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Abandoning my deviantArt account.
1 min read
It's become a hassle to keep up with, and tumblr has basically replaced it.
Which means I'm also retiring this persona forever. There's been a stream of people that have known me from all sorts of websites using this same username. I no longer use this username, and I haven't linked to any other social media. By retiring this account I'm also cutting off the continuing individuality this username has given me on the interblag, and taking up the yolk of my real identity.
A select few of you have other contact information. If you think you deserve other contact information, note me. But it's very exclusive, mind you. If you know me in real life then just talk to me face-to-face like a normal person. I'll probably shove my tumblr in your face either way.
I guess that's it. I'll be checking my notifications for maybe about a month? Then I'll delete this account.
Which means I'm also retiring this persona forever. There's been a stream of people that have known me from all sorts of websites using this same username. I no longer use this username, and I haven't linked to any other social media. By retiring this account I'm also cutting off the continuing individuality this username has given me on the interblag, and taking up the yolk of my real identity.
A select few of you have other contact information. If you think you deserve other contact information, note me. But it's very exclusive, mind you. If you know me in real life then just talk to me face-to-face like a normal person. I'll probably shove my tumblr in your face either way.
I guess that's it. I'll be checking my notifications for maybe about a month? Then I'll delete this account.
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Preface: I don't believe homosexuality is a sin. But, as with anything in my religion, I will not cite 100% certainty. The rest of this journal is hypothetical, and will stay faithfully to the idea that homosexuality is a sin. I mean no offense to anyone, either LGBTQ's or those who oppose homosexuality.
So, homosexuality is a sin. Nevermind whether people are born that way or choose to be that way; it doesn't really matter. People are born psychopaths, too, but that doesn't justify their acts.
The question is, what do we do about it? How do we combat the sinfulness of homosexuality? Do we lobby? Do we picket and boycott and protest? Do we shame and humiliate?
Well, about the law. What does the law say about other sins? Let's go down the Commandments, for things we know are sins:
1: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Is disobeying this illegal? No; in fact, Americans are guaranteed the right to have other gods before the Lord.
2: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Once again, the government cannot stop us from doing this.
3: Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. Another right we're guaranteed: free speech. And individuals and media use that right out the wazoo. If the third commandment were illegal, 98% of the country would be in jail.
4: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Most people don't even get the first part right; the majority of Christians forget that sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday. This obviously isn't illegal, seeing how many people work on both of those days.
5: Honor thy father and thy mother. Not illegal.
6: Thou shalt not kill. Finally, one with a law to back it.
7: Thou shalt not commit adultery. Sometimes worthy of a lawsuit or divorce, but not criminal and not just because it's adultery. Look at all the premarital sex and you can tell it's perfectly legal.
8: Thou shalt not steal. Illegal.
9: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Illegal in court, and slander and libel are both illegal, but lying in general is perfectly fine. You know it is, because guess who's making the laws? Politicians!
10: Thou shalt not covet. Not illegal.
So we have two, maybe three, maybe four out of the ten that can be considered illegal or restricted. Obviously the government doesn't care what is and isn't a sin, so what makes homosexuality any different? At the end of the day, even if it's a sin, we have no right to create a law about it.
So, no laws. What do we do, then? We hate and humiliate them, right?
Well, what do we do here with other sins? We obviously hate murderers, thieves, and rapists; but these are all Commandments, presumably more important than the other laws set forth in the Bible. Lesser sins typically don't get as harsh a reaction. But, you must ask, are we even justified in hating committers of major sins? What would Jesus do?
Jesus preached to and blessed thieves. He traveled with prostitutes. He defended adulterers. Jesus talked about love and acceptance. If he had just been another rabbi saying "This is a sin! You should feel ashamed!" then he wouldn't be a very good Messiah, would he?
Jesus recognized something important: Telling people what they do is bad, doesn't necessarily keep them from doing it. And even if it does, what have you accomplished? They're no longer doing sinful acts, but they're still thinking sinful thoughts--and that alone is a sin. The only way to cleanse them entirely of their sin is through Salvation, and the only way to lead them to Salvation is to accept them and love them, to show them the love that God offers to them.
So, is homosexuality a sin? Does it matter? We all sin. It's part of our nature. If Christians were meant to hate and exclude all sinners, there would be exactly 0 people in the Christian church. Because it's not the healthy that need healing.
It's not freedom from sin that we're wishing on other people, because that's a really really hard thing. It's Salvation. And whether or not something is a sin shouldn't be our concern. If a sinner goes to God, God will tell them that they are sinning and what they should do. If their love is wrong, God will tell them that they are wrong and guide them and help them to overcome it. If it's not, it's not our problem.
Folks, I feel like crying when I hear stories of LGBTQ people--some of them my friends--afraid to go to church. Afraid of Christians. Afraid of Christ. This obviously isn't what we want to strive for. At the end of the day, you really need to ask yourself one question: would you rather have a gay Christian, or a gay atheist? Because that's the only choice you're given.
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A whole lot of it is due to being piled with stress and work and other responsibilities (plus clubs and being a lot more social). Another part is that I've gotten worse and have really gotten tired of practicing. And drawing was always a temporary thing for me, anyway--I'm definitely not passing quality, don't have the discipline to get to passing quality, and I greatly prefer writing as a means of expression.
I'll probably pick it up again eventually. Maybe as college rolls in. If not, no big loss. I'm definitely not giving up on Amalgam, either way. I've considered for a long time working with an artist, and giving him simple sketches and descriptions of what I want to see. But I also might novelize it, as the story wouldn't lose too much without the visual aspect.
But what I'm saying is that maybe this will transition away from being an art-producing account and more toward and art-consuming one, at least for now. Consider unfollowing me if you want.
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On feminism.
3 min read
I know I'm gonna get flak for this, but this post has been building up for far too long. Frankly, I'm tired of feminists acting like women are the only ones that are oppressed. Because:
1. Women are allowed to wear pants and tee-shirts and short hair, but men are not allowed to wear skirts or dresses or frills or pink or purple. Only men can be transvestites--why is that?
2. If we're getting rid of objectifying females in society, we're getting rid of boybands and teen-boy musicians. Because they're exactly the same thing.
3. I've never heard of a lesbian or bisexual female being stigmatized by anyone that's not a family member or a Baptist/Catholic clergyman. I'm sorry, I'm sure it's happened, but the fact that I've never heard of it implies that it can't be as common as stigma against gays, which is everywhere.
4. Ask a man what celebrities he thinks are hot, and he'll probably stop at Megan Fox. Maybe a couple others. Ask a woman? Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downy Jr., Ryan Gosling, Hugh Jackman… and those are just names that have been burned into my memory. The list goes on and on and on.
5. Men are always expected to be masculine, lest they be seen as "gay." The only rules for women are don't sit spread-eagle in a skirt and… I honestly can't think of any others off the top of my head. Maybe don't have awful manners (i.e. burp, chew with mouth open, etc), but that's true for both sexes and, for both sexes, not always enforced.
6. Women still expect chivalry from men. Doors held open, chairs pulled out, favors given. Men often still happily do these things.
7. Feminists often complain that female animated characters are either attractive or fit in some role such as the nerd or the witch or some such. They don't take a moment to notice that men are treated the same--they're either lean and at least semi-muscular, or they're the fat one, the nerd, the old man, or something like that. It's no different.
8. When women complain about being oppressed or stigmatized, a crowd of feminists will come to comfort them. When men have equally valid points, a crowd of feminists will come to shoot them down.
As with all things, I think we should stop fighting cultural preference for one group with cultural preference for the opposite group. People should have pride because they are people, not because they fall in some minority or oppressed group. Otherwise, we end up with problems for people who can't help but be heterosexual heteroromantic cisgender cissexual Christian white males.
This is mostly venting. I apologize if I offended anyone needlessly, but I kind of had to get this out.
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Let's get something straight right now.
Freedom of religion means that the government will do nothing to prevent any expression of religion so long as that expression does not break any other law.
Freedom of religion does not, does not, does not mean that the government has to take down any religious monument, text, or frigging headstone that is displayed anywhere on government property. On the contrary; it means that the government is not allowed to remove such expressions of religion.
For those who don't know what the Freedom From Religion Foundation is, it's an organization founded on a misunderstanding of the above. Their entire existence is devoted to suing the government and different organizations for expressing their freedom of religion (while simultaneously running ads and what-nots promoting atheism, which is the exact same thing as promoting religion). As far as I know they have never won a lawsuit, but I'm willing to be proven wrong (I haven't looked it up, I've just never heard of them winning anything like that). It seems like, by now, they'd get it through their thick heads that what they're doing doesn't make any sense and is not backed by the Constitution or any law ever passed in the U.S. And they say atheists are smarter...
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