Lord have mercy upon us!
Snark, I am going to assume you are going to be drawn back to this thread. Don’t you dare leave! You’ve posted your views and gotten shot down for them, and your personal problems, which maybe should never have been admitted in the first place, have taken center spotlight here. Now, be a man and deal with them.
First, Satan used a bit of tough love on you. Read his post again, and listen to what he’s saying to you.
You are bisexual. You find Vanilla attractive, and men too. And you’ve repressed even the idea of fantasizing about sex with men. You’re messing with your own psyche.
There’s an old rule that says, when you’re in such a bind that you need to choose between sins, choose the lesser sin. I’m sorry to say it, but you’re in that bind.
Your other psychological problems have not been brought up in recent months, and I regret pointing them out, but you know very well, or ought to, that trying to juggle your sexuality and your faith is going to put a lot of burden on the integrity of your psyche. And you don’t need that.
You have every right to believe as you choose and to vote as you choose. However, I trust that you, conflicted as you are, can still see the logic that no one’s religious beliefs should be used as a touchstone for the conduct of others not of their belief system. Sqrl may not morally force nature worship on you by lobbying his legislators to require that you worship the spirits of the created world, and you may not morally force the promulgations of your prophets on him.
And, quite frankly, men who claim to have had revelations of the wrath of God falling on a people who do not enforce some particular standard of morality on all are not prophets of the God of Love in whom I believe. There are three options here:
[li]I have deluded myself into thinking that God loves everyone and does not desire anyone to perish, and is not out to judge people for being true to their inner natures, doing the best they can with who they are; or[/li][li]Your prophets are honest men who mistakenly think that God is prepared to condemn America for treating its gay minority as though they were equal citizens and equally loved in his eyes; or[/li][li]Your prophets are pious frauds using their ill-gotten religious power to manipulate others in favor of their prejudices.[/li][li]Needless to say, for the atheists and others, all of the above may be true.[/li]
I am going to ask you, Snark, to do something that I feel pressed upon me. Set the works Joseph Smith and his successors gave the world to one side. Sit down with your reading Bible and read the Gospel of John straight through. Then sit back, clear your mind as much as possible, and quietly ask the God you love and are trying to follow to guide you and grant you wisdom to deal with all of this, and the gift of His love.
When you’re done with this, I’m convinced you will go pick up the phone or sign on the computer, contact Vanilla, and have a long talk with her.
Listen to her. With the horrible experiences she went through, she (though at times flighty and with issues of her own to deal with) is singularly well-equipped to deal with a man who loves her and who feels desire for men as well.
For her, that’s a distinct improvement.
And she loves you.
Get your act together. Admit to yourself that God made you as you are. And take a good hard look at who you are, and how you got there.
Then fix what needs fixing, and is within your power. Admit what you can’t fix, and give it over to God. Then forget about it. It’s His problem from then on. And love yourself, with no guilt and no sniveling unworthiness. Most of the rest of us do. Including Satan – as I think you’ll come to see.
You will notice I am not condemning your faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But you have come to a point where you need to look very carefully at what you believe and how it is affecting you. You are acting as though you need to quit this board again. You’ve turned away the woman God gave you, who is quite obviously, even to someone who scarcely knows either of you and has never met you, the perfect woman to help you live out your life as who you are…and for whom you are the perfect man to deal with her own problems.
Get a grip on your own issues. Get your act together.
Then let us who care know how you’re doing.
(And, by the way, you may want to apologize to the men and women of this board who your analogy insulted – not just say, “I was a little snooty, and I’ll try to do better.” Look 'em in the eye, and say, “I was following the leaders of my faith, and I’m sorry that I built an analogy that insulted you.” But by then, you’ll realize that.)
You’re a strong young man, Snark – a lot of people dealing with what you’ve had to cope with would have disintegrated and taken up residence in the catatonic ward of a psychiatric hospital. And that means you have the guts to face what’s messing up your life and deal with it.
Take care of yourself. God loves you. And so do we.
I’ve certainly seen about 500 “yo, you’re GAY!” posts directed towards him at this MB. I think all your post will do is drive him further into his self-loathing. I dislike seeing what appears to be deliberate cruelty excused because someone thinks it’s for someone else’s own good or “they deserve it”. If I saw you IRL tell an unhappy young man that he was a faggot and going to hell and a sick, sick person who is horribly fucked up, I would feel a strong desire to punch you in the nose, regardless of whether you believe it will help him or whether you think he was being arrogant. ::shrug:: Perhaps I am misled and Snark is actually genuinely arrogant and slapping him in the face with his “sins” will help him. But I have my doubts, and I tend to err on the side of compassion.