I don't know if I have ever told the story of how I became the Ugandan ambassador to my school's model UN.
I had signed up, because I was fascinated by the idea, until the random generator said I was to represent Uganda.
If you've seen pictures of the people of Uganda, they are mostly black, and if you've seen pictures of me, I am most definitely not black.
So being the nerd I was, I came up with a backstory to explain why I was picked as the ambassador, even though nobody but me seemed to take the model UN thing terribly seriously.
The reason I bring this up is Uganda apparently has passed a law making just being gay a death penalty crime.
They were "helped" in the wording of this law by a group of American Evangelical Christians, who are trying to get other countries to pass similar laws.
I might not be the biggest Bible expert, but I'm pretty sure Jesus never said anything about putting gay people to death, but here we are.
Sometimes, its really hard to be both Christian and Trans . . .
Comments
If you think that it's wrong
If you think that it's wrong what the church does then there's a simple solution: Leave the church. If you're a member of the church then you support them in whatever they do, whether you want to or not.
Don't let the fact that one church advocates stupidity
Don't let the fact that one church advocates stupidity make you write off all churches. Many (I would venture to say most) churches would not ascribe to such an unbiblical line of theology.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Vote with your feet
There’s a small but very vocal subset of Christianity who seem hell-bent (haha) on driving most people away from the Church. It’s not just the stance on LGBTQ; fundamentalists who have seen the spread of religious indifference have responded with an increasingly significant lurch the other way. The Earth is flat and we live under a dome; Noah had dinosaurs on the Ark; family planning is wrong and schools shouldn’t provide sex education...
The ministry of Kent Hovind and people like him does far more harm than good, in my opinion.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
I am a regular Bible reader
The first half hour of my day (after getting dressed and pouring a cup of coffee) is spent in prayer and reading the Bible. Each year I choose one of 3 or 4 reading plans that are designed to have me read the entire Bible in a year. I've been at it for many years now.
You are right. Jesus never advocated killing anyone. As a matter-of-fact, when a woman was brought to him who had been caught in adultery (a sin that the Old Testament demanded that she be stoned). The people who brought her to him asked what should be done with her and Jesus replied, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." One by one, her accusers walked away. When they had all gone, Jesus asked “Woman, where are your accusers?d Has no one condemned you?” She replied, "“No one, Lord,”. Then Jesus said, “Then neither do I condemn you,”
Jesus was without sin and by his criteria, he was qualified to cast the first stone, but he chose to not condemn her.
Even in the Old Testament, while it does state that God has a problem with homosexual behavior, there is no mention of killing the homosexual. I do seem to recall that they were to be cut off from the rest of the people. The feel of it I get from that is that they are to be shunned and not associated with.
I wonder if that church is connected with the Westboro Baptist of Topeka Kansas.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Cool! "Been There, Done That" (the Model UN thing)...
Model UN was (a voluntary, we could get same credit by doing something else) part of one of my college courses.
I loved it. I think I made the best motion of whole conference - at a 'good time' in a too-long session, I moved for a ten minute recess. Which was first amended to 15 minutes, seconded, and then overwhelmingly approved. I guess I was not the only one who really had to pee...
No worries on anyone's "appearance" at Model UN: https://www.un.org/en/mun.
In fact, it's against the rules to imitate the appearance, language, accent, or dress of the nation you are representing - unless that is really who you are, and have those attributes any-ways.
So I was a white, non-Spanish, non-Latino, speaks-only-English, native USA-ian representing Venezuela ...
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My "job" at Model UN was, of course, was to represent Venezuela, even if the interests of Venezuela clashed with my own. I don't recall it happening, so I didn't need to speak "with two voices", Venezuela's and my own.
Those of us attending Model UN had to come up with the needed fees. So I contributed to the Bake Sale. I have forgotten our other efforts. In the end, I strongly suspect our Instructor made up our shortfall.
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Most countries have many things to admire, to like, and also (often far too many) things to utterly Detest. USA, Uganda, Venezuela ... the list is far longer than the number of Countries ...
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And, sigh, with your information, Dorothy ... Well there are so many other countries I can use https://www.kiva.org/ to micro-credit lend into. Thanks ...
You, you being Christian, and Trans, and your Church ...
No problems with any of these, beyond all "normal junk" Life sticks us with ...
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When a particular (single) "church" violates >us<, violates who we are, violates what we believe (heck, far too many violate their own sign on their front door ...) ...
Then we are (hopefully) free to leave.
I'm sad for what it says about the "Believers", the "Godly" around me, that the Universalist-Unitarians (UU), some others, including some stores, >need< to hang Rainbow signs on their doors and windows with the words "LGBTQ?+ welcome" ...
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On the "flip side", I'm atheist, Buddhist and vegan. The Five (there's more) Precepts regularly chanted in a lot of sanghas (congregations) start with "refrain from taking Life".
When the founding "priests" of my former "buddhist" "sangha" decided to hold a chicken BBQ ... I just couldn't stomach that, and I left. (Very long essay on Buddhism omitted.)
Spent several years in a fruitless search for a Buddhist sangha close enough to join them ... and nearly 10 years later I remain sangha-less.
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I got desperate, poked about some, and have landed on a chapter of https://americanhumanist.org/ (Home page 'tagline': "Good Without A God".) AHA gives little more that a bean-fart about anything other than humans, but I need/ed Community more.
I very deliberately (and have to remind myself ...) to ignore Who is plopped down on the tables at our "Coffee Hour" and potlucks.
Good news, one time when I went for another serving of the "Double Dog Dare Cornbread" I made, the three people nearest me nearly grabbed me with "Stop! It has meat in it!" - the two kinds of 'fake' sausage (dogs) I used had fooled them!