In school, gym was my favorite class. I was no jock. I just loved playing sports. I grew up, throughout high-school wearing pants in gym class.
No biggie right? Until you get to high school and guys' testosterone goes all like whoa and I'm the tiniest kid in my grade and i'm the only boy wearing pants during gym class.....
2 + 2 = I'm the target for all sexually repressed bully boys to get at.....
I became "pants boy." I got punched many times over in gym class because I was such an easy target....and yeah I was even "pantsed" to the point that I was stripped down naked in front of my entire class simply because I was wearing pants because of my religious belief.
But as for me, back then, as a confused kid... I thought such a kind of persecution was to be expected in the name of the Lord. Like Jesus Christ Himself you know?
So I learned to keep my tears on hold as the girl I wanted to marry laughed at me as she saw me naked in gym class...just learned to be late to class after gym is all:
Learn to just cry real quiet in the showers simply because I wore pants... because I was told by my pastor to wear pants... because that's what his bible told him to do is all....
But all in the name of Christ right? And that's why I could deal with the tears. If Jesus cried for being killed, surely I could cry for having to wear pants, right?
Learned to get a thick skin. Hoped it went away. Never went away. Dudes ask why I never wore pants. Tell them "My God wouldn't let me." They'd laugh and call me "faggot" and then pants me. That was the way man. I was a puny kid. And yeah it was as pitiful as it sounds. You get used to it to the point that when I hear about kids getting bullied I think to myself "I got through it, why can't they?!?" Doesn't make it right....
And yeah... those insults, they never went away in high school. But it's okay... those bullies made me who I am right?
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| (1868 ad against northerners moving down south) |
The KKK started in 1865.
Does the year ring a bell?
And I'm not talking about Lincoln....
I'm talking about when the civil war was won for America. And the South lost. This is when the KKK started.
Except some bitter southern folks with their panties in a bunch started the kkk. Started burning crosses.
And up to a hundred years later were killing black men because AMERICA WAS WHITE ANGLO-SAXON PROTESTANT FORGODSAKES! And when things got strained, they killed black men who allegedly dated white women.
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY?
And I'm not about to compare our age with what has come before us....
But I'm just saying, there were people who thought they were in the right and in God's will within the past century.....
But like.... I have an older sister who has the sensibility to do her due diligence in figuring out what she was supposed to believe and ....
come on UPCI: (from their website)
Boy Scouts of America. As you have probably heard, the Boy Scouts recently voted to open its membership to boys who openly profess to be homosexual. The General School Division oversees our scouting program, and they are working on a suitable alternative for our churches. In the meantime the Executive Board adopted the following statement, which is available at www.upci.org:
"The UPCI welcomes everyone to attend its churches and to participate in worship events. At the same time, the UPCI teaches that sexual relationships outside the marriage of one man and one woman are contrary to God's will. Moreover, the UPCI rejects the belief that people should define their identity by sexual predispositions, temptations, or acts that are contrary to the Word of God. Recently, the Boy Scouts of America changed its policy to provide for the acceptance of members who openly proclaim a homosexual identity, and local troops are required to implement this policy. The UPCI opposes this policy because it categorizes homosexuality as an essential identity, thereby indicating that homosexual activity is an acceptable moral choice for Christians."
And it's cool, real cool to have your own identity:
Boys freak out at boys who wear pants when they think they should wear shorts.
Girls freak out at girls when they should get a hair cut.
Adults freak out a blacks for being sub-human. And then decide to kill them....
Adults make it real understood that if you're a boy and you may like other boys, you aren't welcome here. And if you're a girl who may be likes girls... well screw you! Get out! And if you're parents are in the UPC? Say nothing. Say nothing about what you are feeling in your confusion as a kid. Because if you're a cool kid looking for the truth, you'll be straight!!!! No hurt feelings!. LOL
Commit those kids to a gutter why don't you...Wait no, commit them to hell before they even have a chance to express themselves...
All in the name of the Boy Scouts of America folding on hating on kids who think they may be gay...
Seriously?!? Seriously?!?
Who is the UPC's Jesus at this point? Other than a Jesus whose looking to make money off the failure of the Boy Scout's own homophobia gone-a-wry?
And let's think...
real hard now...
As a kid who grew up in the UPC who got pantsed naked in front of a class of 40 kids as I was called faggot because I wore pants.....
Let's think about persecution....
Let's think about what it feels like... the soar bump in your throat you hold back as a confused 12 year old kid... looking for anyone...trying not to cry
Dear God.. I was looking for love. I was looking for a hug. Holding back that bump in your throat for two years:
And suddenly you're a 14 year old boy who was supposed to be a man but could only give you a choked-up explanation of why I looked like a fool on an 85 degree day all in the name of Christ....
And by the time your 14, you learn to take the punches and bow your head and then nod a little and say.... so this... this is how it goes? The tears are dead by then...
And yeah man, it was embarrassing.... But long-term it was fine. Didn't mind...
And you find out years later.... you got friends who suffered way more than you. Years where those friends couldn't even express the pain that I could express to my youth group.
And these were my best friends. People you could hug and do a jig with and then make fun of each other about without worrying what each person thought....The friends that literally want nothing other than a friday night than to just hang out for the sake of having a laugh and having no worries and just enjoying communion as brothers and enjoying acting as awkward human beings unsure of how to behave as Oneness Pentecostals....
You find out those friends went through a hell of a lot more because they were gay. And grew up in the same denomination that you did. And while I felt bad about myself about wearing pants when other kids were wearing shorts, my friends were raised being told they were going to hell forever....
So like when you're out to hurt someone we understand trying to make fun of it...
But when you're a religious denomination representing the truth of Christianity and there on your very website is a paragraph about how you're out to banning confused boys if they think they are possibly gay?!?
And this is why the UPC reminds me of a 13 year old bitter child who realizes that no girls like them.....
Boys freak out at boys who wear pants when they think they should wear shorts.
Girls freak out at girls when they should get a hair cut.
Adults freak out a blacks for being sub-human. And then decide to kill them....
Adults make it real understood that if you're a boy and you may like other boys, you aren't welcome here. And if you're a girl who may be likes girls... well screw you! Get out! And if you're parents are in the UPC? Say nothing. Say nothing about what you are feeling in your confusion as a kid. Because if you're a cool kid looking for the truth, you'll be straight!!!! No hurt feelings!. LOL
Commit those kids to a gutter why don't you...Wait no, commit them to hell before they even have a chance to express themselves...
All in the name of the Boy Scouts of America folding on hating on kids who think they may be gay...
Seriously?!? Seriously?!?
Who is the UPC's Jesus at this point? Other than a Jesus whose looking to make money off the failure of the Boy Scout's own homophobia gone-a-wry?
And let's think...
real hard now...
As a kid who grew up in the UPC who got pantsed naked in front of a class of 40 kids as I was called faggot because I wore pants.....
Let's think about persecution....
Let's think about what it feels like... the soar bump in your throat you hold back as a confused 12 year old kid... looking for anyone...trying not to cry
Dear God.. I was looking for love. I was looking for a hug. Holding back that bump in your throat for two years:
And suddenly you're a 14 year old boy who was supposed to be a man but could only give you a choked-up explanation of why I looked like a fool on an 85 degree day all in the name of Christ....
And by the time your 14, you learn to take the punches and bow your head and then nod a little and say.... so this... this is how it goes? The tears are dead by then...
And yeah man, it was embarrassing.... But long-term it was fine. Didn't mind...
And you find out years later.... you got friends who suffered way more than you. Years where those friends couldn't even express the pain that I could express to my youth group.
And these were my best friends. People you could hug and do a jig with and then make fun of each other about without worrying what each person thought....The friends that literally want nothing other than a friday night than to just hang out for the sake of having a laugh and having no worries and just enjoying communion as brothers and enjoying acting as awkward human beings unsure of how to behave as Oneness Pentecostals....
You find out those friends went through a hell of a lot more because they were gay. And grew up in the same denomination that you did. And while I felt bad about myself about wearing pants when other kids were wearing shorts, my friends were raised being told they were going to hell forever....
So like when you're out to hurt someone we understand trying to make fun of it...
But when you're a religious denomination representing the truth of Christianity and there on your very website is a paragraph about how you're out to banning confused boys if they think they are possibly gay?!?
And this is why the UPC reminds me of a 13 year old bitter child who realizes that no girls like them.....
Let's be rational human beings? Who wrote that paragraph? And until that paragraph is retracted let's do the UPC a favor and let them know that if they want to go to heaven, they'll have to stop hating on children:
7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"
-Jesus (Matthew 18:6-7)
Let's extract: If you're a barrier to children finding Christ because you're banning them from a cool kid's group with "NO GAYS ALLOWED!" Then you're probably going to hell... (verse 6)
And if you're getting all pissy and cranky because the world is offending you (e.g. "Gays can get married!), and you react to the offenses of the world... Jesus has an outright "Woe!" for you...(verse 7)
In conclusion: The UPCI is going to Super Hell and in the mean time Jesus is all like "woe! This is some screwed up immature nonsense you guys!"
Because, when you're claiming to be the Full Truth.... there's nothing sadder than turning away gay kids before they even have the chance to be redeemed by that truth. Like why be so insecure UPC? If our church pastors and ministers are so confident about the efficacy of their Truth and are secure in their heterosexuality, what does it hurt to have a ministry that openly embraces gay people? It's not like they're going to turn you gay?
But instead you have the UPCI with all it's sassiness wanting to keep the strange face of a homosexual as far away as possible because there's nothing worse than talking to them and realizing that gay people are human too.
Whenever you hear someone bleating on about other people's sexual practices, SET YOUR WATCH!
ReplyDelete"In God's sight, self-righteous pride like some of the Pharisee manifested is the greatest sin of all--that hypocritical holier-than-thou attitude that causes people to look down on others who they think aren't as good as they are. When people get this way, others usually find them to be the hardest people to be around--narrow-minded, intolerant, critical, and judgmental."
"An important point to make from the outset is that Jewish law does not teach that it is forbidden to be a homosexual. On the contrary, Jewish law is concerned not with the source of a person’s erotic urges nor with inner feelings, but with acts. The Torah forbids the homosexual act, known as mishkav zakhar, but has nothing to say about homosexuality as a state of being or a personal inclination."
One of the most serious sins according to the Bible is religious hypocrisy.
Gal 5:14 For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: "Love your neighbor as yourself"
Just as religious cults sometimes ignore the Scriptural context in order to justify their doctrines, so too well meaning Christians occasionally disregard what passages are talking about when they appear to support their positions. Such is the case here.
Leviticus 20:13
"'If a man lies with a male, as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Leviticus 18:22
'You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is an abomination."
These verses are found within the "Holiness Code." This section of Scripture emphasizes that the Israelites are to consider themselves as set apart to God from the rest of the nations. The Jews are God's "portion," His Elect (Psalm 16:5). The CONTEXT of these verses is God's prohibition that the Israelites must not engage in the practices found in the nearby fertility cult of Moloch and Ashtaroth. They were only to worship the God of Israel and only engage themselves in His rituals and rites. Look at the beginning of the chapter and you will see this clearly:
18:1 Yahweh said to Moses, 18:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'I am Yahweh your God. 18:3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived: and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you; neither shall you walk in their statutes.
18:4 You shall do my ordinances, and you shall keep my statutes, and walk in them: I am Yahweh your God. 18:5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them: I am Yahweh.
The God of Israel never directed the Jews to engage in ritual sex magic like the Pagan religions around them. Despite this, certain of God's people were practicing these rites. These idolatrous rituals were unacceptable to God who commands His people: "You shall do my ordinances, and you shall keep my statutes, and walk in them: I am Yahweh your God."
This is the clear context of these passages, not homosexuality.
The word abomination used here is a translation of the Hebrew word to-ay-baw which specifically refers to idolatrous practices that displease God. This word has nothing to do with sexuality, neither homosexual nor heterosexual, unless that sexuality is directly involved in the worship of other gods. Then it speaks to both equally. Hence, this prohibition is the same as Paul's concern in Romans 1 and I Corinthians 6:9. The reference here is to forbidding the fertility worship of Moloch and Ashtaroth. The Jews are to only walk in paths directed by their God.
Deu 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
ReplyDeleteThe NT itself does NOT anywhere claim to be "The Word of God" but persistently claims the "Old Testament" (Tanach and Torah) to be THE Word of God.
Interestingly, sexual intimacy between women is not mentioned at all in Jewish texts.
I once was "apostolic" following man-made laws and traditions.
Have you ever taken the time to look at and compare the quotes of the Hebrew Bible as found in your New Testament that are passed off as "fulfillment of Messianic prophecy" with the corresponding parent texts in a Hebrew-English Bible? Well I and many other "truth-seekers" have and what we have seen and learned is not only alarming but also life changing!
An interesting read at: HOMOSEXUALITY, HUMAN DIGNITY & HALAKHAH:
Homosexuality and Halakhah -Traditional sources on homosexuality. Jesus was a Jew, BTW.
I no longer follow the man-made religion of the Roman Catholic Church ie: Apostolic, Baptist, Methodist, etc all are Nicean Christianity created by Constantine in 325CE (then again, Constantine would flip out over the holy magic hair doctrine, would he not?)
"It was only when I admitted that I could be wrong that my elitist mentality began to break. When I stopped studying the Bible in order to support what I believed, and started studying it in order to learn what to believe, I realized how wrong I was." -EX UPCI Church Member
Shalom,
~Noach
I like to ask facetiously who is the modern day pharisees. Positions that the UPCI take like this one pretty much answers that question. We want to minister to you on our terms. We will look down on you and not associate with you until you are in my building. I will then judge you until you become like me.
ReplyDeleteReligion in todays society is not the problem, it is fundamentalism. I need to prove you are wrong and I am right. We need to let others see God in us in all situations. If they ask then we give our testimony but never telling them they are wrong for what they believe. God will work in them whichever he sees fit.
Joel, Noah, and Andrew..... (applause). God bless you all.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you had such terrible experiences as a kid. I too was bullied verbally and physically, and it was the worst part of my life as I was feminized due to my body fat I had as a kid. However, it was not the UPCI's fault, it was those who oppressed and mocked me on a daily basis who had zero affiliation with the UPCI. I am shocked reasoning on display. Its the UPCI's fault people made fun of you(despite their repressed sexuality as you mention?)? And the UPCI is equatable with the KKK(regardless of what is said it was implicated merely by being brought up)? Are Christians who view homosexuality supposed to give up their beliefs because they are unpopular or are viewed as hateful or heartless(forget the moral narrative that generally frames any societal power struggle)? What is hateful about the quote from the UPCI, that they no longer wish to be affiliated with a group that goes against their beliefs? We have several mean in our church who struggle with a homosexual identity, and they are supported by the church although we don't always agree with their choices we love these men, they are a part of us. Not every UPCI church is like this, but then again, not every church in any denomination is like this. This article needlessly focuses in on the UPCI, it might as well target every denomination that view homosexuality as a sin if its true intent is to attack perceived bigotry instead of the UPCI. I enjoy your writing and laugh out loud at its wit and humor.
ReplyDeleteAnon...
DeleteUnless you're one of the bullies who made fun of me, there's no use on apologizing to me. Don't apologize for something you never did.
Likewise, did any part of my blog blame the UPC for getting bullied for wearing pants? This is where I am highly skeptical of your own hermeneutical skills. Beyond trying to write something that I tried engaging the reading audience, my simple point was that I had an identity. A religious identity. And that religious identity that I subscribed to let to the insults that I received. Not that it was the FAULT of the UPCI. Simply that it was derived from the UPCI conception of possessing and displaying an Apostolic Identity. The fault was with the bullies no doubt. Never did i defend the bullies as if they were innocent. Read a little slower next time. Unless you're just being cute?
So now let's go full tilt and put building blocks together as if we're in kindergarten:
DeleteHow dare you excuse a religious denomination for their homophobia in the name of "well other denominations do it to?"
If we are supposed to be the truth and supposed to represent Christ here on earth... it is absurd and postmodern relativistic to even refer to all the others who also happen to be ignorant enough to hate gay children.
Did you even read the quote from the UPC? Because I'm skeptical....
The idea was that from the get go, children who may be gay won't be allowed in the UPCI version of the boy scouts.
Read closer. Be more considerate. I don't care if you were a fan of my blog's wit.
And yes I compared the UPC to the KKK.
DeleteIt was quite clear: Slavery ends: KKK begins.
Gay marriage legalized and homophobic boy scout ends: UPCI boy scouts begin...
Common sense here. Analogies are analogies for a reason. Not literal. Simply trying to bring hatred into context.
My question is why did this only come up with Boy Scouts? Girl Scouts have long had a policy of openness, stating that orientation is an issue to be discussed with families not at Scout meetings as is age appropriate. Yet the fuss only occurs when a similar policy is in place for boys. Are our ministers of the Victorian mindset that women don't like sex and therefore it isn't an issue? Do they have lesbian fantasies? Similarly some of these ministers teach AIDS is a punishment from God for gay men. I'm just curious as to why God seems more concerned with gay men than lesbian women.
ReplyDeleteAnon I have always been a larger person as well and at times was subject to bulling. At one point in time in my life my nickname was spare tire. It preaches in the Bible you should treat your body as your temple and that gluttony is a sin. So what if they preach from the pulpit and some church puts it in their bylaws that you should not associate with overweight people. There is more of a problem with obesity in todays society than homosexuality. That is the same type of thing that the UPCI is doing with homosexuals. Does not Jesus preach love they neighbor? Did Jesus not associate with everyone? The hypocrisy that is presented by this excerpt from their own bylaws is what is offensive. The KKK analogy is to show that anytime you discriminate against any other person it is wrong and by telling their membership not to associate with another group it is discrimination.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the boyscouts are not a homosexual organization. They are just saying that they do not discriminate based on sexual orientation. I am sure most of there membership and leadership are heterosexual. If the UPCI does not want you going there because you might run into a homosexual then think of all the other places they can rule out, schools stores, museums, and even churches.
DeleteWell the UPCI does rule out churches... that are not UPCI.
Delete