A Little Food For Thought

Like most people of my generation here in the Texas, I was raised in a very religious household. Most of my social activities revolved around the church, even in the summertime. My mother was regional Bible School director and went from church to church directing Vacation Bible Schools. My first appearance on local TV was because us boys had spent the spring and summer helping my Mother and the Women's Missionary Union of Tarrant County (of which she was also the head of) in their collection of S & H Green Stamps in order to buy the Union Gospel Mission of Fort Worth a new Chevy pick up in 1958 with the collected stamps. However even as a young boy, I knew I was somehow 'different' although I could not as yet put my finger on what it was that made me that way. Then puberty hit and I failed to understand what all the fuss was about girls with whom I was very awkward with in one on one social situations. Everyone I had a crush on was handsome, athletic and (gasp) a boy. I could never had said anything to anyone at home or church because by then I had been taught that homosexuality was a very bad thing, bad enough to send you to the fires of hell to perish eternally. School was not much better, as being queer bait or even worse, a real queer was a social death knell. In high school, one of the favorite activities if we were not otherwise occupied on Friday or Saturday nights was to go 'roll some queers' for amusement and financial gain. Today we call that gay bashing, but it is really the same thing. What finally drove me from the 'loving arms' of the church was the guilt I felt for being attracted to the teenage boys I taught in Sunday School in the beach community where I was stationed when I was first in the Navy. I was a member of a charismatic baptist church where it was a common practice to hug everyone as a sign of your love in Christ for them. My boys would all hug me and I would get hard as a rock right there in church and I could not handle it, so I quit going. I spent many years and untold dollars on various substances and treatments to alleviate this guilt having had little or no success at finding a church home that would accept me as a Gay man without condemnation. The best church I ever found for me was the Open Door Community Church I attended while living in Arkansas before returning to Fort Worth where I currently reside.

You all know that there is still a great amount of bigotry and hatred prevalently espoused by those who are ultra conservative politically and/or are members of right wing fundamentalist 'Christian' organizations both Protestant and Catholic. You also know that I spend a lot of my spare time reading on the Internet where recently there have been several great blog posts in regards to this subject which I have been bookmarking for inclusion in the event I, too chose to discuss the subject in a post of my own. I have found in these blog posts authors who write more grand eloquently about this subject than anything I could write for myself. One of these blog post, 'Holy Wars are not about traditional human values of freedom and equality' written by Desmond Rutherford of the blog 'Des Down Under' from Adelaide, Australia as published by LGBTQ Nation here in the US. He starts with the statement "You can hold all the traditional values you want, but nothing will make those values rational, sane or relevant to reality, if they have been born of superstition. Sadly, in the eyes of the religious conformists, it seems that rational values are non-traditional." Des goes on to extensively cover the history of religion, their beliefs with which religionists and politicians wish to shackle us with in their "covert mission to achieve social control, through spreading religious doctrine". Des comes to the conclusion "Holy Wars are not about traditional human values of freedom and equality; they are insane crusades to intimidate and force everyone to conform to the same belief. That’s not equality or freedom." I would have to agree whole heartedly.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across the blog post "The Bible and Homosexuality / A Biblical Presentation by Matthew Vines" over at Canyonwalker Connections, a blog by a straight woman, Kathy Baldock, whose purpose is to repair the breach between the church and the LGBT Christian community. The post which includes Matthew's video of his presentation to a Methodist Church group in his home town of Wichita, Kansas which is also home to that rather more infamous group of right wing nut jobs at Westboro Baptist Church. Matthew, a gay man of 22, has spent the last two years on a sabbatical from Harvard to delve deeply into the scriptures themselves in order to clarify his belief that one could be both Gay and Christian. Matthew had “always upheld Scripture as authoritative for Christian faith, [he] didn’t want to accept easy answers that failed to do justice to the biblical texts.” The video presentation is the culmination of his studies, his dissertation so to speak in which he rather eruditely explains the scriptures in their context and their relationship with a modern Christian faith which is very enlightening to those with an open mind.

Then just yesterday, in one of my feeds, a link was posted to a response to a post from last November over a Single Dad Laughing, a blog by Dan Pearce and his son Noah. The original post, "I'm Christian, unless you're Gay" starts with this preamble "Today I want to write about something that has bothered me for the better part of a decade. I’ve carved out no fewer than a dozen drafts of this post, all strangely unalike, all ultimately failing to accomplish the job I’ve set out to do. Truth is, I’ve been trying to write it off and on for more than a year now, and the right words have been seemingly impossible to come by. In the end, and in order to post it, I guess I had to care more about the message than I do about potential backlash. I’m not being facetious when I say that I hope I can get this message across without offending… well… everybody."  In this post Dan tells the story of his friend,  whom he calls Jacob for the sake of anonymity, who lives in the same community as Dan and Noah in Utah.  Dan is the only one of Jacobs friends who know he is Gay because every other 'friends' he has told have rejected him and divested themselves of any relationship with him.  The three page post is in Dan's words "not about homosexuality. It’s not about Christians. It’s not about religion. It’s not about politics. It’s about something else altogether. Something greater. Something simpler.  Love, kindness and friendship".  It is a truly amazing treatise to read and take to heart.    On Monday of this week, Dan published  an email he received in reference to his original November post from someone who identified herself as "One Proud Mom".  The email chronicles "One Brave Teen's Response to 'I'm Christian, unless you're Gay'".  The story is heart rending yet ultimately heart warming as the original article brought one family closer together in love, harmony and acceptance of their Gay 15 year old son.  Dan's response to the letter goes like this "If you think you can’t make a difference, you are wrong. If you think you are too old or too young to make change happen, you are wrong. If you think that somebody else will do it first, you are wrong. I think this letter is proof enough of that."  What more can I say?  I encourage you to read the original post and the response for yourselves, you will be better for it.

Now that I have stepped off my soapbox, the play list I have for you today has the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 3 performances by The Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. The first is the Bassoon Concerto in B Flat, KV191 featuring Michael Chapman on Solo Bassoon. Next up is the Sinfonia Concertante for Winds in E Flat, K297b featuring soloists Aurèle Nicolet, Flute; Heinz Holliger, Oboe; Hermann Baumann, Horn; and Klaus Thumermann, Bassoon. Concluding this play list is the Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra Number 1, K299 featuring soloists Sir James Galway on Flute and Marisa Robles on Harp.  Then last but not least, I have some fine looking young men making up this collection of Hump Day Hunks for you to look at, lust at and drool over.  Thank you for your time today and everyday, see you again tomorrow.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!