I recently remembered that, among other things, I’m still grateful for the Heller decision from 2008. Because as long as it stands, the Left still hasn’t quite reduced America to just another slave-nation.
What are you grateful for?
The Internet home for American gay conservatives.
To everyone here may your day be filled with joy and your bellies stuffed with food. Thank y’all for what you do and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Since its thanksgiving we should say what we give thanks for. I am thankful that gays are so shallow that if Hitler had a big enough Willie there would be gay Jews defending him. Otherwise I might have moved back to San Antonio where as long as you have a job you can have an 18yo Hispanic boyfriend.
Not thankful for the 3400 new regulations Bathhouse Barry passed when the media was saying Ferguson is peaceful.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/with-everyone-focused-on-ferguson-obama-quietly-passing-3400-new-regulations-before-thanksgiving_112014
I’m grateful for the gifts from God, including family and friends–and living in what may still be the best country on earth despite the best efforts of lefty politicians and pressies. I’m grateful that I’m solvent, and may well eventually retire without relying on handouts, and can help others along the way.
I’m also thankful for the military and first responders keeping the situation from getting too wild.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Thanks, Gay Patriot staff and commenters for an interesting and reasonably civil blog (unlike others I won’t mention that get too many flame wars in their comments).
After seeing the demonstrators at the Macy’s Parade today, I have come to the conclusion that the left is never happy. They decide that they are miserable, so all others should be unhappy and depressed. What a way to go through life!
I’m thankful that I only have a short while left to endure life in my parents, as I heard what must be at least the fifth utterance in two years of the word “faggot” in their household today. Please note that I’ve heard and read that word used against me before by other people, but only when my own family uses it does it affect me. I’ve said elsewhere that I think words have only as much power as you let them, but when they say it, it’s like a knife to the heart.
No sooner do I actually try to jump back on the Catholic bandwagon, I am left wondering why I should bother, and the misgivings I have with the whole thing come rushing back; namely, how I can worship the god they say will condemn me to an eternity of torment if I don’t deny myself romantic companionship. Forget my uncle’s death, THAT is the root cause of my recent disbelief.
So sell me, folks: tell me how you and my parents can worship the same god and tell me completely different things about how he feels about me. Tell me why I should care about one little Canaanite god that some unwashed Jewish fundamentalists hopped up to “one and only god” status. Tell me why the hell I should worship something illogical and incomprehensible rather than something I can grasp and understand. The names that our ancestors gave to the storms and the oceans and the mountains, to the tangible forces of nature and the realities of human existence: those I can understand. “God” feels like this set of contradictory pictures and stories that don’t fit together. I can understand how continents move and collide, and how mountains rise and fall; I can understand what the ground beneath my feet is made of. I can’t understand why I could go to heaven for wanting to die for another man (something your god says is good), but will go to hell for wanting to hold him and express that love in a physical manner (which some old man in a dress tells me is bad. Your god is silent on the matter; surprising, since he can’t stop talking about anything else).
So convince this poor heathen, then. Bring one more lost sheep into your sub-divided fold. Why should I choose your god, who may or not have a problem with me kissing men (you folks seem a little uncertain about that), over a god (or gods) who don’t give a damn about that? And if I choose your god, which of those little clubs that say “WE worship Him the right way, He loves US the most” should I join? In short: WHY. SHOULD. I. CARE?
I am glad that the food stamp card has limits on bombs.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/alleged-plot-included-bombing-gateway-arch-killing-st-louis-county/article_69ddd938-e763-55c1-9c1c-3306725f941e.html
“The men wanted to acquire two more bombs, the sources said, but could not afford to do it until one suspect’s girlfriend’s Electronic Benefit Transfer card was replenished. “
It would appear that my previous comment got caught by the filter, so here we go (again):
I am thankful that I only have a short amount of time to endure life with my family. They used a certain 6-letter word today; it’s not the first time they have used it. I know I’ve expressed sentiments to the effect of, “Words only have as much power as you give them,” but something about hearing that word from them, and them finding it so amusing, affected me so badly that only know, about 3 hours after the fact, do I trust myself to act and write rationally.
As many of you know, I have been experiencing a period of disbelief, which stems from a number of causes. I have been slowly climbing back onto the Catholic bandwagon, what with the acquaintance of a nice Catholic boy adding fuel to the fire, but today’s incident has pretty well killed my interested in Catholicism, and perhaps in Christianity in general. Right now, I’m having trouble with the idea of worshipping a god that my family thinks hates me. I’m not even sure I want my name anymore, since I kind of hate my parents right now. Maybe that’s juvenile, but there it is.
I don’t understand how loving a man enough to die for him is a good thing, but wanting to physically and sexually express that love is a bad thing. I don’t understand how a personal, benevolent, omnipotent God can permit those who believe He will protect them to die, perhaps losing their faith in Him in their last moments. How can anybody believe that their god killed their children to test their faith? How can anybody consider a god who permits disasters and atrocities because they are “part of the plan” to be “loving” and “personal”? How can I worship a god who let my uncle, his faithful servant, suffer for a decade and then wither to nothing, seemingly without hearing us?
I can understand the movement of continents, the behavior of men and beasts, the lifecycle of stars, the theories about the end of the universe. I can’t understand a god who demands bloodshed and sacrifices, and then a century later says, “I don’t want that anymore.” Your god has too many faces, too many groups saying that their imagining of him and the words they use to worship him with are the “right” way, and everybody else is doing it wrong.
You god is a mess of contradictions to me. How can he be angry and vengeful and loving and forgiving at the same time? How can he take one ethnicity as his special people, and then seemingly revoke that special status from them and become a god for all nations?
Why do I recently have a greater sense of the divine in a forest than in a church? Why have the words I once said with as much faith as anyone turn to ashes in my mouth? Why do the names of dead gods spring more readily to my lips than that of the one I once called the living god?
Consider this a declaration of spiritual free agency. Get me to sign on with your team.
Sean L., I understand your pain, and am sorry that you are going through that.
I am no theologian, but I have a couple of suggestions for your consideration. About God, He is an infinite being, and thus our understanding of Him and His ways are limited. Also, the differences in teachings can be explained by the needs of mankind. The needs of mankind were different in the time of Abraham than they were by the time of Christ, so the teachings applicable to society changed. You’ll note that the Ten Commandments have stayed constant though.
Since mankind has free will, sometimes he will foul up what was first taught, either by a lack of understanding, or willful disobedience. Confusion and ego (and maybe laziness) have probably caused most of the schisms in religions.
As to the reaction of the Catholics who are berating you, they don’t know their own doctrine. The basic expression is “hate the sin, love the sinner” (up to the point of murder and the like). Other religions have the idea in interacting with people that their good qualities should be focused on, not the other qualities.
And not all churches have the feeling of holiness that one would expect. I have been in some cathedrals that are just fancy buildings, while others do have the feeling that one wants in them. I have also heard formulaic rabbis/priests/pastors who are just going through the motions, just as I have heard those to whom the words and actions have deep inner meaning.
I have no suggestions on why suffering like your uncle’s happens. I am bothered by it too.
I don’t have a good close/summary. I shall pray for you, and hope you won’t take it amiss.
Sean L.
You are confusing yourself by taking the Bible literally. God doesn’t get angry, if God the creator exhibited human emotions, It would not be be the Supreme Being. It would mean that there would have to be another greater. While the Catholic Church is beautiful, and was more so when the Tridentine Rite was the norm, but I have found a home in Religious Science (Science of Mind). Try seeing the Bible as allegorical. What does it say to me? For instance, the Jews didn’t waunder around the desert for thirty years because they were lost. It took that long for the ex-slaves from Egypt to die off, so the new generation entering into the Promised Land had nothing with which to compare it. We spend a lot of time and energy waundering in the desert of life looking for what will satisfy soul and body. Jesus hung on his cross for three hours. How many more years will you hang on your cross? For some good common sense advice, read the Book of Proverbs. God is Love and The Law. God does not punish us. We punish ourselves by breaking one or more of the universal laws, the law of cause and effect, the law of recompense (as ye sow, so shall ye reap). The men who wrote the Bible were attempting to explain God and imputed human emotions to a Spiritual Being. As an ex-priest I don’t want to get into explaining the sources (J,E, et. al)of the Bible. I recommend that you read The Science Of Mind, by Dr. Ernest Holmes. Or for an introduction, go to a newstand that sells magazines and buy the current edition of Science Of Mind.
I am thankful that we still have a Constitution, albeit, that it is tattered and torn by the radical left. I am grateful for the people who are standing up for faith and and fight political correctness. I want to see the day when we return to majority rules. The Founding Fathers produced a document that protects the minority from tyranny by the majority. The majority needs to be protected from the tyranny of the minority.
I am thankful for the 4th Amendment. While it has been significantly threatened, without it, our right to keep and bear arms (among others) would have been voided a long time ago.
You don’t need me to persuade you to do something, Sean L.
You need to persuade yourself.
As you and I spoke before, human nature is that we learn least from our triumphs and most from our tragedies. But unfortunately, our ability to recognize the lesson rarely happens at the same time as the tragedy or triumph, and that is where you’re at right now.
So don’t. This may sound like utter heresy, but to a Lutheran like myself, faith is a gift one fails to reject, not one that can be rationally thought through or rationally obtained. You have numerous reasons to reject God now, or even the existence of a God in the first place. You must test each of those hypotheses. You must wallow in unbelief and questioning.
If I may suggest something, try the Book of Job. This was a great help to me during my similar times, not the least of which because Job questioned EVERYTHING. I’d also suggest a reading of St. Augustine — if you can find a good biography of him that also weaves in his theological perspective, great — because I hear from you some of the very things he asked himself and over which he struggled.
Best of luck on your journey, sir.
It’s rare that I wish I could “Like” a comment by NDT, but in this case, I would if I could…
“our ability to recognize the lesson rarely happens at the same time as the tragedy or triumph”
“faith is a gift one fails to reject”
NDT, those were two gems right there. I see my own experiences in those words. Made my day.
Whichever way you go with it, Sean L, please remember: It’s not what “they say” about God (or any other subject) that counts. It’s what *you know* that counts. You have a responsibility to think and decide what you know, then go with that. And if *you know* that your family is stuck obstinately in an error on topics X and Y, then you go “Oh well, that’s sad but it’s Not My Problem.”
I am so *not* about trying to get anyone to sign on with my religious viewpoint. (Which is one part of why I reveal it as little as possible, on the blog.) Only my ethical-political viewpoint 😉