(no subject)
All righty. I'm acting on impulse here, I admit, but this thing is heavy on my mind and I'm infinitely curious about how my readership is going to react and what my online "Friends" think.
This is an email that was forwarded to a friend of mine; he posted it up on his journal. I imagine it was forwarded to a number of people in and around my community. More specifically, it's addressed to my high-school community, that of Belen Jesuit Prep. (Keep in mind throughout this post, I adore my high-school and consider myself blessed to have been raised within the Cuban-American exile community, however in opposition to some of its politics I am.)
Anyway. I didn't want to just rant in reply, or even post an enflamed comment on my buddy's journal, 'cause I've done that in the past on a number of occasions, and it really and truly gets me nowhere but right back here. But I knew I needed to react in some way, so I thought about it a bit ... and I decided: I'll let you all do the talking for me. And please please feel free to go both ways on this. If you're supportive of the sentiment, come out with it (no pun intended.) An open mind is one that's open to dissent, and our disagreement on this issue won't jeopardize or strain our friendship, I assure and reassure you. Maybe one of us will even leave a little more enlightened ...
But I must say. This, below, is the community I was born into and raised in. I found an open mind, I found an affirmation of love and life, I found compassion amidst this. And for that I'm so incredibly proud. I give myself all the credit in the world for finding the values I now embrace while amidst such constant pressure to think and believe otherwise. I stuck to my proverbial guns while growing up in a community of ultra-conservatives, and because of that ... I hold my opinions so very dear, because they were so hard-won. I have the battle scars to go with my politics, in a way.
I also give myself a world of credit for being a reliable and caring friend to many wonderful, gay young men and women. I love you all very much, and I work hard every day to ensure that the gay community knows that emails like the one below are in no way a reflection on all of us.
So, to get to it already, this is the email an older woman sent out to a number of folks. (To be honest, I'm not really sure about the logistics of it ... how it started or where it came from.) It's pretty much intact, except for the last two paragraphs which I cut out because they were kind of off-topic and not really relevant.
"Dear brother and sisters: Last weekend my family and I visited Duke university,N.C. Although the place is really beautiful (and Expensive) I was really shocked when I read the brochures handed out to us. Central page there's a a display of a "gay" student who's inviting other homosexual students to enroll in the university. He's even advertising for a scholarship that's being granted to him (based on his sexual orientation) to study his major abroad. As I kept reading I encountered the section about the universities' clubs. Among them, there's one for homosexual students. I don't know about you, but to me this was a great shock and a wake-up call. Back in 1986 when I attended U.M. it was even unthinkable to presume that a respectable university would advertise homosexual activity much less endorsed it. Back in Miami, a Belen mom told me that last year Duke's president had approved of the first homosexual marriage performed at Duke chapel. I decided to do my own research and it's absolutely true (all you have to do is enter gay weddings at Duke and you get all the information). I decided to expand my research to Harvard, Yale and Princeton and they are all on the same boat, meaning that they have embraced the popular motion to exhault homosexual lifestyle and welcome it with open arms.
I sincerely tell you that my mind kept going back to "The Passion" movie and the suffering of our Lord. We keep nailing Him to his cross with all these sins. And I really wept for Him and for us. Contrary to what liberals want us to believe, we Catholics don't approve of discriminating or harrasing homosexual people. We are not God to judge anybody and we are called to show God's mercy to all human beings. That doesn't mean that we should approve of mortal sins, much less be proud of it.
In case some people may think that this is really not that bad, let me tell you that the major homosexual organization in this country it's already working on passing a new law concerning the legal age for consent to have sex. In other words, next in their agenda is to make pedophilia legally, approved of and of course not punished by our legal system. What else can we expect? (me recuerda el dicho de, dales un dedo y se cogeran la mano entera) That's the way the devil works, he wants to see all humanity enslaved by mortal sin and destroyed.
Many of you have children in high school, very soon you will be choosing universities for your kids. I wanted you to know what's going at these "prestigious" universities, so you can prepare your children to defend our christian values and to defend themselves.
I would also like you to reflect about the possibility of choosing a "catholic" university for your kids.
Finally, I would like you to pray for this country and this world in general, to reflect about our sins and how we can help others to decide to turn back to God ( that's why it's so important to pray for our leaders and to choose the best) I really would like to see christian people in all important places to make the right decisions. It's our responsibility to prepare our children as best as we can and to keep nurturing their spiritual lives as well as ours."
So. What do you guys think?
This is an email that was forwarded to a friend of mine; he posted it up on his journal. I imagine it was forwarded to a number of people in and around my community. More specifically, it's addressed to my high-school community, that of Belen Jesuit Prep. (Keep in mind throughout this post, I adore my high-school and consider myself blessed to have been raised within the Cuban-American exile community, however in opposition to some of its politics I am.)
Anyway. I didn't want to just rant in reply, or even post an enflamed comment on my buddy's journal, 'cause I've done that in the past on a number of occasions, and it really and truly gets me nowhere but right back here. But I knew I needed to react in some way, so I thought about it a bit ... and I decided: I'll let you all do the talking for me. And please please feel free to go both ways on this. If you're supportive of the sentiment, come out with it (no pun intended.) An open mind is one that's open to dissent, and our disagreement on this issue won't jeopardize or strain our friendship, I assure and reassure you. Maybe one of us will even leave a little more enlightened ...
But I must say. This, below, is the community I was born into and raised in. I found an open mind, I found an affirmation of love and life, I found compassion amidst this. And for that I'm so incredibly proud. I give myself all the credit in the world for finding the values I now embrace while amidst such constant pressure to think and believe otherwise. I stuck to my proverbial guns while growing up in a community of ultra-conservatives, and because of that ... I hold my opinions so very dear, because they were so hard-won. I have the battle scars to go with my politics, in a way.
I also give myself a world of credit for being a reliable and caring friend to many wonderful, gay young men and women. I love you all very much, and I work hard every day to ensure that the gay community knows that emails like the one below are in no way a reflection on all of us.
So, to get to it already, this is the email an older woman sent out to a number of folks. (To be honest, I'm not really sure about the logistics of it ... how it started or where it came from.) It's pretty much intact, except for the last two paragraphs which I cut out because they were kind of off-topic and not really relevant.
"Dear brother and sisters: Last weekend my family and I visited Duke university,N.C. Although the place is really beautiful (and Expensive) I was really shocked when I read the brochures handed out to us. Central page there's a a display of a "gay" student who's inviting other homosexual students to enroll in the university. He's even advertising for a scholarship that's being granted to him (based on his sexual orientation) to study his major abroad. As I kept reading I encountered the section about the universities' clubs. Among them, there's one for homosexual students. I don't know about you, but to me this was a great shock and a wake-up call. Back in 1986 when I attended U.M. it was even unthinkable to presume that a respectable university would advertise homosexual activity much less endorsed it. Back in Miami, a Belen mom told me that last year Duke's president had approved of the first homosexual marriage performed at Duke chapel. I decided to do my own research and it's absolutely true (all you have to do is enter gay weddings at Duke and you get all the information). I decided to expand my research to Harvard, Yale and Princeton and they are all on the same boat, meaning that they have embraced the popular motion to exhault homosexual lifestyle and welcome it with open arms.
I sincerely tell you that my mind kept going back to "The Passion" movie and the suffering of our Lord. We keep nailing Him to his cross with all these sins. And I really wept for Him and for us. Contrary to what liberals want us to believe, we Catholics don't approve of discriminating or harrasing homosexual people. We are not God to judge anybody and we are called to show God's mercy to all human beings. That doesn't mean that we should approve of mortal sins, much less be proud of it.
In case some people may think that this is really not that bad, let me tell you that the major homosexual organization in this country it's already working on passing a new law concerning the legal age for consent to have sex. In other words, next in their agenda is to make pedophilia legally, approved of and of course not punished by our legal system. What else can we expect? (me recuerda el dicho de, dales un dedo y se cogeran la mano entera) That's the way the devil works, he wants to see all humanity enslaved by mortal sin and destroyed.
Many of you have children in high school, very soon you will be choosing universities for your kids. I wanted you to know what's going at these "prestigious" universities, so you can prepare your children to defend our christian values and to defend themselves.
I would also like you to reflect about the possibility of choosing a "catholic" university for your kids.
Finally, I would like you to pray for this country and this world in general, to reflect about our sins and how we can help others to decide to turn back to God ( that's why it's so important to pray for our leaders and to choose the best) I really would like to see christian people in all important places to make the right decisions. It's our responsibility to prepare our children as best as we can and to keep nurturing their spiritual lives as well as ours."
So. What do you guys think?