National Coming Out Day

That’s what today is and since I’m not really interested in typing up my whole coming out story again (I think I’ve written that post several times already, in different forms) I’ll just post links to a few articles that I’ve written that I feel should be read by gay people every where. One is about coming out to my parents and the rest are about gay people and their involvement in politics. So of it is flattering, some of it is not. *shrug*

Ignoring things, another skill my mother is a master of

On New Year’s Eve I finally decided that enough was enough, I was going to start this year with a clean slate and as a part of that, I came out to my parents. There were several reactions I could have gotten…most of them were not so good when I imagined them. I psyched myself out for the absolute worst reaction possible; among the things involved where yelling, thrown objects and being disowned.

Gay rights vs. …every other issue.

I don’t know why I do this, but I can’t seem to stop myself.

I have a bone to pick with the liberal gay community.

Normalize or Marginalize: What’s your preference?

This sort of breaks my brain to even think about, but, apparently, there are actually gay people who PREFER to be a marginalized part of society. I can’t even pretend to understand their view point, though I’ve been trying valiantly for the last few hours.

X-Men: It’s okay to be gay…uh…a mutant (okay, this isn’t a perfect metaphor)

I made a comment on my Tumblr account the other day to a friend who had just seen the new X-Men: First Class movie. I told her that the whole X-Men story line was a very poorly concealed “It’s okay to be gay” message. I was later corrected by a friend that told me that, at the time of it’s creation, X-Men was more about racism…which I can believe. However, if you watch the films made in the last 11 years, X-Men, X-Men 2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, (though not Origins as far as I could tell) you will see that the metaphor has already been easily adapted to fit the plight of the modern homosexual.

Pride

Pride, one of the Seven Deadly Sins…if you believe in that sort of thing, which I don’t.

I don’t see anything wrong with having pride in yourself and your accomplishments. I have pride whenever I finish writing a particular good piece of fiction or a blog post that has just the right ratio of snark to facts. I have pride that I got into the school of Journalism, that I’m finally able to go back to college. I still have pride that I got into a prestigious school, based on my writing portfolio, even though I never attended classes at that university.

I take pride in things that I accomplish on my own, things that I’ve worked hard at.

Unfortunately I don’t understand the usage of the word pride that gets tossed around. Like Gay Pride, or Women’s Pride (Yes, these events do exist.)

Fish Out Of Water (2009) Ky Dickens – A Summary/Review

While I don’t think it’s my job to dictate other people’s moral principle’s or the moral principles of their religion I do think that any person who is going to spout off about what their religion says about any particular social or moral practice needs to be well informed and hear about the issue from scholars on all sides of the topic, not just their side, before making any conclusions on what and who their god hates.

(There are several posts linked at the end of this one that go to posts I’ve made about the verses discussed in this documentary)

Here’s hoping you find these interesting.

Can you be Christian and a capitalist.

Just a quick explanation of how you can deal with people like the one at 4 minutes and 30 seconds into this video.

She quotes Matthew 6:24 which says.

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

The issue here is that the Bible clearly states, in 1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Which the video maker mentions.

Love of money is the problem, not money in and of itself. It is perfectly fine to know that you are good at what you do and to expect to be paid to do it. As the Joker said in The Dark Knight “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”

What is is with me and quoting Batman villains to make my point?

What is the difference between “the love of money” and “money”?

I mean, the phrase “love of money”, “loved money”, etc. appear over and over in a derogatory way in the Bible.,

Luke 16:14

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.

Ecclesiastes 5:10

Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless.

If you haven’t read Atlas Shrugged and don’t want to be “spoiled” then don’t read further. However go ahead if you’ve either read the book, or don’t mind a bit of story from part II.

Dagny Taggart leaves Taggart Transcontinental, retiring despite Directive 10-289, she stays away until she hears of a horrible train crash and then she returns to her job. Not because of money, but because she loved what she did. Yes, she did her job to get the most profits for her company, but that  just makes sense. She didn’t love money, though she lived comfortably. She loved doing her job, she loved it more than anything else.

That’s the difference between being rich, making money, and the “love of money”.

But these protester’s would never be able to understand that.

And as an answer to my the title question is this, Capitalism has nothing do with your religion, neither does Socialism.

However, you can’t use the Bible to destroy the ideas of Capitalism, because no where in the Bible does it say that money is evil.