Upon reading that record cover, it reminded me of a conversation my friend, a reasonable and loving Christian, had with his brother-in-law, a right wing, evangelical, hate-filled Christian. I presume hate-filled since the brother-in-law was delighting in the fact that on the November ballot there will a measure to annul the gay marriages which were recently allowed by the California Supreme Court. This dipshit brother-in-law had the narrow-mindedness to say that if the gays weren't stopped that the human race would die out. Yes, he really said that.
I must say I am baffled by the desire for any religious organisation to legislate their doctrine. How little faith can they have in their God that they think you need to legislate to save the human race? Do they think God is simply going to let the human race die out? If it does die out from butt-fucking and kooch slamming gaining so much popularity, then wouldn't it be safe to say that that's part of God's plan and those who do not succumb to the lure of Satan will be spared eternal torment and instead enjoy eternity at the right hand of the father?
God needs you to stop this abomination.
I've said for a long time, and as seen in the aforementioned examples, that I think often the most die hard believers haven't the faith they claim to have or think they have. They are scared to trust God, and not scared enough of God himself to follow his teachings. If they really believed in eternal damnation, there would be a clearer moral distinction between the actions of believers and non, but there isn't. Jesus taught of love and forgiveness, and these evangelical Christians are caught up in something very different. Proselytising and living behind a facade of what it means to be a good person does not a good person make. Playing along with this facade has resulted in a complete misplacement of values and love among Evangelicals in America who would rather support the pro-life, Bible bashing candidate who uses religion to win votes, while ignoring this same constituency on economic and social issues. These people distrust God so much, they are easily swayed into aligning themselves with the side that only pays lip service to moral interests, while completely ignoring the core of Jesus' message. As long as there is someone supporting prayer in school, they don't really care about the people who have no homes, food or health care. That is what legislation should be working to fix, not solving the woes of this apparently weak God who can't fend for himself and get his own shit done.
It use to irritate me, but now I laugh, when believers feel sorry for me and my lack of belief because it again just highlights their distrust in God. Examples like these also show how scared these people are. I'm not scared of the things they are scared of. I'm not scared of dying. I don't want to die, but I'm not scared of it. I'm scared of people I love dying, but I don't really care about myself (though I do fear any physical pain that may accompany the dying. No thanks.)
These people who fear the world will go gay or their kids will go gay show so little faith in themselves as parents (since they believe it's a choice) and in their God. They have no faith that God will shine his light, or whatever he's supposed to do to keep these kids on the right path. They don't have faith in their own abilities as parents, perhaps because they palm off too much responsibility onto God who they deep down don't have faith in. I think in their subconscious, these people know what I know. If you want to get things done, you need to do it yourself. I believe this and work toward this. If one is consumed by the idea that God is taking care of things, but deep down doesn't think he can, they end up making leaps of faith they don't believe in only to be left asking "Why?" when things don't work out. They seem to have as much faith in God to keep the world God loving and heterosexual as one would have handing over their taxes to a Taco Bell cashier who says she's good at maths. Instead, they no show no faith by legislating and protesting to get the job done. It shows as much faith God as if you hired an accountant from H & R Block to oversee what the Taco Bell employee was doing with your tax return. No faith at all. These people are intervening to make sure God does what he says he wants done.
If a family loses a someone through a tragedy like a car accident, or cancer, or anything, the loss is attributed to "God's will" or "God was teaching us a lesson." however when it comes to gays taking over the world, why are people not so trusting in God's plan then? Perhaps God knows there are too many people in this world and is trying to cull the population by creating less people who will procreate. Why are these people so distrustful of God's plan when the plan presents something scary like homosexuals or people who don't believe in God? I understand they probably justify these things as fighting Satan, but seriously, these people need to get over themselves! Do they really think they are more powerful than GOD? Of course they aren't if he is who they claim he is, so why the fuck does he need help from them? God will take of it...or will he?
It is a relief to point out that not all believers are like this. There are plenty of good Christians who will allow God's will to unfold as it should (or maybe they are just complacent, I don't know.) In the Saddleback forum which took place this past weekend in which Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama fielded questions regarding how their beliefs factored into their candidacy, Obama had the following to say on the subject of gay marriage. While he opposes gay marriage (which greatly disappoints me), he also opposes an amendment to the constitution to ban it. Here's what he said:
"I think my faith is strong enough and my marriage is strong enough that I can afford those civil rights to others even if I have a different perspective or a different view." - Barack Obama on rights for same sex couples.
He seems to trust his God a lot more than the most outspoken "believers", and yet they don't buy into his style of Christianity.
It must really suck to be these people. They are scared of so much and the thing (God) that is supposed to protect them from such horrors, they don't even trust that he knows what he's doing. If they truly believe he has a master plan, they need to get out of everyone else's business and let God work his magic.
Don't sweat it! If the gays and non-believers get out of hand, he can do this in two shakes of a lamb's tail or less!
