Kevin Porter

Figuratively, I have been running away from my parents in the recent past. I have essentially abandoned the ideals, principles, and other things that I had been taught and took for granted. I always thought that the statement “ignorance is bliss” was a little funny, but I now truly appreciate the statement. Along with my venture to attain truth, I have come to the realization that truth might not be fun to live with, necessarily. I will expound on this.

Although I would expect that any maturing teenager will at some point dump certain ideals that his or her parents taught him or her, I have been told by many a friend and confidant that I have gone above and beyond the call of the typical teenager’s idea rebellion. Anyhow, you might say that I have categorically ignored the views of my parents and have been searching for the most logical, rational ideas to follow politically, philosophically, and otherwise. This has taken me places that not too long ago I could never have imagined myself in. I live in the “Bible-belt” of the American midwest. My parents are conservative evangelical Christians. Not too long ago, I would have gladly proclaimed that I too was a conservative evangelical Christian and damn proud of it. As you can probably imagine, this is no longer the case.

Why did I change my views? One event led me on a chain of events, taking me to where I am now. I had been essentially led to believe that gay people were inferior human beings. I had been taught that sexual orientation determined whether God would forgive or curse you. Once I was enlightened to the moral wrongness of this and the irrationality, I began questioning a lot of other things. It is quite ironic, because the doctrine of “childlike faith” I had so believed in was actually the thing that caused me to lose my “childlike faith.”

Ironically, I am right now sharing a story that I find very personal with essentially anyone who wants to read. But, I feel that honesty is one of the best virtues. So, where do I stand now? I am a libertarian. I believe in the freedom to do whatever one wants, so long that it does not affect humans or other creatures negatively. Religiously, I am currently in a bit of a conundrum. I thought I had no faith, but having read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, I realized that I did have faith in God and the Bible still. Now, I cannot say. It is certainly tough, and I will as I always do choose the answer that makes the most logical, rational, and scientific sense. Having read The God Delusion and The Case for Christ, I definitely have a lot on my plate right now.

I will certainly update later on how my internal religious battle is going, but I will not elude to my current thoughts.

Ah, Westboro Baptist Church.  It seems that you and reality have a difficult relationship.  Very difficult indeed.

I have never been a fan of churches that are so staunchly anti-compassionate, and WBC is absolutely the worst offender in this area.  Recently a big stink has been made about their picketing a U.S. marine’s funeral because, apparently, America is going to hell because we have homosexuals.  I really don’t think that I need to explain how absolutely ludicrous this is.

Let me state this briefly.  Homosexuality is as sinful as eating pork.  That’s right.  The book of Leviticus briefly outlines how absolutely impossible it is to follow God’s laws perfectly.  I personally believe that the (often more conservative) folks who quote Leviticus endlessly to prove their points are often off-base.  I would rather not go through an entire post and prove my every statement through quotations, but essentially, it is absolutely hypocritical to follow Leviticus with its condemnation of homosexuality and not follow it in its other mandates (including that one not eat pork and other particular meats).  I also would like to mention that the passage in Leviticus 18 is the only passage in the Bible that is without a doubt arguing against homosexuality.

In essence, homosexuality was not intended by God.  However, that does not mean that it is morally wrong, and I have yet to see real convincing evidence that proves it so.  Quite frankly, even if WBC is so against homosexuals, God does not hate his people.  He created us, and he loves each and every one of us.  Again, I quote John 3:16, which says that God so loved the world.  So God loves a piece of rock?  Of course, God is talking about the people in the world.  This is why he has extended the opportunity for grace to each of us.  Not only is the whole “God hates fags” campaign that WBC runs absolutely intolerant, insensitive, and just deplorable, but it sounds absolutely immature.  They sound like the twelve-year-old kids that run around calling each other fags (a misconstrued usage of the word, too) because they don’t know any better.  It’s sounds absolutely ignorant.

WBC, I believe that your heads may need some massive deflation, and you may want to step out of the clouds for a few minutes and quit your Bible-thumping.  Real Christians are tired of it.