I understand. I grew up quite the traditionalist. When I went to college I met my first gay friend (everyone was in the closet in those days). I learned a lot from him, about how it's not a choice, etc. He was very comfortable in his own skin for that era. I guess in a way, he was ahead of his time.
I understand. I grew up quite the traditionalist. When I went to college I met my first gay friend (everyone was in the closet in those days). I learned a lot from him, about how it's not a choice, etc. He was very comfortable in his own skin for that era. I guess in a way, he was ahead of his time.
I look at the other stuff the same way I look at things like open marriages or a promiscuous lifestyle. Not to compare them with that, but instead just as something that isn't in my nature.
For me, morals aren't established by sexual identity or lifestyle, they're established by how we treat one another. If someone has a freewheeling sex life, or is bi, or whatever, and they treat other people well, then, I don't care. If they lead a lifestyle like that but it's hidden and they claim some kind of higher moral authority, like many Republicans do, that is a high moral crime to me.
One of the reasons I was turned off by the church is the high incidence of moral depravity on the part of priests, and how they were protected for years by the Vatican. The same thing happened in the Baptist church. To me, there is great immorality when an institution screams for piety but allows these things to happen without major consequences. There have been consequences lately, but it's been forced upon them from the outside. I'm now attending an Episcopal church whose reverend is a woman, and she's pretty fantastic. She also has a great singing voice, which is nice for those kinds of services.
If it's any comfort, the morals weren't better when the Christian church began. In those days, they worried more about things like incest, which seems to have been fairly routine those days. So, slowly, progress has been made! :-)
I understand. I grew up quite the traditionalist. When I went to college I met my first gay friend (everyone was in the closet in those days). I learned a lot from him, about how it's not a choice, etc. He was very comfortable in his own skin for that era. I guess in a way, he was ahead of his time.
I look at the other stuff the same way I look at things like open marriages or a promiscuous lifestyle. Not to compare them with that, but instead just as something that isn't in my nature.
For me, morals aren't established by sexual identity or lifestyle, they're established by how we treat one another. If someone has a freewheeling sex life, or is bi, or whatever, and they treat other people well, then, I don't care. If they lead a lifestyle like that but it's hidden and they claim some kind of higher moral authority, like many Republicans do, that is a high moral crime to me.
One of the reasons I was turned off by the church is the high incidence of moral depravity on the part of priests, and how they were protected for years by the Vatican. The same thing happened in the Baptist church. To me, there is great immorality when an institution screams for piety but allows these things to happen without major consequences. There have been consequences lately, but it's been forced upon them from the outside. I'm now attending an Episcopal church whose reverend is a woman, and she's pretty fantastic. She also has a great singing voice, which is nice for those kinds of services.
If it's any comfort, the morals weren't better when the Christian church began. In those days, they worried more about things like incest, which seems to have been fairly routine those days. So, slowly, progress has been made! :-)