In response to the article on www.writing.com titled Religion and Politics by SoCalScribe, I recalled a church service I attended a few months ago. My partner and I sometimes go to an African Methodist church in rural South Carolina. While I practice Yoga (spiritually) and Buddhism, my partner is a born-again Christian. Neither of us, however, are against freedom of action that doesn't harm any living being. Whatever makes your world turn, we're glad you've found happiness.
We love the pastor at the church, and his message always makes me feel as if he had followed me around all week, observed those things that caused me the most worry or pain, and then spoke about them in the service to make me feel better. However, one week, a guest lecturer was invited to speak at our church. It was a woman in the process of becoming a Methodist minister.
She was about 50-years-old and quite sure of her place at the pulpit. While much of what she said was important for the youth in the church to hear, her sermon left me cold and angry. She told the congregation how wrong homosexuality is--how unnatural, how un-God-like, and how wrong having intimate, sexual feelings for someone of the same sex was in God's eyes.
She reminded me of George W. Bush when he claimed that God spoke to him and told him to go to war against the poorest nation in the world in 2001.
How did this woman have any idea of what's wrong in God's eyes? Although I certainly don't pretend or delude myself into believing that I know what God most wants in our behavior, I do know rationally that by telling kids homosexuality is bad "in God's eyes," the message is about as hateful as telling them that the God who created them, who made them "wrong," hates them for His mistake.
Don't American people, in general, have enough self-loathing to handle what with the propaganda the government tells us about how stupid we are and that we are unable to make decisions based on our own good as the advertisers hypnotize us into believing that if we don't have that body, hair, car, relationship, education, job, income, clothing, we're useless shit?
I don't know about you, but I think we need to uplift the self-esteem of those of us raised in a schizophrenic culture such as that of the U.S. So, rather than telling kids that their natural instinctual tendencies are sins, maybe we can put our arms around them and tell them if they are in love with someone of their own sex, how happy we are that they've found joy in an unjust and judgmental world.
And next time, I won't let my own timidity to stand up to the powers-that-be stop me from approaching an "almost-minister" and suggesting that she start spreading a message of love and acceptance, rather than hate and rejection.
Copyright@Eileen M. Sembrot 2020
We love the pastor at the church, and his message always makes me feel as if he had followed me around all week, observed those things that caused me the most worry or pain, and then spoke about them in the service to make me feel better. However, one week, a guest lecturer was invited to speak at our church. It was a woman in the process of becoming a Methodist minister.
She was about 50-years-old and quite sure of her place at the pulpit. While much of what she said was important for the youth in the church to hear, her sermon left me cold and angry. She told the congregation how wrong homosexuality is--how unnatural, how un-God-like, and how wrong having intimate, sexual feelings for someone of the same sex was in God's eyes.
She reminded me of George W. Bush when he claimed that God spoke to him and told him to go to war against the poorest nation in the world in 2001.
How did this woman have any idea of what's wrong in God's eyes? Although I certainly don't pretend or delude myself into believing that I know what God most wants in our behavior, I do know rationally that by telling kids homosexuality is bad "in God's eyes," the message is about as hateful as telling them that the God who created them, who made them "wrong," hates them for His mistake.
Don't American people, in general, have enough self-loathing to handle what with the propaganda the government tells us about how stupid we are and that we are unable to make decisions based on our own good as the advertisers hypnotize us into believing that if we don't have that body, hair, car, relationship, education, job, income, clothing, we're useless shit?
I don't know about you, but I think we need to uplift the self-esteem of those of us raised in a schizophrenic culture such as that of the U.S. So, rather than telling kids that their natural instinctual tendencies are sins, maybe we can put our arms around them and tell them if they are in love with someone of their own sex, how happy we are that they've found joy in an unjust and judgmental world.
And next time, I won't let my own timidity to stand up to the powers-that-be stop me from approaching an "almost-minister" and suggesting that she start spreading a message of love and acceptance, rather than hate and rejection.
Copyright@Eileen M. Sembrot 2020
Love the sinner.Jesus ministered with the sinners, not the ones who considered themselves righteous and who were judgemental of others.
ReplyDeleteDidn't mean to post as unknown! 1st Timothy 3, qualifications of an Elder and Deacon,are Husbands of one wife.Appostle Paul forbids women to rule over men.Women can teach women. I personally have a hard time attending a church where a woman is leading from the pulpit. I have had to attend churches for funerals and such. My sister in law and mother in law had passed away, they attended a Lutheran Church where a woman was Pastor of the church.
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