There are languages that haven't been heard in heaven.
Today Floyd talked about the fact that our passions need to be in line with God's passions for the following reason: God is perfect, and so deserves to be worshipped and receive full glory. How does he receive this? Through us. How do we worship God and give Him the fullest glory? By having His passions become our passions.
Floyd then went into a long rant about martyrdom, which to be honest didn't sit so well with me. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against martyrdom at all. In fact, back in the summer I had somewhat of a vision of myself being imprisoned for my beliefs, and a couple days later had a dream about being shot in the head/killed for not denying my faith in Jesus Christ. I was totally OK with it. I think it's almost exciting to be martyred for your faith--but I don't treat it like it's a necessity.
Floyd spoke about martyrdom(namely being murdered for our faith) as being the highest honor and glory we can give to God. Which again, I don't necessarily disagree with, but to me it seemed as though Floyd was making martyrdom the point as opposed to introducing others to Christ. I spent an hour and a half in prayer about this right after we watched the video, and through a bit of a dialogue with God about it, I came to the conclusion that Floyd is wrong. Martyrdom is not and should not be the ultimate goal of christians. Then we'd all just be running into gunfire to, "die for God". I literally had an image of Floyd charging happily at a man who was pointing a gun at him and letting fly. Floyd accomplished nothing in that death.
The ultimate goal and thing that God has charged us with is to love Him, love our neighbor, and share that love with as many people as possible. If we end up getting killed because of it, so be it. But if not, that's not a bad thing. I'm not afraid to die for God, but I'm also not foaming at the mouth for that.
Floyd also made it seem as though being a missionary is the only thing any christian should be doing. I disagree. What about all the people in your home town? Never mind all the people over seas--there are plenty of missionaries for them--what about all the people in your own town or city who have never found God? If you feel called to missions, GREAT! Do it! And do it with a passion! But if you don't, don't feel bad! Whatever thing you feel called to probably involves people, and that's all that matters.
I think those are my full thoughts for today. I am currently exporting the sailing documentary. That is extremely exciting. Catch you all tomorrow.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Monday, 14 November 2011
Passion
Your passion drives you to do things your brain doesn't believe in.
We're talking about passion this week, and because our speaker for the week cancelled, we have to watch dvd's from a guy named Floyd McClung that I'm pretty sure are early 90's. Yet somehow, it's still relevant.
Floyd wanted everyone to get to the core of their beliefs--beyond what they believe in their brain--and get to what they're passionate about in their heart. He said the best way to find out your true passion is think about when you've gotten angry at someone and why you got angry. If there's a common denominator, you may have found a passion of yours.
I discovered a very peculiar, oxymoron of a passion in myself. I hate judgementalism in myself and in others. Whenever I'm judgemental of myself, I catch it and quietly scold myself for putting myself above others, and when I see it in others, it takes all my energy to keep from screaming at them and reminding them that they've got their own mistakes to worry about.
I also really, really hate complaining. There's nothing that annoys me more than well-fed, well-dressed North Americans bitching--pardon my language--about the traffic or the weather or how their food isn't perfect. Even average people. You're way more well off than the millions who slept in the rain on concrete last night.
Floyd then told us the root meaning of the word passion is, "to suffer for". In other words, what would you be willing to suffer and die for? You've just found your passion. I'm still trying to answer that question, but I know truth is pretty high up there(that probably raises a ton of questions about what truth is...but that's for another post). Then Floyd brought up an interesting point: the bible is constantly saying Jesus had COMpassion for others. Jesus wanted to join others in their suffering, and eventually He died for them.
Nothing super crazy revelationary has come up yet, but I'm sure this'll be an interesting week.
Catch you all tomorrow.
We're talking about passion this week, and because our speaker for the week cancelled, we have to watch dvd's from a guy named Floyd McClung that I'm pretty sure are early 90's. Yet somehow, it's still relevant.
Floyd wanted everyone to get to the core of their beliefs--beyond what they believe in their brain--and get to what they're passionate about in their heart. He said the best way to find out your true passion is think about when you've gotten angry at someone and why you got angry. If there's a common denominator, you may have found a passion of yours.
I discovered a very peculiar, oxymoron of a passion in myself. I hate judgementalism in myself and in others. Whenever I'm judgemental of myself, I catch it and quietly scold myself for putting myself above others, and when I see it in others, it takes all my energy to keep from screaming at them and reminding them that they've got their own mistakes to worry about.
I also really, really hate complaining. There's nothing that annoys me more than well-fed, well-dressed North Americans bitching--pardon my language--about the traffic or the weather or how their food isn't perfect. Even average people. You're way more well off than the millions who slept in the rain on concrete last night.
Floyd then told us the root meaning of the word passion is, "to suffer for". In other words, what would you be willing to suffer and die for? You've just found your passion. I'm still trying to answer that question, but I know truth is pretty high up there(that probably raises a ton of questions about what truth is...but that's for another post). Then Floyd brought up an interesting point: the bible is constantly saying Jesus had COMpassion for others. Jesus wanted to join others in their suffering, and eventually He died for them.
Nothing super crazy revelationary has come up yet, but I'm sure this'll be an interesting week.
Catch you all tomorrow.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Contradiction
Today was a day full of contradictions. Not noticeable contradictions--but contradictions nonetheless.
We went for a walk downtown today. We didn't really have a specific goal in mind--just to talk to homeless people. Despite having no real goal, this walk was far from spontaneous. Wes takes a van full of us downtown Toronto every week to basically just get perspective on the homeless situation and possibly--God forbid in today's society--talk to some of these people living on the streets.
Our walk took us to the hot spot of protest in Toronto at the moment: tent city. I don't know where exactly we were, but it was some park in the middle of Toronto, and it was covered in tents. These tents have been set up there for quite a while, and it was actually a legit city. They had classes teaching various arts, little performances/demonstrations being made, debates, discussions, and even a sort of city hall!
The protest reminded me a lot of what I've been told about the protests in the sixties. Most of the people there were hippies, and most of them were just there for the sake of protesting--but they weren't entirely sure what.
The main focus of the protest was the infamous, "occupy" protest that has started spreading throughout North America. The protest's basic outline is that 1% of the world has 90% of today's wealth, and that's not fair.
Technically, if you're sitting in a tent whining about it, and the guys with all the money are working, it is fair.
Not to say, I am ok with the disgusting amounts of greed that make up our world leaders today, but I also know that there are wealthy people who give away most of their money, and I know that the key problem isn't money. I think that was the main problem I actually had with the protests that I was seeing: the poor people are acting just as greedy as the rich people--they want all the rich people's money.
From the mentalities I was seeing, I would bet ten thousand dollars that if any one of those individuals was offered a job on wall street, they'd take it. They'd probably have good intentions, but those would fade quickly.
I felt--and everyone with me agreed--that the whole protest seemed fruitless, vain, and pointless without God in the equation. People don't need money, the need equality. When you factor God in, you realize the equality of humanity, and so everything you own suddenly gains far less value than the thousands of lives surrounding you. I don't think I do the thought justice when typing it out, but that was the gist of it.
We then decided to leave tent city, and after about thirty minutes of walking we came across four drunk, native homeless guys. To be honest, they were some of the friendliest people I've met in Toronto. I had an easier conversation with those guys then I do with most people I know--save for the close ones of course.
Despite enjoying my conversation with those four men, I couldn't help but leave the encounter feeling like a fake.
What in the world did I accomplish by talking to them? Yes, I showed them the kindness and friendliness of Jesus Christ which is so hard to come by these days, but I'm never gonna see them again! We didn't even really talk about God--one of them told me he was a buddhist, but he started talking about something else before I could ask any more questions.
Homeless people get enough of christians, "doing their good deed" by coming and talking to them. Wes said he had a homeless person tell him once, "It's like we're the monkeys in the zoo and they're coming to watch us play". Going and having one conversation or handing a ten dollar bill to a person you're never gonna see again isn't Christ--it's a Christ attitude to treat others with that kind of kindness--but people like that don't need one good deed here and there...they need a relationship. A friendship.
Too many christians say, "Let's go feed the homeless!" which isn't a bad thing, but why are we categorizing them? We need to treat them like human beings, not homeless people.
I don't know if my thoughts make any sense, but I really feel like today was contradictory and counter-productive. Again, I don't think what we did was wrong...just not enough at all.
Catch you tomorrow.
We went for a walk downtown today. We didn't really have a specific goal in mind--just to talk to homeless people. Despite having no real goal, this walk was far from spontaneous. Wes takes a van full of us downtown Toronto every week to basically just get perspective on the homeless situation and possibly--God forbid in today's society--talk to some of these people living on the streets.
Our walk took us to the hot spot of protest in Toronto at the moment: tent city. I don't know where exactly we were, but it was some park in the middle of Toronto, and it was covered in tents. These tents have been set up there for quite a while, and it was actually a legit city. They had classes teaching various arts, little performances/demonstrations being made, debates, discussions, and even a sort of city hall!
The protest reminded me a lot of what I've been told about the protests in the sixties. Most of the people there were hippies, and most of them were just there for the sake of protesting--but they weren't entirely sure what.
The main focus of the protest was the infamous, "occupy" protest that has started spreading throughout North America. The protest's basic outline is that 1% of the world has 90% of today's wealth, and that's not fair.
Technically, if you're sitting in a tent whining about it, and the guys with all the money are working, it is fair.
Not to say, I am ok with the disgusting amounts of greed that make up our world leaders today, but I also know that there are wealthy people who give away most of their money, and I know that the key problem isn't money. I think that was the main problem I actually had with the protests that I was seeing: the poor people are acting just as greedy as the rich people--they want all the rich people's money.
From the mentalities I was seeing, I would bet ten thousand dollars that if any one of those individuals was offered a job on wall street, they'd take it. They'd probably have good intentions, but those would fade quickly.
I felt--and everyone with me agreed--that the whole protest seemed fruitless, vain, and pointless without God in the equation. People don't need money, the need equality. When you factor God in, you realize the equality of humanity, and so everything you own suddenly gains far less value than the thousands of lives surrounding you. I don't think I do the thought justice when typing it out, but that was the gist of it.
We then decided to leave tent city, and after about thirty minutes of walking we came across four drunk, native homeless guys. To be honest, they were some of the friendliest people I've met in Toronto. I had an easier conversation with those guys then I do with most people I know--save for the close ones of course.
Despite enjoying my conversation with those four men, I couldn't help but leave the encounter feeling like a fake.
What in the world did I accomplish by talking to them? Yes, I showed them the kindness and friendliness of Jesus Christ which is so hard to come by these days, but I'm never gonna see them again! We didn't even really talk about God--one of them told me he was a buddhist, but he started talking about something else before I could ask any more questions.
Homeless people get enough of christians, "doing their good deed" by coming and talking to them. Wes said he had a homeless person tell him once, "It's like we're the monkeys in the zoo and they're coming to watch us play". Going and having one conversation or handing a ten dollar bill to a person you're never gonna see again isn't Christ--it's a Christ attitude to treat others with that kind of kindness--but people like that don't need one good deed here and there...they need a relationship. A friendship.
Too many christians say, "Let's go feed the homeless!" which isn't a bad thing, but why are we categorizing them? We need to treat them like human beings, not homeless people.
I don't know if my thoughts make any sense, but I really feel like today was contradictory and counter-productive. Again, I don't think what we did was wrong...just not enough at all.
Catch you tomorrow.
Friday, 11 November 2011
Holy Tired-ness!!
Every day only comes once.
The above statement doesn't have anything to do with what we talked about today, but at the same time it has everything to do with everything we talked about this week. Every day only comes once, and everything matters to God. Not just big, massive moments of praise or big, massive miracles, but also the little things too. Like talking to a friend, riding a bike, sitting on the shoreline and enjoying a sunset...writing a blog. God created everything that we know as matter, and everything God created, matters to God. Matter matters.
Today Nat talked about the Holy Spirit. He talked about how the Holy Spirit is not an, "it" and The Holy Spirit is completely uncontrollable. The Holy Spirit is God, after all.
Nat mainly talked about how the Holy Spirit moved within the church, and how the Holy Spirit is almost completely disregarded in modern churches. He gave us the following quotes:
"The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need."
-Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison
"Every day
I am afraid
That He died in vain
because He is buried in our churches."
-Dorothee Soelle
Nat then posed us with a question: Is Jesus ACTUALLY the Lord over your entire life? At the beginning of the book of Acts, Jesus is literally Lord and King over the community. Every thing they do is with Jesus in mind first and foremost. Jesus and the Holy Spirit were the ones who made it possible for humanity to sit down with God and be in relationship with Him. Nat said this: "The Spirit brings us into Jesus' story, and by entering Jesus' story, we enter into God's story."
Nat talked about the Holy Spirit in regards to suffering. A lot of people get frustrated when they suffer and don't see results from their suffering for God, and their suffering inadvertently becomes about them, and not God or the church. Nat presented the idea of Stephen again. Stephen was stoned to death after giving a radical statement. Stephen's stoning opened Paul's eyes, and that led to a massive spread of the gospel. Stephen never saw the fruit of his suffering, but He trusted that God/The Holy Spirit was using His suffering in the greater story.
Nat then left us with a final quote considering suffering and The Holy Spirit: "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad, petty, unsexy ways every single day."(David Foster Wallace).
Then Nat left, and we had several hours of intense prayer/worship/fellowship. It was awesome, but extremely tiring. So I'm gonna go, and I can't promise I'll make a post all weekend just so I can relax. But we'll see.
Catch you all later!
The above statement doesn't have anything to do with what we talked about today, but at the same time it has everything to do with everything we talked about this week. Every day only comes once, and everything matters to God. Not just big, massive moments of praise or big, massive miracles, but also the little things too. Like talking to a friend, riding a bike, sitting on the shoreline and enjoying a sunset...writing a blog. God created everything that we know as matter, and everything God created, matters to God. Matter matters.
Today Nat talked about the Holy Spirit. He talked about how the Holy Spirit is not an, "it" and The Holy Spirit is completely uncontrollable. The Holy Spirit is God, after all.
Nat mainly talked about how the Holy Spirit moved within the church, and how the Holy Spirit is almost completely disregarded in modern churches. He gave us the following quotes:
"The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need."
-Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison
"Every day
I am afraid
That He died in vain
because He is buried in our churches."
-Dorothee Soelle
Nat then posed us with a question: Is Jesus ACTUALLY the Lord over your entire life? At the beginning of the book of Acts, Jesus is literally Lord and King over the community. Every thing they do is with Jesus in mind first and foremost. Jesus and the Holy Spirit were the ones who made it possible for humanity to sit down with God and be in relationship with Him. Nat said this: "The Spirit brings us into Jesus' story, and by entering Jesus' story, we enter into God's story."
Nat talked about the Holy Spirit in regards to suffering. A lot of people get frustrated when they suffer and don't see results from their suffering for God, and their suffering inadvertently becomes about them, and not God or the church. Nat presented the idea of Stephen again. Stephen was stoned to death after giving a radical statement. Stephen's stoning opened Paul's eyes, and that led to a massive spread of the gospel. Stephen never saw the fruit of his suffering, but He trusted that God/The Holy Spirit was using His suffering in the greater story.
Nat then left us with a final quote considering suffering and The Holy Spirit: "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad, petty, unsexy ways every single day."(David Foster Wallace).
Then Nat left, and we had several hours of intense prayer/worship/fellowship. It was awesome, but extremely tiring. So I'm gonna go, and I can't promise I'll make a post all weekend just so I can relax. But we'll see.
Catch you all later!
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Faithful Doubt
A healthy doubt creates a stronger faith.
This is the statement we discussed today, and it was by far my favorite discussion to date in this school. Nat got into all the different aspects of faith, and a lot of the aspects which we think are a threat to faith.
He started with rationality, and how a lot of atheists say that faith is completely irrational. Nat's argument was that they are completely right, but they are also completely wrong. There is a lot that is irrational about loving someone that doesn't love you back, or that is a very revolting person. There is a lot that is irrational about believing in a person that you can't see or physically touch. But there's also a lot of rational arguments for a God.
The next thing Nat got into was the illusion of faith being about us as individuals. Faith is not about our story. It's about God's. This is what I wrote down in my notes: "When we define our story as God's story, our idea of a, 'happy' ending changes dramatically. When we see our lives as part of a greater and grander story, we don't worry about a personal happy ending. We are concerned with God's story". The best example for this is Steven. He was stoned to death, but to him that was probably the best ending he could have had: being persecuted and killed in the name of God's great story.
Nat then talked about faith of what God is. He said this is where a healthy doubt is key. If we make up concrete ideas about God and how He works, then we in a sense making up a pagan God. We are making our own image of God. We know nothing about God, except that He made us, He loves us, and He's interested in being involved in our lives. We don't know how or why or anything other questions, and as soon as we start to make up answers for questions we hardly even understand in the first place, we are destroying our faith. If we make God into a scientific hypothesis, then atheists are right. God is a living being, and He is completely unpredictable. A God we can manipulate is a God not worth worshipping.
Then Nat touched on indifference versus faith. All I wrote down for that was this quote: "If Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters. If Christ is risen--then nothing else matters."(Jaroslav Pelikan). Everything matters. God created everything. Everyone matters. Many people say they believe in God, but that's it. They do nothing with their, "faith". Faith should be life-altering. Too many, "christians" are indifferent to the world and the people in it.
We then began discussing Faith and the art of lamenting. Too many christians have no idea what to do in an emotional situation. Someone in small group shares something deep and starts crying and everybody kinda backs off like, "whoa". Or someone gets up in church and shares that they just aren't feeling God and are having a hard time loving God. Everyone freaks out like being upset is an evil sin from the pits of hell. Those christians haven't read the Psalms. Or Ecclesiastes, or Lamentations, or Jeremiah, or the part of the crucifixion where Jesus Himself cries out, "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me??". We read Psalm 88(I think that's what it was). It is one of the darkest Psalms ever written. The last sentence is as follows: "You have taken from me friend and neighbor—darkness is my closest friend". Faith is trusting that God is big enough to handle how we feel about Him--even if we are supremely angry at Him. Israel was not afraid at all to tell God how they felt, and we shouldn't be either. I really connect with the art of lamenting, because I think it is huge in the world of film and the arts.
As a last point for the art of lamenting(that last paragraph was getting too big so I started a new one), Nat made this statement: "If the church is to be the body of Christ, how can we expect to not suffer? How can we expect no pain when the physical body of Christ endured crucifixion? How can we expect to not carry our own cross?". The idea that life is fun and easy is a twisted illusion.
Next was faith versus uncertainty. Certainty is not a good thing. We are in relationship with God, and anyone who has been in a dating relationship or very good friendship knows that a relationship is about throwing your whole self into it, and making yourself so vulnerable that the other person could definitely hurt you if they wanted to. We can never be certain of anything with God, other than His love and existence. To create other concrete things about the image of God is dangerous and usually wrong. Nat gave us this quote: "Those who believe..without uncertainty, without doubt...believe only in the God idea, not God Himself."(Miguel de Unamuno)
Nat then told us a story about a Physics student who nearly failed an exam in which everything was perfect save for one question. The questions was something along the lines of, "how to find the height of a building with a barometer". The correct answer was to measure the air pressures at the top and bottom and somehow find the height with an equation, but the student went at it differently.
The student said tostand at the top of the building with the barometer attached to a rope. Lower the barometer until it touches the ground. Then measure how much rope you have used. The student had several other answers, all unconventional, but all perfectly good ways to measure a building using a barometer.
The point of this story is that faith invites us to see the world in a whole new way. If our faith is not changing the way we see things, we don't actually have faith. We have ideas. Faith is participation in God's story.
Nat's final statement to us today was this: "One must first dwell in the sheer wonder of the Christ event before trying to make sense of what it demands of us."
Catch you all tomorrow.
This is the statement we discussed today, and it was by far my favorite discussion to date in this school. Nat got into all the different aspects of faith, and a lot of the aspects which we think are a threat to faith.
He started with rationality, and how a lot of atheists say that faith is completely irrational. Nat's argument was that they are completely right, but they are also completely wrong. There is a lot that is irrational about loving someone that doesn't love you back, or that is a very revolting person. There is a lot that is irrational about believing in a person that you can't see or physically touch. But there's also a lot of rational arguments for a God.
The next thing Nat got into was the illusion of faith being about us as individuals. Faith is not about our story. It's about God's. This is what I wrote down in my notes: "When we define our story as God's story, our idea of a, 'happy' ending changes dramatically. When we see our lives as part of a greater and grander story, we don't worry about a personal happy ending. We are concerned with God's story". The best example for this is Steven. He was stoned to death, but to him that was probably the best ending he could have had: being persecuted and killed in the name of God's great story.
Nat then talked about faith of what God is. He said this is where a healthy doubt is key. If we make up concrete ideas about God and how He works, then we in a sense making up a pagan God. We are making our own image of God. We know nothing about God, except that He made us, He loves us, and He's interested in being involved in our lives. We don't know how or why or anything other questions, and as soon as we start to make up answers for questions we hardly even understand in the first place, we are destroying our faith. If we make God into a scientific hypothesis, then atheists are right. God is a living being, and He is completely unpredictable. A God we can manipulate is a God not worth worshipping.
Then Nat touched on indifference versus faith. All I wrote down for that was this quote: "If Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters. If Christ is risen--then nothing else matters."(Jaroslav Pelikan). Everything matters. God created everything. Everyone matters. Many people say they believe in God, but that's it. They do nothing with their, "faith". Faith should be life-altering. Too many, "christians" are indifferent to the world and the people in it.
We then began discussing Faith and the art of lamenting. Too many christians have no idea what to do in an emotional situation. Someone in small group shares something deep and starts crying and everybody kinda backs off like, "whoa". Or someone gets up in church and shares that they just aren't feeling God and are having a hard time loving God. Everyone freaks out like being upset is an evil sin from the pits of hell. Those christians haven't read the Psalms. Or Ecclesiastes, or Lamentations, or Jeremiah, or the part of the crucifixion where Jesus Himself cries out, "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me??". We read Psalm 88(I think that's what it was). It is one of the darkest Psalms ever written. The last sentence is as follows: "You have taken from me friend and neighbor—darkness is my closest friend". Faith is trusting that God is big enough to handle how we feel about Him--even if we are supremely angry at Him. Israel was not afraid at all to tell God how they felt, and we shouldn't be either. I really connect with the art of lamenting, because I think it is huge in the world of film and the arts.
As a last point for the art of lamenting(that last paragraph was getting too big so I started a new one), Nat made this statement: "If the church is to be the body of Christ, how can we expect to not suffer? How can we expect no pain when the physical body of Christ endured crucifixion? How can we expect to not carry our own cross?". The idea that life is fun and easy is a twisted illusion.
Next was faith versus uncertainty. Certainty is not a good thing. We are in relationship with God, and anyone who has been in a dating relationship or very good friendship knows that a relationship is about throwing your whole self into it, and making yourself so vulnerable that the other person could definitely hurt you if they wanted to. We can never be certain of anything with God, other than His love and existence. To create other concrete things about the image of God is dangerous and usually wrong. Nat gave us this quote: "Those who believe..without uncertainty, without doubt...believe only in the God idea, not God Himself."(Miguel de Unamuno)
Nat then told us a story about a Physics student who nearly failed an exam in which everything was perfect save for one question. The questions was something along the lines of, "how to find the height of a building with a barometer". The correct answer was to measure the air pressures at the top and bottom and somehow find the height with an equation, but the student went at it differently.
The student said tostand at the top of the building with the barometer attached to a rope. Lower the barometer until it touches the ground. Then measure how much rope you have used. The student had several other answers, all unconventional, but all perfectly good ways to measure a building using a barometer.
The point of this story is that faith invites us to see the world in a whole new way. If our faith is not changing the way we see things, we don't actually have faith. We have ideas. Faith is participation in God's story.
Nat's final statement to us today was this: "One must first dwell in the sheer wonder of the Christ event before trying to make sense of what it demands of us."
Catch you all tomorrow.
Gay Penguins
I read an article about penguins yesterday that claimed they were gay because they spend the majority of their time together.
Give me a break. Just because two animals of the same sex spend the majority of their time together, doesn't make them gay. I spend 90% of every second I can with my best friend, and we are by no means gay! We love each other, but neither of us would ever even entertain the thought of doing anything sexual with each other! That's disgusting!
I feel like society is just trying to be like, "HEY LOOK! ANIMALS CAN BE GAY TOO!! GAY IS REAL!!". I know homosexuality is real and that people are born with genes more similar to the opposite sex, but I really feel like society is confusing people by telling them that if they have a best friend of the same sex then they must be gay. That's not how it works. If you're not SEXUALLY attracted to someone of the same sex, you're not gay, you just have a really good friend. Don't be afraid of friendship.
Two penguins that spend 90% of their time together are not gay, they are just companions. And they live in a zoo for goodness sakes! It's not even their natural environment!!
I realize this is going to ruffle people's feathers, but I don't care. I hope people will start seeing that calling, "friendship" or, "companionship" a sexual relationship is highly misleading and no more of a help to sexually confused individuals than ignorant and irate, "christians" protesting and picketing.
Give me a break. Just because two animals of the same sex spend the majority of their time together, doesn't make them gay. I spend 90% of every second I can with my best friend, and we are by no means gay! We love each other, but neither of us would ever even entertain the thought of doing anything sexual with each other! That's disgusting!
I feel like society is just trying to be like, "HEY LOOK! ANIMALS CAN BE GAY TOO!! GAY IS REAL!!". I know homosexuality is real and that people are born with genes more similar to the opposite sex, but I really feel like society is confusing people by telling them that if they have a best friend of the same sex then they must be gay. That's not how it works. If you're not SEXUALLY attracted to someone of the same sex, you're not gay, you just have a really good friend. Don't be afraid of friendship.
Two penguins that spend 90% of their time together are not gay, they are just companions. And they live in a zoo for goodness sakes! It's not even their natural environment!!
I realize this is going to ruffle people's feathers, but I don't care. I hope people will start seeing that calling, "friendship" or, "companionship" a sexual relationship is highly misleading and no more of a help to sexually confused individuals than ignorant and irate, "christians" protesting and picketing.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
The Long Fall
The beginning and the end are all part of the same story.
Contrary to what I thought, Nat did not continue to talk about the book of Revelations today, he instead jumped all the way back to the first chapter of Genesis, and showed us a video of Ricky Gervais making fun of the creation story.
Ricky Gervais is right, the creation story does seem a bit absurd.
Nat led us through a long process this morning of understanding how the Jews of Jesus time understood the creation story. To sum it up, they basically did not take the creation story literally. It was acknowledged as poetic mythology. They knew God created the earth and everything in it, but they weren't sure about everything else. Regardless of what they thought, it was still considered a respected ancient text, but never held up as the absolute exact story.
The more we learn from Nat, the more I realize that western culture's christians are stupid. Really, really stupid. We've been following terrible traditions for centuries, and we haven't been taking in the story of the bible the way it was meant to be taken in. For all we know the garden of eden and the serpent/tree were metaphors for something else. We have no idea what, but that's not the point/doesn't really matter anyway.
The two core things about the creation story are this: God created everything we know--including us--and God was pleased with it. We are God's creation, and He loves us.
We then got talking about sin entering the world and Jesus coming to reconcile that. A lot of people wonder why God would allow sin to enter in the first place, but Nat said to look at it from a different perspective. He believes that the Christ event was pre-ordained before anything else, and then all the other key pieces were put into place. I can't really explain it the way he did without making it sound like we are just God's entertainment, but he kept saying that we are part of a grand story, and that every piece of the bible fits.
We then spent the afternoon watching a film called, "The Sunset Limited" It's a movie directed by Tommy Lee Jones, and the only two actors are Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. In fact, the film only takes place in one room: Samuel L. Jackson's living room.
Samuel L. Jackson's character has just saved Tommy Lee Jones' character from suicide(He was jumping in front of a train called The Sunset Limited) and it turns out that Samuel L. Jackson is a christian, and Tommy Lee Jones is a professor living in absolute despair. The whole movie is a conversation about God and the meaning of life.
It sounds very simple, and to be frank it really is quite simple, but it's also very, very good. I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering watching it. It raises a lot of questions, a lot of points, and a lot of everything you would expect it to rise.
On a side note, I just finished doing the rough edit of Day One for the sailing documentary! Catch you all tomorrow.
Contrary to what I thought, Nat did not continue to talk about the book of Revelations today, he instead jumped all the way back to the first chapter of Genesis, and showed us a video of Ricky Gervais making fun of the creation story.
Ricky Gervais is right, the creation story does seem a bit absurd.
Nat led us through a long process this morning of understanding how the Jews of Jesus time understood the creation story. To sum it up, they basically did not take the creation story literally. It was acknowledged as poetic mythology. They knew God created the earth and everything in it, but they weren't sure about everything else. Regardless of what they thought, it was still considered a respected ancient text, but never held up as the absolute exact story.
The more we learn from Nat, the more I realize that western culture's christians are stupid. Really, really stupid. We've been following terrible traditions for centuries, and we haven't been taking in the story of the bible the way it was meant to be taken in. For all we know the garden of eden and the serpent/tree were metaphors for something else. We have no idea what, but that's not the point/doesn't really matter anyway.
The two core things about the creation story are this: God created everything we know--including us--and God was pleased with it. We are God's creation, and He loves us.
We then got talking about sin entering the world and Jesus coming to reconcile that. A lot of people wonder why God would allow sin to enter in the first place, but Nat said to look at it from a different perspective. He believes that the Christ event was pre-ordained before anything else, and then all the other key pieces were put into place. I can't really explain it the way he did without making it sound like we are just God's entertainment, but he kept saying that we are part of a grand story, and that every piece of the bible fits.
We then spent the afternoon watching a film called, "The Sunset Limited" It's a movie directed by Tommy Lee Jones, and the only two actors are Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. In fact, the film only takes place in one room: Samuel L. Jackson's living room.
Samuel L. Jackson's character has just saved Tommy Lee Jones' character from suicide(He was jumping in front of a train called The Sunset Limited) and it turns out that Samuel L. Jackson is a christian, and Tommy Lee Jones is a professor living in absolute despair. The whole movie is a conversation about God and the meaning of life.
It sounds very simple, and to be frank it really is quite simple, but it's also very, very good. I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering watching it. It raises a lot of questions, a lot of points, and a lot of everything you would expect it to rise.
On a side note, I just finished doing the rough edit of Day One for the sailing documentary! Catch you all tomorrow.
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