The 'Suppression' of Homosexuals, Joel Burns

I have often noted (to myself mostly) that the oppression of homosexuals is a unique form of oppression. As a society, and especially in the mid-west, we are still trying to figure out what we think about the morality of homosexuality. In general we refuse to talk about issues of sexuality in any sort of forum that is unbiased and free of political agenda or religious fervor.

Directly or indirectly young gay men and women are forced to keep any and all feelings of homosexuality inside. This is otherwise known as the "closet".

Hence, why in my mind, the oppression of homosexuals is more of a suppression.

This is just so dangerous. Everything about our society that creates a need for the closet has to change. That doesn't mean that you have to agree that homosexuality is "right" or not a sin but it does mean that you hate with all your might any rhetoric, tone, or method that might make a young teenager hang himself in his back yard because "what he feels" is wrong without ever being able to discuss it openly and freely to figure out just what it is that he is feeling.

What conservative right winged evangelicals who openly and loudly call homosexuality evil, wrong, and sin need to stop and think deeply about is how their rhetoric and methods are creating a climate that says bullying is okay and causing young people to think of themselves as evil and wrong. When in fact the very Bible that so many look to to become so confident that homosexuality is a sin says that we are ALL created in the image of God, that Jesus died and was resurrected as a display of how much he loves ALL of humanity, and that each of us (young and old) have the potential and capacity be awesome, even Christ like.

So think hard, think hard about any sort of rhetoric and methodology of preaching that creates bullying of young homosexuals and a climate that makes young people first turn inside and hide, and then eventually escape completely by taking their own lives.

I am only 21, how could I all ready have such a complicated issue like homosexuality figured out to the point that I can deem it with absolute certainty evil and a sin?

But what I do know with the up most certainty from the bottom of my heart is that creating and perpetuating a society that suppresses young people to the point that they are committing suicide at an alarming rate is absolutely positively evil and a sin.

All of these comments were inspired by this clip. This guys is a courageous and brave man to risk his political career to stand up to a terrible climate of suppression plaguing are American society.

And here is great article by Jim Wallis (modern day prophet to some, heretic to others) on his take on bullying and homosexuality.

Soccer Commentating

I have always admired the way English broadcasters announce futbol games. I have often noted how (compared to dull American commentators like my least favorite Chris Collinsoworth) their use or poetic prose and an arsenal of grammar (that never makes it into the daily english of an average american) makes it just so much more enjoyable to listen to.

Maybe it is just that they are English and say bloody hell, brilliant, etc... OR maybe it is them making up for a game that is just as exciting as other sports but just not for ever minute of the ninety it is played. Maybe it is a combination of both.

Nevertheless

I want to expand my grammar and comment on the daily happenings of life like this guy here.

Gordan Drops 26

Gordan dropped 26 points on the Lakers the other night in a pre-season game.

I also came across this picture that captures one of my favorite moments in last years tournament. I remember being terribly nervous for this game thinking how terrible it would be to go out in the first round. Who knew we would find ourselves playing for the national championship?

This is seriously probably the sickest CLEAN come from behind breakaway block I have ever seen.

Bobby Kennedy on Peace.

"God has given us a complicated world in which we sometimes choose between peace and goodness. The only place to find true peace is inside ourselves. It is a product of faith and surrender to God."

-Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Why do the Awesome Die Young?

Why does everybody who is freaken way ahead of their time, prophetic, and really out to change the world get killed (always mysteriously and never without conspiracy)?

MKL, Tupac, JFK, Malcolm X, Bobby Kennedy, etc. I am sure there are hundreds of others I am forgetting.

Anyways have some words of wisdom from one of these folks.

"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly, process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, and quietly building new structures."

-John F. Kennedy Jr.

(Repost) Collusion

Many moons ago I posted this on my blog. I post it again here to remind myself that well... I suck. I tell myself every day not to let myself be controlled by things out of my control and better yet not to create or invite conflict. But I do it all the time.

Here is what I posted a long time ago:

Here is a new word for everyone to learn and put into practice...

Collusion:

A conflict where the parties are inviting the very things they're fighting against.

See the word conflict in its essence is "passive", it is something that happens to us. Conflict for example, may be in result of a simple misunderstanding.

On the other hand,

The conflicts that I have noticed in my life have overwhelmingly not been conflict at all, and instead I have invited the very thing that I find myself frustrated with, fighting against, or arguing at.

Step back from your life and see what you find of the conflicts in your life. Are they conflicts or really collusion?

Doesn't the solution for conflict totally change when we look at it in this light?

Gangs/Tupac Video... Prophetic?

I am taking a senior seminar on Peace, Violence, and Youth. It has been facinating and engaging so far but this week we were assigned to read the book A World of Gangs by John M. Hagedorn. This may be the most interesting and intriguing book I have read in my 3.25 years at Butler. Urban life is terribly interesting to me and the Hagedron does an awesome job of showing the history of gangs, the current state of gangs, and defining what exactly is a gang. He touches on everything from the Irish gang that created in the Chicago Dailey polotical machine to current African American gangs and how they are influenced by hip hop. If you have work in urban setting this would be an invaluable resource or at least you would find it really interesting.

Anyways it reminded me of this video I saw this summer of an interview with Tupac. It is amazing to me how well spoken, articulate, and wise he is on all matters having to do with well... Politics. If you are using the running definition of politics that is the study of who gets what, when, and where.

He is borderline prophetic.