RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT........ Homosexuality & Homophobia

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT….. Homosexuality & Homophobia

            This is a most unusual Rambling for me. Seldom do I give my opinion on things like this. I am of a firm belief that opinions are like assholes, everybody has one & they are usually very stinky & full of shit. Pardon my language.

            There is a great deal of homophobia at the moment. States are passing laws that discriminate against the GLBT community and try to claim that is for religious reasons. When in fact it is nothing more than HATE disguised as religious freedom. North Carolina just this past week passed a law that discriminates against transgendered individuals and the GLBT community. In one day the bill went through the state house, state senate, and Governor Pat McCrory signed into law. It steps on not only the rights of the GBLT community, but the rights of the local governments to passing laws for their individual cities and counties. All disguised as protecting normal people from the prospect of being assaulted in public restrooms.

            So much FEAR and HATE against a group of people. Why? Hate is a learned behavior. Is it because gay and lesbian people demand the rights and liberties guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States? Every American citizen has the right to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS. Those words penned over 200 years ago weren’t meant for a limited few, a select few, but to each and every person born in this Great Country. Regardless of a person’s religious beliefs.

            It is funny, how easily the Christian is thrown out there. People who barely darken the doors to a church on Sunday and never pick up the Bible, but claim to be Christian and it is against their religious belief to have anything to do with the GBLT community. The word Christian means, “to be Christ Like.” I personally don’t see many Christ like people walking around. I don’t know many people who chose to give up everything and take up their cross and follow Christ. Most are like the rich young ruler, it grieved him to have to give up his worldly possessions. The same holds true today. Most people have their big homes, fancy cars, designer clothes. If Christ walked up to them and told them to leave it all behind and follow him, most would turn away sad and disheartened.

            There is NO LOVE in their hearts, NO COMPASSION, nothing Christ like at all, only HATE. Most people take a few verses in the Bible and live their lives around those few verses. These verses usually promote their idea of how they should live and how everyone else should live. They then ignore what the rest of the Bible says and teaches.

            While I grew up in a Baptist Church and set under and Bible preacher, who knew the Bible and knew it well. That doesn’t mean that he knew everything about the Bible. He would preach on SIN and name it. He didn’t care who he made mad. You don’t find that much anymore. Preachers stand in the pulpit on Sunday and will only Preach on a few topics, that they know will not offend members of their congregation. Homosexuality is on the OK to preach against list, because heaven forbid that a homosexual would be setting on a church pew. Homosexuals are perverts, sinners, and wouldn’t dare go to church. They don’t believe in God or his great gift he gave to mankind. This is what people think. It is amazing the ignorance of the religious community.

            Heterosexuals thought they had a monopoly on marriage. The religious right thought that marriage is only between a man and a woman. Same-sex marriage was and is a foreign concept. I personally don’t understand why homosexuals would want to marry. They should look at the mess the heterosexual have made of the institution of marriage. Divorce rates are at all time highs. The Bible says marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled. Lots of divorces, meaning a lot of defiled beds.

            Like I said this is me RAMBLING. If preachers got up and preached against ADULTERY, it would be total chaos in the church. Instead they will officiate the marriage of members of their churches each time they remarry. If they didn’t the church would vote them out or run them out.

            The youth of the churches are out fornicating. Young girls are getting pregnant out of wedlock. When I lived in Knoxville, one of the high schools there had over a hundred young girls pregnant at the same time.  The boys instead of being set down and educated on the issues of being a teen dad. Are patted on the back and high fived for their masculinity and prowess it getting the girls into the sack. And you always hear well it is the girls fault, she was asking for it. She could said no. If the preach got up and called out FORNICATION, then he would lose the youth of the church and lose his job for running them off. So as long as sin is not named but left in a general area no one cares.

            Why so much hate against homosexuals? Is it because being gay makes a straight man question his own sexuality? I think it is because the GLBT community has stopped hiding in the shadows. They have decided to stand up for themselves and are demanding their rights and the right to live as they wish and be heard. The GLBT community is no longer silent, and they will no longer be bullied. And for some if they can’t bully then they aren’t happy.

            More and more young people are coming out. And those students who have the courage to come out being taunted and tormented is an everyday occurrence. The suicide rate among GLBT youth is far higher than straight youth.  School officials don’t step in when they see bullying going on. Most claim that the GLBT youth brings it on themselves for coming out and rubbing their lifestyle in the faces of the other students. And then the very school officials, when a gay student commits suicide exclaim what a tragedy. How did we let this happen?

            The word homosexual is not found in the Bible. There are references to homosexuality in the Bible. But homosexual is not in there. The word homosexual didn’t show until the end of the nineteenth century. Before that words like Sodomite, and queer were used.

            Sodomite is used because of the story in Genesis chapters 18 & 19. Evidently someone decided that this story was dealing with same-sex perversion. But for some reason preachers have used these verses to denounce homosexuality. If you read the story you will see that not everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah are homosexual. Lot the main character of chapter 19 was living there with his family. When the angels came to warn him of the impending doom, they told him to gather his family and flee the city. He had sons and daughters who had taken wives and husbands from the within Sodom. After researching and reading several books on the subject. I think the real crime here is RAPE. The citizens of Sodom came to Lots door wanting him to send out the angels so they could know them. I think that this implies, to rape them. Men and women alike.

            It’s funny I have heard different people discuss the subject of Genesis 19. They all seemed to think that everyone living in Sodom was queer. I find that hard to believe. If that was the case finding suitable spouses for Lots children would have been difficult.

            Other verses that are used to condemn homosexuals are Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13,

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Leviticus 18:22

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:13

Granted these verses were written in the Law of Moses. We live in the Grace age, not under the law. That is a story for a different time.  The New Testament verses dealing with homosexuality, here are a couple Romans 1:25-32, & I Corinthians 6:9-10.

            Most people use the 10 Commandments as a standard to live by. You can find the 10 Commandments hanging not only in Churches across America. You will find the 10 Commandments on the walls of Courtrooms, in Courthouses, Branches of State, & Federal buildings. Even on the Wall of the United States Supreme Court Building. If you read the 10 Commandments, homosexuality didn’t make the top 10. Adultery did, killing did, bearing false witness, honor your mother and father did. HMMMM makes a person wonder.

            Instead of condemning people for being themselves or different. We should let them be who they are regardless of social norms or religious bias. Let people live their lives the way they chose. You would think that we as human beings we would become enlightened. We live in the 21^st Century not the dark ages. We need to be tolerant of other people’s beliefs. We don’t have to agree with their beliefs. But each and every person born in the Great US of A. is entitled to their beliefs.

            It would be a very dull and boring world if we were all alike in every way. That is why God made each of us different. Take a moment and get to know someone before you decide you don’t like them.

            GBLT people are human to. They have feelings. They have dreams, desires, wants, and needs. The GBLT community play a big part in our communities. They have careers, such as, doctors, lawyers, educators, artist, etc. Don’t knock someone till you know them and have walked a mile in their shoes. This ends my Rambling on this subject….

Written 29MAR2016.    By: David M. Shuler