This trip has been restful. I have slept so soundly. I don't sleep like this when school is in session, thats for sure.
On the way up to Minnesota, I listened to one of my podcasts, The Good Life Podcast, featuring an interview with Nadia Bolz-Weber. She recently just released a powerful book that I devoured. It is called Shameless: A Sexual Revolution. If you have ever been treated like you were less. That you were headed for fire and brimstone because of who you love. If you have ever been sexually mistreated, this is the book for you. It's for those who feel lost from the idea of RELIGION. Have turned their backs because religion mistreated them, misused them, or hurt and beat them down all in the name of God and the Bible.
For those of you who follow Bolz-Weber, read her books, listen to her on podcasts, or just admire what she has to say about religion, she is quite the pot stirrer. But you know what? It is ABOUT TIME!!!!! For those of us who have lived in the face of religion feeling less than, being called less than, and basically destined for hell because of who we love, can you imagine the amount of shame and despair that brings to so many of us in the LGBTQ community?
One of the most beautiful chapters from the book talks about the fact that the one area the Bible gets it right from is the Gospels. Everything else pools out from there like a rock thrown into the water and ripple pools out from that spot. Jesus profoundly tells us to love one another and to live a life of love. No homosexuality. No gloom and doom. Just love. And he sets a strong example in all of this. The closer a book of the Bible falls to the gospels, the more impact it should have...the farther away form the gospels...the less impact...
BUH-BYE Leviticus...you were a VERY messy guest...but the invitation has been rescinded.
For those of us raised in religion, deeply into the fire and brimstone eras of the church, or perhaps the awful chapter of Catholic priests and sexual assault. The Bible misused. The power misused. The teachings misstated or interpreted for one person...if you are not white, not male, not straight...you have no hope according to today's church landscape...Perhaps we need to re-look at religion and what role we are going to allow it to have in our lives moving forward. Listen, if you are not there, you are NOT THERE. If you have been so hurt by organized religion, it is okay to shut that door. I firmly believe that.
But if you feel lost by this and long for some sense of spiritual direction, Bolz-Weber blew my mind by saying, " It's like coming home. Coming home to religion, but you get to decide how you will decorate the house." I love this concept. It speaks to my core.
MIND BLOWN!!!!!
We are all made in God's image. He does not create trash and waste. He creates beauty. He creates love. He creates someone to love for everyone and creates a world we can all experience. She goes on to say that our sexuality is at odds with our spirituality. We have to believe that God did not create sex to be shameful, to be considered dirty, to be considered WRONG. Man did that and placed it into the Bible's pages under the guise of God's word...We are finding in today's research that were here all along and MAN did not want to allow. Homosexuality has been in the animal world for so long...GOD FORBID that other men should feel that way towards other men...It just ain't right...
WRONG.
Believe me, this is an ongoing struggle that I am coming to terms with. It has been a LONG battle uphill and back on this...
But through grace, and through a strong belief in a loving God, who gave us his strongest example to live each of our lives through, and how to do it through these examples...I firmly believe I am on the right path.
And I refuse to look backwards.
Get out of my way world, this house is coming through...
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