Friday, July 20, 2012

Soap boxes of the world colliding..

Well, last night ended on a stupid note. I check my phone around 9 (after dinner, shower, ect.) to find that my Facebook wall exploded with an argument between two people on my friends' list. I've got a lot of friends. Some are fans, some are family, some are buddies I met through World of Warcraft. They're from everywhere, and some can't help but argue. Well, here I am giving the middle finger to the Boy Scouts of America for kicking out a kid who came out as gay, and someone from my list argues his stance as an Eagle Scout.

I'm gonna be honest with you guys. There's something about the Boy Scouts of America that I've always hated. Even as a kid, their little uniforms weirded me out. I never joined the Girl Scouts (too busy with music), and I always thought Boy Scouts were weird. The only kids I knew in Boy Scouts where white kids, and being from PG, there weren't a lot of them. They were just outside of my comfort zone. As I grew older, I got a little more accepting of this American tradition, but I don't know. Something about them always weirded me out. Well, now I'm seeing all this controversy about them not allowing gay kids, kicking out gay parents, ect. They claim it's because of their Christian beliefs, which is what this particular Facebook friend argued, and all I can say is... COME ON.

Guys, I'm a Christian. I love Jesus. I love God. I love all the good stuff about this religion, and I'm not ashamed to admit that there is some pretty ridiculous shit in the bible that we've been actively ignoring. Like... slavery. Multiple wives. Marrying your rapist. Things that people are A-Okay with ignoring, you know? But as soon as the whole gay thing comes up, wooooah, holy shit, we can't allow THAT kind of "sin". Are you fucking kidding me? What is up with these people and gay folks? Why do they actively pick on gays, especially? I do not understand. They say "it clearly saays in the bible...", but then they get tattoos and have babies out of wedlock. I'd love to see the BSOA kick out a kid for being someone's bastard child. Give me a break, people. There's something about gay people that this sect of Christians just doesn't like, and I do not get WHY. Hell, I know priests who are more accepting of gay people than these Christians. I say "accepting" because I'm starting to hate the word "tolerant". Like.. when you tolerate something, it's when you grudgingly accept it. Like someone's bad behavior. I hate the idea that people are just grudgingly accepting someone's sexuality as a bad behavior. Number one, it's none of your business, and number two, you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking you can judge someone in that way. Isn't that God's job? And doesn't God love all his children? Don't you sit there and tell me that being gay is a bad example that you can't have your precious Boy Scouts be exposed to. I'm pretty sure he's gonna meet a gay person at some point in his life. The kid's gotta buy a suit sometime, right?

I just don't understand this hatred. Some people get so worked up about why they don't like gay people and it bothers me. Maybe because I hear some people use the same hate speech toward Latinos, I don't know. But it bothers me a lot and I hate hearing it, especially from people who are supposed to be friends and/or family, who claim they're Christian. Being Christian doesn't just mean going to church and reading the bible. You're supposed to show your love and acceptance. You're supposed to be like Jesus. There's a lot of crazy shit in the Old Testament that Jesus kinda pushed aside. We don't just follow everything in the OT. That's why we're CHRISTIANS. See that "Christ" in there? It means we follow Jesus' example, and never once did he say to kick the people you think are sinners out of your organization and hate on them. Never once did Jesus say, "forgive everyone, but not the gays. Those guys are icky," and never once have I heard a story in which Jesus told a gay dude that he can forgive the infidelity, the tattoos, the not honoring of the Sabbath, and all the other crap this does in front of everyone... but being gay is not allowed, so kindly leave the village and never come back.

I don't like using the word "retarded". It's offensive, and I understand that. But seriously, you guys are being retarded and I just can't come up with a better word for it. Excluding gays is retarded. You are retarded. And you're shitty Christians, so fuck you.

So hey, I lost a pound this morning! :D I'm also gonna see Batman tonight, so I'll probably post a view... after the weekend.

2 comments:

Matthew Lee Keith said...

Actually, and I don't exactly know if it's still the case, but the Boy Scouts of America are NOT a Christian organization. The equivalent would be the Awana Scouts, who ARE are Christian scouting organization.

The Boy Scouts of America centers around wilderness survival, training in all sorts of things such as weapons, vehicles etc. as well as civic pride and duty.

I used to be a Boy Scout until my parents felt that it was important for me to instead attend youth church which of course conflicted with the meeting time of the Boy Scouts troupe that I belonged to.

This really put a bad taste in my mouth about religion and specifically showed me that the Christians I was introduced to were more judgmental than the people I had grown up with since Tiger Scouts. (In case you were wondering Tiger Scouts comes before Cub Scouts, then Boy Scouts after that.)

I've since repaired that damage caused by mandatory indoctrination by my parents and have discovered in my own history that there is some observable truth to Christianity. And while the Bible is quite open to interpretation, I learned a while back that my problem wasn't with religion, it was with the people who practice it and get it twisted, or pervert it to some agenda they can profit from. I shunned the church. I went rogue, and began exploring on my own. I can say now that since I haven't been to a church service short of 15 years now that my faith is far stronger now than it's ever been.

Tangent aside, I can say without a doubt that it's not the stance of the Boy Scouts, its the people running it. Something has violated their personal comfort zones, been introduced into their childrens' lives that they've been sheltering them from (or at least attempting to), etc. So they figure out how to remove that from their lives by using what ever deflective tactics they can find, and in this case it was the BSoA.

I can personally assure you it's not because the BSoA are Christians. My troupe had muslims, it had jews, it had atheists, all of it. Yes, there were also Christians, but we did not pray together, we did not carry Bibles, and much of what we did centered around community activism in a completely secular manner.

Nina said...

No problem, Matt! Thanks for the comment, I had no idea.