Does God vomit at the thought of gay and lesbian people? That's the graphic image that O'Neal Dozier, pastor of Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach Florida, uses. It's radically different from the one that many of us know of a God of inclusion and love. Not vomiting but smiling on us -- all of us!
What makes Dozier's view so prominent is that he is the Honorary Chair of Rick Santorum's Florida campaign. Although Dozier believes that homosexuality is the "paramount of sins" he is an equal opportunity exclusionist. Mother Jones reveals that his Islamaphobia and local crusade against Muslims are fueled by his belief that Muslims have an agenda for taking over America. Dozier, who claims to know the mind of God on election results, has used his position on the Florida judicial nominating committee to seek "God-fearing" judges. The test for him is whether those nominees support anti-sodomy laws.
Dozier believes America should be taken over by those who share his exclusionist views and create a fundamentalist theocracy. The constitution in his view was created only for those who are a "moral and religious people." God-fearing in his view translates into a projectile God who throws up on those who do not share his religious vision. Thankfully there are other more spacious religious and spiritual paths.
Like millions of other LGBT people I feared God as a young person because of the religious messages I received that God had disdainful disgust for us. Like millions of other young LGBT people I considered suicide. That is one of the reasons that Dozier's imagery and words are destructive, not life-giving.
If the arc of spirituality bends towards inclusion Dozier's views are not part of that moral trajectory. Pew Research polls reveal approximately 65 percent of Catholics and Protestants have positive views of gays, while only 29 percent of Evangelicals do. Among post-moderns 91 percent have favorable views of LGBT people while 80 percent of them support same-sex marriage.
The moral arc towards inclusion has a foundation of spiritual wisdom from many traditions. Christian wisdom settles largely on a message of generous expansive love matched by acts of mercy, kindness and justice. The notion of repairing the world is a central underpinning in most branches of Judaism. While Buddhist philosophy is rooted in seeking the happiness or well-being of all Buddhist practice points to the inter-connectedness of all sentient beings.
Religious leaders can be found in most traditions that, like Dozier, use their position and authority to tear apart, diminish and demean others at any cost. The climate they create is quite different than that of those who beg to differ but who seek a world in which none are harmed or excluded. The bullies who cloak themselves with the mantle of the Divine are no different than schoolyard bullies who are stopped only when their behavior is challenged. That choice is in our hands.
We participate in the movement of the moral arc of inclusion when we actively engage in creating a world which acknowledges the goodness and compassion inherent in every person. A world in which imagery of a puking God is replaced with a spiritual path of generous inclusion in which there are no outcasts. That is a life-giving journey acknowledging and celebrating difference.
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You won't change them, laugh at them!!
South Pacific
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
As far as the Bible, yes, I believe it is God's word. As far as Christians being "superior" to anyone else? absolutely not.
NO Christian is to kill anyone with stones (or any other weapon). Any who do this are not doing the right thing, and THEY are of Satan!! God is the ONLY judge and any who try to carry out judgement is not following the Christ. In fact I would go on to say that they are "running ahead" of the righteousness of God, claiming to be of God. This claim does not make it so.
So please, you stop the hate, everyone stop the hate!! It leads to violence and no good thing!
Sure.
As soon as you start supporting gays and gay marriage.
Deal?
The Christian contradiction, still ironic as ever.
It is not a sin to let homosexuals live their life. Just like it's not a sin for you if other people lie. It's not a sin for you if other people take the lord's name in vain. It's not a sin for you if others don't honor their mother and father.
It is however, quite frowned upon to put one's own judgment ahead of god's ultimate judgment.
We're labeled as a religion for convenience, nothing more.
If you were born with straight hair and decided to get a perm....you'd look like you have curly hair, but bottom line is God created you with straight hair. And that's what you really have.
Same with being gay....you can pretend to be heterosexual all you want, but God created you homosexual and that's what you are.
The real sin would be to live a lie...and the people who think gays should be something they are not are thumbing their nose at God.
.
"If God created a person to be a (kleptomaniac, arsonist, ... you get the idea) ...
God hates promiscuity of most kinds. Whether it's the soldier who promiscuously shoots the innocent, the husband who visits his mistress of the month, or the teenager who experiments with other religions, God hates the choices made.
Only in loving one another are we to be promiscuous, loving all we come across as ourselves.