Following Up on Lord, Save Us
An LJ pal, heatherejc , commented on yesterday's post about the movie "Lord, Save Us from Your Followers." She sent me a fantastic link to a friend's blog post about being a Christian and NOT being an asshole.
The entry is amazing. It says the things I've been feeling for so long. I'm a Christian but I believe things that aren't mainstream Evangelical thinking:
1. I'm for all peoples being free to marry the person they love. I don't believe that "being gay" is a lifestyle choice. I think homosexuality is ingrained in the person. And since God does not make mistakes, homosexuals are not mistakes. Of course, this is not acceptable by a lot of faiths, but I just don't agree.
2. I have absolutely no problem with women serving in pastor positions at churches. I don't think that men are the sole connection to God and can be the only people the God can use in leadership positions. When I hear that women are not to serve as pastors it makes me feel like I'm not human enough or good enough to be a champion for God. I've been given the line that women can serve in other areas but it's "really not biblical" for women to serve as pastors. I think that's BS. I think it, like the anti-gay folks, is a line said out of fear. Those people, those women, those gays are different. Yes, even in the 21st Century I believe there are still some people that fear women.
3. I am a feminist. I believe in equal pay, equal rights, equal respect for women that is given to men. Which means, I believe women can be pastors, priests, leaders of their churches and to not allow someone to do so because she is a woman is as bad as not allowing someone to do something because he/she is black, gay, blind, divorced, what have you. Women and our "emotions" are not as scary as people would like to have us believe. We are strong. We can hold our families together under the worst circumstances while the men around us fall apart. Look at military wives. When their husbands go over seas to Iraq or Afghanistan, who is it that stays home on base and takes care of everything - from roof leaks to emergency room visits? It's the women. The best student pilot my dad ever trained in the Apache helicopter he says was a woman. I'll never forget her. She was professional, calm, and a great pilot. Some of the other male instructors (because there were no women instructors then) didn't want to fly with her. She's a girl. She's emotional. But my dad said she was an amazing pilot and a great student. We can do it and we will do it. And yeah, we might just do it better than a man. ooooh scary!
4. I am anti-abortion but only in the sense that I don't believe that we should use abortion as a birth control method. I am pro-abortion but only in the sense that I don't believe the government knows what is best for me and my body. I'm Life. If you are screwing around and get pregnant, well, give the kid a chance at life - he shouldn't have to suffer because you couldn't put a condom on. Put him up for adoption if he's going to interfere with your life too much. On the other hand, if a 12 year old gets pregnant because her sicko father rapes her, I can't imagine the emotional pain she would be in being pregnant with her father's baby. I think that might be one where I would support the family's decision to end the pregnancy.
5. I believe in Creationism through Science! I think the ultimate scientist was God. Our universe is amazingly complex. Every atom and particle shooting through our world and others can be dissected by our scientists but I believe that intelligent super power put it there for us to discover. I believe in dinosaurs and the moon landing, in the possibility that God created the world in 6 days but that God's 6 days could be 6 million years or 6 seconds to my mere human understanding of time.
6. I believe that God used Buddha and Allah and others from St. Augustine to Mother Teresa to Rick Warren to Gandhi to my Mormon best friend and my agnostic marathon running pal to speak to me and bring me into a closer relationship with Him. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was crucified so that all people, not just Christians, not just the Baptists or the Catholics, ALL people could find peace from their demons.
7. In the end I believe that when we all pass from this plain of being to the next we're all going to be in for a shock. I don't think anyone has a stamp on what heaven/hell is going to be like. I personally believe that we are all going to get a chance to marvel at God in some form or fashion but I have no idea what that will be. Some folks think it's a big man with a long white beard and that Jesus is a blonde haired blue eyed hottie. (Jesus, being from the middle east, probably doesn't sport the blonde and blue...he's probably more of a brunette with deep brown eyes, and I can't comment on whether or not He'll have a six pack.)
In the book The Shack, God appears to the main character as an overweight black woman with a penchant for cooking. Jesus is a scruffy Middle Eastern man that likes to build things. The Holy Spirit is a tiny flicker of an ambiguous Asian. I personally have no problem with any of this.
One of my favorite all time movie quotes is from The Crow: Mother is the name of God on the lips of children. Maybe God isn't male looking at all, if we can even see Him as we see ourselves (isn't that narcissistic?) Maybe God is Mrs. Weasley - a soft, rounded woman who loves her children, scolds them when necessary, and fights fiercely at their sides when evil looms. Who wouldn't want God to be like Mrs. Weasley?
The entry is amazing. It says the things I've been feeling for so long. I'm a Christian but I believe things that aren't mainstream Evangelical thinking:
1. I'm for all peoples being free to marry the person they love. I don't believe that "being gay" is a lifestyle choice. I think homosexuality is ingrained in the person. And since God does not make mistakes, homosexuals are not mistakes. Of course, this is not acceptable by a lot of faiths, but I just don't agree.
2. I have absolutely no problem with women serving in pastor positions at churches. I don't think that men are the sole connection to God and can be the only people the God can use in leadership positions. When I hear that women are not to serve as pastors it makes me feel like I'm not human enough or good enough to be a champion for God. I've been given the line that women can serve in other areas but it's "really not biblical" for women to serve as pastors. I think that's BS. I think it, like the anti-gay folks, is a line said out of fear. Those people, those women, those gays are different. Yes, even in the 21st Century I believe there are still some people that fear women.
3. I am a feminist. I believe in equal pay, equal rights, equal respect for women that is given to men. Which means, I believe women can be pastors, priests, leaders of their churches and to not allow someone to do so because she is a woman is as bad as not allowing someone to do something because he/she is black, gay, blind, divorced, what have you. Women and our "emotions" are not as scary as people would like to have us believe. We are strong. We can hold our families together under the worst circumstances while the men around us fall apart. Look at military wives. When their husbands go over seas to Iraq or Afghanistan, who is it that stays home on base and takes care of everything - from roof leaks to emergency room visits? It's the women. The best student pilot my dad ever trained in the Apache helicopter he says was a woman. I'll never forget her. She was professional, calm, and a great pilot. Some of the other male instructors (because there were no women instructors then) didn't want to fly with her. She's a girl. She's emotional. But my dad said she was an amazing pilot and a great student. We can do it and we will do it. And yeah, we might just do it better than a man. ooooh scary!
4. I am anti-abortion but only in the sense that I don't believe that we should use abortion as a birth control method. I am pro-abortion but only in the sense that I don't believe the government knows what is best for me and my body. I'm Life. If you are screwing around and get pregnant, well, give the kid a chance at life - he shouldn't have to suffer because you couldn't put a condom on. Put him up for adoption if he's going to interfere with your life too much. On the other hand, if a 12 year old gets pregnant because her sicko father rapes her, I can't imagine the emotional pain she would be in being pregnant with her father's baby. I think that might be one where I would support the family's decision to end the pregnancy.
5. I believe in Creationism through Science! I think the ultimate scientist was God. Our universe is amazingly complex. Every atom and particle shooting through our world and others can be dissected by our scientists but I believe that intelligent super power put it there for us to discover. I believe in dinosaurs and the moon landing, in the possibility that God created the world in 6 days but that God's 6 days could be 6 million years or 6 seconds to my mere human understanding of time.
6. I believe that God used Buddha and Allah and others from St. Augustine to Mother Teresa to Rick Warren to Gandhi to my Mormon best friend and my agnostic marathon running pal to speak to me and bring me into a closer relationship with Him. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was crucified so that all people, not just Christians, not just the Baptists or the Catholics, ALL people could find peace from their demons.
7. In the end I believe that when we all pass from this plain of being to the next we're all going to be in for a shock. I don't think anyone has a stamp on what heaven/hell is going to be like. I personally believe that we are all going to get a chance to marvel at God in some form or fashion but I have no idea what that will be. Some folks think it's a big man with a long white beard and that Jesus is a blonde haired blue eyed hottie. (Jesus, being from the middle east, probably doesn't sport the blonde and blue...he's probably more of a brunette with deep brown eyes, and I can't comment on whether or not He'll have a six pack.)
In the book The Shack, God appears to the main character as an overweight black woman with a penchant for cooking. Jesus is a scruffy Middle Eastern man that likes to build things. The Holy Spirit is a tiny flicker of an ambiguous Asian. I personally have no problem with any of this.
One of my favorite all time movie quotes is from The Crow: Mother is the name of God on the lips of children. Maybe God isn't male looking at all, if we can even see Him as we see ourselves (isn't that narcissistic?) Maybe God is Mrs. Weasley - a soft, rounded woman who loves her children, scolds them when necessary, and fights fiercely at their sides when evil looms. Who wouldn't want God to be like Mrs. Weasley?