Friday, May 13, 2011

Too Much Discussion Regarding Gays

The super Christians who frequent "View From the Right" have continued to discuss my tolerance for gays.  Good lord, funny how the word "tolerance" can cause such controversy.   The discussion did help me to clarify my real position on this and other matters.

I often self-censor to avoid offending Christian conservatives, especially family members who are really into religion.  I won't do that any more.  I do not filter my judgment, logic and thought through anyone's "holy scriptures."  I am a member of no religion, including Christianity.  I judge religions by the amount of joy they impart to their followers.  Religions that replace joy, wonder and optimism with fear, loathing and prejudice are to be devoutly ignored.

I admire Carl Jung, a great thinker and psychiatrist who tried to understand religious concepts (like an afterlife) through his own direct experience.  He was wonderfully open-minded about it.  A couple of Jungian quotes:
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.
My stand on gays is easy to understand:  leave them alone.  Do not insult them, taunt them, fire them (on that basis alone), and most certainly, do not beat them up.  Teenage gays have a very high suicide rate, mainly due to bullying from their peers. Don't add to that by your own behavior.  Live and let live.

My personal standard goes even further:  do not ostracize gays, nor deny them kindness, inclusion and friendship, assuming that the only area of difference is their sexual orientation.  I thought the actions of some social conservatives to boycott CPAC over the participation of a gay conservative group were mean and narrow-minded.

As far as religion and gays is concerned, I will say this:  any religion that requires you to hate people you don't know, for things they can't help and who are doing you no harm, is a false religion.



5 comments:

pjm said...

I couldn't agree more. Well stated!

AmPowerBlog said...

But, you're conservative, Stogie. I agree with all you said. It's what's not said that's troublesome. I support traditional marriage, yet I want to be inclusive to gay Americans. My policy positions are well known --- I blogged this topic for almost a year straight --- and I now say leave it to the states to decide, through initiatives preferably. Perhaps you might write a follow up and clarify a little deeper the policy aspects of your comments. And not only that, I can guarantee you that gay radicals do not share your values of tolerance and live and let live. They threw stones at blacks after Prop 8 passed, at an L.A. protest. They're Stalinists.

Stogie said...

Donald, you're right about the radical gays, and it was not them that I was referring to. That's why I said "assuming that their only difference is their sexual orientation." Some gays are great people and some are royal jerks.

kate said...

bonjour Stogie , je suis entièrement de votre avis très sage !

Stogie said...

Kate says she is entirely in agreement with my wise opinion.

Thanks Kate!