The Wrecking Ball of Intolerance

We, as members of the human race want to be loved, heard, understood, and accepted.  How does intolerance kill?  Each time you reject someone, you kill a bit of their soul.  Those being rejected try not to care, yet they do care, they care a whole awful lot.  Intolerance is hate.  Intolerance is the equivalent of a wrecking ball, swinging through the lives of all those around the intolerant.  Smashing beyond recognition, everything in its path; splintering beyond repair, scattering bits to the wind.  Intolerance is abuse, hatred, anger, and most certainly not from God.

My heart is weeping today.  I can almost literally feel it seeping within me, dripping sadness.  I am hurting because I learned this week of the loss of two bright souls, who touched the lives of so many.  I need to say something, and if I can help even one person, it will be worth having written this.  Both of these  people happened to be gay.  They were abandoned by those around them; by family and friends, who claimed to love them.  Why can the religious not leave judgment to God?

Some time ago, I posted a link on my Facebook wall about the BSA and its stance on gays..  It is long past the time to do the right thing.  As I said on my Facebook post, a boy begins scouts when he is 8 years old, or younger.  He earns his Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos.  He learns a great deal, he enjoys the program, and moves into Boy Scouts.  As he grows into adolescence (or even earlier), he comes to the realization that he is gay.  He finds himself invested in an organization that rejects him.

What is such a young man to do?  Should he throw out the achievements he has earned thus far?  Should he hide the truth?  He is stuck in an impossible situation. If you are heterosexual, how do you know it?  It's just something you are.  You can't change it.  You are who you are.  Every gay person I know feels exactly this way, and yet they are told by society, religious leaders, parents, friends, and even prophets that they are unacceptable.  Many are literally rejected by family and friends, thrown out, shunned, and banished.  How can someone claim to believe in and worship God and Christ and treat people this way?

Some of my Christian friends made negative comments about homosexuals on Facebook.  One of them actually stated that we must protect our children from homosexuals.  One common mantra was "love the sinner, hate the sin".  I cannot see hate and love existing in the same heart at the same time, directed at the same person.  You either love them or you don't.  It makes me sad, and heartsick, to see friends of mine treat other human beings in such a manner.  I have a number of gay friends and I would trust them with my kids over many other people who are heterosexual.

If you get nothing else from this post, understand this:  Being gay is not a flaw, nor is it an indicator of whether a person is of high moral character or not.  Personally, I think judging others and gossiping is one of the largest indicators of lack of moral character.  A person's ability to love and help those around him is an enormous clue to the nature of their heart.

These two lives, cut short, were filled with anguish.  Not because they were gay, but because they would never be accepted by those they loved the most.  They lived good lives, they loved, they smiled, they laughed, they achieved, they created, and they cried.  Behind all of this, was a deep gash, cut in their flesh, by those who supposedly loved them.

To anyone reading this, it's not too late.  Go to those you have harmed.  Hold them tight.  Wrap them in the arms of your love.  Think deeply about how Christ would treat them; go and do the same.  Do you really want those you have rejected to die with that ache in their heart?

Please stop the intolerance.  Go now, pick up the phone and make a call.  Go to them, and love.  You never know when death will visit.  Don't let it be you that waited too long.