Does this camera angle make my butt look fat? Be honest now!

I don’t know what the tourists have been feeding these guys but I could swear they weren’t this chubby a couple of weeks ago!! Makes me wanna poke one and see how jiggly it is haha.. they look like jello squirrels :P

Anywho, I was re-watching my Happiness video to lift my spirits because it was so much fun to make :)

As Christians, we are often given a bad rap for being closed-minded, for being discriminatory or exclusive and oftentimes we are poked-fun at and persecuted for that stereotype. Ok, that’s all well and natural – people often condemn and look down on things they don’t fully understand – but then to turn around and persecute and condemn another group of people seems so contradictory to what I believe Christianity to be about – to love all people like Jesus loved us, to follow Jesus and his ways as best we can because he is the one true way to salvation, and to believe fully that Jesus died to save ALL of us sinners.

I’m sort of losing my train of thought, but basically what struck me was that this person was anguishing over being persecuted for something they chose to believe in (and were free to believe in) yet they were openly persecuting another group of people for something they didn’t choose to be. (Does that make sense? I don’t know if I’m expressing the feeling I got at the time clearly). I think this thing also jumped out at me because Pastor Paul had just finished talking about religious fanaticism versus gospel fanaticism and how religious fanaticism is bad because it focuses on very narrow aspects of a religion and then leads to things like terrorism. Gospel fanaticism is being even more intense in Christianity, but in the gospel as a whole – in the WHOLE picture, really living it like the amish do with their beliefs (a great example). Loving people, showing compassion, expressing mercy, reconciliation… etc.

This furthers my belief that religion and politics should not mix. Everyone is free to believe in what they believe. Non-believers should not be forced into believing anything that is dictated by any one religion. That just leads to discord and conflict. Laws are laws and are meant to protect an entire body of people and create order. Some laws and religions may share common ground like don’t do harm to another human being for example, but that doesn’t mean any one religion should dictate rights that a person may or may not have under the same governing body. Let history teach us something for once. As Christians, we should be living according to the gospel and expressing love and mercy for our fellow humans, to serve as an example, if you will, of what it means to live with God in our lives and hopefully inspire change. Ostracizing people only creates a bigger wall between us.

On the topic of marriage equality, I looked up the difference between rights that a civil union gets and one that a marriage gets and the ones that a marriage gets are rights that ALL consenting adults should have. “Marriage” as the word should be defined differently as a legal construct as opposed to when marriage is a religiously recognized pact between both people and their beliefs.

From http://www.legal-database.com/civil-union-marriage.htm:

Besides the emotional component of simply being “married,” there are quite a few legal differences between the two statuses, primarily that civil unions are only recognized in the state in which they are performed, while marriages are recognized in all 50 states. Because civil unions are recognized only in the state performed, civil unions do not get any federal protections. Moreover, if a same-sex couple were recognized in a civil union in Vermont, they would not be recognized in Texas, while a marriage in one state is recognized in all states.

Moreover, civil unions – because they are not recognized by the federal government – do not gain any of the tax breaks that married couples get, such as the ability to file their taxes jointly. In all, there are over 1,000 benefits and protections afforded to married couples by the federal government that civil unions do not get.

Why should homosexuals not get a tax break or not have their union recognized across all 50 states versus just the one that they filed in?

These are also two great articles from a Christian perspective that should be read:
http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/equality/ten_reasons.htm
http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/equality/biblical_marriage.htm

I also recently read an article about Anne Rice “quitting Christianity” and her reasons for doing so, which I found really compelling. “Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become,” she concluded. Read this for more info: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100730/anne-rice-quits-christianity/index.html

and this response to the article by Jim… the last two statements really resonated with me:
Why would anyone be betrayed by Anne Rice? At best Anne Rice is a sinner saved by grace, at worst she is a sinner not saved by grace. By what authority and power did she betray anyone? The idea puzzles….

Pray for Anne and show her the love of Jesus and do it because it is the right thing to do (and we are commanded to love our neighbors and those who claim to be spiritual are to gently bring wayward people back to communion Galatians 6). Yes, one could argue that gentleness is only for our spiritual brethren but it seems that Jesus was gentle with everyone except the spiritual leaders who knew or should have known better. Anne Rice is not a spiritual leader of His people by any stretch.

I think oftentimes people get too caught up in what they narrowly think is right, and forget to look at the larger picture. One of my friends once said that they couldn’t stand stupid people and I said that I didn’t think that they were so much stupid as misguided and ill-informed. Running solely on preconceptions, stereotypes, mass media… it’s easy to get caught unawares and then end up looking or acting stupid or ignorant.

For example: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100730/evangelical-body-urges-cancellation-of-burn-a-quran-day/index.html How does staging a burning accomplish anything except some sick TEMPORARY satisfaction at the expense of alienating a whole group of people and further fueling the negative views of Christianity by non-believers? People, come on!!

Anyways, I’m going to get off my soap box now. I’m not sure I’ve resolved the weird feeling I got from hearing this person share these sentiments at retreat, but I tried to express it. To be clear, I am a Christian. I am also socially progressive, even liberal and NOT a Republican so don’t stereotype me or box me in. I believe in researching each person or leader’s political stances and beliefs, looking at the facts as best I can, rather than going by the general beliefs of any of ONLY TWO major political parties, both of which could obviously never individually represent the nation fully as a whole.

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