The post is about a gay couple who saved the life of their homophobic neighbor and his family. But many of the commenters, instead of sticking to the subject of the thread and saying "hurray for the heroic homos" instead decided it was necessary to bash one well-meaning straight ally because he made the unforgivable mistake of using the word "God."
This is what I had to say in response.
It bothers me that just because Derrick mentioned "God," people jumped all over him for using that word instead of realizing the spirit in which it was intended. Derrick was speaking in favor of this couple. I rather despise organized religion myself and feel that it does more harm than good, but what good does it do to attack a well-intentioned person. He's not a fire-and-brimstone bible-thumpin' homo-basher. He's one of the good ones. If all Christians were like him, I'd have no problem at all with them.
This is a response to a friend's blog post. Her blogs are a bit private so I won't give a link. I will copy the words that she quoted and link to the article that they came from. This friend is an American citizen who has lived in Germany for a number of years.
Want to know why people are Depressed, why as a nation, we’re diseased, unhealthy, addicted, over-medicated, over-incarcerated, committing suicide? It’s right here. It’s well-proven that hardship does not cause depression. People endure the most appalling things: the Black Plague, the 1918 Flu, the 1906 earthquake, hurricanes, tornadoes, dustbowls, violence, privation, starvation--anything at all as if it were nothing at all--as long as they have the freedom to respond to it. As long as they can choose what to do to change things, solve things, create a better tomorrow. As long as they have Life, as long as they have Liberty, and as long as they are allowed the Pursuit of Happiness as they see fit.
Another friend (who is from Germany) stated "America is seemingly empty, an empty space, people orientierungslos. She needs to invent herself again, but this time ..." which is what inspired this thought. And if we refrain from knee-jerk nationalism, we realize that this is true.
These are my thoughts.
I think there is no allowance for the pursuit of happiness, only the almighty dollar. There is only doing, doing, doing. Ours is a spiritually and morally bankrupt culture. I am not talking about false morals imposed by an institution designed to oppress the masses. I am talking about good, solid, common decency.
I hadn't thought about the fact that the United States is the country where people are most prone to falling for the whole fire and brimstone myth, but it's true. We were the only country that really fell for the Satanic Panic crap back in the 1980's. And boy did some bands (mostly Scandinavian) take advantage of the imagery! And then laughed at the idiots who were all agog and shocked about it. The joke's on us to be sure.
Here is another thought for the Christians that are reading this post. I am not mocking your belief in God, especially if the God you believe in is the kind creator. I'm not too keen on the punitive, judgmental one. But I don't care for the Christian church as an institution, though some sects are preferable to others. I find it to be an oppressive and judgmental institution on the whole, and if one is to read the history, one realizes that these ideals that I dislike were political creations, not spiritual mores. It is my sincere belief that the "Christian" church, on the whole, is far from what the peaceful teacher Jesus Christ intended for people. He was a spiritual man, a holy man if you will, certainly a good man. He would not want people judging and hating each other the way many of his followers judge and hate others.
I commented on this note in the About Pagan/Wiccan group on Facebook.
The upshot of the note is that a narrow-minded shop teacher in Iowa refused to allow a Pagan student to build an altar as his class project. The teacher is quoted as saying:
"It scares me. I'm a Christian... This witchcraft stuff - it's terrible for our kids. It takes kids away from what they know, and leads them to a dark and violent life. We spend millions of tax dollars trying to save kids from that."
The Cheesy One says:
Maybe this is rude, but my knee jerk reaction is "that shop teacher is a damn idiot!"
I started becoming interested in the REAL old time religion back when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth (the early 1980's.) I encountered a lot of prejudice, but the funny thing is, the statement that got me branded a "Satan Worshiper" was not anything about my interest in the Occult but the fact that I thought that Sweden's medical system was a good one. This got me branded a "commie," which devolved into "Satan Worshiper." Sadly, we haven't come a long way, Baby.
Additional thoughts:
This teacher needs to quit taking pulls from the crack pipe of Fundamentalist Christian intolerance. The Old Religion teaches peace. I would venture to say that a nation of open-minded Pagans would be a far more peaceful one than a nation of Fundamentalists of most other creeds. I do not have anything against Christians if what is meant by Christian is a person who tries to follow the TRUE teachings of Christ: peace and tolerance. I do have a problem with the Fundamentalist McChurches, which teach hate and intolerance to their flock.
A reading from the Book of Cheese:
Thou shalt not suffer an intolerant twit to continue life unscathed without a pie to the face.
If all Christians expressed themselves the way Rev. Desiderio does, I would not have so many misgivings about Christianity as a whole. He does not get into the whole "and if you don't believe like I believe, then pack your bags for hell" schpiel that troubles me about a lot of Christians. It always confounded me how some people can base a religion on a wonderfully enlightened and compassionate individual and then turn it into hateful diatribe, using it as an excuse to ostracize and condemn others. I for one cannot come to terms with the idea that a loving creator would give life to beings but then condemn the very same beings to eternal torment should these beings fail to acknowledge its presence. I would want nothing to do with such a terribly egotistical God. That would be like flushing your pet fish down the toilet because it fails to acknowledge you as the Supreme Feeder. If there is indeed a God, I do not believe that it needs its ego stroked. I believe it would be far above such human fallacies.
Do not bother whining at me about how your freedom of speech is being violated should I refuse to publish your vile comments. This is not a democracy. I have every right to refuse to publish any comment that I deem rude, spammy, or just because the moon is blue, it's Tuesday, and I'm in the middle of a mixed episode. You have no recourse to compel me to change my mind. Disagreeing with me, as long as it is done politely, is not troll behavior. Calling me or one of my visitors names is. Cutting me as a person down is. Crass, undesired sexual remarks are. Racist and sexist rants are. And finally, this is not your neck of the woods, it is mine. You can rant all you want about whatever you want on your own site. I don't have to give voice to it here if I don't want to. My procedure for handling trolls is as follows: I ridicule you once on public display. I ignore you forever after. If you are a troll from my past, do not even bother. I'm not even going to give you the one-time ripping. Your comments will simply be eliminated. As to apologies for past shitty behavior, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm tired of being shamed. In other words: Troll? Fuck off and die. This place is for real people. Not for the likes of you.
