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I was raised Christian (Pentecostal). One Sunday, when I was about 15 years old (in the year 1994 or 1995), I was in church with my mother, ...

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Tweets - April 27th - Love your enemies

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you". Praying for your enemies is a subjugation tactic, and was written by a Church scribe who did not actually know Christ or God.

These things may sound nice, but they are incomplete and overall harmful, especially when justice is not sought after (making right what was made wrong).

Encouraging people to feel certain ways - about anything - good or bad - usually leads to more shame, more judgment, more violence, and certainly more religion. It's better to learn from your feelings, and not hide them, hate them, or be ashamed of them.

Love is not a light switch you flip on and off, especially for someone who has raped you, beat you, or otherwise traumatized you because they were convinced by others to feel certain ways about you. "Loving your enemies" sounds really nice, but it isn't good enough.

Christians have been "loving their enemies" for the last 2000 years, and I still can't twirl down the street without being judged and called a faggot by a lot of them - and don't let me be black at the wrong place and the wrong time.

It's like donating to the poor - it never brings about an end to poverty - it just isn't good enough, and I don't care whose god said it is (though helpful for a moment, it is an overall worthless solution).

Walking with God, I haven't sought out the well-being of those who walk with God. Why would I ask God to do what God is already doing? Walking with God, there is no point in praying for the well-being of those who don't walk with God.

I tried that a little over a decade ago - specifically with gay men in mind, and the response I received was a resounding, "NO!". Shut me up and sat me down in a corner to think about what I'd done for several years. God is equitable.

If I were giving counsel to someone who is getting to know God's kindness firsthand, I would say, "Wait for Yahweh. The Garden of God is faithfulness, human decency, and justice. Do no harm to those who seek to harm you. You will look on with your eyes and see that their portion has been cut short. Just wait. You'll look for them and you won't be able to find them."

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Yeah, I know it's "always" the wrong place and the wrong time to be black in America - but I was quickly writing and referring to reactionary in-your-face racism and oppression rather than systemic oppression.

And all the same goes for the command to "love God with all your heart". It's a harmful idea, and it causes people to lie to themselves about how they really feel about God.

Monday, April 27, 2020

Tweets - April 27th

"Bring to light what is kept in darkness. Make plain what is kept hidden." This was on my mind tonight as the messengers flew overhead. Looks like my battle will be against liars and those who seek to sell a narrative in order to gain and destroy.

I too have a narrative, and it starts and ends with the Garden of God on this Earth. Humanity will be a light in this place. This is the breadth and depth of my desire; this is the value of my life, and our salvation indeed belongs to God.

I am quiet and I walk everywhere with my hands behind my back (figuratively). You see, God is my strength (which is the song of everyone who is permitted to walk with God, everywhere). I can already hear folks whispering and chatting, "He had such potential!! What a waste."

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Tweets - April 19th - Unashamed

I used to often say to heaven, "God is the greatest poet", because of the strange and unique ways God was being revealed to me. It's hard to walk with God and not pick up on this poetic attribute.

Even when the messengers speak, they speak referentially and symbolically - though I don't always understand them. But by doing so, they allow me the freedom to grow, the liberty to think - their approach in dealing with me has been very heuristic.

They don't confine my thinking by telling me what to believe, look for, or consider. They've worked diligently to ensure that they do not set a bad example for me (in the early years, I was very impressionable when it came to them); at the same time they're just being themselves.

Something I've been keeping hidden because I'm not completely sure "why": every night I've sat outside since the end of March, the messengers have flown overhead. No sense of urgency (with all these fires that are burning around us), they have been calmly watching and speaking.

I wait expectantly for God. "All the paths of Yahweh are truth." The Living God who has walked with me has remained faithful, from the very beginning; this was God's pleasure before it was made my own. "All the paths of Yahweh are lovingkindness."

Sometimes I get so excited thinking about the liberty of life and all that we can pursue in this vast place. There are always lessons, always new things to learn; but I'm permitted to live to learn them. The dead cannot learn anything.

I could be brought down to the point of death, even to death, but death would not consume me. Whether afraid or unafraid, God remains faithful and trustworthy (I will never be met with shame).