I was once told that a mind was much like a parachute. It’s not worth shit unless it can open. My life experience has shown me that this is a very true statement.

Stop for a moment and think about all the damage the world has had raged upon it due to simpletons. People that can not think beyond what they have been told to think. Yes this is much like the current day republican party. If you just said ‘here he goes on politics’ you are wrong. But I am going to use an example from day-to-day events that we all should be able to refer to.

Right here in Connecticut, our own Senator Joe Lieberman has been accused of following whatever the Republicans want him to do. All of the Republicans are expected to pull the party line no matter what it is. If they don’t they will most assuredly lose the funding provided by the national party come election time. One party will always slam the other party no matter what the issue. Then a few of them will step out as an individual that was willing to cross the isle and negotiate a bipartisan agreement. Are these people that have experienced an epiphany of open-mindedness, or did they have an open mind all along but were afraid to show it in public?

Any conversation along these lines would be grossly missing a major point we all deal with if I neglected to talk about the church. Now I must say that there are some churches that are coming around more and more as there have been some congregations on our side of the gay issue all along. But unfortunately they are very few in number when one considers how many stand against us. There are people that live with hate filled hearts when it come to acceptance of gays all because it’s against God’s word. The Bible tells them so. Or does it?

It is the opinion of many a learned scholar that it does not. They will jump on Leviticus saying God said “if a man lay with a man as with a woman it is an abomination.” They stop short of preaching that the same passage says it is a sin to mix wool with cotton. Do they condemn the fashion industry? No. (They actually watch the TLC programs and secretly cheer for the gay guy!!!)

Leviticus also says that if a child were to disrespect or disobey the parents the child shall be stoned to death. Shit, I don’t know about you, but I would not be here if that one was followed. The fact is that many of the Bible’s passages are followed not word for word but word by word. By this I mean that some people study the individual meaning sentence by sentence and missing the overall lesson that we are supposed to be taking from the story. This is also because most people do not understand that there is a concept of interpreting old manuscripts based on a critical historical interpretation of the words being used. Let me explain.

Back in the 1940s if a kid came home ranting to his mother, “Mom! You should see the cabinet in Johnny’s mother’s kitchen. It’s really cool inside.” That kid was most likely talking about an ice chest. The forerunner of our refrigerator. If a kid came home today and said the EXACT SAME WORDS, it would be taken as talking about a new set of kitchen cabinets with some kind of fancy pull-out shelves or something. Same words, completely different meaning. Back in the day when Jesus was on planet, abomination meant ‘something dirty.’ Today it is used by the over zealots as ‘something that would make God puke.’  

I am proudly ashamed to tell you I was a homophobe growing up. I was as closed-minded as was expected for a Catholic boy. Proudly ashamed because people I have met throughout my life have helped me open my mind and learn to be myself. This has taken many people but I never have taken the time to say thank you. So, to all of you, thank you from the bottom of my soul. I am challenging you all to work this year at helping those who would put us down to open their minds to the truth. Equal means equal and we are all God’s children.