The Thaw Before The Spring

The Passion That Drives Me
Before I commence, let me just state for the record that I am in no way retorting to anyone's thoughts here, and that Dalton I love YOU especially (mostly because you are big, black and cuddly) and this is not a 'diss' on your gay marriage blog.
I guess I have alot of different spheres of friends and family. I have been raised from a farily conservative Christian background but it wasn't until I really made my faith in and relationship with Jesus my own that it meant jack shit. Sorry to say Jesus and then cuss in the same sentence, but I guess that sort of thing doesn't really bother me anymore. For a time, I lived an ultra-conservative lifestyle, being involed with Christian campus groups like IVCF and Campus Crusade, and only really interacting and existing in a bubble. For years, this bubble influenced my thoughts, my perceptions, my dreams, and my interactions with people to an end that I often still regret and look back on with contempt.
But I'll get to the point...promise.
The thing is that I'm sick and tired of hearing about these rants that people spew thoughtlessly against gay marriage or gay people in general from the viewpoint of Christianity. These people have not read the same bible I have and don't really understand Jesus or anything that He came to do. All they are fighting for is a 'moral' objective, rather than a 'spiritual' one. They see something like gay marriage and they think 'these people can't do this. it's just plain wrong' and they picket and they protest and they do their thing. But it's ultimately casting dispersions upon people because of their morals. It's a hang up. It's legalistic. It's systematic. It's bullshit. It's like not letting someone come to worship God on a sunday and blocking that person at the door because they are a smoker, even though they genuinely want to worship the Maker. And again, we go through this cycle of not letting someone in the club because they don't look the part. They drink alot. They smoke. They smoke drugs. They are or claim to be gay. The church is ultimately hung up on appearances rather than the condition of someone's heart. and that is a sad, sad, SAD thing, folks.
Now as an ironic segue into my own thoughts, I realize that by writing this, I am doing close to the same thing as those people I despise and that is casting dispersions. But I guess I feel like instead of picketing on parliament hill and trying to look astute by inadvertently judging the actions of others, why not do something useful with the time we have? Like volunteering at a soup kitchen or getting involved with the community to show that we care about our surroundings? Don't we understand that the gay community hates Christians and the church enough as it is? But no, let's continue to tell people they are not welcome to live the way they do and wonder why more people don't come out to church on sunday.

WAKE UP.

Jesus kept company with all kinds. If we don't do the same, love and accept all people, we are the pharisees. What it comes down to is that people go through all kinds of shit in life and each one of them, if their personal road leads to new life in Christ, must come to God JUST AS THEY ARE, not how WE want them to be.
Do you think that if we keep protesting the gay community will finally just bend and say 'Oh my! Look at all these protesters! You know something, it really is wrong! Hey people, we are Wrong! What else should we stop doing? Smoking? Drinking? Having sex at all?' Then what value will that have? No value. So what if you get someone to stop being gay or smoking or whatever. They are still gonna be spiritually misled into thinking one needs to have it 'all together' and 'look the part' in order to meet with God. Again, a moral objective, not a spiritual one.
In saying this, I know and love all kinds of people. I've got friends who smoke up on a regular basis and I have friends who work full time in church and camp ministry. I have friends who have more than a few drinks on occasions for celebration (myself included) and I have friends who still celebrate but don't drink alcohol and are personally against it. I have friends who cuss like sailors and friends who frown on swearing and beat themselves up if they say 'frig'. But all my friends, at least the good ones, have heart. They have wrestled with their spirituality and some are on a lit path and some aren't. But that's the stuff that matters to me. All the rest of the afforementioned crap in this paragraph I don't really give two shits about because I love them for who they are...or at least I try.
That was long. But I felt it needed saying. Canada Day is a-comin. Buck, D-Shot, Adnan, Steve, Joel, all are welcome in Ottawa for Sarah's b-day bash and bbq.

posted by Matt McKechnie @ 7:57 PM Comments: 16