The Right to Speak With Love

If you haven't understood from my past entries, I will say it again. I hate political correctness. I believe in the first amendment. Every man and woman should have the freedom to say what they believe and have their beliefs acknowledged.

I want to talk about sin, and definitions of sin. I was just thinking, people sure get offended if you say something is a sin and it's something they do. They call you a Christian bigot, and you haven't even personally called them out on their sin. They're mad you called it out as a sin, why? People don't get mad when you say lying is a sin, they don't get mad when you say stealing is a sin. Greed, gluttony, jealousy...these are all recognizable and non-offensive as sin. Let's throw in lust..fornication, homosexuality....you define those as sins and people come up in arms against you. Why? We all sin, we just sin different from one another. Have you ever lied? Have you ever been jealous, greedy, or cheated a little to get ahead? Are there any times you did than, got your way, and didn't really regret it. REALLY think about it....yes, there probably are. Why aren't you upset with everyone for calling that a sin.

I'm doing a poor job of saying what I want to say: if someone believes something is a sin, let them. If you don't believe in the action they take of it, acknowledge their right to their belief and take action. People whine, they cry, they take action, but they rarely acknowledge that people can believe different things than themselves.

I am a Mormon, I am a Christian. I love the Book of Mormon, I love my savior, and I will defend what I believe. I have a clear definition to myself of what sin is. I love sinners but I hate sin. I love my religion so much, it makes me so happy, I want to share it with other people because I believe it will make them happy to. Do I believe my religion is better than others? YES! That's why I chose it! Do I believe others are awful nasty people  because they don't believe what I do? NO! They are not me! If you don't want what I have, I will never force you to take it, but you can't blame me for trying to share what makes me happy.

I believe in waiting until marriage to have a physically intimate relationship, and I believe intimacy should be between a man and a woman (if you want me to, I'll give my non-religious rant on that some other time, but I'm only doing that one if you ask me to. I haven't so far because I don't want my friends hurt or feeling attacked because I vehemently believe that action is wrong). If you participate in pre-marital physical intimacy I will not hate you, I will love you. If you are gay, I will love you. That is also something I learned from my religion. If someone with my belief system doesn't try to call out these sins as sins and try to get people to repent and be as happy as they are they really don't love the sinners.

Religious people don't fight sin because they hate or don't feel love. We call out sin because we believe there is something higher to strive for. We believe a life absent of these things will fulfill a true measure of joy you may have never felt before. It truly has for us.

Feel free to disagree with us, but don't try to silence us. Don't shun our love! Discuss, argue, but do it lovingly, don't be offended because we want to share with the world what we have, believe me when I say it is what makes me happy. I have had some tough experiences, and I never would have gotten through them without my savior. I feel like my sins have been pretty bad, and I'm so grateful for the love and mercy that came through repentance, can you blame me for wanting others to feel that sweet, sweet gift?

I will let you speak, please allow me to express myself, is all I'm saying. This is all my response for A&E trying to shut Phil Robertson up. That is my inspiration, he tried to share his love and beliefs, he uses his public position to try to get people to come to his savior, because like me, he has felt the love and mercy that comes from believing in Jesus Christ.

Creation

There is something about the night sky for me. Driving home, late, while bright moonlight tries to peek behind black, bleak clouds. This is where my thoughts become the clearest, deepest, and most sure. Tonight, as I drove into the night, streetlights and a paved road helping to guide my way the creation of human beings pressed on my mind. The vastness of the night sky brought the scope of creation into my mind, as I began, tonight, to think about what separates human beings from other animals.

I thought about the other creatures of the world, most of which are faster and fiercer than we are. They have better hearing and sensitivity to their surroundings. The surety of the man's creation hit me as an invisible gust of wind that knocked me to my knees. I was created. There is no way human beings could be this unique of a creature. If you look at all creations as physical beings you'll see that humans can't survive in the world the way animals can. We don't have fur, we don't even have claws. We were created to think, building tools to help create a way for ourselves. We are the some of the weakest creatures, yet we have power over creations larger and more powerful than ourselves.

As I pondered this, I pondered the reasons and the implications. Without the ability to communicate with other human beings, we would not have survived quite so well. I can't name one animal with such advanced methods of communication. Is there an animal with any power remotely close to the ability to read and write? That is by far man's greatest achievement, what most clearly separates us from the other creatures of the earth.

Using hands, minds, and some muscle, we have the internet, houses, tools, gadgets...knowledge building upon past knowledge. We have machines and tools with one thousand times the strength that we possess. We also have a method of communication so clear it is possible (in a way) for the dead to communicate with the living: writing. What other creature can do this? If it was just evolution, then why are we the only ones? What makes us so unique and lucky? It's just too much for me, I cannot accept that this is mere coincidence, for me, this means we were created.

Not using my hands, but other tools I have the power over the lives of other creatures. This is the way I was created, it is the way our creator designed human beings. Many animals rely on us for food and shelter. When we provide them these things, they will come to rely on us for other things, even relief. When my mom accidentally cut my dog's nail a little too deep and I took a rag and held it on her paw until she stopped bleeding, my dog turned to me for relief. She could see the power of humans, I think, in so many ways, animals can see it clearer than we can. She knew I could stop the bleeding, she didn't understand why, but that understanding kept her near me for a few days, possibly until she was sure she wasn't going to be hurt again. They don't understand how we take care of them, but they, unlike us, understand our power, and humbly allow us to exercise it. This, to me, is further proof of how we were created. Only the greatest predators or largest animals could be as arrogant as humans are.

I am blown away by what man can do. We can create such magnificent things, great buildings, skyscrapers, pyramids, etc. We also can communicate with each other, tell our fears, our hopes, our dreams. What I write could reach complete strangers, on the other side of the world. We also have the power of great destruction, massacres, we could bring the stink of death upon all the creatures of the earth.

Some super hero movie says "with great power comes great responsibility," and that is so true. There are so many other people, so many other creatures in this world. Building on the knowledge of humans today and humans of the past, we can create whatever kind of world we would like. I hope I can live up to being human, what an honor to be endowed with such responsibilities.

Frankly, my dear....

I have to write this while it’s still fresh on my mind. A few minutes ago, I felt very angry with people. All sorts of people, right-wing, left-wing…all of us. We spend so much time focusing on things that don’t really matter….(Paula Deen saying the n-word, for example) and not enough time focusing on things that are actually important. There are hate crimes in the world a lot worse than an aging southern woman fitting in with her culture (believe it or not that’s not what inspired this, but I believe it is the most applicable example I could use).

If Paula Deen used that word and then followed it with a lynching, yeah, I’d pay attention, I’d care, but she didn’t. People die every day, through hate crimes. It happens both inside and outside of the United States, but we’re so bogged down with petty issues we don’t see it, recognize it, or take the real actions to eradicate it. We’re too concerned with political correctness or titles to notice the man who hits his wife, or the woman who screams, yells, and emotionally abuses her family. Not only do we all know someone affected by drunk driving, we all know someone who has driven drunk (unless we are incredibly lucky, and if you don’t think you do, you’re probably wrong). People are homeless on the streets of Minneapolis (and yes, they are frequently that way of their own addictions and doing, but still, they are human beings). There are homeless people here. Now, let’s leave the United States.

There are people starving to death every day, adults, children, everything. Some resort to cannibalism because they can’t think of another way to survive. Children (little girls, mostly) are forced to cater to the sexual whims of monsters, and are forced to live their lives abused and in fear. Drugs destroy families. Unemployment leaves hungry mouths.

Wars rage, people steal, and yet, we’re concerned with healthcare systems, language, and sexuality. I’m sorry, but these things seem so unimportant to me in the big picture. I feel like my efforts (or tax money, or even media attention) would be better spent appreciating heroes, like those firefighters that died in Arizona, or fighting wrongs, like the human trafficking so rampant in Africa and Asia. We could feed the hungry, build rehabilitation, but we’re so wrapped up in our “first world problems” (silly video, but it has a point), and our desires to be more comfortable, or to prove we’re not racist, or that we’re accepting that we don’t really help anyone who actually needs help. I do it just as much as anybody else, but tonight, driving home, listening to the radio as they touted these petty issues I really realized something: that’s not who I want to be, and, with Paula Deen for example, I feel like Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, Frankly My Dear, I don’t Give a D***. I really don’t, it’s not important, I care about things that really are important. Things that seem a lot more life-or-death. Things that if I make a difference in them, I’m really going to change the world, I’m not simply going to make it more uptight.

I guess what I’m saying is that I’m really realizing that we, here, in the US, a lot of us, anyway, we don’t know what it’s really like to be harassed. If the worst things are harsh words (and yes, it is a terrible term, but forgiveness is a beautiful thing!), then we’re living pretty well. Instead of trying to control how everyone else makes people’s lives “better” (better, or different?), maybe we should just act ourselves. No more laws, no more taxes, real people, making real differences. Maybe I’ll even take my own advice, it really would be good for me.