Friday, January 14, 2011

The Young Turks tend to hold views with which I strongly disagree...

...but this video is certainly worth seeing, both because of the hilarious reasoning of "minister" Cindy Jacobs and the spot-on humorous response of the Young Turks hosts.

I don't have a problem with Cindy Jacobs preaching that homosexual acts are sinful, but I do have a problem with the fact that she's using stupid logic (Beebe, AK + Governor Mike Beebe + former Governor-turned-President-introducing-"Don't ask, don't tell" + repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" = God's message by dying birds!), and the fact that if there are any people attending this "church" who experience homosexual attractions, they are not going to feel welcomed to share what they probably think of as a burden with the "pastors" or other "church" members because of the way in which she spoke during this talk.

When I used to attend Fundamental and Evangelical "churches", I rarely heard positive statements about persons who experienced same-sex attractions (I think I can recall two occasions in 23 years in which I heard statements of God's love for homosexuals. Also on both occasions, Christians were encouraged to love gay friends and relatives, even in spite of whether or not the gay friends were committing homosexual acts). I heard many stupid, homophobic,* and condemning statements, however. As a result, I wouldn't acknowledge that part of myself for many years, and to this day struggle with shame because of it.

I wish more Christian leaders would think before they speak!

*I mean literally homophobic. For example, an evangelist who preached at the Fundamental Baptist "church" I grew up in stated that he was afraid to let an obviously gay flight steward touch him lest he catch something. Puh-lease!

2 comments:

albin julek said...

Woodrow:
Unfortunately, the derisive comments about homosexuality and over-emphasis on the “wrongness” of homosexuality holds sway on Catholic Radio as well, at least the station in the city where I live, which I suspect is probably the average. To rant on the homosexual on a continuing basis, and then expect your listener to see Christ in them, to love them, to encourage them to become Catholics, strikes me as disingenuous at best.

John Paul II said that Christ is found most in the marginalized. I would think that the Church would be active in trying to get homosexuals to become Catholic – instead it’s more of a “we don’t want you in our club” mentality –don’t you think? Unless it is a “liberal” Catholic institution.

I have homosexual friends, and I think that is the key. Too often, Catholics shove homosexuals into a “bad” category the way Rush Limbaugh might with using the word “liberal” or the Huffington Post with the label “conservative”. It’s easy to do that with a group but not with someone you love, who loves your kids, and whom you respect as a person.

There's so much homophobia nowadays, and I think any institution that makes a big deal about it is faning the flames. My 6 year old was called "gay" at school, people are accused of being "gay" at my job (joke, ha,ha - by the way, I work for a Catholic institution, someone I know, he found his adopted gay son hanging in the basement after commiting suicide after constant bullying at school.

Charles Woodrow said...

Albin, thanks for reading my blog and commenting. I'm sorry it took so long to publish your comment. I was without internet access for a few weeks. I'm tired right now, and will share some thoughts about your comment tomorrow (or sometime this week).