Blame it on the god of one’s understanding
Again this morning I heard a news report of yet another community whose city council decided to wait to see what the supreme court is going to do regarding future cases considering the rights or limits of rights of members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. When a local church in that community decided to host a safe gathering place for GLBT individuals, especially youth, they got a lot of intimidating verbal threats and hateful graffiti including some swastikas pained on their property. I also heard other news reports about the continuing increase in suicides among school age children. GLBT young people are more likely to experience bullying and to consider or commit suicide.
Those opposing protection for GLBT individual, including youth, often say it is unnatural and opposed by the god of their understanding. It is true that among some religions including those adopting the Old Testament scriptures there are warning against same sex behavior. This warning is actually about the belief that there were a limited number of sperm and one should not waste seeds because one needed laborers. The death rate of mothers and children during childbirth was very high. If a culture wanted to communicate the importance of a behavior they would claim that this is what god demanded. Once a rule is attributed to the god of one’s understanding no amount of new scientific knowledge can alter that rule.
There is another, even more important reason for the opposition to the rights of GLBT individuals. It is the historic “need” of we males to believe that much of our worth is dependent on the myth of being smarter, stronger, more capable than females. This then justifies any and all behavior which helps we males have political, sexual and economic power. As with any plan for oppression, the need is to ensure that all parts of a cultural system conspires to keep women subservient. Thus, there was no right to vote, own land, gain degrees or to possess any of the other tools necessary for independent functioning. In this country the equal rights amendment has yet to be passed. Although gay marriage is now legal that right could be reversed. Many leaders in the Southern Baptist convention recently reaffirmed that God can only talk in a male voice. Roman Catholics have refused to allow females to be priests. Women in the United States still often make less than males performing the same job.
Women in this and other countries have asserted for a long time that rape is not about sex. It is about power. Likewise homophobia is not about who is having sex with whom or who is taking care of whom. It is about power. We men, as a group, have very weak egos. To me fair, many women also have weak egos and attempt to prove their worth through physical appearance, a traditional helpmate role and often more indirect controlling behavior towards their husbands.
Sexism, sexual abuse, homophobia and other forms of oppression have nothing to do with the god of one’s understanding. It has to do with the perceived need to prove one’s worth by holding on to power; by proving one is more powerful than. If two men or two women can take care of each other and children economically, emotionally, and spiritually the argument for the need for traditional male and female roles breaks down. It is, of course, true that one needs a sperm and an egg to have a child. It is very simple to introduce that sperm and egg to each other and to have a female nurture the fetus to birth without a traditional marriage between a male and female.
The natural order of things has been a spurious argument for a very long time. We humans have been about change since the beginning. We affect and are affected by our interaction with the world. It does seems as if we are social beings and function at our best when we are taking care of each other as equals. All scientific studies seem to validate this truth. We ae not defined by our genitalia, our chromosomes or our individuals differences in talents and abilities.
The sexist, homophobic, racist god of one’s understanding needs to be assigned a real job or be cared for in a home for the aged – a museum.
The god of my understanding is one of equal opportunity and equal respect of all people. This god expects us to function as a sacred tribe as part of a sacred universe.
Written October 7, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
Again this morning I heard a news report of yet another community whose city council decided to wait to see what the supreme court is going to do regarding future cases considering the rights or limits of rights of members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. When a local church in that community decided to host a safe gathering place for GLBT individuals, especially youth, they got a lot of intimidating verbal threats and hateful graffiti including some swastikas pained on their property. I also heard other news reports about the continuing increase in suicides among school age children. GLBT young people are more likely to experience bullying and to consider or commit suicide.
Those opposing protection for GLBT individual, including youth, often say it is unnatural and opposed by the god of their understanding. It is true that among some religions including those adopting the Old Testament scriptures there are warning against same sex behavior. This warning is actually about the belief that there were a limited number of sperm and one should not waste seeds because one needed laborers. The death rate of mothers and children during childbirth was very high. If a culture wanted to communicate the importance of a behavior they would claim that this is what god demanded. Once a rule is attributed to the god of one’s understanding no amount of new scientific knowledge can alter that rule.
There is another, even more important reason for the opposition to the rights of GLBT individuals. It is the historic “need” of we males to believe that much of our worth is dependent on the myth of being smarter, stronger, more capable than females. This then justifies any and all behavior which helps we males have political, sexual and economic power. As with any plan for oppression, the need is to ensure that all parts of a cultural system conspires to keep women subservient. Thus, there was no right to vote, own land, gain degrees or to possess any of the other tools necessary for independent functioning. In this country the equal rights amendment has yet to be passed. Although gay marriage is now legal that right could be reversed. Many leaders in the Southern Baptist convention recently reaffirmed that God can only talk in a male voice. Roman Catholics have refused to allow females to be priests. Women in the United States still often make less than males performing the same job.
Women in this and other countries have asserted for a long time that rape is not about sex. It is about power. Likewise homophobia is not about who is having sex with whom or who is taking care of whom. It is about power. We men, as a group, have very weak egos. To me fair, many women also have weak egos and attempt to prove their worth through physical appearance, a traditional helpmate role and often more indirect controlling behavior towards their husbands.
Sexism, sexual abuse, homophobia and other forms of oppression have nothing to do with the god of one’s understanding. It has to do with the perceived need to prove one’s worth by holding on to power; by proving one is more powerful than. If two men or two women can take care of each other and children economically, emotionally, and spiritually the argument for the need for traditional male and female roles breaks down. It is, of course, true that one needs a sperm and an egg to have a child. It is very simple to introduce that sperm and egg to each other and to have a female nurture the fetus to birth without a traditional marriage between a male and female.
The natural order of things has been a spurious argument for a very long time. We humans have been about change since the beginning. We affect and are affected by our interaction with the world. It does seems as if we are social beings and function at our best when we are taking care of each other as equals. All scientific studies seem to validate this truth. We ae not defined by our genitalia, our chromosomes or our individuals differences in talents and abilities.
The sexist, homophobic, racist god of one’s understanding needs to be assigned a real job or be cared for in a home for the aged – a museum.
The god of my understanding is one of equal opportunity and equal respect of all people. This god expects us to function as a sacred tribe as part of a sacred universe.
Written October 7, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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