Monday, July 07, 2003
(11:42 PM) | Anonymous:
The Gay Blade
Okay, before the winds of rumor begin to run amok with this title, its origins should be made known.
When I received my copy of Charles Bukowski's Hot Water Music inclosed was a copy of a nice little tract authored by the infamous Jack T. Chick entitled "The Gay Blade" feel free to read it at the site, it's really pretty entertaining.
Anyways, at one point I took it into my neighbor Richard's room, where a certain Brett Smith took it and began yelling its contents outside of the window in a desperate attempt to save the poor, gay, souls of those walking past. I think much good was done that day.
What brings this to mind currently is another book I'm reading, The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay. In this amazing book one of the characters just happened to take a "gay turn." It caught me rather off guard, and with much regret I must note that it suddenly made me enjoy the book a whole lot less.
Please don't get me wrong..I'm not a bigot. I don't make fun of homosexuals or tell jokes about them to friends, I don't act differently around homosexuals, I really, honestly, think I am far from qualifying as a "homophobe." It's not that I'm scared of gays, or frightened or anything..the reaction I have really is most akin to the reaction I have when someone says "Yeah..I'm not really into sports." There's still a possibility for friendship or whatever else, but I grow somewhat disappointed that at least one major point of conversation and daily life is not in play. Really this fleshes itself out most in "gay" media..good movies like L.I.E. or Before Night Falls or anything shown on The Sundance Channel instantly seem downgraded in my mind because of "gay" plots. I'm sorry.
The comparison to not liking sports seems ludicrous, I'm sure..but if I'm to be perfectly honest, as only one posting to a weblog can be, I think it is this loss of a common reference point that is the guts of my reaction. I'm not filled with an instant hate or fear or disgust for homosexual people, so much as the apathy that comes with not having things in common, I guess.
Now that I've hopefully explained myself enough to not receive hate mail, let me get to what I actually wanted to talk about, briefly.
I'm tired of arguing the gay issue. Okay? Is that cool? There are also many other issues I'm tired of arguing. Evolution vs. Creation...the First 7 Chapters of Genesis...Capital Punishment...War..any of it. I despise "the issues." (This is probably not good for someone about to graduate with a political science degree.)
But the thing is, what's the best one can hope for through argument? Silent submission of the other person? What does that gain? You "beat" them...You win...but, it's about as worthwhile or beneficial as spending 18 hours to beat Rampage on the NES only to be shown a black screen with "Congratulations" in white letters. NOTHING IS GAINED.
And yet, this is exactly how most Christians seem to think the "battle for souls" will be won. If we can just beat enough people into submission through our superior facts and reasoning, we win the game. But even in the one meaningful argument in your lifetime where you actually convince the other person you are right, what do you win? The cause of Christ certainly doesn't win that way, because "The World" still controls the game.
The only way to actually make a difference in the world, the only way, I dare say, to follow Christ, is to stop playing the world's game. We don't need to "beat" the world, that's what Christ did. And in so doing he set up an entirely different structure based on love. To continue under the world's structure is to attempt to succeed where Christ "failed" on the cross, and any attempt at that will fail miserably. Instead, the job of the Christian is to follow Christ in the path of love, rejecting the games of the world.
What does that mean for practical everyday life?
Well, maybe we stop arguing whether someone is born gay or makes the choice and we simply love people, gay or straight. I don't know any way to prove homosexuality either way, so maybe I can just give up that frivolous debate whose only purpose is to draw me away from Christ-like love for all people.
Maybe instead of debating whether the big bang happened, or whether the first 7 chapters of Genesis are historically correct, we can stop being so concerned with proving historicity, and start being concerned with truth. I remember reading Black Elk Speaks last year and being blown away at a certain passage. He gets done telling a creation story central to the entire culture of the Native American people, and then simply says "Whether this happened or not, I do not know, but one can certainly see that it is true." Why must truth hang on historicity? Instead of working into hate filled arguments over whether God actually breathed the breath of life into a clay-borne Adam, why can't we drop the arguments and live by the Godly love implicit in that action?
The examples could go on, but against my promise I have gone real long again. The thing is this...I don't want to debate what happened and who did it, and all the scientific evidence supporting thereof. I simply want to stop playing the games of the world and pursue the "wholly other" to cop a phrase Kotsko has burrowed from Lacan (I think) from time to time. I don't want to worship a Christ who is so much bigger, stronger and mightier than the world..I want to worship one who is wholly and holy other than it.
And yet here I am making an argument for love.
DANGIT!
-Robb
