Questions explored in this interview include,
1) How can Equality spread?
2) Can Catholic teachings on Sex adapt?
3) How do we take effective political action now?
4) “Equality is Civil Rights,” is the perceived racial divide real?
I'd also like to mention that we don't just suffer religiously. Even if you're not religious/ceased to be religious, you can still be mortified by the messaging you receive.
At one time someone remarked that people like me had a "defect", because failure to desire relationships that naturally procreate was some genetic screw-up. A constant misleading/misreading of biological literature is used to make even the non-religious feel guilty. For some time that remark made me feel inferior because we had been given the notion that the value of our existence is in extending the stay of our species in this planet, yet that is just some arbitrary assignment of value to natural occurrences that don't give a damn or even recognize the human concept of "purpose".
I've been seeing some gay kids from Hialeah, with their embellished buzz cuts and that flirtatious swagger, and it gives me hope. I want to work so that every kid and young gay person can have that self-esteem and sense of pride and potential in their lives.
P.S. If only I had a father Geoff back in catechism instead of those dour nuns dictating faster than I could write, perhaps I would have been more driven in my First Communion besides the glee of getting some gifts. I'm sure those nuns meant well, and I've got too much a soft spot for nuns to hold on to grudges. I mean, they made me read Virgil's atrocious Aeneid and I still forgive them.
Fr. Geoff, Lucrece's outrageous attacks on the Aeneid aside, I will say there's definitely a point regarding the fact that bigotry doesn't need God or the Bible. False science like false religion can justify almost anything. The Nazi's showed that, and millions of people, including Jews, Gypsies and LGBT paid the price.
4 comments:
I'd also like to mention that we don't just suffer religiously. Even if you're not religious/ceased to be religious, you can still be mortified by the messaging you receive.
At one time someone remarked that people like me had a "defect", because failure to desire relationships that naturally procreate was some genetic screw-up. A constant misleading/misreading of biological literature is used to make even the non-religious feel guilty. For some time that remark made me feel inferior because we had been given the notion that the value of our existence is in extending the stay of our species in this planet, yet that is just some arbitrary assignment of value to natural occurrences that don't give a damn or even recognize the human concept of "purpose".
I've been seeing some gay kids from Hialeah, with their embellished buzz cuts and that flirtatious swagger, and it gives me hope. I want to work so that every kid and young gay person can have that self-esteem and sense of pride and potential in their lives.
P.S. If only I had a father Geoff back in catechism instead of those dour nuns dictating faster than I could write, perhaps I would have been more driven in my First Communion besides the glee of getting some gifts. I'm sure those nuns meant well, and I've got too much a soft spot for nuns to hold on to grudges. I mean, they made me read Virgil's atrocious Aeneid and I still forgive them.
Fr. Geoff, Lucrece's outrageous attacks on the Aeneid aside, I will say there's definitely a point regarding the fact that bigotry doesn't need God or the Bible. False science like false religion can justify almost anything. The Nazi's showed that, and millions of people, including Jews, Gypsies and LGBT paid the price.
Also Fr. Geoff, thanks for the videos. Truly uplifting. You must deliver one heck of a sermon. The website redesign looks great.
I admire your chutzpah. Mexican Pentecostals call it cojones.
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