How many people have died since the dawn of humankind? Millions? Billions? Hundreds of billions? And of those people who have passed into the great hereafter, have any of them EVER returned to this life to tell us of what awaits the living on the other side? No? I don't know anybody who ever died and came back to say, "you know, Tina - the afterlife is pretty cool - I just sat around and ate peeled grapes all day and bantered with God - but I thought it was so cool I should come back and tell you about it." Like I say, I don't know anybody like that. Do you?
What we have is books, written by a bunch of nameless, faceless people thousands of years ago who decided to sit down and write about what they thought life was all about - and no, it wasn't the number "42" either. No, it was a lot more entertaining than that. They wrote about gods who supposedly laid down laws (or was it the authors themselves - how will we EVER know?) and demanded blood and animal sacrifice in order to keep in the "good books" of these deities. And today we have people who quote these works of unprovable potential fiction as "gospel truth" - pardon the pun - and even oppress and persecute other people in the name of these said documents.
Let's recap - people have unshakeable faith in some unprovable deity - because of the (literal) blind faith and evangelical work of more people of previous generations - and some promise of an afterlife nobody knows or can verify exists - and in the light of the above, decide they are better than other people and to persecute them for their differences - while having no real proof or justification - or legitimacy whatsoever. In short, they are persecuting people on whims based upon blind faith in what other people wrote down centuries ago - and thus prejudice begets more prejudice. Perhaps it should be added at this point is this: religion - it's the gift that keeps on giving.
Once again let me assure the reader that I am not anti-religion, nor even anti-Christian. Nor am I an atheist, though my blog may give that impression. I am what is caled an agnostic - which means I am open to religious concepts - and this in essence means that I do not know all the answers, whether there is or isn't a God or which God this may be - or what awaits any of us in the afterlife - or indeed if there is any kind of afterlife at all. Which brings me to yet another point - despite all protestings of faith and so-called - "biblical innerrancy", NEITHER DOES ANYBODY ELSE. And yet there are many out there who claim "God says..."; "God hates..." and "Gays make God vomit."
If there is a God and he turns out to be the God of the bigots then GLBT really have nothing to lose, do they? And if this God made gay people as well as heterosexuals, and if his own creation at the end of all things indeed induces some divine nausea, to me all that comes to mind is: "pass Him a bucket."
But, being an agnostic I no longer believe specifically in any God - but if I were to choose any particular one on the list available, it would most certainly not be one who creates people GLBT and then sends his own followers to make life hard and even impossible for them. That is just vicious and cruel and no amount of rhetoric can obscure that fact, nor excuse it - save for rules borrowed from the game "Simon sez."
Hating people and persecuting them on unsound principles makes for shaky foundations. It is why left-handed people are treated as though they were "demon-possessed" in cetain religious institutions, even to this day. It is also what they say excuses and "justifies" making GLBT the scapegoats for all their ills, conveniently tailored to fit. And what evidence do they have to make such judgments?
NOTHING.
Just the ramblings of unknown deceased authors whose identities, motives and even their mental state at the time are highly questionable. By this I mean that we cannot actually ask them what they meant, what they were thinking - or even what they were smoking at the time. And said documents which are widely open to interpretation - and in quite a few places even contradict each other on various subjects cannot be verified in any way manner or form. Add to that the changes made over the years so that in the end, the final product we have today is misunderstood and misinterpreted - and woefully far from resembling the original. This all makes for a very clear-cut case indeed. And yet religious radical bigots still flock to their warped leaders religious calls to devotional hate, swallowing every honey-dipped slur and falsified pseudo-scientific "fact" without question.
"Inerrancy"? Hah! Now if anything would make a truly omnipotent and loving God vomit, that would be it. I suppose the Sun has to come up somehow, doesn't it?
As I said previously, I used to be a Christian - until I saw the shameful and inexcusable hostility others calling themselves "Christians" direct at innocent people out of pure ignorance and for no other reason than vanity and piety and for the sake of hate itself. The simple truth? Fundamentalist fanatics with an acute shortage of brain cells - and Christ-like compassion - have hijacked my religion and turned it into a movement of delusion, deception, thought-control, hatred and persecution.
I am not anti anybody's beliefs - nor opposed to anybody's rights to believe what they want to - but I will oppose to the bitter end the determination others demonstrate to make bigots of themselves, their faith, their god - and to oppress and persecute innocent people based solely on the warm fuzzy feeling they get from bashing other people over the head with it.
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.
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