Sunday, March 16, 2008

Recovering Mormon

Oh crap, here goes. I am about to alienate a lot of people. Oh, who am I kidding, I'm going to enjoy it. A little. I'm actually half joking but I'm sure this post will bring a considerable amount of judgment. I can handle it, hit me with your best shot.

I consider myself a recovering Mormon. I was baptised and went to church on and off for years. It has only been in the last couple of years that I came to terms with the fact that I don't believe in God and I am disgusted (that's not the right word but I can't come up with a better one right now) by organized religion. I have so many friends and family who are Mormon and Christian and while there are a few who I don't see eye to eye with I still love and appreciate them and their beliefs. I try to be open with them regarding my own beliefs in a respectful way. Even more than that I appreciate my friends who have strong faith but still are tolerant and open minded. Those who are willing to go beyond their religion and be accepting of everyone.

I do realize that most of you are probably condemning me to hell in your mind right now. That's okay, since I don't believe in hell I'm not particularly worried. If there is a hell there are a lot of other reasons I'll be going there but I guess since I don't believe in God all of those other things are really just gravy. If it turns out I'm completely wrong I know a lot of other awesome people who will be dancing on the coals with me so at least I won't be lonely.

This week a "Christian" woman, Sally Kern made public comments regarding homosexuals. She compared them to terrorists. "Gays are a bigger threat than terrorists and Islam."

There are two things very, very wrong with this statement. A) Gays are not a threat. B) Islam is not a threat. I am in this blog going to focus on the gay comments (I have a whole other blog on the terrorist/Islam comment)

Did you know that according to her, gays are indoctrinating our children to think that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle? Can you believe the audacity of those crazy homosexuals? (That last bit was sarcasm by the way)

Why is it okay to teach children that acceptance of different lifestyles is bad or evil. Why can't we just teach them that all people are different and it's okay to be different. No matter your sexual preferences, the color of your skin or your religion.

Stop for just one second and listen to her speech and then everytime she says gay or homosexual replace it with a word that applies to you. It could be brown or Mormon or Jewish. No matter what word you substitue the speech is still hateful and hurtful. I want to rant and swear and punch Sally Kern in the face but that would make me no better than her.

I try to take comfort in the fact that someday I will have kids and when they are my age they will live in a different world (hopefully). I hope you are doing your part to fight against hatred, for me I will work on being more empathetic to those around me. I know I am not particularly eloquent but I hope I made a point without being offensive.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved the post. It not be said often enough or loud enough: gay and lesbian rights are HUMAN RIGHTS. Period.

Sally Kern is a bigot. And by the way, her speech (I saw it on Youtube) makes her look and sound like a complete idiot.

What would Jesus do? Indeed.

If he were alive today, I doubt he'd bee spewing Kernsesque-hate.

dani-pack said...

I don't know about you, Erin. Before I thought that you were going to be in heaven with me for eternity, but now that you are pro-diversity, I'm just not so sure anymore.

But really: Don't listen to these people spew their garbage. I refuse to listen to them because, in all honesty, they can't stop the revolution. They really can't. They're old white people from the south, for Allah's sake, and they're trying to scrape up every last bigot from every last nook and cranny. And it's in desperation because they KNOW that they can't stop it. Every single civil rights movement has gone through the same process.
I mean, most of the people saying these things are probably just upset that they can no longer openly hate black people, so they're finding any available target. They just go through Leviticus every few decades and condemn the next guilty party.
It makes me sick, but it also makes me so happy that not many people can look at a woman like Mrs. Kern and think, "L. Ron Hubbard, she's right!"
One of my favorite quotes to finish up this ridiculously long response:
"Will god judge me for loving or you for hating?"
If I believed in god it would be even more powerful.