Scary Santorum

I know that the conventional wisdom is that Obama could more easily beat Santorum than Romney, but I found myself sighing in relief when I heard that Romney had won in Michigan and Arizona. Of course I want Obama to win reelection this fall. But what if he was up against Santorum and something went wrong? Romney might be anti-gay. He might espouse many views that are antithetical to my own. But he just doesn’t seem as crazy as Santorum. Santorum is the guy who put down Protestants of the non-evangelical variety. He’s the guy who claims Obama’s theology is bad. Santorum is the guy who says he would die on a hill fighting against marriage equality and contraception because sex should be about procreation. Santorum is the guy who tells women that they should think of their rape babies as gifts from God. The man is one scary, loony bastard. He is locked up in his own limited and self-serving dogma, and he is completely incapable of looking at the world from someone else’s point of view, much less respecting someone else’s point of view. And if he should become the Republican nominee, that would place him within spitting distance of the presidency. I don’t even want to think about that. It’s bad enough that he’s being taken seriously as a primary candidate.

Budding Sexuality

When I was 12, I had this picture on my bedroom wall. I knew I was gay, but I thought Farrah was cool, and I liked Charlie's Angels.

If I could have gotten away with it, I would have had a picture of Shaun Cassidy on my wall back when I was 12. :) I thought Shaun was so sexy and cute, and I loved The Hardy Boys. I can remember looking at a picture of Shaun and Parker Stevenson in home room when I was in the sixth grade and studying the crotch of Shaun's pants. (He always wore very tight jeans.) OMG! I wanted in his pants so bad. LOL

Spiritual truth, if there is any, lies beyond religion and scripture.

I think religions are cultural inflections. If there is a spiritual dimension to life, if there is, then I think the various religions of the world are only ways in which a person might wish to express their experience and understanding of it, but the religion is secondary to that reality--if there is such a reality--and the experience of that reality.

I think people make a mistake when they try to concretize their belief system when they aim to have a deeper appreciation for something that transcends our world.

You can spend a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and Paul thought of God and Jesus. But I believe that what Annie Dillard said is true: Whatever you say about God is untrue, for we can only know creaturely attributes which do not apply to God. So I think that whatever worth we give to the words of these ancient men, it's important to remember that we will never know exactly what they meant, and I believe if there is a spiritual dimension to life, it lies somewhere beyond their words anyway.

Study of the Bible, and trying to find out exactly what ancient people meant when they wrote it can be interesting in an academic sense, but for me, if the Bible has any worth in regards to revealing spiritual truth, it comes from reading it as poetry, not prose, and as something that is open to interpretation, just like any other piece of literature. Only a fool would claim there is one and only one way of reading a novel. How we read a novel, and the reasons certain novels are important to us are deeply personal. Trying to find someone to tell us the "correct" way of reading a novel would kill the experience.

I have no idea what the "correct" way of interpreting the crucificition is, but for me it is a mythological tale about a god who chose to show love toward humanity by being born into the world as a man and experiencing life and death as a human being. The death is brutal because the world this god gave us is brutal, and to have an easy death when so many die painful deaths would have been an easy out. I think this mythological god was telling us even though life can be very harsh, and even though we may not know the reasosn as to why it has to be so harsh, it has value, so much value that the god who created it wanted to experience it right along side us.

Santorum is a rather grotesque anomaly, not natural at all.

Rick Santorum claims he believes in small government. What he means by that is he doesn’t think the government should do very much to help the poor and the middle class. He’s one of those conservatives who thinks we should give tax breaks to the rich and the wealth will magically trickle down to the rest of us. Never mind that we’ve been hearing about supply side economics for over thirty years and there’s no evidence that it works. The rich in this country are doing fine. They’re better than ever. And they’re paying less in taxes now than they have in decades. So where are all these good jobs they’re supposed to produce?

It’s rather hard to believe Santorum actually believes in small government when he starts talking about how he wants to use the law to restrict the private, personal behavior of Americans. He wants to shove his morality down our throats. And he aims to get around our guarantee of religious liberty by calling what he preaches “natural law.” In the history of the world there has never been a more brain dead school of ethics than natural law, or at least the kind of natural law that Santorum talks about. What a proponent of natural law like Santorum claims is natural is often just a reflection of the proponent’s preferences and prejudices. Santorum doesn’t know what comes naturally to me or anyone but himself, and even that is debatable. If you study the various species on this planet, you will find an almost unlimited variety of behaviors. And even if you focus your study on humans, you’ll discover that we are nothing if not unpredictable.

What is natural, what is not? What is advantageous, what is not? It’s a matter of opinion, and there’s generally not a one size fits all answer. We live in a democracy in which public policy and private morality are always being debated. And the cultural consensus as to what is good, acceptable and decent shifts and changes with time. But Santorum would have us believe that it’s all plain and obvious. This dweebish little busybody who likes sweater vests wants to convince us that he has all the answers and that we should start living according to what he thinks is natural. Well, I’m not interested. I think Santorum is a rather grotesque anomaly, not natural at all.

Live Your Dreams While You Can

I regret the things I haven’t done much more than the things I have done. When I was a kid, I listened to the negative opinions of people who didn’t matter. I truncated my dreams and let so much of my life slip by in a foolish attempt to avoid disapproval. I bought into the lie that I would hurt others just by being me.

It’s true that it’s not too late. We can slough off those condemning voices and follow our hearts at any time. Each day that we’re alive and well we have it in us to fight for our freedom. I can be free, but I can no longer be young and free. I can no longer pursue my dreams with the enthusiasm, energy and boundless hope that accompanies youth. I tire much more easily now, and I’m much more aware of how short life is. Twenty years ago I could have walked across this country. I could have sat up half the night drinking and getting to know a boy I had just met, and then made love with him until the break of dawn. I could have moved to a new city every six months, lived in squalid apartments with other young people, and danced even though I don’t have rhythm and sang even though I can’t carry a tune. I could have spent my summers backpacking in the woods, sleeping on the ground, bathing in mountain streams. I could have done so much. But now my ability to endure physical discomfort, pain and exhaustion has been greatly diminished.

All of you young people out there, live your dreams while you can. Don’t listen to those who tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t. You know when someone is trying to limit you for their own sake rather than yours. You know. So don’t listen to them. Go where you need to go. Do what you need to do.

My Three Sons

For those who are too young to remember, My Three Sons was an American sitcom that originally aired in the 1960’s. It was about a widower with three sons still at home. The father’s retired uncle moved in with him after his wife died to help keep the house and to look after the boys while he was at work. I watched the show in syndication in the 70’s and early 80’s, and I remember one episode in which authorities were concerned by the fact the boys didn’t have a female role model. Of course the boys, their father, and Uncle Charlie were insulted by the insinuation that there was something wrong with their family. They felt they were doing okay. Then they realized that the boys did have a feminine role model: Uncle Charlie. This was funny because Uncle Charlie was a bit rough and grumpy, but he did everything that a mother was expected to do during that era. He was home when the boys’ father was at work, he cleaned the house, washed the clothes, did the shopping, cooked, and, when needed, offered sage advice. The authorities were won over; Uncle Charlie was a fine mother figure.

Obviously Uncle Charlie and his nephew weren’t married, but they were raising three boys together, and everyone in America knew that even though the situation was unusual, Rob, Chip and Ernie were not being deprived of anything, certainly not a stable and nurturing home environment. It’s too bad that some still have a hard time accepting that all families don’t look alike when nearly fifty years ago, a sitcom proved in one half hour episode that what kids really need is love and someone to look after them.

Do Fundamentalists Even Fool Themselves?

The older I get the more grateful I am that I never completely bought into fundamentalist dogma. I have been offered their Kool-Aid more times than I can count over the years. When I was growing up, Christian fundamentalism was really the only game I knew. You either believed it or nothing at all. Nevertheless, I remained unsure, and I never tried to convince myself that I was sure. And I never play-acted at being sure. Pretending not to have doubts never made any sense to me.

I have seen what fundamentalist dogma can do to members of my tribe. Many have twisted and contorted their psyches in a desperate attempt to conform to precepts that were not designed for them. Some didn’t survive the ordeal, and others were seriously wounded. But LGBT people are not the only ones who have been harmed. Many claim that falling in with so-called Bible-believing Christians is the best thing that ever happened to them, but you can tell just by looking into their eyes that part of them is gone. They parrot the authorized clichés, but their words sound hollow and disingenuous. And not only do they close themselves off from their true feelings, but many harden themselves toward those who refuse to go along with the program. Some push friends and family members away. Some cut themselves off from their own children. And for what? The illusion that they have all the answers and the mystery of life has been made plain to them. They want to believe that they are special, that they walk with Jesus, that they are the chosen ones, while all the rest of us need to be saved. Do they even fool themselves?