An Open Letter to the “Anything Goes” community
We have come to know one another: as customers, clients, neighbors, merchants and service providers, teachers and students, relatives, perhaps even friends. We have seen your members emerge from their “closets” over the decades, to win grudging acceptance; from some, even admiration. You have overcome the resistance of conservative social traditionalists, and the religious “right”. Consider the path well though, that your community has come; for as most paths, it can be traveled two ways. By now, you may perceive disapproval in my words, and that approaches the point of my writing. And should you remain or become interested in countering my thoughts, have I not already failed in my purpose? But more about that later…
What builds faith? What creates a willingness to believe the intangible? To impute credibility to what is by nature outside the realm of logic and proof? For many, it is a taught concept. What our parents and guardians teach us as children has a high rate of acceptability, and is built into the foundations of our being. For others, faith is not so simple, and becomes not so much a system of beliefs, as a system of acceptable options to fulfill our social obligations, both physical and spiritual. An atheist can be more faithful than a believer; an agnostic than one who professes knowledge of the truth. But more about that later...
And what builds this faith? What would cause us to accept the instructions of a dusty 3,500 year old book that is in nearly every library, yet in only a few hearts? Some have learned by instruction; some, ostensibly, by sight. Miracles in the wilderness; the ground opening beneath their feet; the sea parting; the Jordan river standing still; a mountain burning with fire. These things that an entire nation saw caused belief, but not always faith. There is a difference.
Am I the only one who has learned faith by experiencing the promised punishments for violation of the instructions found in the dusty 3,500 year old book? I still have serious personal problems with belief in a Yahweh that I have never knowingly seen. I have serious reservations about professing a belief of the accounts of his creation of the world. I have difficulty believing the supernatural inspiration of the word of his prophets. One thing though, that I have no problem whatsoever with, is that my violations of his instruction have been answered according to his warnings. To the letter… With uncanny accuracy… I have learned faith, I’m sorry to say, the hard way. It is not a process that I wish to repeat.
And so my friends, as you formulate your defenses and rebuttals, please consider whether or not I am the one that should receive them. If I don’t resist you, what will you do with the ascendant Islamic cult that despises your lifestyles as much or more than all your western persecutors since the time of Sodom and Gomorrah (which incidentally, is still being mined for unique sulfur balls to this very day)? And if they don’t resist you, what will be your response to the one who permitted them to fill the vacuum left by a Christianity and a Judaism that had failed in their unction to help you contain, or act more appropriately on your discomforts and frustrations?
As was hinted at previously, the pathway into and out of the “closet” can be traveled both ways. As we see the harvests looming of the fruit of our doings, it may seem increasingly expedient to even totally reverse our directions of travel. Perhaps even consider more traditional solutions to our discomforts and frustrations. Perhaps even seek the way of Yahweh. It is said that he can be found, and is merciful to those who turn to him in humility. Didn’t we give innovation a fair try? Could a little old-fashioned faithfulness hurt anything? Try it, you might like it!
Why am I asking these things? What would I have to gain by the “if it feels good do it” community “repenting” and adhering to the “Biblical” ideals of either abstention or sexual relations only in faithful hetero unions? Aren’t we all in the same “boat”? What one section of our society introduces and cultivates, don’t we all endure? It is easily observable that certain social behaviors among us are highly motivational to the Muslim fundamentalists, and other enemies of freedom. Our lasciviousness strengthens their hand. Are you prepared to accept from them your share of the consequent reaction? It’s a tall order to shed a lifetime of bad habits all at once; but try just one layer. Yahweh will help you, and encourage you for the next.
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http://www.jonahweb.org/index.php - guidance out of same gender sexual attraction and other related sexual problems; sponsored by our friends in the Jewish community.