I was at church this evening for my last service before heading across the pond. I gave my pastor a great big hug, knowing how much we're going to miss each other and how much I'm going to miss the church community. Pastor is a wonderful man who has taught me so much about living my life as a spiritual person, his retirement in February is going to be one of the hardest losses of my life. He can't step foot in the church for five years after he retires, which is a church rule in order for the new pastor to become familiar with the congregation. I sure am going to miss him though, but when I get back from London I'll be church shopping near the new apartment. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to find a congregation as warm as the one I am leaving behind, but no one will ever be able to replace pastor.
It took me a while to get out of church tonight, as everyone was talking with me about London and wishing me well and I was saying my goodbyes. Mom said she thought pastor was getting a little misty when he was saying his goodbyes to me, and I wouldn't doubt it because I was too. I cried like a baby as I drove myself home tonight. I haven't gone four months without going to church since I was baptised.
However, I wasn't so much crying because I am going to miss pastor, the congregation, the feeling I get when I sing a hymn or look up at the cross in the pulpit. Pastor told me, as I was leaving, that the church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) recently (this week!!) voted to stop discriminatory practices in regard to sexual orientation. That means that gays and lesbians are now able to be married in the church by an ordained Lutheran minister, gays and lesbians can serve openly as ordained ministers AND be in committed relationships with their spouses. Previously, gays and lesbians could serve as ordained ministers BUT they had to be abstinant, and church policy was that gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies or weddings wouldn't be church sponsored.
This is the. best. news. EVER! I'm so happy for the church, it literally made me weepy, so my tears were a mix of sadness at leaving and happiness that the church is finally entering the 21st century (they skipped right over the 19th and 20th and moved right into the 21st! big steps for a conservative, old fashioned organization). This bodes very well for my interest in becoming a pastor, something I need to discuss with my pastor when I get back from London. I love research and psychology but I've always felt called to serve God and it's not something I can deny. I'm just glad I no longer have to choose between serving God as an ordained individual and being true to myself. I'm also relieved that, if I want to, I can be married in my own church by my own pastor and have a marriage recognized by my church.
It's a wonderful feeling to be accepted. Somewhere in heaven Jesus is saying "now stop persecuting the homos and start feeding the hungry!"
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Spirit in the Sky
I go back to school on Monday!! DEAR GOD I AM OVERJOYED!! I'm going to miss my best friends (Molly, I know you're reading this, love ya!), but I've missed my school friends for nearly four months now. I NEED TO GET BACK TO MY LIFE! I feel like summer sucked my soul right out of me. Well, summer, I shake my fist at you! I'm going back to school!!
I didn't go to church today for the second to last Thursday evening service of the summer, and the last service I will be able to attend until probably Thanksgiving (or Molly's birthday). But I don't feel bad, because I said goodbye to my church family already. And God is always with me. Can't get away from that Guy/Girl/Thing :-P
Here's a little summit I wrote:
When I walk across my college campus, I no longer notice the golden cross on top of the main building gleaming in the sunlight. I don’t stop to read the “have you prayed today?” flyers strewn haphazardly in front of the elevator. No one stops me on my way to class to demand that I go back to my dorm and change out of my “marriage is so gay” t-shirt. I go about my day at my Catholic college with no intrusion from the religious right.
When I have the opportunity to catch up with what is going on in the rest of the world, I find myself disenchanted, more often than not. We are constantly bombarded with war, murder, disease, and all the things that dominate the media.
As members of the GLBT community we are perpetually flooded, externally and internally, by the views of people who have no tolerance for anything that goes against societal norms. It is unfortunate that religion has emerged as the “enemy” of the GLBT community. It is equally unfortunate that the GLBT community is viewed as the enemy to the religious community. Both have something to contribute to modern society, and have contributed wonderful things throughout history.
The purpose of religion has always been all inclusion. Christ didn’t preach love, compassion and acceptance to one generation alone. The 10 Commandments weren’t created solely for the few Israelites who escaped persecution in Egypt. It is impossible to please everyone at any given point in time, which is why the major world religions have stood the test of time. What the modern religious community lacks is the ability to tolerate, not necessarily embrace, anything that goes against their view of "right." My view of "right" as a Protestant differs from a Catholic view of right. The view of someone from the northeast differs from the view of someone from the deep south. All Christians are certainly not the same, just as all Americans are not the same, and no two people are ever the same.
When you are baptized a Christian, the person officiating the ceremony doesn't say "Do you reject Satan? Do you promise to blow up abortion clinics and raise hell for homosexuals?" Many Christian churches (I can't speak for any other body of faith because I am unfamiliar with anything else) preach tolerance. Not only do they preach tolerance, many preach acceptance and embracing everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from. I'm a Lutheran, who goes to a VERY Catholic college, and I'm gay, and I'm out. I have a great relationship with the religious leaders at my school, who have no issue with our difference of opinion on many matters of faith or the fact that I'm openly gay. I can walk across campus holding my girlfriend’s hand and I don’t have to worry about awkward stares or disapproving glances. I’m very fortunate to go to a liberal school, in a liberal part of the country. Many are not so fortunate.
Truly, no one should have a problem with anyone else, particularly for matters beyond their control. There are tons of close-minded people out there running their mouths who say hateful things, but they aren't speaking for the entire Christian family. They are speaking for themselves and their close-minded drone followers. The things they say hurt me more as a Christian than a lesbian, because they give Christians and religious individuals very bad names. Christ never preached hatred of any group or any individual person. Christ invited any person with a desire to lead a good life to believe in Him and be saved. I believe that God gave us all free will for a purpose, and we certainly don’t live in the same times as when the Bible was written. We all have the intellect to choose our own paths and to determine our own right and wrong.
We have so little time that it is wasteful to care about the action or inaction of others. People are bound to dislike each other, for one reason or another. Everyone goes into every situation with preconceptions, something that is unavoidable and human. No one is perfect, and no one can be expected to be perfect. All anyone can ever be the best person they can be. However, everyone’s definition of what the best person is will be different for every individual. Which is why people need to be dealt with on an individual basis. Just because someone is a Christian, or a lesbian, or even a Christian lesbian, doesn’t mean they will share the same points of view as I do.
Only when we stop viewing people by their “fundamentalists” or “gay” or “Christian” or “Middle Eastern” labels and start viewing them as individuals will the barriers we have built between ourselves crumble and we can live as people, all trying to live on the same planet.
I didn't go to church today for the second to last Thursday evening service of the summer, and the last service I will be able to attend until probably Thanksgiving (or Molly's birthday). But I don't feel bad, because I said goodbye to my church family already. And God is always with me. Can't get away from that Guy/Girl/Thing :-P
Here's a little summit I wrote:
When I walk across my college campus, I no longer notice the golden cross on top of the main building gleaming in the sunlight. I don’t stop to read the “have you prayed today?” flyers strewn haphazardly in front of the elevator. No one stops me on my way to class to demand that I go back to my dorm and change out of my “marriage is so gay” t-shirt. I go about my day at my Catholic college with no intrusion from the religious right.
When I have the opportunity to catch up with what is going on in the rest of the world, I find myself disenchanted, more often than not. We are constantly bombarded with war, murder, disease, and all the things that dominate the media.
As members of the GLBT community we are perpetually flooded, externally and internally, by the views of people who have no tolerance for anything that goes against societal norms. It is unfortunate that religion has emerged as the “enemy” of the GLBT community. It is equally unfortunate that the GLBT community is viewed as the enemy to the religious community. Both have something to contribute to modern society, and have contributed wonderful things throughout history.
The purpose of religion has always been all inclusion. Christ didn’t preach love, compassion and acceptance to one generation alone. The 10 Commandments weren’t created solely for the few Israelites who escaped persecution in Egypt. It is impossible to please everyone at any given point in time, which is why the major world religions have stood the test of time. What the modern religious community lacks is the ability to tolerate, not necessarily embrace, anything that goes against their view of "right." My view of "right" as a Protestant differs from a Catholic view of right. The view of someone from the northeast differs from the view of someone from the deep south. All Christians are certainly not the same, just as all Americans are not the same, and no two people are ever the same.
When you are baptized a Christian, the person officiating the ceremony doesn't say "Do you reject Satan? Do you promise to blow up abortion clinics and raise hell for homosexuals?" Many Christian churches (I can't speak for any other body of faith because I am unfamiliar with anything else) preach tolerance. Not only do they preach tolerance, many preach acceptance and embracing everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from. I'm a Lutheran, who goes to a VERY Catholic college, and I'm gay, and I'm out. I have a great relationship with the religious leaders at my school, who have no issue with our difference of opinion on many matters of faith or the fact that I'm openly gay. I can walk across campus holding my girlfriend’s hand and I don’t have to worry about awkward stares or disapproving glances. I’m very fortunate to go to a liberal school, in a liberal part of the country. Many are not so fortunate.
Truly, no one should have a problem with anyone else, particularly for matters beyond their control. There are tons of close-minded people out there running their mouths who say hateful things, but they aren't speaking for the entire Christian family. They are speaking for themselves and their close-minded drone followers. The things they say hurt me more as a Christian than a lesbian, because they give Christians and religious individuals very bad names. Christ never preached hatred of any group or any individual person. Christ invited any person with a desire to lead a good life to believe in Him and be saved. I believe that God gave us all free will for a purpose, and we certainly don’t live in the same times as when the Bible was written. We all have the intellect to choose our own paths and to determine our own right and wrong.
We have so little time that it is wasteful to care about the action or inaction of others. People are bound to dislike each other, for one reason or another. Everyone goes into every situation with preconceptions, something that is unavoidable and human. No one is perfect, and no one can be expected to be perfect. All anyone can ever be the best person they can be. However, everyone’s definition of what the best person is will be different for every individual. Which is why people need to be dealt with on an individual basis. Just because someone is a Christian, or a lesbian, or even a Christian lesbian, doesn’t mean they will share the same points of view as I do.
Only when we stop viewing people by their “fundamentalists” or “gay” or “Christian” or “Middle Eastern” labels and start viewing them as individuals will the barriers we have built between ourselves crumble and we can live as people, all trying to live on the same planet.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me
Why are people so angry? Maybe the better question is why are people so angry in God's name?
I'm not perfect and I never professed to being perfect. God made me the way I am, just like He made you the way you are. We are made in the image of Love, and therefore we should LOVE each other.
The Bible says a lot of shit, and I will be the first to say a lot of it upsets me. I think maybe the best way to describe the Bible is to compare it to a modern day individual who goes around trying to please everyone. You simply cannot please everyone, and that is the Bible's major flaw.
I don't really feel like getting into the Bible's shortcomings. We all have shortcomings.
That is organized religion's major flaw (and I'm not just talking about Christianity here, I'm talking about all of it). Islam SAYS it wants everyone, just like Christianity and Judaism and all of the other major world religions. You don't START a religion for one group of people, just like you don't FOUND a country for one group of people. You don't see people walking around with pointy hats and funny looking pants talking about the winter and the Indians anymore.
Religions and nations aren't founded for the present time. People are mortal, fallible, ignorant, and only here for the present. We have no concept of time outside of ourselves. God is the ultimate embodiment of time, God has no time constraints and no restrictions.
God wasn't made for black people, or white people, of straight people, or Gay people. God wasn't made for men, and God wasn't made for woman. God MADE all of us, we have NO RIGHT, absolutely NO RIGHT to act as though we understand God in any capacity. We can never understand God. We can't even understand ourselves, how could we possibly ever understand God? That's not to say that speculation isn't okay, because it is. We are human, we are thinkers. God gave us brains for a reason, and if we use those brains to will God away from our lives, that is our prerogative. However, if we use those brains to elevate ourselves above others, we are defeating the purpose of faith: all inclusion. I'm not better than an athiest because I'm a Christian. I'm not better than a homeless person because I'm from the middle class. No one is better than anyone else, because everyone came from the same place, and will eventually return to that place. And we all have the right to our own beliefs and opinions, and should share those beliefs and opinions because that is why we have brains, and that is why we have mouths to speak and ears the listen. We should use our ears more often, maybe we would learn something.
It's so hilariously disappointing to me that we as a world still hold ourselves to the same standard as the people who lived in Biblical times. We don't live to be 600 years old, and then we die. Most of us don't tend sheep for our livelihoods, have 15 kids in the hopes that at least 1 will live on and carry on our DNA.
Not many people these days disclose dicussions with God to the public. If you hear God, and you talk about it, it's probably your ticket to the mental hospital.
Why can't people just look outside themselves for ONE MINUTE and see how small their lives are?
Don't quote the Bible at me and tell me I'm a sinner and that I need to repent. Don't spout your hate at me. Hate has no place in the Bible, hate has no place in ANY body of faith. Faith isn't founded on hate, and it isn't built over hate. God is love, whether you believe God is an actual entity, a living person, multiple people, an idea, or NOTHING AT ALL. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE AS LONG AS YOU BELIEVE SOMETHING.
We ARE a great people! Together we are beautiful and our lives are meaningful. I believe that no matter what you believe, we are all a part of the same family, and we are all just trying to live. We live until we die, and we all die. Is it so much to ask to just be allowed to live?
I can't love you because I'm a woman? I can't love you because I'm white? I can't love you because I'm gay?
This is me saying I will love YOU until it hurts. I will love without anger and in God's name.
The Bible is a book, just like any other. God didn't write the Bible, God never wrote anything. God never said that anything in particular was a sin. We know in our hearts and our minds what is right and wrong. Trust yourself and your rationality and you are trusting God.
I'm not perfect and I never professed to being perfect. God made me the way I am, just like He made you the way you are. We are made in the image of Love, and therefore we should LOVE each other.
The Bible says a lot of shit, and I will be the first to say a lot of it upsets me. I think maybe the best way to describe the Bible is to compare it to a modern day individual who goes around trying to please everyone. You simply cannot please everyone, and that is the Bible's major flaw.
I don't really feel like getting into the Bible's shortcomings. We all have shortcomings.
That is organized religion's major flaw (and I'm not just talking about Christianity here, I'm talking about all of it). Islam SAYS it wants everyone, just like Christianity and Judaism and all of the other major world religions. You don't START a religion for one group of people, just like you don't FOUND a country for one group of people. You don't see people walking around with pointy hats and funny looking pants talking about the winter and the Indians anymore.
Religions and nations aren't founded for the present time. People are mortal, fallible, ignorant, and only here for the present. We have no concept of time outside of ourselves. God is the ultimate embodiment of time, God has no time constraints and no restrictions.
God wasn't made for black people, or white people, of straight people, or Gay people. God wasn't made for men, and God wasn't made for woman. God MADE all of us, we have NO RIGHT, absolutely NO RIGHT to act as though we understand God in any capacity. We can never understand God. We can't even understand ourselves, how could we possibly ever understand God? That's not to say that speculation isn't okay, because it is. We are human, we are thinkers. God gave us brains for a reason, and if we use those brains to will God away from our lives, that is our prerogative. However, if we use those brains to elevate ourselves above others, we are defeating the purpose of faith: all inclusion. I'm not better than an athiest because I'm a Christian. I'm not better than a homeless person because I'm from the middle class. No one is better than anyone else, because everyone came from the same place, and will eventually return to that place. And we all have the right to our own beliefs and opinions, and should share those beliefs and opinions because that is why we have brains, and that is why we have mouths to speak and ears the listen. We should use our ears more often, maybe we would learn something.
It's so hilariously disappointing to me that we as a world still hold ourselves to the same standard as the people who lived in Biblical times. We don't live to be 600 years old, and then we die. Most of us don't tend sheep for our livelihoods, have 15 kids in the hopes that at least 1 will live on and carry on our DNA.
Not many people these days disclose dicussions with God to the public. If you hear God, and you talk about it, it's probably your ticket to the mental hospital.
Why can't people just look outside themselves for ONE MINUTE and see how small their lives are?
Don't quote the Bible at me and tell me I'm a sinner and that I need to repent. Don't spout your hate at me. Hate has no place in the Bible, hate has no place in ANY body of faith. Faith isn't founded on hate, and it isn't built over hate. God is love, whether you believe God is an actual entity, a living person, multiple people, an idea, or NOTHING AT ALL. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE AS LONG AS YOU BELIEVE SOMETHING.
We ARE a great people! Together we are beautiful and our lives are meaningful. I believe that no matter what you believe, we are all a part of the same family, and we are all just trying to live. We live until we die, and we all die. Is it so much to ask to just be allowed to live?
I can't love you because I'm a woman? I can't love you because I'm white? I can't love you because I'm gay?
This is me saying I will love YOU until it hurts. I will love without anger and in God's name.
The Bible is a book, just like any other. God didn't write the Bible, God never wrote anything. God never said that anything in particular was a sin. We know in our hearts and our minds what is right and wrong. Trust yourself and your rationality and you are trusting God.
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