Christianity

Just a little warning I am gonna rant a bit. It has been common knowledge that I have always been a little left of right it my values and views which usually doesn't coincide well with Christianity, but I call myself a christian and I try desperately to live a christian life. To do what the Lord would have me do. To treat others with the love that Christ commands me too. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 we are told of three gifts given to us by God; And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. So here lies the problem for me. Granted we live in a broken world, but must we in the name of Christianity break it further? The gay community wishes to be married legally, to raise their children like heterosexual couples do as married parents. What, I ask you is the problem here? Yeah, I know what the Bible says regarding homosexuality, but like I said, this world is broken and no matter what the church wants this matter is not going away things change and like so many other values that have seen crumble away in time the gay community will get what they ask for as long as they are willing to fight for it. I remember when living together without the confines of marriage was considered the most evil of sin and now it is common practice no one even thinks anything of it anymore. Who am I to stand in their way and why in the name of Christ would I protest a life style. Why in the name of Christ would I stand on a street corner and profess that the God of love, the God who gave his own precious son to die for me so I can live in the mercy and grace of a love so incomprehensible, could hate, or cast out, or despise, or any other hateful thing a group of people who want only to legitimize the union they long for. I find it almost laughable that so many of us are so afraid of commitment that we run and hide from it confines and here is a group of people who want so desperately to commit to one another and they cant. Why not stay out of it and let the Lord judge for it is he that makes the final call. We all go before him in the end. Having said that I am having a hard time with the gay community infiltrating church services and standing outside churches and temples protesting Christianity, or maybe more correctly the church. One act of hate in retaliation for another isn't right either. There is no more eye for an eye, nor tooth for a tooth. That is old testament law and we live under a new covenant. I can only stand up for myself, so I vow only to love in the Name of Christ and even though there are things I don't personally believe in I will never spout hate in the name of Christ and it is my personal mission that when I here hate spoken in the name of my Savior I will speak up loudly and remind them that we serve a God of love not hate and that he wishes all to be saved and no one to perish. I will remember the greatest of these is love and I will not judge. And I will pray that it starts with one and then another and another and soon the word Christian will again be a sweet word, a word that speaks only love and it will never again be a word of hate.

The Color Purple

I was 21 the first time I read The Color Purple. I picked up a copy at the local Safeway, started reading and didn't quit until the last page was turned. Ceilie, what a woman you are. Next came the movie which I have seen a time or two and now, in just a few short months I will see it on stage, set to music. A full circle moment. I think I may have to revisit the prose just to remind myself of the beauty of Alice Walker's words. The story she tangles up in the emotions of my mind. The relationships, good, bad, ugly, implied. I can't wait to see the rise of this woman on stage. You go Ms. Celie, you go!!!