Or not.
You may well have been subject to name calling over the last couple of weeks. You may well have not even realised that it was happening. I came across it by default because it happened on Twitter and the Twitter/Lent/Giving Up Thing is just about holding. I'm still not sure why I am doing it - no discernable spiritual effect but I've come this far. Anyway, if you have signed up to the petition calling for marriage to remain as a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman you may or may not know that a link went up on Twitter referring to the petition as a "Homophobe List" One word (sort of)
OUT - PIGGING - RAGEOUS
I need to explain my thoughts - few of which will flow in any particularly coherent way and some of which will probably not be file-able under "Christian Heart-Warming Edifying Things" but it's my blog and I want to say them anyway.
The first thing is that you should not lose too much sleep over this. The link was put up by some of the "right-on" slightly snarky writers who earn their living by proving that they know much more than you could ever possibly hope to. Thank you for allowing me the privilege of reading you as you insult me. I'm very humbled.
When I'm insulted, I usually prefer it to be by someone who knows me from a bar of soap - call me old fashioned. There's very little I can hold my head up about in this life but anyone who knows my life circumstances knows that a Homophobe I ain't.
These are very complicated issues. For me, the Christian church has brought a lot of this on itself by a surfeit of superiority when it was in the majority on this issue. I also think that if, as a Christian, anyone can honestly point at me and attach the word "---phobe" to me about anything or anyone, then I have to have a good look at myself. I am in no position to judge anyone.
Some people are referring to this as persecution. I am not so sure. I think if you spent 15 minutes with a Nigerian Christian or an Egyptian Christian you would be able to have a clearer definition of real persecution and would feel like a bit of a soft nelly.
What concerns me is that tolerance seems to be a bit of a one way street. For many people these are deeply held spiritual views (although again - complicated - there is a huge spectrum of opinion in this area within the church) which really transcend some people in the papers writing opinion pieces. But, as the great philosopher Will Young seemed to suggest on Question Time this week - anyone who disagrees with his viewpoint isn't actually entitled to an opinion, so there. (I don't think he actually said that he would scweam and scweam until he was sick but the threat was certainly there)
See how mad it's made me? I will need to go off and eat several scones to calm down.
The worst thing about all this is that it detracts. It detracts from the central truth. That the Son of God, while I had no interest in him whatsoever, came to the earth and died for me so that I could have my life changed and be saved. So that he could call me friend.
Isaiah 1:18
Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
You go girl!
ReplyDelete... and we are soft nelly's when it comes to persecution. We don't know we're born.
I am visiting you and now following- I am entranced with your writing style. I know that sounds goofy. But I can't think of a better word at the moment. I am smirking as I write this comment!I enjoy the wit woven, and will be stopping by, now and again! Thanks for visiting- nice to meet you! So spot on.
ReplyDeleteAlison - Thanks. Needed a lie down after all that.
ReplyDeleteMDD - Thank you so much for the encouragement
I unfortunately missed this last week, I don't know how or why but still! I think I know you far better than I do a bar of Imperial Leather or Coal Tar and wouldn't have ever thought phobe of any sort would have been anywhere near let along attached to!
ReplyDeleteI did, and have been watching and listening to this debate of some time I think that I am somebody who believes in tolerance above most things. In the main this is because I have been part of organisations where being Gay may well have led to some pretty archaic and esoteric language, if not some less than tolerant and pretty awful actions! I've done what you suggested and sat at a table, to eat, with Servicemen of the nationalities and religions you mention and many others and can say with some authority what their views on homosexuals, of both genders, are! And in some cases they have been far more radical and violent than I've heard on the radio and TV Current Affairs and News programmes! The problem I think is that whilst the debate may said to be raging there are people who will take to heart what "Social Commentators" say and use these views as an excuse for their less than tolerant actions! I think that we, whether Christian or otherwise owe it as human beings to use language with little more thought than some have used! I would not be happy to think that something I had said led to somebody taking an action to hurt another person in my name! I think that people, in the heat of a debate say things which would [or should give them pause] and I think Newsnight and Question Time are a case in point don't you?
I think in this day and age we can afford to "Live and Let Live"! People have been saying that we are Civilised people and that "Civilisation has Progressed" in leaps and bounds since the time of the Bible's writing and in spite of the language of Leviticus we should be able to accept each other's fouble's with more equanimity than some of the recent language in this debate suggests! I was at a memorial service for a lady who was born in 1928, a committed Christian, yet I never once heard her say a single word against anybody when we were at University together! She travelled widely to every continent! She lived among the people wherever she went and made friends without exception and accepted them for what they were and never, ever judged! She was a Christian in thought and deed and we all, who knew her, whatever our proclivities, shall miss her! A great deal could be learned from how she saw the world and I see a great deal of her in what you write every weekend.
SO, I hope that you continue to write as you do and to be who you are, I enjoy visiting at the weekend,even if I did miss last week! THANKYOU!!