NOT Transracial Adoption or Placement
I belong to a Yahoo! Group, Transracial Adoption and Placement. Normally, it's a group of several women and a few men who ask their questions and share their knowledge about various issues facing multi-racial families. When one member finally got her daughter home from Haiti, we congratulated her. When another member had an adoption fall through, we consoled her. Some members ask for prayers for their children-to-be, their parents who are ill, and for the process itself to work smoothly.
Then, the Moderator of the group posts this message. If that link doesn't work, the text of the message is this:
Follow the link below to take action on this important issue. Go to http://www.afa.net/petitions/issuedetail.asp?id=154 to sign.
Mattel is supporting a pro-abortion group (Girls, Inc.) with American Girl Doll product.
Supports vote against abstinance education
Supports Roe v Wade
Supports lesbian agendas (See book no. 2 on list.)
Clear support of gay/lesbian agendas
According to their web site, Girls Inc.:
is a national nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. With roots dating to 1864, Girls Inc has provided vital educational programs to millions of American girls, particularly those in high-risk, underserved areas.
My immediate reaction to the post was to wail on the moderator for posting such an offensive, and just plain wrong, post to the list. Thanks to Max's rule about eating when dinner is ready, I was able to cool down, and wrote the following reply:
I have a feeling I'm about to be slammed, but... this has nothing to do with Transracial Adoption or Placement. I would prefer that messages such as this one no longer be posted.
Two more members also wrote brief statements asking that such messages not be posted anymore. However, one woman had this to say:
I am not offended by the post. While some may see this as off topic, I think it relates greatly to the building of families/adoption. It is important to know the values of the companies where you shop. Everyone has the right to their own set of values. So, if I find that a company donates dollars that I spend with them to certain charities or organizations that have beliefs with which I disagree, I simply stop doing business with them. How is this related to family building, you ask? Because I am teaching my children to stand up for what you believe in. If they learn to do this in small things, then they will be more equipped to do it later in life when bigger issues arise. I know that most people would call me closed minded and intolerant, that's OK. However, the truth is that I love people enough to not condone their sin (or mine either for that matter). I also will not tolerate my children being taught that sin is OK. It is possible to love the person and hate the sin, they are two different things. You see, it's not about intolerance, it's about loving people enough to want them to know the Truth, and His name is Jesus. It's not about being closed minded, it's about all about love and finding your neighbors in Heaven when you get there. Teaching these things to my children strengthens them and bonds our family closer together.
Rather than emailing this woman with a reply, which I think is well-reasoned, I decided to simply post it to my journal instead. After all, this journal was (is?) supposed to be where I rant about people who ask "What would Jesus do?", but forget that what He thought was most important was to Love your neighbor as yourself.
Being homosexual is not a sin. Thinking this goes beyond "intolerance"; it goes against the basic teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus associated with men and women from all backgrounds, from prostitutes and tax collectors to Roman soldiers and Pharisees. We all have our sins, but being in a loving relationship with one person with whom you intend to spend the rest of your life isn't one of them.
I know I won't change your mind, however, I believe that thinking that Jesus would want you to reform people who have not done any harm is blasphemous. I've read the Bible, the Catholic catechism, and numerous books on topics ranging from the historical Jesus to the evolution of religion to specific texts on how the Bible presents women, homosexuals, and people of color. If a person is not a sinner only because he is African-American, than he not a sinner only because he loves other men.
What Paul writes about in one of his many letters is not a condemnation of homosexuality, but a condemnation of pedophilia.
When you speak about abortion as a sin, yes, I would agree with you. However, not everyone would agree with us. At the end of the day, each person must reconcile his or her own life with the being that most call God. It is not my duty to take away the free will that God granted us. Will God punish them later? I don't know. You don't know. No one knows. If a sinner repents, God, being merciful, will grant them peace. This becomes a matter of church versus state. Just as we believe that executing a woman for not wearing proper covering outdoors, most people do not believe in killing doctors who perform surgical procedures, no matter how much we think those may be disgusting. And there can be no law that enforces the relgious beliefs, no matter how many people may espouse them. The founding fathers did that, and they were wise to do so.
Then, the Moderator of the group posts this message. If that link doesn't work, the text of the message is this:
Follow the link below to take action on this important issue. Go to http://www.afa.net/petitions/issuedetail.asp?id=154 to sign.
Mattel is supporting a pro-abortion group (Girls, Inc.) with American Girl Doll product.
Supports vote against abstinance education
Supports Roe v Wade
Supports lesbian agendas (See book no. 2 on list.)
Clear support of gay/lesbian agendas
According to their web site, Girls Inc.:
is a national nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. With roots dating to 1864, Girls Inc has provided vital educational programs to millions of American girls, particularly those in high-risk, underserved areas.
My immediate reaction to the post was to wail on the moderator for posting such an offensive, and just plain wrong, post to the list. Thanks to Max's rule about eating when dinner is ready, I was able to cool down, and wrote the following reply:
I have a feeling I'm about to be slammed, but... this has nothing to do with Transracial Adoption or Placement. I would prefer that messages such as this one no longer be posted.
Two more members also wrote brief statements asking that such messages not be posted anymore. However, one woman had this to say:
I am not offended by the post. While some may see this as off topic, I think it relates greatly to the building of families/adoption. It is important to know the values of the companies where you shop. Everyone has the right to their own set of values. So, if I find that a company donates dollars that I spend with them to certain charities or organizations that have beliefs with which I disagree, I simply stop doing business with them. How is this related to family building, you ask? Because I am teaching my children to stand up for what you believe in. If they learn to do this in small things, then they will be more equipped to do it later in life when bigger issues arise. I know that most people would call me closed minded and intolerant, that's OK. However, the truth is that I love people enough to not condone their sin (or mine either for that matter). I also will not tolerate my children being taught that sin is OK. It is possible to love the person and hate the sin, they are two different things. You see, it's not about intolerance, it's about loving people enough to want them to know the Truth, and His name is Jesus. It's not about being closed minded, it's about all about love and finding your neighbors in Heaven when you get there. Teaching these things to my children strengthens them and bonds our family closer together.
Rather than emailing this woman with a reply, which I think is well-reasoned, I decided to simply post it to my journal instead. After all, this journal was (is?) supposed to be where I rant about people who ask "What would Jesus do?", but forget that what He thought was most important was to Love your neighbor as yourself.
Being homosexual is not a sin. Thinking this goes beyond "intolerance"; it goes against the basic teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus associated with men and women from all backgrounds, from prostitutes and tax collectors to Roman soldiers and Pharisees. We all have our sins, but being in a loving relationship with one person with whom you intend to spend the rest of your life isn't one of them.
I know I won't change your mind, however, I believe that thinking that Jesus would want you to reform people who have not done any harm is blasphemous. I've read the Bible, the Catholic catechism, and numerous books on topics ranging from the historical Jesus to the evolution of religion to specific texts on how the Bible presents women, homosexuals, and people of color. If a person is not a sinner only because he is African-American, than he not a sinner only because he loves other men.
What Paul writes about in one of his many letters is not a condemnation of homosexuality, but a condemnation of pedophilia.
When you speak about abortion as a sin, yes, I would agree with you. However, not everyone would agree with us. At the end of the day, each person must reconcile his or her own life with the being that most call God. It is not my duty to take away the free will that God granted us. Will God punish them later? I don't know. You don't know. No one knows. If a sinner repents, God, being merciful, will grant them peace. This becomes a matter of church versus state. Just as we believe that executing a woman for not wearing proper covering outdoors, most people do not believe in killing doctors who perform surgical procedures, no matter how much we think those may be disgusting. And there can be no law that enforces the relgious beliefs, no matter how many people may espouse them. The founding fathers did that, and they were wise to do so.