Hi Mr Summit. That was an amazing blog and it really touched my heart.
I really loved these parts in particular
What I do know though is that for gay people to remain silent, to keep pretending that they are straight is bearing false witness to themselves. What I also know is that for Christians to persecute gays and lesbians is the moral equivalent of persecuting black people because of their skin colour. Gay people cannot choose their sexual orientation any more than white people can choose their skin colour. To say anything otherwise is absurd and denies the fact that given the choice, from a purely objective viewpoint, no one would choose to be gay.
Those were some of the things I went through in my head over the 10 years I struggled with my own sexuality, so it was great to hear a straight guy come to those conclusions on his own as well. To remain silent and pretend that I was straight was not only living a lie, but denying who I truly am. Also, for my entire life, the only experience I have had with Christians is that they love everyone BUT gay people. To me this just doesn't make any sense, because God doesn't discriminate and push people aside… he just loves, unconditionally. I saw this video once of a young man by the name of Graeme Taylor making a speech on equality. After hearing his speech I thought, wow, what an amazing, courageous young man. He could very well be the next president. I had a light bulb moment when he basically said "Martin Luther King once said he wants his grandchildren to one day not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. Well I hope one day we too are judged by the content of our character, and not who we love."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=VJBvdfdAQjs
I think sometimes that we often (Christians and everyone else) get so caught up in what is or is not a sin that we miss what the Bible really says about sin. The book of Romans tells us (through a guy named Paul) that the rules and regulations in the Bible let us know that sin exists and the purpose of letting us know that sin exists is only to drive us towards the cross of Christ. Without Christ, committing sins is irrelevant and with Christ sin is forgiven. The whole point of the identification of sin is merely to demonstrate to us something which we already inherently and instinctively know – that we are imperfect creatures who are in need of rescue.
It's true. These days I see so many people using the bible as a weapon, rather than using it as a guide to living life to the max and just loving everyone for who they are. One thing I have learnt while walking on this earth is that no one is perfect. We all know our darkest secrets, that we are afraid to share of to the world because we put on this facade that everything is ok when it really isn't, but I firmly believe that is what it is like to be a human. To expose those secrets, those weaknesses. To know who you are. To realize that no one is perfect. There's the saying "Temet Nosce", which means 'Know Thyself' in latin. It is one of my favourite sayings of all time, and when I came out to my parents that I was gay on the 4th of July this year, I found a HUGE piece of the puzzle about myself that had been missing from my life for 22 years, and I am still learning many things every day that is making me a better person. Not only this, but ever since I came out, I've been closer to God and I bear my Jesus-on-the-cross necklace every single day. It is almost the epitome of the above quote in how it says knowing sin exists only drives us towards the cross of Christ – well, I am wearing the cross of Christ every day! I don't think you can get much closer than that 😉
Nobody likes being told that we are imperfect and that no matter how good we think we are, how rich we become or how many lovers we take, the reality is that we are flawed and fall short of the standard that God demands
I agree. We're not perfect, and we do fall short of the standards that God demands of us. We can only do him justice in showing the world that hating others is not the answer. For a long time now I never realized how great a human being the late Michael Jackson really was. He missed out on his entire childhood, and to me, your childhood plays a HUGE part in how we grow up and what defines us later on in life. In most cases, someone who has gone through all of that would usually end up hating others and being a victim, but he didn't choose the 'victim' path. Instead, he loved everyone, no matter how many hurtful things were thrown at him. Personally, if there was any person that was the epitome of what God wanted us to be, it would be Michael Jackson, because he was quite literally a walking Jesus, just loving everyone for who they are. I think we can all learn something from Michael, and I can only hope society one day follows in his footsteps.
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