and women!)” To best hear my opinion on this, go to You Tube and listen to Foamy the Squirrel’s “No Christmas for You”. (WARNING: DO NOT PLAY THIS AROUND CHILDREN!)
Here is the key with ANY faith: You either have it or you don’t, and the opinions of OTHERS should have NO bearing on that faith.
Here is MY hope for our country: MY country is a place that allows people to live together, despite disagreeing, in peace, with a CLEAR idea that we ALL have rights, as long as we aren’t hurting OTHER PEOPLE. MY country is a place where Christians, Muslims, Hindus and ALL religions CHOOSE to live with tolerance for other views. MY country is a place where we ALL develop a sense of duty to HELP OTHERS AROUND US. MY country is a place where we decide the IMPORTANT thing in life are the relationships we have with our families, our communities, and the OBLIGATION we have to make things BETTER. MY country is a place where we guarantee equality of opportunity, not outcome, but we STILL care for the people who fail, to an EXTENT. MY country is a place where we all realize we are fortunate enough to be a part of something GREATER than ourselves, and we REPAY that good fortune. MY country is a place where ALL people believe in creating an example of how people treat each other.
And MY country is a place where an 18 year old kid doesn’t feel so sad and desperate, due to the hatred of others, that he feels a need to throw himself off of a bridge.
So, to all you judgmental religious people out there (NOT just Christians, ALL creeds!)? Worry about your OWN soul, I will worry about mine, and we should ALL pray to WHATEVER deities we believe in that no-one else ever feels so tortured that they end a promising life. And to all AMERICANS? We are ALL Americans, and we ALL deserve “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Allons-y!
