A Pig Ponders Gays, Straights, Adultery and Divorce
As you probably know by now, the Pondering Pig is a conservative, evangelical, Bible-thumping kind of a pig. However, as he thumps the Bible, he often wonders what it says inside, and sometimes actually opens it and reads it. That's why I've come to have some thoughts on the title subjects. Such as...
Why is it that my branch of the church makes such a big fuss about gays? We don't approve of them. We think they're perverted. We think they're...gasp!...SINNERS! Horrible sinners - just like the rest of us.
Sometimes I suspect we get in such a huff about homosexuality because we, as a group, don't practice it. And, as a general rule, we don't discuss adultery and divorce in the church setting because...well,...ahem...
You know what? Jesus never says one word about homosexuality per se. As a sin, it's not even on the radar for him. But what he is REALLY on about, when he does talk about the ways we destroy each other, is A&D - adultery and divorce. And I would go so far as to say that gay or straight, fat or thin, rich or poor, these are evils we are all capable of or guilty of.
I read somewhere that the divorce rate among church-going Christians and the rest of America is exactly the same. No difference. Yet where are the churches making marriage counseling the number one outreach to their own congregations? If your church is doing it, please write in and restore my faith.
Jesus really doesn't like divorce. And adultery - it's a cause or a symptom of a marriage under destruction. I personally expand the definition of adultery to mean the act of lying to and cheating someone who loves and trusts you. Really not a good thing, whether practiced by gays or straights.
I believe God places a very high value on fidelity. "I will sing of your steadfast forever love forever." What are these, mere words? In every sphere of our lives. Doing what you say you're going to do. Committing yourself to one true heart forever. Believe me, kids - that's the way to Paradise. And I'm not okay with the real world. I've already seen it and it sucks. I want Paradise NOW, is that too much to ask?
I only wish I met my dearest Patrushka when I was eighteen, that we had pledged our forever love right then. Believe me, I would gladly forego all the experiences I had on the bitter streets of my youth for one night in her arms.
The Pondering Pig is not a philosophical pig. More of a beatnik poet I guess. I start off writing an intellectual article but the pose gets tedious and out comes the pig's beating heart. I think it was my fellow beatnik poet Stevie Wonder who wrote...
I was born in Little Rock
Had a childhood sweetheart
We were always hand in hand
I wore high-top shoes and shirttails
Susie was in pigtails
I knew I loved her even then
You know my papa disapproved it
My mama boo-hoo-hooed it
But I told them time and time again
Don't you know I was made to love her
Build my world all around her, yeah
Hey, hey, hey
She's been my inspiration
Showed appreciation
For the love I gave her through the years
Like a sweet magnolia tree
My love blossomed tenderly
My life grew sweeter through the years
I was made to love her
I was made to love her
Hey, hey, hey
The Pig of the Sorrow of the World begs compassion for all us poor suckers who never understood we were made to love one person forever, but just have to tough it out.
I really don't know from gays and straights. I know God made us male and female and all that - and it's weird that some of are born or through early experiences get put together differently. I can't grok it, but I know what Jesus is very clear about -- lifelong fidelity to the one you were made to love is the road further for most of us. And living a celibate, God-focused life is the road further for a few of us. But that in-between place goes nowhere for no one, in spite of what the world tells us every minute of the day.
Why is it that my branch of the church makes such a big fuss about gays? We don't approve of them. We think they're perverted. We think they're...gasp!...SINNERS! Horrible sinners - just like the rest of us.
Sometimes I suspect we get in such a huff about homosexuality because we, as a group, don't practice it. And, as a general rule, we don't discuss adultery and divorce in the church setting because...well,...ahem...
You know what? Jesus never says one word about homosexuality per se. As a sin, it's not even on the radar for him. But what he is REALLY on about, when he does talk about the ways we destroy each other, is A&D - adultery and divorce. And I would go so far as to say that gay or straight, fat or thin, rich or poor, these are evils we are all capable of or guilty of.
I read somewhere that the divorce rate among church-going Christians and the rest of America is exactly the same. No difference. Yet where are the churches making marriage counseling the number one outreach to their own congregations? If your church is doing it, please write in and restore my faith.
Jesus really doesn't like divorce. And adultery - it's a cause or a symptom of a marriage under destruction. I personally expand the definition of adultery to mean the act of lying to and cheating someone who loves and trusts you. Really not a good thing, whether practiced by gays or straights.
I believe God places a very high value on fidelity. "I will sing of your steadfast forever love forever." What are these, mere words? In every sphere of our lives. Doing what you say you're going to do. Committing yourself to one true heart forever. Believe me, kids - that's the way to Paradise. And I'm not okay with the real world. I've already seen it and it sucks. I want Paradise NOW, is that too much to ask?
I only wish I met my dearest Patrushka when I was eighteen, that we had pledged our forever love right then. Believe me, I would gladly forego all the experiences I had on the bitter streets of my youth for one night in her arms.
The Pondering Pig is not a philosophical pig. More of a beatnik poet I guess. I start off writing an intellectual article but the pose gets tedious and out comes the pig's beating heart. I think it was my fellow beatnik poet Stevie Wonder who wrote...
I was born in Little Rock
Had a childhood sweetheart
We were always hand in hand
I wore high-top shoes and shirttails
Susie was in pigtails
I knew I loved her even then
You know my papa disapproved it
My mama boo-hoo-hooed it
But I told them time and time again
Don't you know I was made to love her
Build my world all around her, yeah
Hey, hey, hey
She's been my inspiration
Showed appreciation
For the love I gave her through the years
Like a sweet magnolia tree
My love blossomed tenderly
My life grew sweeter through the years
I was made to love her
I was made to love her
Hey, hey, hey
The Pig of the Sorrow of the World begs compassion for all us poor suckers who never understood we were made to love one person forever, but just have to tough it out.
I really don't know from gays and straights. I know God made us male and female and all that - and it's weird that some of are born or through early experiences get put together differently. I can't grok it, but I know what Jesus is very clear about -- lifelong fidelity to the one you were made to love is the road further for most of us. And living a celibate, God-focused life is the road further for a few of us. But that in-between place goes nowhere for no one, in spite of what the world tells us every minute of the day.
Labels: Christianity, Gays and Straights, Meaning of Things
posted by Christopher Newton at 5:07 AM
9 Comments:
How come I agree so completely with almost everything you say? It's almost freaky...
...so, yeah. It's 8:30 am, and you made me cry into my coffee. =) Thank you, and I'm not being sarcastic. Thank you.
That picture of the couple dancing is so beautiful!
Ah, Pondering Pig, you sure bring about a lot of good pondering points here...and I usually shy away from discussions such as these because I'm afraid I might not make myself clear, or leave out an important point and then end up sounding like an idiot, but I think I'll give it a go anyway...I certainly believe in the sanctity of marriage, and I believe that God and Jesus want good marriages for all believers - and everyone else - for that matter. Most people go into their marriages with only the best intentions, but unfortunately people change, they grow apart, some turn violent, some fall in love with other people, the list is endless, you know? For me, and this is only my humble opinion, I don't believe God would want anyone to stay in an unhappy or abusive marriage - if two people have tried their hardest to make things work & have not been able to succeed, then really a divorce is a much better alternative then being unhappy the rest of their lives (how productive can they be if they are truly unhappy??). I think the divorce rate is terribly high, and that's a sad thing for the whole world - it's easy to get married and it's easy to get divorced, but I firmly believe that if something's broke ya darn well better fix it, and if it can't be fixed then you're probably better off without it......ok, now I'll go and ponder if I made myself clear enough, and hopefully didn't sound like an idiot......wish me luck =)
Dear PP - That photo of your parents gaily dancing made my day. I'd just spent hours slogging around in the rain, killing time while my mechanic fixed the brakes on my 22 year old car. The drive home was harrowing with flooded freeways. I got home frazzled and grumbling. But then, I saw you mom and pop and everything changed.
Thanks, Carioca
First - yes, me old pal Carioca gave my big secret away - the pic is of my parente having a gay old time at their 50th wedding anniversary in 1978. May we all be so lucky.
Second, at the risk of sounding like King Kong when he's just spotted a dinosaur - YAAAAG!
Dear Peggi, I have had enuff realistic thinking for one lifetime. IMHO, accepting the world's rules only brings suffering and heartache. I'm sticking to the ideal from here on out. You get heartache anyway of course.
But now that I think of it - what's so realistic about what I would call "the Woody Allen defense"? As in "Oh dear, I just fell in love with Mia's cute teenage daughter! Nothing I can do about it! The heart is a lonely hunter" or whatever stupid thing he said when he walked out on her.
Had he never heard of will power? How did he get all those pictures made?
Here's another option:
"Oh dear, I think I fell in love with someone else. But I'll soon put a stop to that!!! I got kids who love me and I ain't gonna leave them! No Way! No how! Bye bye, sweetie. Hello, marriage counselor."
It's called REPENTANCE!! Get it? (not you, Peggi - I know you get it. This is a strictly rhetorical "get it?") Repentance is a good thing!
It's also, in my male, if piggish, mind, about being a man, a grownup. It's about honor, which is theoretically something men are supposed to care about.
I totally agree that physical abuse is beyond the pale. What is that supposed to be? Tough love? Beating up the one who loves you? If I was God, I would be shooting lightning bolts at every one of those bastards.
Fortunately, Jesus said to all of us adulterers and wife-beating bastards: "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." There's still hope for us.
Thanks Peggi, you don't sound one bit like an idiot. And my daughters will now write in to tell me to stop blustering and harrassing that nice Peggi. They don't like me to shout, even if we're just talking over dinner about a movie or a book we've all read. And I have a feeling I've been shouting.
Dad, will you stop blustering and frightening poor Peggi? There, I've said it.
Interesting post. I'll have to go back and read it again to fully ponder it. There's more to it than "interesting" but I'm tired and I'm going to bed now.
Boy. When you bluster, you bluster good. Maybe that's the gift of writing on a blog. You get to go like crazy and it's okay.
Your words strike my heart. I've been unfaithful in every definition of the word. I've been a drunk and I've been abusive (not physically, but it hurts all the same). I've been all kinds of things I can hardly spell. I've pretty much done it all. Most of all, I've been a sinner. I guess that goes with the territory of life.
While there are specific passages in scripture that deal with individual sins directly, I see too that scripture, old and new alike, continually make "sin" the issue rather than specific sins. So, I guess, the tax evader and the adulterer and the murderer and the junkie as well as the gossip and the vengeful and the arrogant and the selfish and the egotistical... ad infinitum, are all destined to the same fate.
I'm beginning to chase rabbits (is that a sin too?). Time to cool it.
I agree with Senor Pig about realistic thinking. All I can say is that my best thoughts and ideas always got me in trouble. I know I'll be in trouble until I get called home, but I don't wanna make an excuse for it either. I know I'm weak and I know that I fail myself, my family and my God. I don't want to, but I do. I know I'll do something again. What? Who knows?
Maybe what we Christians need, as we come close to the resurrection rememberance this next weekend, is to realize that we're not in charge and that it's not about us. God is faithful all the time. We can't be. We're not him.
We're called to be like Jesus, a hard task for certain. But would God call us to be something we can't be? Gee, wouldn't that be the cosmic joke? Can't win, can't lose.
Wait, ain't that Joseph Heller?
Anyways, when we come to Christ, God takes us wherever we're at. That's obviously not perfect. It's just plain us that he takes.
I have a sister that has a girlfriend. Boy, explain that one to your kids. It used to rankle me to no end. But, in the end, my judgement doesn't count for diddley-squat. Thank goodness. If we just spend out time trying to shoot the gnat out of our brother's or sister's eyes, we end up missing the log in our own.
This is the week of Passover. It's the time of freedom and release; time of joy and sadness; time of promise and time of exile. It's first and foremost a promise from God to his chosen people. He told them to trust him like Abraham trusted him with his son (gee, a recurring theme) and he'd give them the promised land as an inheritance for all time.
Where am I going with this? Ok, fast forward (or reverse maybe) to the word repentance.
God knows we're gonna screw up, sometimes some of us in bigger ways than others. But he also gave us an out with the notion of repentance. It's not a matter of what we do, but more a matter of who we are.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not condoning the sin stuff. No, not for a second. Where I'm headed is to this point.
When we accept Christ, we are testifying to the fact that we're screwed and he's not. Real repentance gains more ground than all the rote prayers and rituals and praise and worship we can come up with. Not to knock people's prayers and traditions. No. Rather, that God comes to us with or without the plan or formula.
Answers? I have none new. Love of spouse or friend or unlikeable scum of the earth requires more than we as individuals can come up with.
The day ebbs and so do I. One last word, pilfered from the Psalms...
Selah
Hey there, Pondering Pig =) I certainly don't feel blustered and harrassed...but I do believe it's important for people to be able to express differing views, as long as it's done respectfully on both sides (which, of course, is what everybody does here) ...perhaps overall I do sound realistic, but that's okay with me...it's the way I've learned to survive in life, and for me it works - it doesn't mean I don't have complete faith and trust in the Lord, quite the contrary. But I do have many ideals, probably we share a lot of the same ones: a love and trust in the Lord, kindness, goodness, hope. Those are the things I think really matter - and when I say "falling in love" I don't mean lust or infatuation disguised as love, but love that's true and doesn't ask anything in return...anyway, I'm glad to be able to share my thoughts and I certainly respect the thoughts of the other people that post here. You've got one cool pad, Mr. Pig =)
I live in the bible belt of Alberta. I've been here for 6 years. I have never known so many people, that claim to be Christians, to be so hateful towards gay people and non-white people. I'm so thankful that we have found a handful of people that ARE Christians, and that love all humans too.
I get this putrid feeling in my gut when I hear dumb-ass ignorant ,downright rude comments spoken by these "brothers" of mine. Usually daily at work.
When I've challenged them, guess who the one is thats judging? Yup, me.
Do you suppose this hatred is brought on by fear? Fear of something different? Fear of a different opinion than the one they have subscribed to for generations?
Grown men are scared of anything that even remotely "challenges" their masculinity. (so of course, I play on it) I said I would like to wear an airy hippy dress in the hot summer...you should have heard them flip out! I have long hair, I like it that way...you should hear the snide remarks and read the out-of-context scriptures quoted to me.
Did you know that if I don't have my shirt tucked in, I'm being immodest! I know, I know, I should love THOSE neibours too!
And this : One woman was telling me about her difficulties with her 15 year old daughter dating. I thought we were talking about her thoughts around him not being a Christian or out of work or a different faith. NOPE...he is B L A C K!! She said she is having a tuff time with this.
You guessed it, another Christian woman.
Little wonder this community is stagnating spiritually, these folks hate their neibour. (unless of course you have cast your lot in with them and share the same values)
So now, I never use the word Christian when I speak about myself. I'm embarrassed for white Christians. If people ask what I beleive, I tell them I love God and (try) to love my neibour. But damnit, Christians breed hate around here.
I don't want to be counted among them!
Brother Spoke, always good to get your reports from Genericville, but such bitterness today! Do you have to live there? Or are you free to pack up your bags and fam and blow town? Makes me think of that guy in Psalm 120: "Woe is me that I am an alien in Meshech...Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace."
Truth is, a lot of Christians make me wonder if I go to heaven will I have to hang out with these guys? Cause then it won't be heaven. Thank you Lord for the other ones, the cool ones, cause I know we're not supposed to try to do this on our own. Yet the hermits of old did!
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