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“Scans see gay brain differences”
The brains of gay men and women look like those found in heterosexual people of the opposite sex, research suggests.
The Swedish study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, compared the size of the brain’s halves in 90 adults.
Gay men and heterosexual women had halves of a similar size, while the right side was bigger in lesbian women and heterosexual men.
A UK scientist said this was evidence sexual orientation was set in the womb.
(source)
This pisses me off. And not for the reasons you likely assume. I’m so damned tired of crap like this.
Where are the studies looking into why 65% of lesbians and roughly 40% of gay men report their orientation as something other that homosexual at a previous stage of their life? That they became homosexual? Any explanation as to how this brain swelling only kicks in later in life for roughly half the damned homosexual population?
Why is there such a higher prevalence of domestic violence in homosexual relationships? Any research into that? Any studies suggesting brain abnormalities are responsible?
And why are deviant sexual practices so much more prevalent, to such a surprising degree, among homosexuals?
20% of homosexuals report participating in S&M to the point that their partner is bruised and/or suffering bleeding wounds.
41% of male homosexuals and 8% of lesbians engage in “fisting”.
Over 90% of male homosexuals participate in anal sex, an extremely unhealthy sex practice.
More brain swelling?
Why are male homosexuals so promiscuous that they are roughly 245% more likely to report having contracted two or more STD’s? Do these same brain abnormalities cause morbid promiscuity?
And, damn it, where are the studies explaining how brain abnormalities cause such a disproportionate number of homosexuals to suffer child molestation in their earlier years?
Why the hell aren’t we seeing studies like these? Why can’t anyone give us an accurate, honest assessment of homosexuality? Because of idiots like those who support studies like this, who report it the way these people do (flat out insisting it’s proof homos have no accountability) and the utter fanatics who viciously attack any effort at true research, that’s why!
I’ve been a homosexual my whole life and I still have only the vaguest understanding of the root causes of my sexuality. And what little understanding I have I picked up on my own. None of those people out there making money hand over fist pretending to provide answers to this give a damn what the truth is and those that do are too cowardly to produce the research we need.
Either they do their research looking for support of a preconceived notion, fully aware that’s what they’re doing, or they do honest research and allow it to be twisted and falsely represented to support lies without so much as a damned peep of protest.
I’m furious at this. And I’m not alone. Everyone who honestly looks to understand homosexuality experiences anger and a sense of betrayal when they finally realize the mountains of evidence, data and research from both sides are all crap. And those of us who are actually effected by this phenomenon grow only more and more angry at those who’ve taken on the job of providing answers to us…and lie to us instead.
Well, I just had a bit of excitement.
I’m having some bad days right now and that normally means hiding in the house somewhere until it passes. Sometimes everything feels like it’s closing in though and I have to go outside just to breathe freely. Most of the time when that happens I head for the back porch where I can still be the heck away from people.
Today I went on the front porch instead.
When I got there I was just in time to witness my neighbor down the road a bit jump into her yard and lean on the her front gate, having gone out to check the mail I suppose. Because there was some neighborhood dog after her, barking and snarling like crazy, you see. And it was mad enough that I wondered at first what the heck she’d done to tick that dog off so bad.
So without thinking I head over there and yell at the dog to scare it off. What can I say? I guess I’m behind on my dumb quota this month or something. And of course the dog turned it’s attention to me and came right after me. And, again, without thinking I hauled off and kicked it when it got too close. Aimed for the head like an idiot, but I did manage to get it right in the chest and bowl it over one good time.
Which only motivated it to latch onto my leg so I couldn’t kick it again.
Now I was lucky that it didn’t get a mouthful of leg when it did that and only got my blue jeans instead. So while it was busy punishing my blue jeans for their aggressive behavior, I did the third really stupid thing today. I reached over and snatched that little lunatic by the throat and started choking it. Don’t ask me why. Seemed like the thing to do at the time.
But that kinda leaves you with the question of what the heck to do with a tiger once you’ve got it by the tail.
So since it had let go of my jeans to try to deal with the crazy woman who had it by the throat I just shoved it down on the ground and got on top of it. Problem solved, right?
So now I’m stuck with a double handful of really, really pissed of canine.
Now, can it get worse? Well of course it can.
Stupid (my dog) comes barreling around the corner of the house, having got wise that a fight had broken out and eager to get in on the action. So then I have to get one hand free to ward him off. And psycho-dog nearly gets free.
So I finally figured, “You know what? To heck with this. Crazy dogs running around assaulting people is Stupid’s job, not mine.” So I let go, rolled back off the thing and let him at it. That’s part of the reason I feed this fellow and why I put up with the occasional poop where it shouldn’t be, right?
And of course Stupid got his butt kicked. Because I’d rendered this dog full-blown psycho by then with kicking it, choking it and wrestling it like I had. I ended up grabbing a stick and whacking that crazy mutt until he stopped kicking Stupid’s butt and ran off.
So then I’m standing there huffing and snarling like a crazy person, a bit bruised up and pretty disheveled myself, wielding a tree limb while Stupid whined from the porch about the butt-kicking he was toting. I’m glaring and watching this dog slink around the edge of the property (weird how dog’s have this instinctive grasp of property lines, innit?)
And the danged dog is whining and limping around, looking at me with this painfully hurt look in his eyes like, “Why did you do that? What did I ever do to you? You’re a terrible person!”
And so I felt really bad. I mean the poor dog is beat up all the hell and back. He’s bleeding from his muzzle and can barely get around. I’m worried about the guy. But then he’s off and gone before I can properly consider what I can or even should do about that. I mean, what the heck else could I have done? The danged mutt was trying to bite me!
So I’m like…this is why I don’t go outside much.
I found this as well where Knight posted it on TheologyOnline.
This one was written by Bob Enyart and Denver Bible Church.
Summary of the 66 Bible Books
Genesis – Creation, the Fall, and Israel’s Birth
Exodus – Leaving Egypt and Getting the Law
Leviticus – Priestly Laws
Numbers – Israel’s Census and Wandering in the Wilderness
Deuteronomy – Retelling of the Law
Joshua – Conquering Canaan
Judges – Cycles of Spiritual Freedom and Political Bondage
Ruth – A Gentile Marries Into the Davidic Lineage
1 Samuel – Israel’s Kingdom Instituted
2 Samuel – David Reigns
1 Kings – The Kingdom Splits into North and South (Israel & Judah)
2 Kings – The Divided Kingdom Struggles
1 Chronicles – David’s Reign Retold
2 Chronicles – Judah’s Evil Leads to Babylonian Captivity
Ezra – A Remnant Returns to Rebuild the Temple
Nehemiah – More Return to Restore Jerusalem’s Walls and Life
Esther – Jews in Persia Saved from Extermination
Job – A Righteous Man Labors to Understand Suffering
Psalms – Israel’s Hymnal
Proverbs – Solomon’s Wise Sayings
Ecclesiastes – Backslidden Solomon’s Confusion
Song of Songs – Romance Portrays God’s Love for Israel
Isaiah – The Coming Messiah will Suffer and Rule
Jeremiah – A Second Captivity Left Behind the Sorrowful Prophet
Lamentations – Israel’s Divorce Decree from God
Ezekiel – In Exile, Explaining Israel’s Judgment and Hope
Daniel – In Exile, Vision of God Conquering Gentile Kingdoms
Hosea – Northern Israel’s Sin Leads to Assyrian Captivity
Joel – In the Great Tribulation God will Pour Out His Spirit
Amos – Renaissance Israel to Fall Before Messiah Comes
Obadiah – God will Destroy Edom and Exalt His Own Kingdom
Jonah – A Reluctant Prophet Converts the Assyrian Capital
Micah – Doom Coming Except for the Messiah’s Birth in Bethlehem
Nahum – The Destruction of Nineveh Predicted
Habakkuk – The Just Shall Live by Faith in the Righteous Judge
Zephaniah – Judah’s Superficial Repentance Will Not Avert Judgment
Haggai – Judgment for the Delay of Rebuilding the Temple
Zechariah – Temple Rebuilt Before the Messiah is Cut Off, then Exalted
Malachi – Repent! Prepare the Way of the Lord
Matthew – King Jesus, Son of David
Mark – Jesus the Servant, with No Genealogy
Luke – Jesus the Man, Son of Adam
John – God Became Flesh
Acts – Peter’s Ministry Wanes as Paul’s Ministry of Grace Grows
Romans – Paul’s Theological Treatise
1 Corinthians – Correcting the Body of Christ
2 Corinthians – Defense of Paul’s Apostleship Against Teachers of the Law
Galatians – Paul’s Gospel of Grace over Peter’s Legalism
Ephesians – The Dispensation of Grace Given to Paul
Philippians – The Resurrection Yields Joy in Suffering
Colossians – God Nailed the Law to the Cross for Our Victory
1 Thessalonians – Comfort Yourselves Knowing that the Lord will Return
2 Thessalonians – The Great Tribulation Had Not Yet Arrived
1 Timothy – The Proper Administration of the Body of Christ
2 Timothy – Paul Encourages Timothy to Persevere
Titus – Appointment of Elders for Orderly Church Administration
Philemon – The Conversion and Return of a Runaway Slave
Hebrews – The Epistle to the Hebrews, on How Believing Jews Should Live
James – Believing Jews of the Twelve Tribes of Israel Urged to Works
1 Peter – Believing Jews of the Dispersion Were Suffering
2 Peter – Peter’s Converts Urged to Not Fall Away from Christ
1 John – John’s Converts Must Confess their Sins for Forgiveness
2 John – Truth Can Keep John’s Converts from Deception
3 John – The Elect Lady Israel Warned Not to Take Anything from Gentiles
Jude – Warning Against Apostasy
Revelation – God Judges Man, Establishes Israel’s Kingdom, & Begins Eternity
This is a neat little bible summary I picked over on TheologyOnline. I’m pretty sure Bob Enyart wrote it but since I can’t find it again I can’t say for sure.
Regardless, it’s pretty cool and I’ve been meaning to put it up somewhere in here for a long time now. So here it is. 
Bible Summary:
• The Trinity fellowshipped through eternity past, “before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24
• God created the universe, doing a new thing, which He could because He is living and active.
• God declares that He created matter and space, light, and life (Gen. 1:1, 3, 11, 20, 24, 26) but not time.
• God created thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, and authorities, not hoarding but delegating power.
• God “moved upon the face of the waters,” for He is not immobile, not timeless, and thus not immovable.
• God rejoiced at the work of His hands because He could increase in blessing.
• God is relational, thus interactive, for the persons of the Trinity willed to make man in “Our likeness!”
• God created sequentially, the earth before the fish, etc., and ceased from creating on the seventh day.
• God could create creatures “in His likeness,” themselves willful and creative!
• God gave mankind a vegetarian diet (which after the Flood he expanded to include every animal).
• God then for joy “brought [the animals] to Adam to see what he would call them!”
• God put the Tree in the midst of the garden, as an unlocked door, giving man the choice to stay or leave.
• God showed providence in giving the earth to Adam and warning him that if you disobey, “you will die.”
• God put the archangel Lucifer in Eden not as tempter but as “the anointed Cherub who covers.”
• Lucifer fell “in Eden” saying “I will ascend into heaven… above… the clouds” to be like God.
• Eve joined the rebellion, not following a command that originated in God’s mind, but obeying fallen Lucifer.
• God did not attribute Adam’s sin to His own inexorable decree, but you “heeded the voice of your wife.”
• God’s providential warning proved true as death came to mankind as a result of their disobedience.
• Sin broke the perfection of God’s cosmos, so the Son by a prophetic Christophany confronted the rebels.
• Goodness exhibits loyalty; thus God declared that the Fall put enmity between Lucifer and Eve. Gen. 3:15
• God’s love restrained His swift vengeance, as He promised a Redeemer in the woman’s Seed.
• God considered the possibility (contingency) that man would avoid death by eating from the Tree of Life.
• God thus exiled Adam “lest he put out his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever.”
• When Cain murdered Abel God forbade the death penalty (which prohibition He reversed after the Flood).
• Mankind multiplied and filled the earth with wickedness, perversion, and the murder of the innocent.
• Man’s sin did not please God but “grieved” Him, and He was “sorry that He had made man on the earth.”
• “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth” but He was not sorry for every man.
• “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD,” so God saved his family though they too would sin greatly.
• The Canaanites were cursed from their inception, not by arbitrary decree, but by Ham’s incest. Lev. 20:11
• God gave Abram the Covenant of Grace for “he believed,” and God “accounted it to him for righteousness.”
• God put the H sound of His own name into the names of Abram and Sarai, renaming His friend Abraham.
• And God soon took Abraham’s name to Himself, repeatedly calling Himself: “the God of Abraham!”
• God gave Abraham circumcision, the cutting off of the flesh, in the Covenant of Circumcision. Gen. 17
• “He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your silver must be circumcised” or will be “cut off!”
• God the Son fulfilled Circumcision by Incarnation and Crucifixion: born in the House of Israel; purchased with their silver; and “cut off” in the flesh.
• Abraham became “the friend of God” who believed he could possibly persuade God to spare Sodom.
• God said “you are a dead man” to Abimelech, who then justly blamed Abraham for concealing his marriage.
• God did not take Abimelech to an early day of reckoning, but only chastised him, until Abraham intervened.
Thus ends the first third of human history.
• God planned to work through Abraham’s descendants for 2,000 years till the fullness of time at the Cross.
• God therefore asked Abraham to do just what He Himself planned to do: to offer His own Son on Mount Moriah!
• God knew of His friend’s deep faith, but tested whether Abraham loved his own son Isaac more than God.
• Not until the knife was raised did God say, “now I know” that you would not withhold your own son from Me.
• Abraham then and only then also learned that in righteousness he would obey the call for ultimate sacrifice.
• So a ram with its head caught in the thorns died instead, the crowned Christ dying willingly as the antitype.
• And for the next 2,000 years, when His wrath burned hot against wicked Israel, God remembered Abraham!
• The sacred record of history unfolded not with divine perfection, but evil, upon evil, upon evil marks Israel’s history.
• Of Isaac’s twins, God called Jacob, not to salvation but as the “nation” through whom the Seed would come.
• Reuben was the first to lose Israel’s tribal contest in which they unknowingly vied for the Messianic blessing.
• God disqualified Jacob’s firstborn after Reuben violated his own father’s bed. Gen. 49:3-4; 1 Chr. 5:1
• Through Jacob God gave the birthright to the tribe of Joseph who also lost it. Gen. 48; 1 Chr. 5:1-2; Ps. 78:67-68
• Next, Pharaoh “hardened his heart,” and as God showed Himself stronger, pride further hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
• God said that He will “test them [Israel], whether they will walk in My law or not.” Ex. 16:4
• God gave Israel the Mosaic Law (based on Circumcision), symbolized not by Isaac but by Ishmael of the flesh! Gal. 4:22-24
• After first giving a vegetarian diet, then adding every animal, now God limits Israel’s diet to “clean animals.”
• God, provoked by Israel, threatened to destroy all the tribes and raise up a new nation out of Levi. Ex. 32:10
• Like Abraham, Moses believed He could change God’s mind, and indeed His prayers stayed God’s hand. Ex. 32:11-13; etc.
• “For I was afraid [that] the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me.” Deut. 9:19
• “So the LORD relented [repented] from the harm which He said He would do to His people.” Ex. 32:14
• God chose the sons of Aaron to “serve Him forever” (Deut. 18:5) and then killed two of them! Ex. 28:1; Num. 26:61
• Most of the priests whom God chose to “serve Him forever” went to hell. Neh. 9:34; Lev. 10; 1 Sam. 2; etc.
• God “will without fail” cast out the Canaanites, but then left them as a punishment. Josh. 3:10; Deut. 12:29; Jud. 2:3
• The book of Judges documents the wickedness of the Twelve Tribes, showing Judah to be the least undesirable.
• Yet God offered Benjamin the Messianic throne, the last-born tribe replacing the firstborn Reuben, by making Saul king.
• God’s chosen king, “Saul, whom the LORD chose” (2 Sam. 21:6) “established his sovereignty,” but God “repented” of offering him Israel’s perpetual dynasty.
• Samuel said to Saul, “You have not kept the commandment of the LORD” thus “the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue…” 1 Sam. 13:13-14
• Although He offered Saul Israel’s perpetual dynasty, God later repented and had His own chosen king killed.
• Finally, “Judah prevailed over his brothers,” the least undesirable tribe, therefore “from him came a ruler” 1 Chr. 5:1; Jud. 1; etc.
• David did not fulfill an eternal decree by adultery and murder, but thereby gave “great occasion to the enemies of the LORD.”
• God will not bless rebellion, thus by their sin His people “limited the Holy One of Israel.” Ps. 78:41
• Israel’s sin made God “furious” (Ps. 78:59), for He is not “impassible,” but we have emotion because He has passion!
• God sent most His Chosen People to hell. (See Gen. 12 through to Romans 11, including Isa. 1:4; Rom 9!)
• For, the elect, who are beloved for Abraham’s sake, were enemies even of the Gospel. Rom. 11:28
• God prophesied that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days, but in mercy “God repented” and “did not do it.”
• God told Nebuchadnezzar He would give him the spoils of Tyre, yet then reported that it never happened. Ezek. 26:12; 29:18
• Though rejected later by Calvin, God declares, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” -LORD GOD, Ezek. 33:11
• After pouring His love into Israel, God “expected it to bring forth” repentance but it brought “forth wild grapes [unbelief]” (Isa. 5:4)! God’s knowledge is perfect, and when producing an expectation, His love influences that knowledge, so that He can hope even against a mountain of foreboding knowledge. For love “hopes all things” (1 Cor. 13:7) WHICH EXHAUSTIVE FOREKNOWLEDGE CANNOT DO!!
• God said of southern Israel that Judah will “‘return to Me [future tense],’ but she did not,” Jer. 3:7, which contradicts the Settled View but with an Open future, hope and love can influence His expectation!
• God told Hezekiah he would die, which would have been a lie by the Settled View, and then He strengthened the king to live longer, which turned out disastrously for Jerusalem.
• God said the Israelites “provoke Me to anger,” not by His decree but “according to their own thoughts.”
• Later, Nahum got a city named after him, Capernaum, when by his prophecy God finally did destroy Nineveh. (If Israel loved mercy, they would have named the place, Kafer-Jonah.)
• God indicated that people in a deep relationship with Him sometimes influenced His mind and thus His future actions, saying, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would [still] not be favorable toward this people!” –GOD, Jer. 15:1
• God hates all paganism (not only Plato’s) thus He warned Israel not to do as the Canaanites who burn their babies to Molech (Deut. 12:29-31), “which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind.” Jer. 19:5
• Yet Israel did burn their babies to Molech, manifestly NOT by God’s eternal decree, but by following paganism. Ezek. 32:35
• God as the Potter threatened Israel, as the clay, that if they disobeyed He would not deliver their promised kingdom, but rather mold them “into another vessel” (not for honor but now for dishonor, Rom. 9:21) repenting from that which He originally “thought” and “said” He would do! Jer. 18:1-10
Thus ends the second third of human history.
• God the Son became flesh, showing infinite change through humility, and now forever remains a Man! John 1:14
• The Incarnation is the third greatest conceivable change, that God the Son would eternally take on human form! 1 Tim. 2:5
• The Twelve were not looking for Jesus, so “You did not choose Me but I chose you” to be disciples. John 6:70; 15:16
• Jesus was sent to Israel only. Mat. 15:24; 10:5-6; 19:28; Luke 7:3-5; Acts 3:25-26; 10:36; Isa. 59:20; etc.
• “The… lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized.” Luke 7:30
• “By chance [lit., coincidence] a certain priest” came down the road to Jericho and saw the man left for dead. -Jesus, Luke 10:31
• To the superstitious question, “Who did sin, this one or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered “Neither!” Put a period right there. Then realize that the Lord next began a new sentence: “But that the works of God may be manifested in him, it behooves me to do the works of Him who sent Me…” God is not like the dysfunctional nut who lets the air out of your tires, to gain your friendship later by offering to pump them up.
• Jesus predicted the betrayal of Judas and the denials of Peter, but God always prefers obedience to fulfilled prophecy (see Nineveh, and principles like the Sabbath being made for man and not vice versa, Mark 2:27, and consider what Saul ignored, that “to obey is better than sacrifice” 1 Sam. 15:22). So God would have been glorified far more if either would have trusted Him.
• Jesus repeatedly promised to return soon (giving the apostles the hope they displayed in Acts of His imminent return).
• “There are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
• “I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
• “This saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say… he would not die, but, ‘If I will that he remain till I come…’”
• “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things [Second Coming prophecies] take place.”
• “For three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree [figuratively, Israel] and find none. Cut it down… But he answered and said, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”
• God would soon fertilize Israel by pouring out the Holy Spirit (but no national fruit of the spirit would result).
• Just days before His death, Jesus prepared His disciples to suffer the great tribulation. Mat. 24; etc.; John 16:2-5
• 490 years were “determined for [Israel]… until… Messiah shall be cut off” followed by a 7-year tribulation. Dan. 9:24-27; Mat. 24:3, 15, 34
• The Father poured wrath on “His Son,” then “Christ died” (Rom. 5:8), and then He was justified (MAJOR changes)!
• Jesus suffered the cross “once” in history and will not be hanging there forever in an Augustinian/Platonic “eternal now.” Heb. 9:27-28
• The Crucifixion is the second greatest conceivable change, that God the Son would become sin and a curse for us.
• Thus “God our Savior… desires that all might be saved” in part because of the ultimate price He paid! 1 Tim. 2:3-4
• Calvinist “limited atonement,” that Jesus died only for the elect, would actually limit God, for it ignores both that The Son IS the atonement, and that Peter described the wicked as those who deny “the Lord who bought them.” 2 Pet. 2:1; Acts 20:28
• God did not create time, but as a non-spatial irreversible continuum, time is an attribute of God’s Attributes, including Him being relational, and so God can not go back in time to prevent Adam from sinning (H.G. Wells notwithstanding), and neither can He go forward into the non-existent future to “see” who will eventually get saved, so that He could then limit His death for the “elect” only.
• Whereas a stone idol which cannot become flesh, the Living God changed infinitely to save us, for “He became their Savior.” Isa. 63:8
• Because Jesus had told them to expect the Great Tribulation and His soon return, in preparation, the Twelve Apostles administered a Last-Days economy of selling all private property.
• “All who believed… sold their possessions. Acts 2
• “All who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and laid [the proceeds] at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each.” Acts 4:34-35
• Limiting God’s ability to give Israel the blessing of their Earthly Kingdom, the nation rejected the preaching of the risen Christ. Acts 2-5
• God had warned Israel saying: “the instant I speak concerning” building your kingdom, if you do evil, “then I will repent” and not give you your kingdom! Jer. 18:9-10
• Jesus had spent three years of earthly ministry looking for faithfulness in Israel, and found almost none. Luke 7:9
• Israel now has “become the betrayers… who have received the law… and have not kept it.” Acts 7:52-53
• Israel’s leaders plotted persecution, they killed their first Messianic believer, and then extended their persecution Acts 6-8
• Peter please with the men of Israel that, even though Jesus has ascended into heaven, if they will repent, God will send the Lord back to establish Israel’s kingdom!
• “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration…” Acts 3:19-21
• “Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.” Acts 3:24
• The Apostles were themselves expecting to see Jesus return, by the promise of angels (Acts 1:11), and by the Lord’s word.
• However, Israel ignored God’s warning, thinking it an idle threat (Jer. 18:18), but because they rejected Christ, God therefore cut off Israel, and in this the nation cannot resist His will.
• God has mercy on whom He wills, and since He wills to give mercy only to those who trust Christ, He therefore cut off Israel, molding her into a vessel for dishonor rather than the vessel for honor He had originally hoped to form. Rom. 9
• For unbelief, God “cut off” Israel’s Covenant of Circumcision, and turned “to the Gentiles” Rom. 11:20-25
• They of “the election” [Israel], beloved for Abraham, had become “enemies” of the “gospel.” Rom. 11:28
• [Israel’s] “being casting away is the reconciling of the world [i.e., the Gentiles, through the Body of Christ, which is not Israel]. Rom. 11:15
• Therefore “wrath has come upon them [Israel, v. 14] to the uttermost” having been cut off. 1 Thes. 2:16
• God tells the Twelve Apostles, and the Jews generally, that He has gone to the Gentiles. Acts 10:28; 11:18; 13-14
• God continues teaching truth by changing symbolic rules, including reversing for the Body His demand for circumcision.
• From a vegetarian diet, to every animal, to only clean animals, and now God allows the Body to eat every animal again.
• The changes in the house rules, from the House of Israel, to the Household of Faith (the Body) created friction between the Apostles.
• “To his face,” Paul called Peter a “hypocrite,” because Simon was being untruthful about “the Gospel.” Gal. 2:11-14; etc.
• The Twelve sanctioned “the Gospel of the Uncircumcised.” Gal. 2:7 (KJV!, Greek is genitive, not dative); Acts 15:23-29; etc.
• God changed the rules for the Body as in reversing the law against eating meat sacrificed to idols. 1 Cor. 8
• After working with the Body, God will return again to Israel (Rom. 11:23-31, which prevents Martin Luther-style rabid anti-semitism).
• Jesus is NOW in heaven “waiting till His enemies are made [figuratively] His footstool.” Heb. 10:13
• The Book of Revelation indicates a return to the Mosaic dietary law during Israel’s future great tribulation. Rev. 2:20; 7:4-8; Jer. 30:7
• Revelation speaks of time in heaven, with sequential seals, trumpets and bowls (not to mention the thunders).
• In heaven believers experience time: in temporary silence, anticipation, delay, waiting, fruit coming ripe, etc.
• And the Book of Revelation ends with the future Open and God inviting, “Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely!”
Thus ends the final third of human history as told in Scripture.
We spin Egyptian cotton
multi-colored lines
of baby cloth
Trap the ugly things
in lines of pretty, colorful thread
for show and tell
this is me
you see?
this is me
spin, turn and see
this is me
- k
First, let me say something right up front that needs to be said.
Women hate porn typically because they suck. Which is to say, women typically suck. Most women use and even view sex as a means of manipulating men. Debate that all you want, deny it all you want, I see it every single day and it’s prevalent whenever the issues of sex and men are even referenced by women in any context.
To that end, porn is viewed by most women as competition. Someone somewhere is offering free sex without any strings attached and that ticks them off. A lot. For those women porn is bad for that reason alone and no other reason is necessary for them to hate it intensely.
Those women suck. They and their perspective on sex fuel a whole lot of misogyny. Thanks, ladies. The rest of us, those possessed of some reason, really appreciate your efforts but we’d rather you sit down and shut the hell up now, if you don’t mind too terribly. I really don’t appreciate the suggestion that sex isn’t something we desire and enjoy sharing.
This suggestion that it’s a gift, reward or prize that we, as women, award those who are worthy seriously pisses me off. It reinforces everything misogyny represents.
Second, the argument that porn fuels sexual addiction is a pretty bad argument. Alcohol fuels alcoholism but I don’t support outlawing alcohol. I drink alcohol now and again myself, in fact. It would distress me a bit if it was outlawed. I don’t think I’d launch a major grassroots campaign about the issue or anything but it would bum me out a good bit.
So why do I hate porn then?
Because I understand what it is. It’s masturbation fantasy on crack.
Let’s be honest here. Everyone masturbates. And when we do that thing, we don’t typically wait until we’re so frustrated that orgasm is achievable without any effort. We’re usually so bad at deferred gratification that we run off at the first stirrings of lust looking for an orgasm. Those of us who haven’t a sex partner of some sort close at hand, and requiring little effort to engage to that end, jump at the option of masturbating. And since we’re usually barely aroused to begin with achieving the arousal necessary for orgasm requires some actual effort.
Hence, we have sexual fantasy. It’s only purpose is to arouse. We all have our fantasies. We all invest significant imagination in developing these fantasies. It should be no surprise that someone somewhere hit on the idea of producing, packaging and selling these fantasies to us.
It’s actually a pretty ingenious idea. What a handy little product. I can totally get why men love this idea. I think for women the fantasies necessary to elicit that level of arousal require a bit more detail than can easily be produced and packaged that way, though. We have romance novels after all instead. Yes, it would seem you have to write a whole book to properly flesh out a good sexual fantasy for a female. For a male, you don’t need much more than a picture. Either way, the end result is the same and you just have to admit it was a great idea by whoever came up with it first.
The problem is this, though. Our own, individual sexual fantasies are one thing. They have only so much power over us. Producing a virtual sexual fantasy though…that’s rather like producing crack cocaine as an alternative to natural endorphin production.
You can do all kinds of things to feel good naturally…or you can just take a hit of crack. Either way, same thing right? Well, no. Apparently not. One is actually good and healthy for you and the other destroys your entire person.
And I’m not even suggesting masturbation is good and healthy for you. I think it’s amoral, meaning it can be either good or bad depending. I also think we almost never do it in any kind of healthy way. It’s difficult even coming up with a good, healthy sexual fantasy. I can do it and I’ve even done it. But it actually requires effort. Some level of perversity is so much easier and so much more arousing. So we tend to go with that.
But still. Point stands. Porn is the crack cocaine version of sexual fantasy. It’s destructive for all the same reasons crack cocaine is destructive.
It’s destructive because it perverts something natural. In fact, it can only provide the apparent benefit that it does by perverting something natural. Case in point: can someone provide me with an example of wholesome porn? Seriously. Is such a thing not an oxymoron? Who doesn’t define porn by it’s very perversity? Everyone does. That’s what porn is. It’s perverse. Everyone knows this.
This is why we see those who embrace pornography descend so rapidly into perversity. Much like the drug abuse I reference with my little “crack cocaine” analogy, you’re practically forced to seek greater and greater depths of perversity to achieve the same level of arousal. Eventually you reach your baseline perversity, just as any drug addict eventually reaches a baseline. And just like a drug addict, that baseline is almost always extremely unhealthy. Usually morbidly so.
After all, about as many people “dabble” in drug abuse as “dabble” in pornography. Rather a clue the whole thing is destructive.
So I don’t have a problem with alcohol but rather with alcoholism and alcohol abuse. I have beer in my fridge right now. Yet I wouldn’t bring a beer to church. Consider that a bit.
At the same time I certainly do have a problem with crack cocaine. I don’t use it and I’d advocate executing anyone who produces and sells it. It’s that destructive.
Likewise porn is more on the crack cocaine side of the spectrum. It’s not beer. Something that I wouldn’t bring to church but I still don’t object to having in my own fridge.
It’s crack. Something I’d never do and which I encourage my government to outlaw as a death penalty crime to produce or distribute.
Porn requires one to embrace sexual perversity. It is, in fact, sexual perversity. And like any other form of sexual perversity, it is never satisfied with itself. Perversity, by it’s very nature, insists upon greater and greater perversity. It will, always, drag you down until you can literally be no more perverse than you are. And unfortunately, for human beings, that level of perversity is always way past anything that can be considered remotely healthy.
Case in point: Heterosexual women typically despise porn. Homosexual women typically love it. Why is that, do you think?
I hate porn because I hate sexual perversity. I hate sexual perversity because it is destructive. It always leads to destruction. That is the very nature of any perversity.
How does a Christian respond when confronted by an abusive lesbian relationship? I’ve asked this question of other Christians and the initial response is almost always several seconds of shocked silence. On occasion a softly spoken, “Wow. Uh…”
And that’s perfectly understandable. It’s easy as a Christian to know and accept that homosexuality is immoral and perverse. It’s easy to know to denounce and discourage that behavior. We all know the bible verses and despite what homosexual apologists claim, they’re pretty clear. When confronted with something like this though, common enough in heterosexual relationships (and just about every other kind of relationship you can think of), it suddenly presents a bit of confusion.
And it’s odd, really. I can’t think of a Christian I know who wouldn’t willfully run into a burning building to save someone, homo or no. That doesn’t even cross their mind. Homosexuality may be something to denounce and discourage but the burning building rather presents a situation that’s immediately life threatening. There’s no time to debate the morality of being burned alive.
To my thinking, abuse falls more on the “burning building” side of the spectrum from homosexuality. When you are confronted with that, it makes perfect sense to me that this must be dealt with first. Sexual perversion has to take a back seat, wait in line and hold it’s horses. Yet Christians can’t typically figure out how to respond.
And this doesn’t even address the fact that abuse in homosexual relationships isn’t even spoken of. You never hear of it. Most certainly not to the degree one hears of abuse in every other relationship model, most especially the heterosexual. So of course there’s the mild shock of being confronted with something no one prepared you for.
Lesbos abuse? Who knew?
Now, I’m no shrink. I haven’t a PhD in anything whatsoever. Not a social worker or counselor. Haven’t any training or education at all along those lines. I just have this life, which has been far too interesting and filled with opportunities to learn hard lessons. Taking that and what I’ve managed to dig up on this subject, I’m going to attempt to help other Christians prepare for this possibility. For those who know a homosexual who is in an abusive relationship, I hope I can help them as well.
Largely, the response is what you’d expect or what you may already be familiar with. But there a few unique considerations when dealing with homosexuals in abusive relationships. Furthermore there are certain pitfalls that Christians may well find themselves prone to that are best avoided in responding to that situation.
I’ll also note here that I specifically used the term “lesbian relationships” in the title and that’s what I’ll be talking about exclusively. I freely admit I haven’t a clue how gay male relationships work and haven’t had much experience with them at all. I’ll speak of what I know then and won’t dare presume anything I say on this subject has any relevance toward that.
Occurrence and forms of abuse:
Now getting stats on this sort of thing is darned near impossible, as you likely would guess. The homosexual community is typically so focused on securing social acceptance that anything “ugly” is kept hush-hush or flat out denied. As far as I know, there are no stats. Even those you can find are hardly unbiased. Yet from what I can gather, weighing that against what I’ve seen and experienced firsthand, it’s a bit more common than in heterosexual relationships and it’s actually reported less often. In fact, some forms of abuse are fairly accepted in lesbian relationships, especially emotional abuse which is common enough that it’s absence is actually uncommon. Sexual abuse can also be found to have occurred in more lesbian relationships than not. Interestingly, “passive” forms of abuse seem to be more common in lesbian relationships than in heterosexual ones involving women.
Why abuse?
Much as you’d expect to find in heterosexual relationships, lesbians abuse to gain and maintain control. They want to minimize the possibility of abandonment and are either simply willing to abuse to accomplish this or just don’t know any other way to address that fear. Like any other type of abuser, you find incidents of abuse occur more frequently at the threat of separation, real or perceived. Naturally there are exceptions to this but it’s a general rule.
Homo specific issues:
The problem posing, I think, the most difficulty for those lesbians in abusive relationships is…no one cares. Now I’m the first one to groan when someone says something like this because the long, hard fight against abuse towards women has required yelling that at the top of our voices to whoever would listen (and everyone who wouldn’t as well) for decades. I realize the necessity of that. Most people didn’t care whether a woman was abused for quite a long time now, making it near impossible for them to get any support. But I absolutely understand those who are sick and tired of hearing that we still don’t care enough.
The fact is though, for lesbians it’s as true today as it was for women in general fifty years ago. Homosexuality is difficult to accept to begin with, so accepting that someone is being abused in a homosexual relationship and that you should give a care is all the more difficulty a point to get to.
This I think presents the most difficulty for Christians. On one hand you must renounce homosexuality and the homosexuals who embrace it. On the other you can’t accept abuse either. Rather a rock and hard place. But it shouldn’t be. This should pose no difficulty for any Christian with a brain. As I’ve eluded to earlier with the burning building analogy, first things must come first.
Moreover, this is a unique opportunity for Christians to show God’s love and mercy. No one else cares…but Christ most certainly does. And so then should we. And beyond this, let us be honest. How many of those open-minded, more accepting folks do you think really care? From my experience they’re largely accepting only so far as it makes them feel enlightened and superior. Faced with an ugly reality, most such folk turn tail and run. Or worse, spout platitudes before slinking away.
Who does a lesbian really have to turn to in this situation? The police? Consider that in the following states same-sex couples are specifically excluded from protective orders: Arizona, Delaware, Montana, New York, South Carolina, and Virginia. Not to mention my own home state of Louisiana. Florida, Maryland and Mississippi are guilty of this to a lesser degree as well. And that completely ignores the fact that protective orders often aren’t worth the paper their printed on, it just illustrates how the rejection of homosexuality too often extends beyond into refusing them even basic protections.
Domestic violence laws often ignore homosexual relationships, police (like most everyone else) are prone to assuming both parties are responsible and arrest both, and domestic abuse agencies are usually too confused to respond appropriately as well. And all this is, again, perfectly understandable. Homosexuality is perverse. And since most people aren’t perverse in that way, it’s difficult to understand and respond to appropriately.
Should they turn for help from the homosexual community? As a Christian that thought should make you cringe in shame that you weren’t there for them. And don’t take solace from the thought either, most likely they won’t get much help there. Consider that most everything done by “the community” is geared toward winning public approval. Even when acknowledging this problem and appearing to respond to it, it is designed with that in mind. If you wish to leave them to their own, then go right ahead. But don’t pretend you’ve done anything good in doing so. It should have been you they turned to.
So who do they turn to?
The fact is, usually no one. Lesbians rarely seek any help for abuse. In my opinion this is because they don’t believe there’s anyone to turn to. Family and friends are either accepting of their homosexuality and thus should not be presented with anything that may reflect negatively on it, or they are not accepting and won’t care anyway. Police, domestic abuse agencies and legal services are all either unwilling to help, or willing but too unbalanced by the oddity to respond well. The homosexual community itself is usually too embarrassed and too mindful of public opinion to focus on the problem. Most even deny the severity of it right off, minimizing the abuse or even failing to acknowledge it altogether. Among lesbians, the female-female love relationship is often idealized. There is usually no room for the messiness one otherwise claims is the domain of heterosexual relationships.
And these things merely sit among all the other reasons victims of abuse are reluctant to report it or seek help to escape it.
Why should Christians care?
As I may have indicated up to now, this is an area where Christians have no excuse. We, above all others, should be ready, willing and eager to extend love to those who are despised, rightfully or no. Consider that God hated our sins and us for sinning, yet loved us enough to die for our salvation and extend His mercy even in the midst of our sin. Christians who aren’t able to hate homosexuality and rebuke homosexuals while simultaneously standing ready to extend mercy and love as well have failed already. Simple as that.
If you are a Christian and don’t think it’s your place to offer a hand to the most perverse and lost among us then you haven’t the first clue what it is to be a Christian. Will all due respect, go pray and stay off the battlefield until you learn some wisdom.
What should you do first?
Put aside issues of homosexuality. Simply put that aside. There is a time and place for everything and this is not the time or place for rebuke and correction. This you must do first and foremost. If you’ve managed to forget you were once as filthy and perverse as the battered, broken woman before you then the time and place now is for you to remember that.
Then what?
* Offer safety
Her safety is the ultimate and first concern. This trumps everything else. If you aren’t willing to open your own home, provide a hotel room. Anything. Whatever. If this lesbian has turned to a Christian for help, it’s a good bet things are desperate. If she has no safe haven, provide one.
* Respect her trust and confidence.
This means no reports unless she wishes. Quite simply, if she chooses to return to the situation, let her. This is her choice. No blabbing to friends, neighbors, relatives, church members and the local newspaper. She came to you, not them. Don’t you think she’s ashamed already, despite having no guilt in her own abuse? Of course she is. This is between you, she and God. No one else unless she chooses to include them.
* Don’t try to lend her your defense mechanisms.
We all have certain ways we respond to violence and all other unusual or traumatic incidents. These defense mechanisms help us cope with the shock. In situations where we are dealing with someone else’s trauma, we tend to want to extend these defense mechanisms to them as well, feeling on some level we should share the relief they offer to the victim. This is not helpful.
For example…
* Don’t excuse the abuser.
There is no excuse, as you should well know. Don’t be foolish and think that offering some valid reasoning for her partner’s abuse will make her feel better. Maybe it will but it’s certainly not helpful. This is the normal reaction, of course. Everyone first seeks to make sense of irrational behavior and everyone likewise tries to find reason where there is none. This is how we typically respond to such things. In this case, it doesn’t help. Don’t do it.
* Don’t minimize the gravity of the situation.
Again, same thing. It’s a common defense mechanism and in this case it’s prompts itself to help you deal with this situation. Naturally you will want to extend that “relief” in minimizing the seriousness of the abuse but this will not help her. Again, don’t do it.
* Be willing to listen and accept.
This is probably what this woman needs most at the moment. Someone who will accept that she has been abused and is willing to listen. Someone who is willing to say, “You should not be abused.” That’s it. If you can provide nothing else, offer this.
* Support her if she decides to call the police.
Support means help. So help. Go get the phone, look up the number, give her a safe place to wait for them to respond. Help her locate additional resources as well. Call your pastor for info, find information on local battered women’s support agencies, provide backup in facing these things.
* Support her in whatever decision she makes.
If it’s not actually dangerous or illegal, let her go. If you disagree with her decisions, you have the right to say so. Now is not the time to rebuke, however. Anyone can respectfully disagree and offer alternatives. At worst, when it falls apart, she will remember you were worthy of trust. You ain’t her daddy or mommy. She doesn’t have to take your advice. Unless you are, of course. In which case, she still doesn’t have to.
* Set your own limits.
Likewise, this isn’t your daughter (unless it is, of course). You aren’t responsible for her decisions. And let’s face it, homos aren’t the fuzziest folks in the world. They’re messy. You have every right to set firm limits on what help you are willing to offer and even to decide you’ve done all you should. In fact, it’s in your best interests and hers that you set reasonable limits. You should, however, make clear those limits early on.
* You don’t have to accept her homosexuality.
Of course not. This won’t help her in the slightest and if she were able to believe it in the first place then you haven’t been doing your job as a Christian up until now. This shouldn’t even come up but if it does, it has nothing to do with her being abused. Again, this is not the time for shame, rebuke or correction. This is the time to offer support and safety. Quite frankly, this woman must first survive if she is ever to confront her homosexuality.
As simple and cliche as it may be, it’s cliche for a reason: What would Jesus do? To this woman who has been abused, if she showed any humility and faith at all, He would offer love and healing. At the most very least, He would call her to Him. Rebuke is for the wicked and at this moment this woman is not wicked, she is wounded. If you call yourself by His name then do as He would do.
This post is one I’ve been wanting to present for some time but the woman who inspired it has only recently sought help. Until now both she and her lover were aware of my blog. Posting this would have betrayed a trust and likely prompted abuse for her confiding in me. For the past two months this woman has come to me for support because she felt I was the only person who she knew would care. She believed this not because I’m an especially kind person but because I have always rebuked her wickedness and chastised her for her homosexuality while encouraging her to do what is right. I have consistently offered help in escaping her abusive relationship and in overcoming her homosexuality through Christ. I’ve even faced her abuser on a number of occasions because of this, one of which came to blows. I did none of those things of myself but because God is with me.
And I believe that is what earned her trust. Not me but God working in me. So this is what I encourage in other Christians. That they let God work through them, in humility and without fear, to minister to those who most need Him.
So. Gustav was a complete wuss. I was totally unimpressed. I dunno if Katrina is just a hard act to follow or if I’m just a tough audience. Regardless, we “weathered out the storm” pretty much from our front porch with a big ole mug of coffee. Lots of ohs and ahs. I love a good storm, after all.
So the worst passes and it’s all over but the whining and we head inside. Bath, a little snack, some cuddles and I head for the computer…
POP! Transformer blows out in the alley and the lights go out on our little show. Oh, well, I figure. They were prepared for much worse, they should have the lights on quick enough. Still, I found it pretty funny that this happened after the worst of the weather, when conditions outside were more or less those of your average bad storm, with a few impressive gusts thrown in for variety.
We went to sleep hot and sweaty with no a.c. but, hey, no big thang.
This morning we’re starting to wonder what’s the deal? Come noon we’re getting properly irritated. Early this evening, before everything closed down, we report the outage for the umpteenth time and start putting the local city officials to earning their tax dollars with a few phone calls.
What do we find out? Entergy, the unimaginatively named electrical company, has apparently redirected all their trucks elsewhere and the entire city of Bogalusa is being serviced by…five guys in pickup truck. At least, this is the only information we could dig up and it was confirmed by another source amongst the bevy of city officials.
Now is when I see my hubby get good and properly furious for the first time in a while. Off he stomps to the front porch to plot dire consequence. You’ll understand if I retreated to the periphery.
When he returned, I witnessed something pretty interesting.
He called the Entergy number, just to confirm we hadn’t missed anything and that there was, in fact, absolutely no information available nor any means of contacting someone to get it. Then he called customer service, got someone on the line expecting to talk about our bill, wrangled a supervisor out of them and lit into them for about 45 minutes. He took down their name, pinned them down as saying, specifically, that they won’t confirm or deny that there were any trucks working in the city at all and, in fact, that the company wouldn’t give out any information. He even said, specifically, that he found it hard to believe that there was no work going on but, considering we were told that all involved (including Entergy) were well prepared this time, the storm was far less intense than expected and that few people in our city had actually lost power, he wondered why it was supposed to take “three or four days” to get power up again. Even Katrina only knocked us out for little more than a couple of weeks. And once the roads were cleared of trees and debris (I’ll point out, mostly by rednecks with chainsaws who were tired of waiting for the city workers to get around to it), of which we had practically none this time, the lights all over the city were on in less than two days.
He ended the call with a few last questions: Did Entergy have anyone available at all to answer customer concerns in regards to power outages? Nope.
Then did Entergy have anyone on the payroll charged with providing such information to the local radio and television stations? Yep.
Can we speak to that person? Well…no.
But if we speak to the local radio and television stations, they’ll have the information that Entergy has decided not to share with their customers directly, right? Yep. Sure. Of course.
So, just so you know, he said, we’ll be calling the local radio stations as well as WDSU, WVUE, etcetera to get that information. Also, we’ll be informing them that not only are officials in the city of Bogalusa saying there are only five workers with no equipment assigned to the whole city but Entergy refuses even to confirm or deny this and won’t even answer the question whether there are any trucks in the city at all.
Our lights were back on in exactly one hour and thirteen minutes. He timed it.
Just a quick post here. Here’s a time-lapse vid of the DNC Sheets of Shame protest sign going up. It’s pretty cool! 
And a close-up view, even.
You guys rock! That’s pretty darned awesome!
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