Being that I’m working part time at night and desperately trying to sub (somewhat unsuccessfully), I’ve been using the time to record songs I’ve written over the years. You can listen to them at last.fm here. I wrote this a while ago, you can take it for what you will…
The Third Street Freedom Rally Parade happens today
Marching with rifles and pistols
Down along the way
Carrying the second amendment
With them to their graves
American flags wave like
beauty pageant stars
Oh, but down the way another rally meets
Yelling explevities and down with the state
Singing old Lennon songs,
just give peace a chance
Their so young and in love
With the sunset and the shades of the moon
Then the rallies met with cold words exchanged
Partisan politics always was the game
Stop yelling just listen to the river
Stop talking listen to the sound of it all
But me, I’m somewhere in the middle
But me, I just can’t understand
I’m just a poet with a heavy heart
I’m just a man, what can I do?
What can I do?
When everyone stopped yelling all around
I told in my dreams to, oh,
Just sit down
Maybe if you were just to listen
you’d be calm
Stop yelling, and looking for a way
to be right.
See that tear streaming down your cheek
Just keep crying
It’s probably what you need
Better look for roses on the
other side of spring
Scattered six feet above where you are.
But me, I’m can’t just the words
To say exactly how it hurts
The pain, another life that’s lost
The shame, but I still don’t know for
what it’s for
I don’t know what it’s for, for, for
The third street freedom rally
parade happens today
Marching with rifles and pistols
down along the way
Carrying the second amendment
like hawks to their graves
American flags burn
Like the setting of the sun
tonight.
As promised, I am writing my thoughts on gender and sexuality in light of the world we live in today.
I have also realized that I hardly know enough to be writing on the subject. There is one main thing I have realized as I have been looking into this subject over the past few weeks.
The problems within the evangelical church with sexuality and gender are not the root problem. The bigger problem is that Christians have no idea how to interact within modern society. Yesterday I put up this video
Christians are behind the times in the sense that they still believe there is a scientific method. Lee Smolin, in the video above, admits that schools still teach the above model as if we can somehow prove our hypotheses right or wrong. Smolin’s view of science is quite different when he says, “Both the scientific and the democractic processes require reasoning from shared, but incomplete, evidence to limited, but ever expanding, consensus.” The rest of the world has moved away from the idea that there is a “right” and a “wrong.” Christians, whether they agree with this model or not, have to engage with these types of philosophies on a regular basis.
What has this to do with sexuality? Everything! Teens today define sexuality based on consensus. In the overused church metaphor, students are entering into quite serious relationships at very young ages and, oftentimes, Christian teens have been taught in church about “the one.” These teens begin thinking (somewhat inevitably) that this other person they have met is “the one” because they have been taught, mostly by the tradition of their faith communities, that they will “just know” when the right person comes along. All this speech of “the one” and “just knowing” provide horrible advice for teenagers who are often more prone to make decisions based on feelings. Knowing someone is “the one” or “feeling right” about the person or “just knowing” are often based on subjective feelings of rationalization.
Because these students live in a society of consensus, they and their partner move further and further down sexual lines until it becomes normal for them both to consent to sex on a regular basis. Our culture of consensus has led to sex becoming something that is defined first within ourselves and then in negotiation with our partner. Our larger communities have no say in our sex life. Our parents are left out of the picture, as are the leaders in our churches, and it becomes something individualistic between the two in the relationship.
What then is the key?
Perhaps it is the rebuilding of Christian community so that teens do not enter into an island of individualistic love which often ends for them in heartache.
I sat at a light on the way to work and a group of five stood on the corner.
Another sign said, honk if you support prop. 9. Prop 9 is a proposed law that would make it illegal for homosexuals to be married in California.
Coming into work I say hi to one of the girls.
“Did you see the people on the corner?” I ask.
“No,” she said. “What is going on?”
“There are all these people protesting prop. 9. You know the one about homosexuality and legalizing it.”
“Oh. I think it’s dumb,” she said.
“What?”
“That people are so upset about it. I mean, homosexuals are people too. You can’t legislate morality. They are going to be together whether the law says so or not.”
“Who are you going to vote for?” I ask not really responding to what she said.
“Probably Obama,” she said. “I like Obama.”
(UPDATED): Want more on this subject? An interesting line of logic is used here.
