It was a rainy, cloudy afternoon today. I find rain to be a real treat down here in Colorado Springs. Mainly because I grew up in Ketchikan where an average yearly rainfall was measured in feet instead of inches. It has been in the 80's and 90's for the past week so it was a bit of a relief when the clouds rolled in.
As often happens when there is a weather change my mood changed as well. This time I was thrown into a pensive mood. I decided to go for a walk downtown. I wound up at the East Coast Delicatessan, one of my favorite joints. It was there as I was helping myself to some potato salad that I realized suddenly: Fundamental Christianity no longer exists in the United States and the abomination that sits in its place Civil-Christianity will soon be dead and buried.
I always thought that it would be my people who put the final nail in the coffin of corrupt psuedo-christian civil religion. However in my cynical state I never thought I would live to see it. In the end it came down to one inescapable reality: It really is US vs. THEM. And really when thought out it comes down to the Religious Reich's supposed "right" to continue to denigrate and persecute my people, and our right to say, "No we're not going to put up with that anymore"
Many gay people like to point the 1968 Stonewall Riots as the watershed moment in our collective history. However I see Stonewall as a mostly symptomatic reaction of any oppressed people group. Eventually all persecuted people reach a point where they have had enough, have nothing else to lose, and will rebel regardless of the consequences. American history is replete with such examples. This is just and right; no one rights should be trampled just to satisfy the lust others have for political power.
But as I said earlier I believe that civil Christianity is on its way out of the American Political landscape, the sooner the better. However don't get me wrong, actual real Christianity will remain vibrant and a part of the American cultural ethos just as it always has. This is also just and right in my opinion. The trouble with civil religion (of all types) is that it commits adultery with the government. The result is a bastardization of religious beliefs. Consequently you have the incongruous nature of Conservative Christianity, which teaches "charity only inasmuch as you get off your lazy tax-sucking welfare ass you unwed hussy!"
Full gay acceptance is an idea who's time may have finally come. There will of course be the usually screeching histrionics, gnashing of teeth and grasping at straws but I would pay them no mind. They are merely the death throes of moral cowards.
-Trevor
As often happens when there is a weather change my mood changed as well. This time I was thrown into a pensive mood. I decided to go for a walk downtown. I wound up at the East Coast Delicatessan, one of my favorite joints. It was there as I was helping myself to some potato salad that I realized suddenly: Fundamental Christianity no longer exists in the United States and the abomination that sits in its place Civil-Christianity will soon be dead and buried.
I always thought that it would be my people who put the final nail in the coffin of corrupt psuedo-christian civil religion. However in my cynical state I never thought I would live to see it. In the end it came down to one inescapable reality: It really is US vs. THEM. And really when thought out it comes down to the Religious Reich's supposed "right" to continue to denigrate and persecute my people, and our right to say, "No we're not going to put up with that anymore"
Many gay people like to point the 1968 Stonewall Riots as the watershed moment in our collective history. However I see Stonewall as a mostly symptomatic reaction of any oppressed people group. Eventually all persecuted people reach a point where they have had enough, have nothing else to lose, and will rebel regardless of the consequences. American history is replete with such examples. This is just and right; no one rights should be trampled just to satisfy the lust others have for political power.
But as I said earlier I believe that civil Christianity is on its way out of the American Political landscape, the sooner the better. However don't get me wrong, actual real Christianity will remain vibrant and a part of the American cultural ethos just as it always has. This is also just and right in my opinion. The trouble with civil religion (of all types) is that it commits adultery with the government. The result is a bastardization of religious beliefs. Consequently you have the incongruous nature of Conservative Christianity, which teaches "charity only inasmuch as you get off your lazy tax-sucking welfare ass you unwed hussy!"
Full gay acceptance is an idea who's time may have finally come. There will of course be the usually screeching histrionics, gnashing of teeth and grasping at straws but I would pay them no mind. They are merely the death throes of moral cowards.
-Trevor
