The Bible Supports Same-Gender Marriage

I SCOOPED THIS OFF huffingtonpost.com FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE

Last week, a friend, colleague and wonderful pastor, Rev. Jean Southard, faced the highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) after being accused of violating her ordination vows and the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by presiding at the wedding of two women.
The facts of the case -- that Rev. Southard had performed a marriage for two women -- were not up for debate. Instead, it was Scripture and church polity that the defense, prosecution and commissioners looked to. After two days of deliberation, the court decided that Rev. Southard was innocent of all charges.
So, why is this notable?
In the last 40 years, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement has made huge strides toward full equality and inclusion. As another dear friend and colleague, Elder Michael Adee, puts it, "discrimination against the LGBT community was like a three-legged stool." The first leg classified same-gender love as a mental illness -- until the American Psychiatric Association removed this classification in 1973. The second leg criminalized same-gender love -- until in 1996 the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision struck down these laws. Only one leg of the stool is regarded by many as still standing -- that same-gender love is a sin.
This third leg of the stool is wobbling, ready to fall. The truth is that if there was anything close to a rule against same-gender marriage in the Bible, Rev. Southard would have been found guilty last week, as would the other ministers who have been compelled by their faith to marry same-gender couples and went before her to church court -- and were acquitted.
What the Bible does say is that God has called all creation very good. In other words, God makes all kinds of people and loves the diversity of humankind.
What the Bible does say is that we are not meant to live alone. God creates LGBT people, knowing them in their mothers' wombs, and declares them good. And in Genesis, the Lord said, "it is not good that the man should live alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." The loving relationships and families forged by LGBT people are gifts to them from God because they, just like all humans, are not meant to live alone. And these families of choice that include friends, sometimes, and, more and more, children, are beautiful gifts from God to our communities.
What the Bible does say is that God is love. Out of this love, God enters into covenantal promises with Noah, with Abraham, with Israel, with Jesus' disciples, with the world. More than any other Biblical material dealing with marriage, these loving covenants in Scripture are the foundation for our current understanding of marriage as a long-term commitment between two people to support one another, build families together and up build their communities together.
When we open our eyes to our neighbors, we recognize gay and lesbian couples whose lives bear all the qualities we recognize as marriage. God's love as expressed in the Bible has led us to our present conception of marriage as a bond of loving commitment.
What the Bible does say is that God can help us see new things where we were blind before. For example, God inspires us to use the covenantal pledge of fidelity between two women, Ruth and Naomi, as the second most-read Bible passage at weddings. The first most-read is 1 Corinthians 13, the ode to love which, of course, was not written as a primer for marriage but can serve well as one. When we know same gender couples whose marriages and whose service in our communities epitomize the qualities of love captured by the Apostle Paul, we must stand up for the revelation that God has inspired us to see.
What the Bible does say is that judgment belongs to God. Period. Jesus said it many times: Judge not that ye be not judged. The faithful thing to do according to Scripture is to listen to and to love your neighbor as yourself. We are to examine the log in our own eye long before we have the audacity to point out the speck in the other's eye.
Progressives of faith need not flee from the Bible in order to stand up for the beauty, truth and goodness of love. Let's stand on Scripture -- the examples I have given and more you can supply -- as we knock away the feeble lie claiming that same gender love is a sin. Let's gain strength from the witness of Rev. Southard and the acquittal that upholds the wedding she performed. Let's complete the work needed to flatten the three-legged stool of prejudice against LGBT people. God is giving us this job to do. We sin when we shirk it.

School of thoughts; thot101

The need for change in one's life is not characterised by a loss of identity. We as humans have an edge over other animals, this edge is analytical thinking!! we all have it but each individual has developed theirs to different levels. To function optimally in life, one has got to have a discerning mind that can sort through the rubbles of data thrown at one as a result of life's occurences. one has to analyse and assess every situation which includes how you yourself behave as an individual. life is filled with struggles, what this implies simply is that every situation in life is a struggle and your role as an individual is to strive and contend, eventually coming out of these situations a better person. putting this mentality in the context of character formation, society expects that we behave in a morally upright way hence the struggle is the effort you put into correcting your misdemeanors, vices, and whatever shortcomings in your character. Since the beginning of the recording of history, nobody has ever manifested half the capacity and potentials they had in them yet we celebrate lots of them as legends, imagine the prospects of manifesting more. Never stop striving for perfection, let 'ever restlessly forward' be your watch word

The Best of Wikileaks' Qaddafi Dirt

How crazy is hopefully-soon-to-be-deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi? Why don't we check Wikileaks to find out? (Spoiler alert: He is pretty crazy.)

Wikileaks, the secrets-sharing website that began to release a huge cache of classified diplomatic cables last year, has several messages about Qaddafi and Libya. As, we guess, some kind of retrospective of corruption, despotism and derangement, both The New York Times and ABC News combed through the state department's Qaddafi-related cables, trying to flesh out our picture of Qaddafi's regime. And, wow! It's pretty awful. Obviously, there is some charmingly flamboyant eccentricity, as in this now-classic cable:
Qadhafi appears to rely heavily on XXXXXXXXXXXX and reportedly cannot travel with his senior Ukrainian nurse, Galyna XXXXXXXXXXXX. He also appears to have an intense dislike or fear of staying on upper floors, reportedly prefers not to fly over water, and seems to enjoy horse racing and flamenco dancing.
Or, in a cable intended for then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice preparing her for her visit to Libya (emphasis ours):
Muammar al-Qadhafi is notoriously mercurial. He often avoids making eye contact during the initial portion of meetings, and there may be long, uncomfortable periods of silence. Alternatively, he can be an engaging and charming interlocutor, as he was during NEA A/S Welch's meeting on August 14. A self-styled intellectual and philosopher, he has been eagerly anticipating for several years the opportunity to share with you his views on global affairs. We've been told that issues he might raise include Sarkozy's Union for the Mediterranean proposal (which al-Qadhafi opposes), the Georgia conflict, illegal migration (Libya is a key transit country), Iran, Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict (including his "Isratine" one-state solution), and Africa.
But for every "Isratine," there are ten cables about the regime's corruption and brutality. Like this one:
Qadhafi often speaks out publicly against government corruption, but the politically-connected elite has direct access to lucrative business deals. This commercial access can easily be cut off when individuals fall out of favor. The Qadhafi family and other Jamahiriya political favorites profit from being able to manipulate the multi-layered and regularly shifting dynamics of governance mechanisms in Libya. They have strong interests in the oil and gas sector, telecommunications, infrastructure development, hotels, media distribution, and consumer goods distribution. The financial interests of Qadhafi and his key allies present both opportunites and challenges for reform efforts in Libya. Any reform is likely to be cyclical over the long-term.
Or, if that wasn't depressing enough, you can read about Libya's shady arms deals, or the country's attempts to "blackmail" foreign embassies for visas. Or about Qaddafi's kids:
All of the Qadhafi children and favorites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil services subsidiaries. Saif is involved in oil services through One-Nine Petroleum and other Qadhafi family members and associates are believed to have large financial stakes in the Libyan Tamoil oil marketing company based in Europe and Oil Invest.
The kids are of special interest because, as Ambassador Gene Cretz points out in one cable,
the sharp rivalry between the al-Qadhafi children could play an important, if not determinative role, in whether the al-Qadhafi family is able to hold on to power after Muammar al-Qadhafi exits (one way or another) the political scene.
It's looking increasingly likely that Qaddafi will be leaving the political scene, in one way or another. But it also seems unlikely that any of the Qaddafi family will end up holding on to power. And based on those Wikileaks cables, that is very good news.

Judge to Lohan: 'I Don't Care That You're Lindsay Lohan

In a cleavage-baring top and chunky jewelry, Lindsay Lohan reported to court today court for the grand theft of a $2000 necklace. Per usual, the appearance was livestreamed on TMZ. The judge announced that if Lindsay Lohan accepts a plea bargain—as her lawyer has said she'd like to do—it will have to include jail time. "If you plead in front of me, you are going to jail, period. If the case settles here, you will go to jail," Judge Keith Schwartz said. Worrying about whether the ruined starlet would become a "repeat offender," he asked for "additional psychological information" and made his lack of interest in LiLo's celebrity clear:

There are things you need to understand. I've never met you, you've never met me outside of this court to my knowledge. I don't care that you're Lindsay Lohan

Ironically speaking

Life starts with us all yearning for perfection but as years go by and the reality of things set in, we start to desire the normalty of our earlier years. If the eventuality has been decided already, what is the point of our existence then?
Two sepeate individuals with similar desires and character components, try to achieve similar goals and go about it in similar ways but end up with different outcomes, how? Am still trying to figure out how what doesn't kill you make you stronger, logically i think it will leave you paralysed or terribly scarred. There is no authority on the subject of love so how do we know who's acting right? We keep feigning perfection, we are quick to judge others and we seem to know a better way to have succeeded where others failed, yet as a society we campaign against hypocrisy.
Recent years have witnessed a change in trend from 'dos and donts' to 'haves and have nots', from 'what do you' to 'what's in it for me', etc. Everybody is trying to help me be a better person when in actual fact, they should use my life as a model for healthy existential living standards. They rebuke certain behaviors i portray but the alarming truth is i picked up these behaviors from them.
Growing up has become so intense that family times have diminished. Somewhere down the line, we start to wonder how we grew to be apart.
Relationships that require great efforts to build mutate into marriages and then require great efforts to break up again. Is it possible for anyone to love me more than i love myself? is it possible to love 2 equally? is it possible to love one and be attracted to another? is there more to life than what the eyes can see? a life without these ironies would be like a life without arts

Some real talk

In my own little world where dreams sometimes come true, I've seen my fair share of pain and the healing power of time. I put value in work and play down the hype about ethics cause when no one is watching, we sneak in a few vices.
Ask about my ideals, i call that concept a myth. why? you have to be in the same situation as an individual to understand why they do what they do. I have an ideology though, that is being real. I've learnt that the only one reliable is time, it never pauses. So i do what i can and try to live without regrets but that's impossible because, i learn a better way to have approached situations afterwards. I'm never deterred by my failings, i still strive for perfection. Life would not be worth living if one has overcome all challenge. Pain is a constant element of living hence i don't take joy for granted knowing fully well that sometime later, I'll ache again. This knowledge makes me savor the happy times in my life.
The feeling of victory is not a direct representation of the efforts put in to achieve it. My friends are people who being with, makes me feel good and yes, true friends sometimes betray you but that's not because they are bad people, rather it is because we sometimes have expectations of them that they can't meet up to. when they don't meet these expectations, we are disappointed. The big question is, is disappointment not betrayal?

thoughts,,,,

Sense of direction impaired, feels like I'm groping in darkness. Intentions and actions are not in equity hence a deficit in fulfillment. I've got only one firsthand experience on growing up and I already think there should be a third option, none of the above. It sucks when certainty starts to seem like a fake orgasm all along, but I guess had I known the eventuality all along I wouldn't be bothering, would I? Be good or be good at it? I comfortably satisfy both but they don't certify me. Some people take for granted the good done them because they feel posing that front will make the good keep coming, of course we know the rest of them that just don't think u've done them enough to warrant gratitude at all. In desperation to hear from above, some people stack all their chips on the first voice in their head, others hear a series of voices termed ideas, thereby fulfilling one of their characteristics of being Godlike. This, science never propheced despite its practices being a testament to this power of creation those voices in one's head wield. A devastating self realisation e.g. Discovering you are gay, is way better than self ignorance or indulgences that conflict with the self because from that moment onwards, you will never do that which will discomfort u. Let me be the first to confess to some indecent indulgences, vices, habits and the like that I might have picked up along the course of my life. They all form part of my education or miseducation as the case may be. This exposure to diverse content, and the sifting through to identify that which u deem useful is really what education is about. School, class, and those other things similar to them is just academics. The flaw in the academic system is that it can only shape how u think from without, it can't actually teach u how to think. Ask a million people what the theme of their thoughts are and u will get a million different subject detail. This is the assurance that we will never run out of content as exposure to the different thoughts will provoke other thoughts. Are we still thinking in the 234 side of the world? Since I asked, please indulge me by responding.

Grim n Gray

everybody is using everybody for what they think others are worth
good people keep ending on the victim's list
some babies die before been born and some people die with dreams unfulfilled
15 year old mothers, congested juvenile homes
parents take out their frustration on their kids, domestic violence
potentials and capacity have become secondary requisite for placement
cutting corners is the new found formular for succeeding
the custodians of our survival as a race prove uncapable
i'm in despair and i look around for hope to help strengthen my faith
but all i see is reasons to compromise my principle
Nature's gift of continuity is abused by man's habit of depletion
they charge us not to give in but no end is in sight
the television is the new recruitment tool for their army of zombies
objectivity is going extinct and in its place acceptance is emerging
being outstanding, that used to be a quality that's now labeled unfashionable
the people, we all have gifted minds but no use for them
how can we have heroes when there has been no campaign for a noble course
the labour of our past heroes have gone to a charity of ill will
gratitude is a burden that is avoidable by gratification
money is the new yardstick for success in our society as well as in church
the clergy is a mason that never worked in construction
the scenario is grim like a scene from sodom
the floor beneath me trembles as the army of anarchy approaches
this is socio-political warfare and we both, you and i are in the frontline

20 what?

I can't shout, its 2011 and woofers amplify the voice better. We talk of change like its a stage or a moment when what it really is is a process, a period of failing but persisting at changing the way we behave, react to situations, and generally comport ourselves as individuals, personalities, or organisations. When we talk about this change, we should bear in mind that an engine that's not broken doesn't need fixing. Before we go about fixing it(if it is broken), we first diagnose where the problem is before we embark on fixing. Diagnosing the problem leads to knowing what the theme for change is. In the human personality perspective, it is knowing what portion of our character component we need to correct as a result of the fact that we are not satisfied with the response we've gotten on the subject from people or other media by which we undertake our self assessments as individuals. To ignore the negative response or result of the other medium of assessment is to remain stagnant and handicapped in some situations whichever way we choose to look at it from. We are not preaching acceptance or validation from others, we are just saying since you can't see yourself and we can, since I can't see myself and you can, your/my objective judgement(I.e. void of sentiment) would be a valuable source of data collection for my self assessment. That is not to say that you should not take a critical personal analysis of the feedback we are getting before discarding or basing the need for change on this data. In essence, that 'I don't give a hoot' attitude, we off'd that a while ago, if you're still on that then you need a change of calendar.........