Made you look. The very fact that you looked at this post is only going to prove my point about why Miley (and thus Madonna, Britney, etc, etc) did what she did.
We all know the old saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity right? Yet, every time someone does something to incite the people who hold everybody to a moral high road, how do they respond? They flood twitter, facebook, etc with their judgements, and insults. As soon as they do everybody else that didn't see it (Myself included) goes on youtube to watch it. Everyone searches it in google until she is the number one searched and youtubed name on the planet.
Thus giving her the publicity that she so wisely was going after. We live in a digital age. The more a name is searched and tweeted the more money that person makes.
So who's fault is it that Miley acted like this in front of our children setting a terrible example? Yours! All you gossiping judgmental people who love shock value. You all love to verbalize opinions about people. You love to build them up and tear them down. You eat this sensationalism up. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself if you didn't have someone to talk bad about. How do I know this? Cause I'm one of you.
But if we really want to stop the madness here is what I propose... When you see something happening that's an obvious publicity stunt, DON'T tweet about it. Leave it off your facebook page. Boycott googling her name. Refuse to feed the animal and he will go away. Stop clicking on all the garbage that comes after the fact.
Maybe instead of making our judgements as if she wasn't a human being with feelings, we should just say a little prayer for her, and go spend time with our own kids, so they don't end up having the same identity problems she does when they get older.
I feel sorry for Miley. She is judging her self worth based on how many tweets there are about her or how much money she can make off it. Eventually this will lead to extreme sadness. I pray that when she fades away and becomes less relevant some day that she will learn to find joy and happiness in things that are far greater than what she does now. That's what I'll be praying for. It's the same prayer I pray for myself every day, that one day I'll be able to say, "It is well with my soul" even in the midst of being completely alone!
At the end of the day stop blaming the media, entertainers, and businesses for their behaviors. They are a direct reflection of where we as a people place our attention and dollars. For every click a news website gets they get paid. For every viewer a news agency gets they get paid. For every new subscriber a cable company gets they get paid. Yet, we continue to reward news agencies for writing biased and sensationalism into every story (Stop reading it), we continue to tweet about shocking and sometimes insulting things (Stop You tubing it), we continue to subscribe to a cable company (Direc TV) that has hundreds of thousands of complaints filed against it for outright lying to their customers.
You choose what to click on. You choose how to spend your money. If the collective of America really wanted to read about and see good wholesome stories about people who are an example to our children and lift up the morals that we want to see in people, then that's what we would see in the world. But that's not what we want to see. Why do i know that? Because that's not what we see. Trust me, this is a business, and whatever makes them money is what they are going to do. It just doesn't pay anymore to be wholesome, and that's on us. So let's all turn that finger around and point it at ourselves...
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Worship
I was thinking today on my way to work, and the question that popped into my head was, Why don't I Worship God like I used to? Where has that zeal gone? How do I get that warm and fuzzy feeling back in my heart? Or do I even need to?
My initial response was the obvious one; I am mad at God. I truly am. I will openly admit to anyone who asks that I am mad at God. I watched a movie the other day. It wasn't a very good one overall, but it had one powerful scene that explains it much better than I ever could.
The Movie was called Joyful Noise. One of the characters was a teenage boy with Aspergers. He was crying on the couch, and his mom was trying to comfort him. She began to talk about God and his love for him and he pushed her away. "I hate God!" He screamed out as if he had been holding it inside for years and finally it all came out at once. "I hate God for making me this way! And if you loved me, then you would hate God too."
It got kind of cheesy after that, but the moment was powerful to me because it describes my anger towards God and everything related to him.Say all you want about how God made my son autistic for a reason, how he is perfect just the way he is, and how I wouldn't want him any other way. Bull Shit! Other people can lie to themselves all they want if it makes them feel better, but the truth is if God came to any of them and said, "I can take this burden from your son and make his brain work correctly again", then I don't know a parent who wouldn't take him up on it.
My son's brain isn't functioning correctly. He can't empathize. He can't understand the world around him. He gets angry sometimes. He gets obsessions to help pacify the frustration inside. He will probably never get married or have children, so it hurts me to hear him talk about it. He won't have many friends. Most people tolerate him, but some are mean to him. They don't understand him.
So, yes, I am mad! I don't understand why a loving God, who has the ability to cure him, wouldn't.
But as I thought about it more I came to a realization; It's OK to be mad at God. Just as a Father knows his teenage son is still learning the ropes and is just trying to understand himself and the world around him, God knows this too. He knows I am still too young to really understand in the scheme of eternity. And I believe he prefers I be honest with him and myself about my feelings because it's the only way I can grow and learn and become closer to him.
In my marriage I spent the first 10 years of it never really expressing any of my bad feelings towards my wife and only praising and talking about the good things. It almost destroyed my marriage. In order for you to have more than a shallow surface level relationship with God, you need to be able to have it out with him from time to time. You need to be able to be angry, to not understand him. It may take me a lifetime to get over it, and maybe I won't really understand it all until the afterlife. Maybe it takes me a thousand years. But honest sincere feelings are the only way I'll ever get over it, and in the end that will create an intimacy with God that far surpasses someone who has never expressed anger or disappointment with God. My anger towards God IS a form of Worship!
I also realized that just because I don't sing his praises at every turn, I still show my love for him in other ways. The very fact that I am writing this blog is a form of worship. Intellectual worship is very pleasing to God. I am trying to understand him, and bringing other people on that journey as well. I'm sure our spouses and parents and children and friends, would LOVE it if we tried to understand them better. To be honest, it would be much easier to sing songs and post happy scriptures on my facebook page. I may not have the zeal like a couple on it's honeymoon, but I do have commitment like an old couple.
I'm committed to all the things that make up God's character. Truth, Love, Grace! Still working on the Faith part, but I think those are the 4 things we should all be seeking more of in ourselves, and in doing so you are worshipping God more than any song ever will.
My initial response was the obvious one; I am mad at God. I truly am. I will openly admit to anyone who asks that I am mad at God. I watched a movie the other day. It wasn't a very good one overall, but it had one powerful scene that explains it much better than I ever could.
The Movie was called Joyful Noise. One of the characters was a teenage boy with Aspergers. He was crying on the couch, and his mom was trying to comfort him. She began to talk about God and his love for him and he pushed her away. "I hate God!" He screamed out as if he had been holding it inside for years and finally it all came out at once. "I hate God for making me this way! And if you loved me, then you would hate God too."
It got kind of cheesy after that, but the moment was powerful to me because it describes my anger towards God and everything related to him.Say all you want about how God made my son autistic for a reason, how he is perfect just the way he is, and how I wouldn't want him any other way. Bull Shit! Other people can lie to themselves all they want if it makes them feel better, but the truth is if God came to any of them and said, "I can take this burden from your son and make his brain work correctly again", then I don't know a parent who wouldn't take him up on it.
My son's brain isn't functioning correctly. He can't empathize. He can't understand the world around him. He gets angry sometimes. He gets obsessions to help pacify the frustration inside. He will probably never get married or have children, so it hurts me to hear him talk about it. He won't have many friends. Most people tolerate him, but some are mean to him. They don't understand him.
So, yes, I am mad! I don't understand why a loving God, who has the ability to cure him, wouldn't.
But as I thought about it more I came to a realization; It's OK to be mad at God. Just as a Father knows his teenage son is still learning the ropes and is just trying to understand himself and the world around him, God knows this too. He knows I am still too young to really understand in the scheme of eternity. And I believe he prefers I be honest with him and myself about my feelings because it's the only way I can grow and learn and become closer to him.
In my marriage I spent the first 10 years of it never really expressing any of my bad feelings towards my wife and only praising and talking about the good things. It almost destroyed my marriage. In order for you to have more than a shallow surface level relationship with God, you need to be able to have it out with him from time to time. You need to be able to be angry, to not understand him. It may take me a lifetime to get over it, and maybe I won't really understand it all until the afterlife. Maybe it takes me a thousand years. But honest sincere feelings are the only way I'll ever get over it, and in the end that will create an intimacy with God that far surpasses someone who has never expressed anger or disappointment with God. My anger towards God IS a form of Worship!
I also realized that just because I don't sing his praises at every turn, I still show my love for him in other ways. The very fact that I am writing this blog is a form of worship. Intellectual worship is very pleasing to God. I am trying to understand him, and bringing other people on that journey as well. I'm sure our spouses and parents and children and friends, would LOVE it if we tried to understand them better. To be honest, it would be much easier to sing songs and post happy scriptures on my facebook page. I may not have the zeal like a couple on it's honeymoon, but I do have commitment like an old couple.
I'm committed to all the things that make up God's character. Truth, Love, Grace! Still working on the Faith part, but I think those are the 4 things we should all be seeking more of in ourselves, and in doing so you are worshipping God more than any song ever will.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
What is sin?
I'm not a huge fan of the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets. The concept is harmless enough. The idea is to always look at what you are about to do in life and think about how Jesus would have handled the situation. Only problem I see with it is that you are NOT Jesus. (You don't have his personality) You are not living in his time period. (Different cultural norms, etc) You are not perfect and don't have the faith or ability to do what he could do, and you don't have the same calling on your life that he does.
Is it a sin to lie? The answer is... it depends! Are you hiding Jews in your basement from the German soldiers during World War II? Would it be a sin to say there are no Jews in your house? This is an extreme example in order to prove a point, but let's break it down further. When your wife asks you if she looks pretty today and you look over and her acme makes you squirm a little, how should you respond? From one extreme to another, there are plenty of reasons lying I believe would actually be the righteous thing to do. What if a really attractive woman is having a conversation with you and she notices you are spacing out. "What were you thinking about?" "Uhhhhh, Ummmmm, nothing." I would think that's a perfectly acceptable LIE! This is one of those cases Jesus probably wouldn't have to lie. He probably wasn't thinking the same thing you were. Then again, maybe he would have. The Bible tells us that Jesus had all the same temptations we did.
I'll take it one step further. There are times you should take secrets to your grave!! My mom who has been divorced from my dad for almost a decade got a call from a woman she took in 30 years ago. My parents are divorced, my mom already knew plenty of stories about my dad's past, and this lady calls up out of nowhere to tell her that she had slept with my dad while she lived there and wanted to ask for forgiveness. In my opinion this was selfish and borderline sinful. The only person it helped was herself so she could get it off her chest. Why would she need to open up an old wound, when my mom wasn't even married to the guy any more? This act of "honesty" failed the love your neighbor smell test in my humble opinion.
So if it's not cut and dry, then what makes something a sin? As I have said in past blogs. All the laws and rules were made for us to better be able to do 2 things. Love God and love your neighbor. That's it. So what we need to do as look at those two things in more detail.
How do you love God? The biggest way to do it is by loving his creation, which also means his people. Many times we can kill 2 birds with one stone! God says specifically that whoever loves the least of his people loves him, and whoever doesn't, doesn't love him.
The Bible calls God your "Father" all the time. Sometimes it refers to him as your "Husband" What do we know about how God wants us to love our Husband and Fathers? Submission is one way. He tells us to submit to our parents and to our Husbands.
I happen to know a thing or two about submission. I dated a woman during my "dark ages" (You'll have to read previous posts to know what that means if you haven't) that was a VERY submissive woman. I'll get into more detail about that during my post about sex some time in the near future, but the important thing to note, is that through having someone who's every desire was to please me, I had never felt more loved. The word itself kind of gets a bad name, but to me it's a beautiful word and I believe every husband and wife should experience having their significant other submitting themselves completely to their desires.
God wants the same thing. He wants to feel you love him so much that you submit completely to HIS desires. And in turn his desire is for his creation to love each other, and love yourself, and be the best YOU that you can be. As I said in a previous post, God is most pleased with you when you find your pleasure in him. It's about a relationship. God has already done his part. He has made the ultimate sacrifice so we could spend eternity with him.
The more important question is how do we sin in this area? How do you NOT love God? Some examples of things that are unloving to God are very similar to how you would not love your husband or wife...
Are you neglecting to give him your undivided attention from time to time? Are you not talking to him enough? Are you ashamed of him when talking to others? Do you put other things in front of him in your life? Are you too prideful to admit that you need him in your life? Are you neglecting the needs of his children or passing judgement on them?
If you are not spending all your time and effort trying to find and invent new ways to show Him your love and appreciation, then you are sinning! God is so much greater, so much better than anything else going on in your life that to ever be spending time not focusing on loving admiration to him and his creation is sinning. Now do you see why we needed a saviour? I don't know about you, but I am terrible at this!
But in a more practical matter I think when deciding if something is a sin you just ask yourself, Is this showing love for God, and love for people? If it is then it's not a sin. If it isn't then it is a sin. I think that's a better barometer than WWJD.
I'll add another thing to the above list. If you are not being yourself, the person God created you to be, then you are sinning. I think MANY Christian people have an idea in their head about who God wants you to be and how he wants you to act, based on someone elses idea of what it means to love God based on his own personality and experiences. Quit trying to be that person. God didn't create you to be that person. God made you to be you! If God had wanted us all to act the same, then he would have made us all the same.
As a church it's time for us to stop judging individuality and start celebrating our differences. I think Christians would be a lot happier if they stopped trying to love God the way other people love God and started finding out what they Love, then loving God through those things. And often times we beat ourselves up when we don't meet up to someone else's standard of what it means to be a good Christian.
In particular in America it's a favorite pastime to compare yourself to other people. Compare your family to other families. This causes us to sin in many ways. We be someone we are not, which in the end leaves us feeling empty. We tell ourselves we are not good people because we don't measure up. And then we judge other people so we can feel better about ourselves. It's human nature. And I don't think it makes God happy, since it's not how he made us.
Is it a sin to lie? The answer is... it depends! Are you hiding Jews in your basement from the German soldiers during World War II? Would it be a sin to say there are no Jews in your house? This is an extreme example in order to prove a point, but let's break it down further. When your wife asks you if she looks pretty today and you look over and her acme makes you squirm a little, how should you respond? From one extreme to another, there are plenty of reasons lying I believe would actually be the righteous thing to do. What if a really attractive woman is having a conversation with you and she notices you are spacing out. "What were you thinking about?" "Uhhhhh, Ummmmm, nothing." I would think that's a perfectly acceptable LIE! This is one of those cases Jesus probably wouldn't have to lie. He probably wasn't thinking the same thing you were. Then again, maybe he would have. The Bible tells us that Jesus had all the same temptations we did.
I'll take it one step further. There are times you should take secrets to your grave!! My mom who has been divorced from my dad for almost a decade got a call from a woman she took in 30 years ago. My parents are divorced, my mom already knew plenty of stories about my dad's past, and this lady calls up out of nowhere to tell her that she had slept with my dad while she lived there and wanted to ask for forgiveness. In my opinion this was selfish and borderline sinful. The only person it helped was herself so she could get it off her chest. Why would she need to open up an old wound, when my mom wasn't even married to the guy any more? This act of "honesty" failed the love your neighbor smell test in my humble opinion.
So if it's not cut and dry, then what makes something a sin? As I have said in past blogs. All the laws and rules were made for us to better be able to do 2 things. Love God and love your neighbor. That's it. So what we need to do as look at those two things in more detail.
How do you love God? The biggest way to do it is by loving his creation, which also means his people. Many times we can kill 2 birds with one stone! God says specifically that whoever loves the least of his people loves him, and whoever doesn't, doesn't love him.
The Bible calls God your "Father" all the time. Sometimes it refers to him as your "Husband" What do we know about how God wants us to love our Husband and Fathers? Submission is one way. He tells us to submit to our parents and to our Husbands.
I happen to know a thing or two about submission. I dated a woman during my "dark ages" (You'll have to read previous posts to know what that means if you haven't) that was a VERY submissive woman. I'll get into more detail about that during my post about sex some time in the near future, but the important thing to note, is that through having someone who's every desire was to please me, I had never felt more loved. The word itself kind of gets a bad name, but to me it's a beautiful word and I believe every husband and wife should experience having their significant other submitting themselves completely to their desires.
God wants the same thing. He wants to feel you love him so much that you submit completely to HIS desires. And in turn his desire is for his creation to love each other, and love yourself, and be the best YOU that you can be. As I said in a previous post, God is most pleased with you when you find your pleasure in him. It's about a relationship. God has already done his part. He has made the ultimate sacrifice so we could spend eternity with him.
The more important question is how do we sin in this area? How do you NOT love God? Some examples of things that are unloving to God are very similar to how you would not love your husband or wife...
Are you neglecting to give him your undivided attention from time to time? Are you not talking to him enough? Are you ashamed of him when talking to others? Do you put other things in front of him in your life? Are you too prideful to admit that you need him in your life? Are you neglecting the needs of his children or passing judgement on them?
If you are not spending all your time and effort trying to find and invent new ways to show Him your love and appreciation, then you are sinning! God is so much greater, so much better than anything else going on in your life that to ever be spending time not focusing on loving admiration to him and his creation is sinning. Now do you see why we needed a saviour? I don't know about you, but I am terrible at this!
But in a more practical matter I think when deciding if something is a sin you just ask yourself, Is this showing love for God, and love for people? If it is then it's not a sin. If it isn't then it is a sin. I think that's a better barometer than WWJD.
I'll add another thing to the above list. If you are not being yourself, the person God created you to be, then you are sinning. I think MANY Christian people have an idea in their head about who God wants you to be and how he wants you to act, based on someone elses idea of what it means to love God based on his own personality and experiences. Quit trying to be that person. God didn't create you to be that person. God made you to be you! If God had wanted us all to act the same, then he would have made us all the same.
As a church it's time for us to stop judging individuality and start celebrating our differences. I think Christians would be a lot happier if they stopped trying to love God the way other people love God and started finding out what they Love, then loving God through those things. And often times we beat ourselves up when we don't meet up to someone else's standard of what it means to be a good Christian.
In particular in America it's a favorite pastime to compare yourself to other people. Compare your family to other families. This causes us to sin in many ways. We be someone we are not, which in the end leaves us feeling empty. We tell ourselves we are not good people because we don't measure up. And then we judge other people so we can feel better about ourselves. It's human nature. And I don't think it makes God happy, since it's not how he made us.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Is being Gay a sin?
Is being gay a sin? OK, this one will get some responses. The Bible is cut and dry about this one right? WRONG! Let me preface this with the statement that I'm not saying it's cut and dry that it's not a sin. I'm just saying it's more debatable than one would think. The Bible calls it an abomination! Yes, and the Bible calls eating Pork an abomination. Most Christians wouldn't consider that a sin. (Admittedly, a few still do) In the same book that calls it an abomination (originally, not when Paul, reiterates it in the New Testament) they also call many other things laws and such that we no longer practice today. Anal sex is considered a "sin". But I don't see anyone holding up signs saying that couples who practice anal sex are going to hell? Want some other less extreme ones? How about these...
a. Drinking Alcohol in Holy Places
b. Letting your hair become unkempt
c. Eating Fat
d. Eating Seafood without fins or scales
e. Going to church within 33 days of giving birth to a boy
f. Going to church within 66 days of giving birth to a girl
g. Marrying your wife's sister while your wife still lives (But polygamy was acceptable)
h. Mixing fabrics in clothing
i. crossbreading animals
j. Sleeping with another man's slave (But sleeping with your own was fine)
k. etc., etc, etc
http://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2012/06/13/76-things-banned-in-leviticus-and-their-penalties.html
So obviously, that particular scripture is up for debate. You certainly would have a lot of explaining to do in order to say why some of these are no longer sins and that one still is. I've heard it said that some were "cleanliness" laws that no longer apply. Pork is much cleaner now, and it's FDA approved. If that is the case, then couldn't you argue that Gay sex is much cleaner now? We have condoms, so we can tamper the spreading of disease and if they are practicing monogamy, then it really isn't any more unclean than anal sex (Which doesn't appear to be considered a sin any longer) Believe it or not, many of the above things were punishable by death.
OK, so there is one more scripture that could be construed to mean that being gay is wrong written in the New Testament.
That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
While there are a few other similar verses, all written by Paul. This is where the "PERFECTION" of the Bible gets a little cloudy to me. Remember that Paul was the one running around murdering Christians, because he thought they were shameful too, until his conversion. Paul was a radical person, who had very strong opinions about things. In my opinion the things he is describing as "shameful" are more his opinion than anything. To him they were shameful. To him they were sinful, but remember, back then it was still extremely dangerous because we didn't have protection like we do now.
But at the end of the day, I don't believe in the perfection of the Bible. I believe it's the best thing we have, but we still need to measure everything we read against the greatest commandments according to Christ. In this instance I think Paul was misguided, and probably homophobic. There are other cases I believe he was sexist. But so was just about everyone else of the time period. So the things he says make sense for the time period. It's important to note though that those were not Jesus' words. They were the words of an imperfect human being who had obvious displays of incorrectly condemning people in the past.
How does the concept of being gay measure up to the greatest commandments? Well, that's debatable. Is it unloving to God or to your neighbor? I think we can throw the second one out pretty quickly. There is nothing about being gay that is unloving to other people. But is it unloving to God? You could argue that it goes against his creation. He made women for men and men for women, and you can't procreate with the same sex. Besides, God said to be fruitful and multiply. (I think this command no longer applies. I mean come on people. The world is suffering all over the place because of overpopulation. People are dying in famines, and the earth is near a tipping point) In this respect, Gay men and women are actually good for society because they can't reproduce. They are also starting to take on the role of adopting children who need families.
So, is going against God's natural use for something unloving to him? My son has autism. His brain doesn't work right. It's not how God intended him to be. The Bible teaches us that these things exist in the world because of sin. Otherwise disease and famine and brain abnormalities wouldn't exist. Science has proven that being gay is really not a choice, but something they are born with. Is it the normal way God intended? No, but neither is the way my son's brain works. Both are genetic. Both are not how God intended. So my question is this; Is it a sin, or is it a symptom of a sinful world?
Look at how many people are born these days with both male and female parts and the parents have to choose the sex, or even leave them how they are. Which is a sin for that person? Sex with a man or with a woman? Neither!
You want my opinion? My opinion is that God is most loved by you when you are being true to yourself. Trying to pretend to be something you are not is unloving to God and unloving to yourself. Whether that's being Gay, being a woman with amazing leadership abilities, being a man who likes to dance, etc, etc. Be yourself, the best you that you can be! Love other people, love God, and don't hold anything (including sex with men or women) above God as an idol.
The people who persecute and judge gay people on the other hand. That very quickly fails the greatest two commandments test!! Those are the sinners on par with the Pharisees of Jesus' time. Quit Hatin', start Lovin'
a. Drinking Alcohol in Holy Places
b. Letting your hair become unkempt
c. Eating Fat
d. Eating Seafood without fins or scales
e. Going to church within 33 days of giving birth to a boy
f. Going to church within 66 days of giving birth to a girl
g. Marrying your wife's sister while your wife still lives (But polygamy was acceptable)
h. Mixing fabrics in clothing
i. crossbreading animals
j. Sleeping with another man's slave (But sleeping with your own was fine)
k. etc., etc, etc
http://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2012/06/13/76-things-banned-in-leviticus-and-their-penalties.html
So obviously, that particular scripture is up for debate. You certainly would have a lot of explaining to do in order to say why some of these are no longer sins and that one still is. I've heard it said that some were "cleanliness" laws that no longer apply. Pork is much cleaner now, and it's FDA approved. If that is the case, then couldn't you argue that Gay sex is much cleaner now? We have condoms, so we can tamper the spreading of disease and if they are practicing monogamy, then it really isn't any more unclean than anal sex (Which doesn't appear to be considered a sin any longer) Believe it or not, many of the above things were punishable by death.
OK, so there is one more scripture that could be construed to mean that being gay is wrong written in the New Testament.
That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
While there are a few other similar verses, all written by Paul. This is where the "PERFECTION" of the Bible gets a little cloudy to me. Remember that Paul was the one running around murdering Christians, because he thought they were shameful too, until his conversion. Paul was a radical person, who had very strong opinions about things. In my opinion the things he is describing as "shameful" are more his opinion than anything. To him they were shameful. To him they were sinful, but remember, back then it was still extremely dangerous because we didn't have protection like we do now.
But at the end of the day, I don't believe in the perfection of the Bible. I believe it's the best thing we have, but we still need to measure everything we read against the greatest commandments according to Christ. In this instance I think Paul was misguided, and probably homophobic. There are other cases I believe he was sexist. But so was just about everyone else of the time period. So the things he says make sense for the time period. It's important to note though that those were not Jesus' words. They were the words of an imperfect human being who had obvious displays of incorrectly condemning people in the past.
How does the concept of being gay measure up to the greatest commandments? Well, that's debatable. Is it unloving to God or to your neighbor? I think we can throw the second one out pretty quickly. There is nothing about being gay that is unloving to other people. But is it unloving to God? You could argue that it goes against his creation. He made women for men and men for women, and you can't procreate with the same sex. Besides, God said to be fruitful and multiply. (I think this command no longer applies. I mean come on people. The world is suffering all over the place because of overpopulation. People are dying in famines, and the earth is near a tipping point) In this respect, Gay men and women are actually good for society because they can't reproduce. They are also starting to take on the role of adopting children who need families.
So, is going against God's natural use for something unloving to him? My son has autism. His brain doesn't work right. It's not how God intended him to be. The Bible teaches us that these things exist in the world because of sin. Otherwise disease and famine and brain abnormalities wouldn't exist. Science has proven that being gay is really not a choice, but something they are born with. Is it the normal way God intended? No, but neither is the way my son's brain works. Both are genetic. Both are not how God intended. So my question is this; Is it a sin, or is it a symptom of a sinful world?
Look at how many people are born these days with both male and female parts and the parents have to choose the sex, or even leave them how they are. Which is a sin for that person? Sex with a man or with a woman? Neither!
You want my opinion? My opinion is that God is most loved by you when you are being true to yourself. Trying to pretend to be something you are not is unloving to God and unloving to yourself. Whether that's being Gay, being a woman with amazing leadership abilities, being a man who likes to dance, etc, etc. Be yourself, the best you that you can be! Love other people, love God, and don't hold anything (including sex with men or women) above God as an idol.
The people who persecute and judge gay people on the other hand. That very quickly fails the greatest two commandments test!! Those are the sinners on par with the Pharisees of Jesus' time. Quit Hatin', start Lovin'
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Church and State
Having grown up in what I would call a right wing, conservative Christian, borderline Pentecostal church I know a lot of the buzz words thrown around by them. Like many buzz words you hear for religious and political organizations they drive a point home, but usually distort the facts in order to do so.
The first one I'm going to touch on is this concept that our nation was built by Christians, and therefore meant to be a Christian nation. History lesson: Our nation was founded and built by Christians. This is accurate. But it doesn't tell the whole story. Our country was founded by Christians who were being persecuted in England for believing differently than the official Church of England. They felt they were not allowed to practice their religion in England so they made the terrible trek across the ocean and risked famine or being killed by Indians in order to be in a place where they could freely practice their religious beliefs without the government getting in the way. That's why the Bill of Rights is so adamant about the separation of church and state.
In my opinion this is a huge distinction, because many of my friends would love nothing more than to see a man put in power that will interpret scripture and make public policy and laws based on his interpretation of that scripture. That's exactly what the founding fathers ran away from when they came to the Americas to begin with. So doing so would take society backwards hundreds of years and do exactly what the founding fathers feared when they wrote the Bill of Rights.
This leads me to my next one. Throughout history any civilization that has taken God out of it's government has fallen. What? Where is their proof? The ancient Egyptian and Ancient Roman empires lasted for hundreds of years without God in them. As a matter of fact ancient Roman's did finally make Christianity it's official religion and didn't last much longer after that. Constantine "converted" to Christianity in 312 AD, and slowly began to work it into government norms, while admittedly still holding to some pagan rituals. By 410 AD a civilization that had been around for almost 1,000 years began to crumble after the fall of Rome.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/christianityromanempire_article_01.shtml
The Ancient Greeks lasted for centuries with make believe Gods. While it's true that religion can be used as a tool to hold people together in some form of unity, many times in history to the people's detriment, there is no basis for this assumption. It's purely a catch phrase to radicalize the Christian right.
The truth is many of the worst and most corrupt governments were the ones who were Christian owned and operated. Think for a second how corrupt you already think the government is. Think about how selfish most politicians are. We see it every day. Now allow them to wave the banner of religion in the government and it increases their power over the people. Suddenly, they no longer just control their life on earth, but now they control their eternal souls. This is a power much greater than a political office. Then watch as the corruption spreads like wildfire across our political landscape. Watch as wars are fought in the name of God. That's what history proves will happen in a society without separation of church and state.
The last thing I ever want is Obama wielding his religious sword and somehow deciding the best direction of our country based on his interpretation of scripture. Mind you I'm not saying I think every leader would be corrupt or every President would lead the country into disaster. But eventually one will, and it's more power than I believe God ever intended for people to have. At least not in a world full of selfish me first people.
Christ himself said "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's" He was talking about paying taxes, but his response was basically, "Whatever, I could care less about money, or the government. I came here to change the hearts of individuals."
When the Messiah came the expectation was that he would overthrow the Roman government and free the Jews. He did no such thing. He came to battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. He came to free us from sin and death, and allow us to live and love one another. He could care less about the government. That was never even mentioned as a priority for him or the early church.
It's my opinion that the government's responsibility should be to allow people protections, and freedom from anyone ever telling them how to live their life. Governing morality is not even close to their job description. I wouldn't want to live in a government that does. What if they suddenly decided that eating pork was a sin and they banished it from the country? What if they started prosecuting people for having premarital sex?
This is one of those situations where I would say "What Would Jesus Do?" What would he do if the Romans allowed gay marriage? Nothing. I could just hear him now, "Whatever, that's Caesar's business. It has nothing to do with God, the church, or my people." When Christ came upon Mary Magdalene (A known prostitute of the time) did he say, "How dare the government allow this to happen!"? No, he took her by the hand and told her that her sins were forgiven, and that God loved her.
It's time for Christians to get back to what really matters and stop trying to change the government into something that if they ever got, they would probably regret. Do what Jesus did and changes the hearts of people. Show them the way to a greater love and forgiveness then they have ever known! Give to Obama what is Obama's. God's work will continue despite the government that exists at the time. The truth is most times where the gospel reached the largest number of people and the holy spirit took hold of the hearts of men were when the government tried to stop it.
The first one I'm going to touch on is this concept that our nation was built by Christians, and therefore meant to be a Christian nation. History lesson: Our nation was founded and built by Christians. This is accurate. But it doesn't tell the whole story. Our country was founded by Christians who were being persecuted in England for believing differently than the official Church of England. They felt they were not allowed to practice their religion in England so they made the terrible trek across the ocean and risked famine or being killed by Indians in order to be in a place where they could freely practice their religious beliefs without the government getting in the way. That's why the Bill of Rights is so adamant about the separation of church and state.
In my opinion this is a huge distinction, because many of my friends would love nothing more than to see a man put in power that will interpret scripture and make public policy and laws based on his interpretation of that scripture. That's exactly what the founding fathers ran away from when they came to the Americas to begin with. So doing so would take society backwards hundreds of years and do exactly what the founding fathers feared when they wrote the Bill of Rights.
This leads me to my next one. Throughout history any civilization that has taken God out of it's government has fallen. What? Where is their proof? The ancient Egyptian and Ancient Roman empires lasted for hundreds of years without God in them. As a matter of fact ancient Roman's did finally make Christianity it's official religion and didn't last much longer after that. Constantine "converted" to Christianity in 312 AD, and slowly began to work it into government norms, while admittedly still holding to some pagan rituals. By 410 AD a civilization that had been around for almost 1,000 years began to crumble after the fall of Rome.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/christianityromanempire_article_01.shtml
The Ancient Greeks lasted for centuries with make believe Gods. While it's true that religion can be used as a tool to hold people together in some form of unity, many times in history to the people's detriment, there is no basis for this assumption. It's purely a catch phrase to radicalize the Christian right.
The truth is many of the worst and most corrupt governments were the ones who were Christian owned and operated. Think for a second how corrupt you already think the government is. Think about how selfish most politicians are. We see it every day. Now allow them to wave the banner of religion in the government and it increases their power over the people. Suddenly, they no longer just control their life on earth, but now they control their eternal souls. This is a power much greater than a political office. Then watch as the corruption spreads like wildfire across our political landscape. Watch as wars are fought in the name of God. That's what history proves will happen in a society without separation of church and state.
The last thing I ever want is Obama wielding his religious sword and somehow deciding the best direction of our country based on his interpretation of scripture. Mind you I'm not saying I think every leader would be corrupt or every President would lead the country into disaster. But eventually one will, and it's more power than I believe God ever intended for people to have. At least not in a world full of selfish me first people.
Christ himself said "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's" He was talking about paying taxes, but his response was basically, "Whatever, I could care less about money, or the government. I came here to change the hearts of individuals."
When the Messiah came the expectation was that he would overthrow the Roman government and free the Jews. He did no such thing. He came to battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. He came to free us from sin and death, and allow us to live and love one another. He could care less about the government. That was never even mentioned as a priority for him or the early church.
It's my opinion that the government's responsibility should be to allow people protections, and freedom from anyone ever telling them how to live their life. Governing morality is not even close to their job description. I wouldn't want to live in a government that does. What if they suddenly decided that eating pork was a sin and they banished it from the country? What if they started prosecuting people for having premarital sex?
This is one of those situations where I would say "What Would Jesus Do?" What would he do if the Romans allowed gay marriage? Nothing. I could just hear him now, "Whatever, that's Caesar's business. It has nothing to do with God, the church, or my people." When Christ came upon Mary Magdalene (A known prostitute of the time) did he say, "How dare the government allow this to happen!"? No, he took her by the hand and told her that her sins were forgiven, and that God loved her.
It's time for Christians to get back to what really matters and stop trying to change the government into something that if they ever got, they would probably regret. Do what Jesus did and changes the hearts of people. Show them the way to a greater love and forgiveness then they have ever known! Give to Obama what is Obama's. God's work will continue despite the government that exists at the time. The truth is most times where the gospel reached the largest number of people and the holy spirit took hold of the hearts of men were when the government tried to stop it.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Love and Fear
In my humble opinion, there are many things that motivate our decisions, but most of them can be narrowed down to 2 basic catalysts, Love and Fear. We already talked about how our decisions are based on the amount of "pleasure centers" in the brain we can stimulate. If you are living in fear, then you take great pleasure in doing things that alleviate that fear.
For people who tend to "live in fear" as I call it, many of their decisions have more to do with fear than love. Are you making love to your man because you fear he will leave you if you don't or because you love him? A man can tell the difference. Men, are you getting her a nice Birthday present because you are afraid you will lose her or because you love her and nothing brings you greater joy than the smile on her face? She can tell the difference.
This isn't to say that every decision is purely one or the other. Many times it's a combination of the two, but which one do you tend to lean towards? When you discipline your children is it out of fear of what they might become, or love? One usually causes angry outbursts and visual frustration, while the other causes a calmer voice of reason. This is one I struggle with having an autistic some I desperately want to learn to live in our society. Sometimes this causes angry outbursts followed by guilt that I'm a terrible father.
Many times fear of our own safety or financial situation causes us to not help others as much as we could, or not volunteer as much. I think many Americans have a fear they will run out of energy or mental capacity if they try to do too much.
I believe God wants you to put your fears aside and learn to be motivated by love. That's why he asks us to lay our burdens on his shoulders. That's why he says perfect love drives out fear. What is perfect love? We all know no human has it. So therefore he is talking about himself. God drives out fear. I realize the Bible says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but that simply means that realizing what God is capable and your place in the world only goes to show you how much his love and grace really mean to us. He could destroy us all with very little effort on his part yet, he chose to sacrifice his only son to save us. So in the end, that initial fear leads to greater love and understanding of who God is.
The general equation preached in most churches and I think rightfully so is to drive out fear you must put your hope and trust in God, and not in the world. And I would say not just in this life but in the next as well. I don't think God makes many promises for this world. As a matter of fact most of his promises for this world are that you will be persecuted and will suffer. His promises for this world are the fruits of the spirit. Things like Love, Faith, and Hope. Those are considered more valuable than the things of this world that are here today and gone tomorrow. I'll probably go into more detail about this subject in my chapter on Karma and all of the ways it's misinterpreted and misconstrued.
For now, the important thing is to make your decisions based on love. The only way to do this is by giving up your fears. Laying them before the Lord, only to replace them with Hope and Faith in a brighter future.
One way I like to do this is by playing a little game called "And then what?" The way it works is simple. Think about your fear. Are you afraid your business will fail. What would happen if your business failed? Would you have to get a real job? And then what? Maybe you have to file for Bankruptcy? And then what? You won't be able to get a loan? And then what? If you dig down to the bottom line, it really never is as bad as your fears make it out to be. Trust me, My business failed, and while it wasn't fun and made things difficult, I'm still here and if it weren't for a lot of other problems it wouldn't really have been all that bad.
So I have to rent my house now. At least when the AC breaks I just call up the landlord and let him fix it. And now I have to save up the money to pay for things. I can't use credit. That's probably more of a positive than a negative. My world didn't end. I didn't end up on the streets. My character has been built up, and my ability to empathise with others going through tough times. Most things in life we fear have similar results. And knowing God's promises for the afterlife, the only thing we really need to fear are well, you know the old saying...
For people who tend to "live in fear" as I call it, many of their decisions have more to do with fear than love. Are you making love to your man because you fear he will leave you if you don't or because you love him? A man can tell the difference. Men, are you getting her a nice Birthday present because you are afraid you will lose her or because you love her and nothing brings you greater joy than the smile on her face? She can tell the difference.
This isn't to say that every decision is purely one or the other. Many times it's a combination of the two, but which one do you tend to lean towards? When you discipline your children is it out of fear of what they might become, or love? One usually causes angry outbursts and visual frustration, while the other causes a calmer voice of reason. This is one I struggle with having an autistic some I desperately want to learn to live in our society. Sometimes this causes angry outbursts followed by guilt that I'm a terrible father.
Many times fear of our own safety or financial situation causes us to not help others as much as we could, or not volunteer as much. I think many Americans have a fear they will run out of energy or mental capacity if they try to do too much.
I believe God wants you to put your fears aside and learn to be motivated by love. That's why he asks us to lay our burdens on his shoulders. That's why he says perfect love drives out fear. What is perfect love? We all know no human has it. So therefore he is talking about himself. God drives out fear. I realize the Bible says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but that simply means that realizing what God is capable and your place in the world only goes to show you how much his love and grace really mean to us. He could destroy us all with very little effort on his part yet, he chose to sacrifice his only son to save us. So in the end, that initial fear leads to greater love and understanding of who God is.
The general equation preached in most churches and I think rightfully so is to drive out fear you must put your hope and trust in God, and not in the world. And I would say not just in this life but in the next as well. I don't think God makes many promises for this world. As a matter of fact most of his promises for this world are that you will be persecuted and will suffer. His promises for this world are the fruits of the spirit. Things like Love, Faith, and Hope. Those are considered more valuable than the things of this world that are here today and gone tomorrow. I'll probably go into more detail about this subject in my chapter on Karma and all of the ways it's misinterpreted and misconstrued.
For now, the important thing is to make your decisions based on love. The only way to do this is by giving up your fears. Laying them before the Lord, only to replace them with Hope and Faith in a brighter future.
One way I like to do this is by playing a little game called "And then what?" The way it works is simple. Think about your fear. Are you afraid your business will fail. What would happen if your business failed? Would you have to get a real job? And then what? Maybe you have to file for Bankruptcy? And then what? You won't be able to get a loan? And then what? If you dig down to the bottom line, it really never is as bad as your fears make it out to be. Trust me, My business failed, and while it wasn't fun and made things difficult, I'm still here and if it weren't for a lot of other problems it wouldn't really have been all that bad.
So I have to rent my house now. At least when the AC breaks I just call up the landlord and let him fix it. And now I have to save up the money to pay for things. I can't use credit. That's probably more of a positive than a negative. My world didn't end. I didn't end up on the streets. My character has been built up, and my ability to empathise with others going through tough times. Most things in life we fear have similar results. And knowing God's promises for the afterlife, the only thing we really need to fear are well, you know the old saying...
Who am I? (Part 2)
When I was a child and most of my young adult years, I rarely had to struggle for anything. My parents over time had done pretty well for themselves, and I had done pretty well too. I was the captain of the football team in college. I got good grades, and got a job for a hedge fund. Then I started a real estate company and it did very well during the good years. Then it seemed like this giant house of cards suddenly all came crashing down on top of me.
All in a span of a couple of years I went from being a millionaire to owing millions of dollars to creditors even though I had never missed a payment or had credit card debt. My dad got caught cheating on my mom with a girl that had been with my brother. As it turns out he had been cheating on her for most of their marriage. Later we found out he had been having sex with one of my adopted sisters since she was 13. One of my children was diagnosed with autism.
I had lost everything I had worked for and by this point had lost my religion too. My whole world had been turned upside down. I was never huge on money, and to be honest, having a lot of it just brings tons of extra responsibility. But my wife blamed me A LOT. So we fought A LOT! And suddenly bills started piling up for therapy and everything else for our autistic kid and all these services started popping up for him that we just couldn't afford. So now, us losing that money was really affecting the services he could get.
Many people think autism and think to themselves, "Must be tough to give up on dad's dreams of him becoming a football star" "Must be hard to have a socially awkward kid who won't have many friends" And yes, that will be difficult, but the bigger struggles come with all the other things associated with autism that cause a daily grind and spend every ounce of energy and thoughts inside you. It's the obsessions like grabbing everyone's arms around them and squeezing, kissing, licking, digging his chin into, etc, etc. For going on two years now!! It's like chinese water torture and there seems to be no end in sight. It's the ADHD, when he is so hyper that just to get him dressed in the morning was a 2 person job. I would pin him to the ground while my wife as quickly as she could would swap the clothes but he kept escaping and we would have to start all over again. It's him dropping his pants in the middle of a restaurant and us chasing him around when he is 6 years old and completely naked and insane. It's the stares from other parents asking us why we can't control our kid. It's the night after night of him waking us up at 2am jumping on our bed uncontrollably, keeping us up for hours over and over again.It's having to go pick him up from school and take him to a psychologist because he threatened to burn up a kid and put him in a trash can when he is 7. It's tantrums over things that aren't even in your control that seem so trivial, yet he can't deal with the frustration boiling up in his head so instead he throws chairs and screams and kicks the wall, then tries to burn the house down by tearing the electrical socket out of the wall.
That's now my life, and yet somehow through it all, I love him. Still I can't help but feel real anger at God for putting this burden on me on top of everything else I had to deal with. More importantly I am angry at him for allowing my child to have this struggle inside himself. To be born with no ability to understand the world around him.
And when the cards kept falling as I had said before, I eventually ended up cheating on my wife too. Then I had to deal with feelings like, "Am I my father?" Am I destined to follow the same path? For anyone who has had a terrible father or mother I'm sure you understand the feeling all too well.
During this time period I struggled, I got depressed which usually meant I was just numb. I would do things just to feel something again. Like cheat again, or go gambling. (Luckily I tended to win more than I lost or it could have been much worse). More importantly though, during this time I reinvented myself as a different person when I came out the other end. My belief system had changed a lot. I find things about myself to be proud of, like that I haven't given up on my marriage when many lessor men would have. I am there for my kids and would do anything for them, including working extra shifts to pay for my son's services, many times not getting home until after they were asleep. I helped people every chance I got, and I cared about people.
I still have some anger inside me, but I feel like I am coming out the other end of this fighting and that's one big reason I'm starting this blog. Because I want to find myself again, and maybe help other people to do the same. And on top of that, maybe help some other religious people peek outside the bubble they live in and think outside the box from time to time.
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