a day in the life of a bowhead

wow. so much hatred out there, under the guise of ‘christianity’… if you look throughout history, the carnage wrought by ‘christians’ in the ‘name of god’, honestly, it sickens me. over spring break i was blessed to view a movie ‘constatine’s sword’. it chronicled this carnage throughout history. all ‘in the name of god. what god is this? my god, my creator, my saviour spoke only of love, acceptance, forgiveness and grace. when and how did this become twisted? the answer is really quite simplistic. humanity. humans. we did this, not god. we took this passage or that passage from a book that had been rewritten for political and personal gains and waved this passage high. “THIS IS GOD’S WORD. THIS IS WHAT HE SPOKE.” i often wonder what god thinks of this bastardization of his word, his work, his mission for us as humanity. i think he would be greatly saddened and has been by the persecution wrought throughout the centuries ‘in his name’. persons love to quote leviticus. sigh. but sadly they stand proud, waving the banner of this scripture or that scripture, oftentimes leaving out the following or preceding scripture that quite blatantly rules their banner unfounded. they choose not to read or follow the one that says eating shellfish is as unfavourable to god as others. i am not a bible scholar, i am not trained nor educated in interpreting god’s word. i read god’s word, i interpret it as god speaks to me. i try to discern god’s word and god’s work for my life. all of the ‘rules’ of the old testament were null and void with god’s everlasting covenant, the new covenant with us,  humanity. jesus died for us. jesus gave us pardon. jesus showed us grace. and it is through that grace we no longer need to ‘go through others’ to have a relationship with god. my relationship with god is unlike any other’s relationship with god. this is god’s desire. we are to have our relationship with him, as it is needed by us. no one else is given the right to determine nor dictate to us how we should worship, how we should honour, how we should love our god. god’s one desire is for love to rule. love. not hate. if your actions are truly based in love, you are doing god’s will. but in doing so, you have no right to dictate to me what my relationship should be with my god. 

so proposition 8. those of you who voted in favour of prop 8, answer this simple question… what is it that frightens you? what about this makes you so afraid of who you are and what matters to you? are we seeking to destroy your marriage? are we seeking to tell you that you cannot marry this man because he is a teacher instead of a doctor? are we seeking to tell you that you cannot marry because you are a man and she a woman? americans have destroyed the sanctity of marriage already. you can get married and divorced in the matter of days. there is nothing that holds you to the promises made by you. there is nothing that makes you determine that this is not healthy for you. you have nothing that is keeping you from trying, from hoping, from finding goodness and acceptance and love in your relationships. so why are you doing this to others? some of the most successful and long lasting relationships i have ever experienced are those in which are same sex. they are loving. they are hopeful. they are partners, in every true sense of the word. yet you seek to tell them they do not have the right, as you do, to try, to hope, to love in the same way? what makes you so god-damn special? what god dictates to you that love is wrong? that love is limiting? that love cannot be what love is — accepting and productive and a human representation of god? why are you afraid? because honestly, this is motivated by fear. oppression, limitation, bigotry, it is all rooted in fear. we are afraid. why? i ask you to look deep, delve within yourself and find that grain of truth. look honestly in the mirror and ask yourself, is this truly what god desires for us as a human race. we are all the same. our hearts all beat. our lungs all inhale and exhale air. our stomachs all digest fuel. we all expel that which is not healthy for our bodies. we are the same and our color, our creed, our sex does not make any difference in that fact. in gods eyes, we are beautiful, we are his own creation, we are him. love, hope, faith… are these truly lost in this world of fear? am i really just too idealistic for this world? i dont think so. i think we strive for these things, but allow ourselves to get lost in the rhetoric. screw rhetoric. listen to god, really read what he says. he says to love. period. love. 

so here is keith obermann’s commentary on the passing of proposition 8. it is so well spoken. please listen, really listen and then look into your heart and your being… and hear god.