how can you call something out in scripture unless it existed before that moment? how can you not look at what is termed a sin and not wonder why a group of people decided to band together against it? why they put it into their belief system as such? how can you not wonder what would have happened had the religion you follow not gained the foothold it did?
how can you not look at how it kept that foothold for so many years through oppression and physical punishment for falling out of line and not see how it continues to further said oppression today, even if not through physical means?
anyway, here's my response that i put up at my own status on facebook as i wanted more than just that person to see it.
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today i had to take a few minutes and remind myself that there are still people out there that believe there is a magical old man in the sky who created this world and created the humans in it in his image and said a bunch of stuff that's wholly contradictory to the message that the general judaeo-christian based religions of the world claim to preach. i had to stop and remind myself that, while i myself and not religious and do not follow any one path of spirituality and believe instead that anything is possible, there are some people so stuck on insisting that things written down hundreds, if not thousands, of years after something supposedly happened are 100% true. i reminded myself that i should not feel anger towards these people, but should instead feel sad for humanity as a whole that people will blindly follow things that were written as a way to control others - to take advantage of their need for community and a belief in something greater than them - and yet they believe at the same time that they are enlightened.
my wish is that the people who still blindly believe in these things would take the time for some self-reflection, to reflect upon those around them and how their beliefs and attitudes affect those people, and that they maybe would try to live fully according to their belief system for a year to truly understand what they follow. i know a number of people who would tell me that they lead 'godly' or 'god-fearing' lives and are good, wholesome, insert-religion-of-choice-here people. these same people would be unable to practice what they preach, and that saddens me. it saddens me to think that they would preach love for all, then add conditions. that they would take words written so long ago in such a different culture and world and apply them to their modern life.
the world has changed. society has changed. i ask that my friends and family think for themselves and reorient their world view or lives as needed - or at least understand why the world does not match up with what you believe it should be. ask yourself if you are following an archaic doctrine that preaches love and acceptance as a front for exclusion, intolerance, and hatred. question if it was written by small-minded people who wanted to remove things from their world that made them uncomfortable.
i accept the differences that we all have - even if those differences are the complete opposite of what i believe, feel, or am. i don't want to force anyone i know to change, i won't stop being friends with you unless our differences become such that i cannot accept the negativity they bring into my life. all i ask is that you take a moment to think, to reflect, to question. we are all supposedly gifted with rational thinking and the ability to not only think for ourselves, but to make our own decisions and to understand consequences and the world around us. please do so - and please remember that, while it's cool you believe in that magic old man in the sky, you might want to think of what people have told you he's supposedly said in that game of telephone that got written down and how the message may have become warped.
this message brought to you by a person condemned by most religions due to being female, but also because she's supposedly a witch, devil spawn, and a sinner for any number of reasons.
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