Open Letter to the Southern Baptist Convention about their stance on the Boy Scouts of America

Dear Southern Baptist Convention Members and Leaders:

I am certain you have heard a great number of people commenting on your recent non-binding resolution to sever ties with the Boy Scouts of America because they are now choosing to allow openly homosexual boys to join its ranks. I am responding in kind as well; however, I will try to not rant at you, but rather be more Christian in nature and try to appeal to your theological nature.

I will start simple. Certainly, you agree with Jesus’ words when he stated that the two greatest commandments were to “…love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31 NRSV). You even state within your resolution that you continue to hate the sin, but love the sinner as evident in your resolution when you state, “we declare our love in Christ for all young people regardless of their perceived sexual orientation, praying that God will bring all youth into a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (SBC Resolution 6, 2013).

The issue here with your response though seems to be your use of the word “perceived” when it comes to their sexual orientation. That would infer that homosexuality is a choice. Many studies have shown that homosexuality occurs in the natural world. Since humans are part of that natural world as we are the highest form of primate, should it not follow that it could also be a natural occurrence in the human race for some people to be born homosexual? If it helps, Jesus does say something to this effect as found in the Gospel of Matthew when he states:

For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can. (Matthew 19:12 NRSV)

Could it not be that those who were “eunuchs who have been so from birth” are what Jesus knew to be the homosexuals of his time? The Jewish culture that Jesus would have been familiar with did not see eunuchs as simply being those born without testicles, but those men who exhibited characteristics that were more in line with females of the time, much like what is seen sometimes among modern homosexual men. Therefore, it could be seen that Jesus believed that even homosexual men were valuable to God and not an abomination.

I would like to offer another perspective as well. The Apostle Paul has some issues with the Galatians due to the law versus faith. It seems Peter did not want to associate with the Galatian Gentiles because they were not circumcised. This angered Paul, who himself was if you recall a very orthodox Jew prior to his conversion. Paul states in his letter to the Galatians,

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:23-29 NRSV).

Just looking at these verses sets the tone as to what God’s kingdom should look like, doesn’t it? People lived under the law until Christ came and saved all who believe in Him. Christianity was meant to bridge the space between men and women, races, and even gender preferences. “No longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28 NRSV), what a wonderful world for Christ we would have then, right?

I do not expect that you will change your position on the Boy Scouts of America or even on homosexuality, but it would be nice if you would just pay closer attention to the Christ in whom you profess to believe. He ate with sinners. In fact, he hung out with them and even made some his disciples and apostles. He did not come for the elite or for those who held themselves tight to the law as seen through eyes that refused to change. Even Paul had to be blinded by Christ in order to see His kingdom more clearly. I, along with many others, will keep praying for your denomination to have a road to Damascus moment as well. Peace be with you.

Real Americans

I recently had a person respond to a comment I made on a Facebook post deriding me for my concept of what an American is and is not. I commented that America is not what it once was and that it has gotten to be a place vastly different from where I was born and raised. This becomes even more apparent to me since I am temporarily living outside of the States due to family employment. I am gaining a much different perspective on the US while living in Canada and being able to visit my native land on occasion. What I am seeing, in addition to what I hear from my neighbors and acquaintances, saddens me sometimes when I think of the potential that exists in the United States to do so much more with the wealth that is there than what is currently occurring. What has happened to my country? To our country? Why are we acting the way we are? What exactly is a real American?

As I see this becoming more of a series of posts rather than one concise posting, I will just touch on the one concept that bothers me. That concept is what a ‘real’ American is. When I was growing up, an American was someone who was either born in the United States or immigrated to the United States and worked his or her way to citizenship. It could also be a child born overseas to US parents or even to one US parent. Sounds simple enough. I even think it is still the legal definition of what an American is. So, what happened?

The scene is becoming increasingly common. Someone asks another person the question, “What are you?” I heard this often from students I taught and even neighbors where I once lived in Florida. They asked me this. They asked others this. They did this in a quest to place a person in a box. Ironically, the people asking the question were usually white and they asked this question to someone who was not White, more than those who are white. Interesting. The concept of what a “real” American has devolved in some way to mean a person who is not Caucasian. Given the skin tone of most Native Americans is not Caucasian that makes the question both rather idiotic as well as rather insidious.

The idiocy stems from the fact that the United States is a mixture of people and cultures far beyond those from Northern Europe. The Southwestern Untied States has people from Mexico, Central and South America. They were there before the first Europeans arrived. The rest of the United States was once vastly inhabited by Native Americans who, as I mentioned before, are predominantly non-Caucasian. After Europeans arrived, many others started immigrating to the United States and settled here. Some Asians were brought over to work on the West Coast and help build the once vast railroad network. African-Americans were brought over both as slaves and some came as free persons. If something happened somewhere in the world, people came to the United States to change their lives for the better. The United States earned and enjoyed being called the Melting Pot of the world. Our country is a land of diversity. That diversity once made us great. We fought a Civil War and went through the Civil Rights movement to make all races seen as equal. It set us apart from many countries in the world where the make-up of the people is the same. Somehow, the love of our diversity has morphed into division.

Part of this idiocy has been manufactured in the form of certain media outlets attacking the skin color of our current president. He presents a quandary for what was once the majority of the American population. President Obama is neither entirely Black nor is he entirely White. He is of mixed race. That mixture seems to have scared some people who are just too xenophobic to realize that being of mixed race is okay. Perhaps these same people once advocated laws that banned intermarriage between people of different races. They saw that taboo fall with the advent of Civil Rights and dealt with it. However, when the leader of their country became someone with those qualities, they could not handle it. Therefore, we have seen a rise in those who question his citizenship and even hate him for being someone they cannot place in a box.

These same people have taken this even further and started to question their neighbors being citizens or not based on skin color or religious beliefs. Somehow, this has also changed into questioning someone’s citizenship or loyalty to his or her country. Recently, we heard of a young man who is of Mexican descent who was ridiculed when he sang the National Anthem at a basketball game. Even though he was born in the United States and is therefore a citizen, people were accusing him of being an illegal immigrant to the United States simply because of his cultural background. What difference should it make when it comes to his being an American? We are a nation of immigrants. Look at the names in the telephone directory. They are all not European names. They are names from the world pantheon of names. With those names are cultures, religions, and lifestyles that all blend to make the United States unique and wonderful. It is a shame to disparage anyone based on his or her cultural background.

Here, in Canada, the question is not asked as “What are you?”, but rather “What is your cultural background?” Yes, that may simply sound like a politically correct way to ask the same thing, but it goes beyond that. It acknowledges that the person is a human being first, and then presents a curiosity about what that person believes, practices, or lives. It is less combative, in part, due to the length of the sentence, but also due to the nature of the words used. Perhaps we, as citizens of the United States, should take this and apply it to our country. No, Canada is not perfect. No country is perfect, but imagine if we started viewing each other as people first, then whatever culture, religion, gender, gender preference, or whatever box that is needed to make us feel better. We would be better able to define a ‘real’ American as someone who loves our country because she or he was born here or immigrated here for a better life.

A Country on the Verge

The United States is becoming more and more of a country on the verge of revolution on a number of fronts. The attacks on women’s rights. The resurgence of blatant and covert racism. The increasingly noticeable divide between the wealthy, the working class, and the poor. The increase in lack of tolerance between people for a myriad of other reasons. At the forefront of this schism in our country is a small group of powerful people who are causing it. They call themselves patriots and even use the political designation of Tea Party because they believe they are defending freedom while talking away freedoms. What they are doing is turning our country into one where there are only those who are wealthy and privileged and those who are not. There is still hope for the US, though. It comes through having to combat their tactics and educate those who are falling for their sharp rhetoric of concealed lies. The media they use is slick and showy. They prey on the emotions of people without allowing logic to prevail. It is up to all concerned, intelligent citizens to fight back with words that are emotionally charged, but logically based.
First thing is to realize that they hate logic. A recent voting situation in Wisconsin points this out well. The head of one of their houses of state legislature demanded a vote on the requirement of ultrasounds on women wanting abortions without allowing for debate. His very action of denying debate itself should cause Americans who believe in a representative government to cringe with fear. Without intelligent debate, ideology can be forced through and made policy. Too many voters have elected people who said what they wanted to hear rather than actually participated in debating the pros and cons with the issues at hand. Too many voters have succumbed to allowing those who donate large sums of money to politicians dictate what those politicians make into law. It has to stop and it has to stop now! Our country cannot afford to be railroaded into ideology instead of good policy that benefits everyone in the country as whole.
Next, is to be heard. The one thing that these ideological politicians and donors do not want is a vocal and persistent opposition. There needs to be more people to speak up and, if need be, out shout the ideology of those causing the demise of our country and make people wake up and listen with the ear of wisdom to what is being said and the ramifications of policy before it is made into law. Silence is the same as acquiescence. If good people do not speak up, then freedoms will be replaced by the wants of special interests. When the media sound boxes for the Tea Party start trying to shut the voices of reason down, then the voices of reason must resist and be heard. Truth must be brought out over their half-truths and lies. If it takes people standing on corners with signs, then so be it. If it takes people going door to door, talking, and handing out flyers, then so be it. It is not going to be cheap, but it needs to be done.
In addition, it needs funding. Unfortunately, those who support free thinking and logical approaches to life are not always the wealthiest. There has to be a way to get the word out in a less expensive, but more efficient manner. People could donate time or talents to get the real truth out. It has been proven that grassroots efforts work, but they take people who are willing and able to coordinate others and get the word out. It takes people who can speak well as well as those who can write well. It takes those who can approach a stranger, even one who might be negative to new ideas, and meet them where they are and make them think more about issues even if it does not change their mind about them.
Next, the need for education is paramount. Ignorance is the fuel for the rhetoric of those affiliated with the Tea Party. If the public remains uneducated or undereducated, then they can control them easier. This is probably why so many of them support high stakes standardized testing over actually educating the children of America. People have relearn how to think for themselves again rather than blindly following their leaders. Our country was greater when we had thinkers and those thinkers actually acted for the benefit of others, rather than their own profit margins. We need to remind those who follow blindly that doing so leads to the detriment of our country rather than its prosperity.
Finally, we need to bring back a sense of community in our country again. Sure, we band together for the most part when disaster strikes, but we need to rebuild a sense that we are all in this together when it comes to our daily lives. We need to relearn to cooperate with our neighbors and work with them to help all of us live better lives. We need to practice charity for all rather than a select few. We need to define ourselves as Americans rather than anything else. Real Americans help one another. If we did not, then we would not have survived all the wars, disasters, and attacks we have faced as a country.
This needs to be our new revolution. A revolution to take America back from all the special interests and make it a country that shines again like a beacon for the world as a partner with the world to make it a better place for all human beings. We need to stand up for one another against the political ideology of a few who would like nothing better than to split us farther apart and into complacency, labels, and stereotypes.

Classy Kid vs. Racist Jerks

Recently, at an NBA game between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, a young man-made headlines for singing the national anthem. He did not forget the words. In fact, he sang them very well for a young man of his age in front of thousands of people. What he made headlines for was the reactions of some of the racists that fill our country and bring it down to levels of unintelligence not seen since the first man walked the earth.
People saying he had no right to sing the national anthem because he was not American enough subjected the young man, born in San Antonio, but of Mexican heritage, to racial slurs. Yes, you read that correctly, a number of racists that tweeted and commented about his performance did not consider him American enough about his singing the national anthem simply because of his racial background. Since when did being American equate with being White?
This rings of ideas reminiscent of the era before Civil Rights were gained in our country. White does not equal American. No race equals being American. We are Americans based on where we were born, if our parents were American, or if we were naturalized as citizens of the United States. The fact that there were people attacking this young man should not surprise us, especially since we have seen our president attacked and his being American questioned by “birthers” of the politically stupid that have come out of the woodwork in our country.
Our country is becoming less and less dominated by people who consider themselves White/Caucasian. The problem is that there are many Whites who fear this rather than embrace it as our becoming the melting pot for which our country is famous. Is this fear because there are those who are White who have acted in a racist manner toward those who are not and they fear retribution? Probably. Is it because there are too many Whites who simply do not know enough about other cultures and thus choose to fear them because it is easier than to learn about them and accept them? I think this is far truer than not.
This is not to say there are not racists of other colors than White. However, for those who are White, have you ever thought that is how they see you as well? Prejudice is the child of ignorance and fear. It knows no race, culture, or creed. If people are not willing to learn and take the chance to get to know others of differing cultural or ethnic backgrounds, then our nation is doomed to be run by racists such as those who spewed venomous words toward this young man. It should not be a case of a classy kid vs. racist jerks. Our country needs more people to realize that the only thing that truly sets us apart is our ignorance of one another. That can be bridged when one person steps forward with a smile and kind words. If enough people do that, then the hateful words and views of the few will be drowned out by the laughter and joy of friends of all races and cultures.

Memorial Day 2013

Memorial Day 2013. A day for many to have off work and cook out with friends and family. Maybe even catch a movie or a baseball game or even watch some golf. However, more than all of this, it is a day that we need to reflect on the sacrifices of those who went to war or into battle as members of our armed forces. By sacrifices, we need to remember those who have died, but we also must remember those who continue to fight the war even after they return home.
Take, for example, the soldier who has, like so many of our soldiers, endured multiple deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan with little time off between them. Yes, they were trained for combat; however, the human mind and body can only take so much stress before it has negative effects. A friend of mine told me about his commanding officer who had endured multiple deployments. He was a good man who cared deeply about his troops. They loved him for it. He would hang out with them when they would go out on the town when in Germany. He made certain they made it safely back to base. This man, when he found out he was to be deployed once again to Afghanistan, committed suicide rather than face the horrors of war again. I believe it would have been his fourth deployment. It is shameful for our country to send these men and women into harm’s way time and time again without some way for them to decompress and get the help they need to deal with the psychological scars of war.
There are thousands of veterans who have returned to their homes and jobs, but within themselves, part of them is still at war. They continue to fight the battles in their heads as they cannot get it out of their minds. It haunts them and causes many of them to take their own lives to escape the pain. These veterans suffer from what was once known as shell shock, but is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is the same thing regardless of the more politically correct moniker. It is hard to treat as many do not seek the assistance they need because they fear it is a sign of weakness to ask for help. Instead, they suffer through unknown rages or even recurring images of war that haunt them as they attempt to return to normal.
Another sad aspect of this is that, since their wounds are not in the open, many believe they have no injuries. We need to remember that although the body is intact, the mind may not be. Unfortunately, there are simply not enough professionals in the military to help these young men and women with the war raging in their minds. If someone sees a veteran with limbs lost, they want to help. Yet, those who have not lost a limb still have lost part of themselves and need our help desperately. The nightmares do not end for them. Sometimes the slightest sound or scent can trigger an episode of anxiety or panic for them. We have heard past news headlines where this has led to people being killed. While that does occur, many more veterans suffering from PTSD take their own life rather than the lives of others.
These young men and women deserve so much more than to suffer. They deserve our support. They need to be put in contact with professionals who can help them. They need to know that it is okay to ask for help. It is hard for someone who has been trained to fight and keep their pain silent to open up and tell their story, but it has happen for healing to begin. Their loved ones go through it with them, yet may not even realize what they are truly going through in their minds. We, as Americans, need to demand that these veterans get the help they need. We need to urge our elected officials to provide funding for adequate mental health services for our veterans. While many veterans may not currently show their pain, it is bound to surface sometime in their lives. They need help.
So, as you sit down to enjoy your hamburger or hot dog or the game, take a moment and also write to your elected officials and demand better for our veterans. Not just those with visible wounds and scars, but those whose scars are deeper.

Happy Mother’s Day to the Fairer Sex

With Mother’s Day in only two days, I thought it fitting to focus an article on women in general. Lately, they have come under attack on so many issues. There are those in government who wish to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. There are those who blame women for being raped for the clothes they choose to wear. There are those who even still believe women are the weaker sex and are inferior to men. As a man, I have to say that there is much more to a woman than what most people, including other women, see. They are stronger than one might think regardless of their body type. However, let me get into the issues I have already addressed.
First, the governmental regulation of what women can and cannot do with their bodies. The government has no right to do this; that is unless they wish to regulate what men do with theirs as well. There are those in government who want to tell a woman whether she can or cannot have an abortion. There are also those, many of them the same people, who want to limit a woman’s access to affordable, safe contraception. It is her body, her life, her wanting to be self-empowered and responsible, so the government should leave her alone! Imagine if the government tried to tell men they could not have vasectomies or purchase condoms. Imagine if men were forced by the government to procreate all in the name of patriotism. There would be protests and riots in the streets.
Next, the excuse that a woman’s clothing caused her to be raped. While there are women who wear less than others, that is not an excuse for them to become the victims of a rape. Yes, heterosexual men are turned on by the sight of a woman’s body, but that does not give them the right to rape women. Rapists use that as an excuse. A woman wears clothing for the same reason as a man does; they like how they look in it. They chose their clothing to fit their mood, the occasion, and to accentuate their body type. Men do the same thing. A man who chooses to wear a torso-hugging shirt or no shirt at all is doing the same thing as a woman who wears a tight-fitting or lower cut neckline shirt—they are showing off that part of the body they are proud of. Men wearing tight jeans hope to accentuate their rears the same as women do when they wear the same or a similarly cut skirt or dress. It is no different except in the perception imposed upon them by cultural beliefs or customs. When it comes to rape, that is a crime of power perpetrated by a man or a woman who feels they have no power and that if they make an intimate and personal attack on someone, then they will gain power. Rape is a cowardly act regardless of who commits it. A woman does not wear clothing hoping to be raped. Men simply need to control themselves and, if they cannot, then they need to seek psychological help to overcome their problem.
Finally, I will briefly address the idea of women as the weaker sex. How can that be true? They bear children. They carry 8-10 pounds of additional weight for 9 months only to pass that out an extremely small orifice. How is that week? That is pretty damned strong to me. In addition, many women work outside the home in addition to also trying to be as traditional as they can be as mothers. That is stressful, especially if there is no support from their spouses or significant others. The idea of their being the weaker sex is ludicrous. They are physically speaking the softer sex, but not the weaker sex. However, women are supposed to look different from men; it is part of what makes them attractive. So, rather than being the weaker sex, let us all view women as the fairer sex. I will hold off what makes women attractive for another article.
Let me just end this by wishing all mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day! If you do not have children as yet, then I wish you a Happy Potential Mother’s Day. Even if you choose not to give birth or even adopt a child, that does not mean someone may not benefit from your maternal instincts and from you being a strong woman. So, Happy Mother’s Day to you as well.

The Audacity of the Tea Party and Affiliated Groups

The audacity of the Tea Party is amazing. I cannot believe they, along with the NRA, can stoop as low as they have in the past 5 years. Last week, while traveling in Michigan, I happened across a couple who set up a table alongside the road in front of a post office. They had a picture of President Obama with a square moustache in the form of the one worn by Hitler. Their sole purpose of being there was to advocate the removal of our president and state that he is like Hitler as well as cover the standard NRA rhetoric about the government wanting to take away guns; that the government knew about the Boston tragedy, and other typical propaganda spewed forth by the politically far right. I chose not to stop, as I needed to get my errands taken care of and back home. However, I should have stopped, as it is bothersome to me and likely to many others who passed.
For one reason, it is comparing our president to one of the worst dictator/genocidal maniacs ever to live. President Obama is not a dictator. He is the president. He has not illegally invaded a sovereign nation. He has not established martial law. He has not banned trade unions. He has not forced people into concentration camps. He has not established a gang of henchmen to do his bidding. He was legally elected and did not come to power in a coup or court-ordered fashion. Besides, if he were a dictator, then the people spewing forth this nonsense would be either dead or jailed.
Next is the rhetoric that the government knew about the Boston tragedy before it happened or somehow allowed someone involved in it to escape. Why in the heck would they do that? While another president allowed the family of a known terrorist to travel back to their native country during the air stoppage after 9-11, President Obama was as much shocked by the tragedy as everyone in the United States. Possibly more as he is the leader of our nation. The President reacted as a leader and allowed the law enforcement agencies to do their job and go after the perpetrators. He added the services of the F.B.I. as well to assist.
Finally, the government does not want to take away all the guns. They want to make certain that when guns are purchased that those buying them are trained in both how to use them as well as how to keep them safe. They want to make certain that those buying guns are not mentally unstable. They want owners to register their guns so that if the guns are stolen, then reported as such that the owner is not blamed if a criminal uses their gun to kill or hurt someone else. This is common sense. It makes so much sense that one cannot understand how someone translates this into taking the guns away from law- abiding citizens. Yes, in history, there likely were dictators who required registration of weapons so that they could then use it against gun owners in a negative fashion. This is highly unlikely here in the United States as a dictatorship is almost impossible to imagine given our governing system as well as the fact that Americans cannot band together in that large of numbers to agree on anything in the first place.

American Phallic Envy Needs Stopped

I never thought I would find myself agreeing with Sigmund Freud, but I think I know what the problem is for some Americans when it comes to firearms. The reason why the National Rifle Association exists and why some Americans cling to their need for bigger guns, larger ammunition clips, and are so adamant in their wanting enough firepower to handle a small war comes down to what Freud would call penis envy. Those gun fanatics have penis envy. They want it a larger gun than anyone else. They want to be able to fire more rounds than anyone else. They want to have more and more weapons than anyone else. This is like some teenager standing in a locker room shower wondering if his is substantial enough to please a woman.
Much like little boys, according to Freud, want to take their father’s place, but fear him cutting off their manhood; the gun fanatics are so afraid that they will lose their high-caliber phallic symbols to another male, in this case Uncle Sam. It does not matter to them that those same weapons are meant for nothing but to kill other people. It does not matter to them that the research is there that says firearms are more dangerous than any other weapon aside from nuclear weapons. It does not matter to them that their guns could be stolen and either used against them or against someone else. They feel that the Second Amendment gives them the right to own any weapon made to the point that some even feel it is a God-given right to own as many weapons as possible. There is no place in any Bible or other holy book that says people have the right given to them by the Creator to harm anyone else, except for in time of war and even that is to be avoided if someone is able to do so. That being the case, there is also no commandment saying that ‘Thou Shalt Own an Assault Rifle.’
I digress. What needs to happen is some serious therapy for these phallic envying people. They need to be educated that it is okay to have a smaller or fewer guns. They need to be educated that it is okay to have less number of bullets in the magazine. They need to be educated that it is okay to register their weapons as that is a safety measure that will protect them if their weapon is stolen and used by the criminal.
That brings me to another point with this. The NRA has long used the phrase that “Guns do not kill people. People do.”They fail to mention that it is far easier for people to kill other people when they have a gun. It is impersonal. It is not like a knife or a sword where you have to get up close and possibly use it multiple times to kill. It is not like using bare hands where you also have to get close to your victim. It is not like even a bow and arrow where you have to actually pull back to release it. You load a gun and it stays loaded until emptied or shot. There are no accidental shootings, only weapons improperly used, handled, or kept out loaded and accessible when they should be empty and locked away.
What should be done? We, as citizens of the United States, need to press our Congressmen and Congresswomen for meaningful gun laws. We need to stop allowing the NRA to dictate policy. Will criminals still be able to get weapons illegally? Probably, you cannot stop every one. However, will access to weapons be easy? No, but it should not be easy to have access to as many weapons as one may want nor to the number of bullets they may want. With gun ownership, should come responsibility. It is a huge responsibility to allow anyone to have anything that can kill with such accuracy or in such numbers as firearms can. None of us should need reminded of Columbine, the theater in Colorado, or Sandy Hook to understand that. Nor should we need reminded of the countless people killed every year through the irresponsible use of firearms. However, our elected officials need reminded of all of this as graphically as possible. Gabby Giffords is talking more and more about the need for it, especially after her near fatal attack by a gunman. The parents of the slain children at Sandy Hook are speaking more about it through their pain of loss. It is time for meaningful gun reform and an end to the worship of the phallic symbol—the gun.

Equality for All

Before I begin this post, I want to set the record straight and explain that I am a straight male. I find the feminine figure in all its many shapes and sizes quite alluring. I state this as I have often been labelled as something else when I speak out on the issue I am about to address today. With that said, I will proceed.

There is a serious Civil Rights struggle going on in our country, that in some ways, mirrors the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. This time, however, it is not a matter of the color of a person’s skin that is the issue. Rather, it is their sexual orientation. There is a need to point out the covert and sometimes overt discrimination taking place in our country toward our homosexual brothers and sisters. They are being denied the right to marry. They are being denied the right to visit their partner if they are hospitalized. They are being denied access to the same services in some companies as their heterosexual counterparts can receive. These are examples of discrimination that needs to be stopped.

I recently read a news article about a couple in Washington State who wanted their favorite florist to provide flowers for their wedding. The proprietor, whom the couple had known for a while, politely told them she would not provide flowers for them due to her faith not condoning homosexuality. The article continues by trying to paint a positive picture of the proprietor as having hired gay employees and having gay customers in an attempt by her and her lawyers to show she is not a discriminatory person. The term they used in the article for her reasoning not to provide flowers was that she was a conscientious objector. Conscientious objector?!? This is not her being called to fight in a war. She runs a business that is open to the public. As such, she needs to provide service to whomever has the monetary means for them. It sounds a little like the time when Blacks in our country would have to wait in separate areas or go to the back door of a restaurant to be served.

This is not an isolated incident. National headlines have shown major corporations, restaurants, and civic groups taking an anti-homosexual stance either in open practice or in the causes to which they contribute. They are temporarily boycotted, picketed, or subject to a ‘kiss-in’; however, the media’s thrill for the story dies down and the status quo kicks in again.

Those who advocate for Gay Rights need to think about taking some pages out of the Civil Rights Movement’s playbook. They need to organize marches, sit-ins, speeches, letter writing campaigns to politicians, media advertising, and other non-violent methods to get the public’s attention to the violations of civil rights that they face on a daily basis. One way to do this would be to combat one of the oldest stereotypes about homosexuals, particularly males. That is the myth that gay men are pedophiles. They are not. A pedophile is a social deviant who preys on children. A homosexual is simply someone who is attracted to their own sex (and age range). They do not want to rape children or even each other. The majority of homosexuals, male and female alike, simply want to fins someone special to spend their lives with like so many heterosexuals do freely.

Our gay brothers and sisters should be free to live their lives and receive the same rights that heterosexuals have. They need to be free to live without being stigmatized, ostracized, or demonized. It is time for equality for all people.

Paths to the same Eternity

The idea that we are at war with any religion is ludicrous. We are at war with extremists. We are at war with those who believe that they have the right to harm others to further their cause. Religion plays no real part in the war in which we are now engaged. The only ones who believe so are the extremists on their side and on our side.
Recently, a so-called member of the media called for the extermination of those who are Islamic in faith in the event the perpetrators of the tragedy in Boston happened to be Islamic. In doing so, he placed himself at the level of those who call for the extermination of all Christians as well as those who once called for the extermination of the Jews. Hate is not the cornerstone of any of the main religions of the world. Jesus preached that Christians were to love everyone. Mohammed preached to care for others and that is a basic tenet of the Islamic faith. The Jewish faith calls for love as well. Buddhism calls for peace and love. There is no call for killing anyone based solely on faith. We are at war for a variety of reasons, but none of them is about religion.
Rather than listen to the idle ramblings of the extremists, we need more people to speak the truth that we are in this world together. We may not like one another, but we need to do our best to get along by finding the common ground we share as humans and focusing on it rather than one what divides us. We may even find out that our religious beliefs are not that different either. We are all on different paths to the same eternity. If we would just focus on the journey rather than the path, we might get along better.