some comments:
You know, while I was working for Sky News Ireland I was despached to Rome to cover Pope John Pauls funeral. Whilst I was there we interviewed a lot of gay men and women who waited in line for over 12 hours to see the pontiff laid to rest, rainbow flags flying.... and when asked why, despite the popes dismissal of their rights, would they want to see him the all replied the same. "We loved him even though he couldn't love us"...
Some where along the line God got hijacked by religion and religion got hijacked by bigots...
The essence of all human difference issues is that stupid idea we have to understand it all, so in this case, if a person cant understand homosexuality, than it's bad ... when the truth is that everything is not ment to be understood by everyone... the thing is too just accept the fact, because either way the fact is what it is and that will never ever change....
...somewhere in history religion really seems to have diverted from the beautiful potential it had for positive change and reformation. Somewhere along the lines it turned from a mechanism that could have been used for enrichment, into a mechanism utilized to deliver hatred under the guise of faith....
I was raised in a religious cult (Jehovah's Witnesses), and was taught to abhor and fear homosexuality... and that gays were going to be destroyed in a literal "Armageddon". I have since left that way of life, and have learned differently. I had to lose my friends and family in the process, but it was worth it. Everyone deserves love and life, not just the people who profess one God over another....
I mesmerized by it. I think it's moving because of the juxtaposition of "hate" speech with images of gay people who are happy, well-adjusted, loving one another and living beautiful lives on their own terms....
There is also the "ugliness" of those that claim to speak for god juxtaposed against the beauty of god as revealed in nature.
I enjoy how you juxtapose the beauty of life/living with the harshness of a person's rhetoric/point of view. Amazing how some believe 'they are sooooooooooo right' about their point of view when really, its simply an opinion. I'm tired of people who choose to cast stones of judgment toward other precious citizens. They are really revealing their cold hearts, prejudice and unwillingness to love their neighbor as themselves....
Almost daily when I hear similar bigoted comments on tv, I get filled with rage and despair. Its really not fun to say the least. But while watching this video I remain calm, despite the horrible words. The visuals show the truth that I usually forget at that moment. When confronted with hate, I can always just remember the good and joyful things in my life and be more at peace.
Jehovah's Witnesses are not a religious cult. People are not taught to fear and abhor homosexuality. They are taught that it is unnatural.
ReplyDeleteLeaving the religion does not change that.
You can have love and life by following God's ways.
Jehovah's Witnesses meet many others' definition of a cult, incl. this poster's (see for instance H. Wayne House, Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements, 1992).
ReplyDeleteIf you listen to the video, there is plenty of hatred expressed, calling people abominations, calling gays abominations worse than terrorists.
I have nothing to say about how you follow a god's ways all you want, so long as you don't interfere with the lives of people who don't follow that god—e.g. by refusing to recognizing or otherwise being intolerant of their families and relationships.