As soon as you open the Bible you have to begin using your imagination. It doesn't matter where you start. You can open it and thumb through it randomly or launch from the very first line.. "In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth" (Genesis 1:1), but either way you have to start picturing a world vastly different than the one you live in to understand it. The basic questions, "why are we here?" and "where are we going?" have to do with worlds that are unlike the one we share currently.
If you're like me then you believe that the reason we are here is to love each other: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" [Matt22:37-40]. And to answer the second question it is simply, "Heaven...hopefully!"
Both these answers require vigorous effort on behalf of our minds to create a world where Love reigns, and another world which is the fulfillment of that total Love.
When I think about the Christian schools that we will be visiting that preach strictly against gays, lesbians, bi/pansexuals, and transgender people I have the feeling that the way they imagine these two worlds are very different than how I do. For me in the ideal Earth, there is no dividing line that exists between people of different races, sexual orientation, gender, ability, class... Nothing that creates a gap between the Love of one person for another. In the second world called 'Heaven', it is quite the same except as spiritual beings we do not have to force ourselves to look past what we have been taught about our physical differences. Without bodies we are open to love everyone without the need to "unlearn" the hatred we've been taught.
You see, I cannot imagine a Heaven where genitalia matter much. So I cannot understand why it would matter so much to God down here. You know that prayer, the one Jesus spoke of..."Our Father, who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name.Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..." (Matthew 6:10-14) well, it sounds to me like Jesus wanted Earth to be like Heaven. Now, I can be wrong on this (I'm no theologian), but that's just how I imagine the ideal world to be. Perfect peace and harmony, in love, truth, and justice until the day that we are freed from our physical bodies and come together in Heaven with God. So if genitalia and physical differences do not matter in Heaven, I cannot imagine why they would on earth.
And that leads me to another question that I do not see posed very often. Why would God feel that homosexuality is sinful? It's a simple question. Do we really believe that this is to preserve life on Earth? I mean, 1) queer people have always existed, 2) less than 10% of the population is queer and 3) the world is overpopulated as it is. I don't foresee the extinction of humankind due to lack of spawn any time soon. I know what some people would say, "I shouldn't question God's word"...but I think that's BS. It's a cop-out to the question. Other "don'ts" in the Bible include having sex with animals, child abuse, and rape. There are obvious reason why these are included in the Bible and I would not be looked at funny if I were to ask what they were. So what is the reason people believe God would ban homosexuality?
My view of the world that God wanted for humans is one of peace and love and happiness. This may be a stretch for some that have experienced pain, neglect, rejection, abuse, and abandonment. It makes me sad that people don't believe God would want this for us on the basis that it is not our current reality. God only creates good works. We, as humans, muddy it all up. God wants us to love each other, this is the most important commandment and yet we use other words to hate each other. This is not God's plan...it is our doing.
It seems to me that it is not only the interpretation of the Bible that people argue over, but that some people are greatly limited by how they view a world and cannot imagine a world ruled and founded by complete and utter Love.
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It is hard to understand love and believe in such a reality if that hasn't been your reality... for children who are broken it's very hard to mend.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good discussion, dear. It gives me hope and makes my guts turn (in a good way) to know there are amazing people like yourself who believe so strongly in love that they want to spread it all around and speak against untruth and spiritual violence masquerading as love. Thank you for helping me learn what love isn't.
Peace roommie,
AL
Thanks for the love, Mima!
ReplyDelete;)
ReplyDeleteWe, as human beings, are so very capable of filling the clean waters of God with our dirt. Years upon years, crusades upon crusades, wars upon wars, and deaths upon deaths have all been a host for one particular gender, party, class, race, etc deeming the "other" rightheous or worthy. Hasn't God already deemed us all worthy when he sacrificed his only son? At that moment, didn't God himself decide that the human race should exist...all of his creatures? Yes, we have the ten commandments to live by; and they all can be summed up as just living the life He blessed us with full of love, respect, kindness. I agree that if I'm lucky enough to meet God, I doubt He is going to check my genitalia nor will that be the deciding factor of whether or not I am able to be with Him. I don't believe God will be so concerned with what gender my partner is or has been. I think God will be more concerned with our hearts.
ReplyDeleteVery well said K.H!
ReplyDeleteI doubt God (if you believe he exists) views homosexuality as a sin. Rather, the Bible was written by men who wrote stories to explain the ordinary and supernatural-like occurrences in their lives. It isn't God who condemns homosexuals but the men who wrote it. People too often hide behind the Bible as the word of God instead of seeing it as book that was written long ago that needs to be interpreted as the times change. This is not to say the Bible is completely irrelevant - large portions of it have profound insight and great spiritual guidance. But the hateful sections exist and I think this is how you know man not God wrote the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI don't fully believe in God because there are too many terrible things that happen daily to good people. I imagine and hope that God only views what we have done as people and looks at whether or not there is goodness in our heart.