Sunday 28 June 2015

All The Feels



Humans attempted to test God, and asked Him how much He loves us, so He stretched out His arms, said 'this much', and then died. In the form of Jesus, God came to Earth to tell us that loving Him, and loving our neighbour are the two most important rules. The Old Testament is brilliant for history, and is so incredibly encouraging in the way that it foretells Jesus' coming, but the vengeful God of the Old Testament is moved on from in the form of our friend, the Son of Man. However, people decide to use certain passages from the Old Testament to attack homosexuality, an in essence not love their neighbour. Even in the New Testament much of what is written against homosexuality was written by the likes of Paul, members of the first church. Now don't get me wrong, they knew Jesus personally, everything they have to say is inspiring, and ought to be read, and they should be praised for their brave preaching in the face of adversity. BUT, they're not God, or Jesus, they are Christians ultimately sharing their own human interpretations. In verses near those against homosexuality, there are also verses against divorce, but in much of the Western world at least that is legal.

Therefore, love ultimately won when Jesus died for us to save us from our sins, and as an extension of that, (marriage) equality is also love winning.
Those I spent time in church with in Texas were conservative in their beliefs, and on Facebook have openly projected distaste for the new laws in America. They all promote love for their neighbour though, and aren't attacking homosexuals viciously. I think that's because they remember what we all must do; we all sin, and only God can judge. We are equal in our sin, and even though human punishments rank sins, God does not, sexual sin is no better or worse than any other sin.

In my opinion, this whole map should be dark green showing that the entire world has legalised marriage equality. I think that if a country wants to have laws they should at most be the 10 commandments, with the two greatest ones being to love your God and love your neighbour a national anthem if you will. However, not everyone's a Christian like me so I understand that will never happen, but really those commandments are the basics, and I believe the rest should be left to everyone else's personal relationship with God. He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us, we can definitely discuss things like sexuality with Him without having to worry about being turned away.

In a world of so much terror and hatred, I think the legalities of love should be one of the last things on the to-do list, love is all you need, and it should be something we all have in whatever form we wish. At the end of the day, marriage isn't a sacrament for everyone, it is just a paper signing legal ceremony, and that should be as ok between a people of different genders as it is between people of the same genders, as should a more spiritual ceremony.

If you really are freaking out though, Buzzfeed has compiled a useful list about all the 'horror' that may now ensue: http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/what-happens-now#.ql3R9pJN8.

Saturday 6 June 2015

I don't have a Mental Illness, I have Quirks

Last night I was watching 'Have I Got News For You', one of my favourite satirical television shows. At the end they showed a fitting tribute to a regular guest, Charles Kennedy. He was a Liberal Democrat politician, quick-witted, intelligent, caring man that unfortunately died due to a hemorrhage related to his problems with alcohol. Addiction, is a mental illness, and these events got me thinking about a short post I put on an old blog that I thought I would share here.



'I have a tattoo with yellow on it to represent the ribbon for suicide awareness, one person I know who committed suicide was paranoid schizophrenic, two were depressed. I know of others who've suffered mental illnesses, and are close to them. I look back at my life and I’m pretty sure I can pinpoint moments in which I have been depressed, I have the scars to prove it.
We’re all just like you but with something extra.
It is hard and difficult and draining and exhausting and down right destroying at it’s worst but at it’s best, going so low can only make the highs, even the small ones, that much higher. It breaks me to have people I love hurt so much and to die, it upsets them that I hurt myself but I wouldn’t change any of it; it made us stronger as individuals and in our relationships and now I have a few more people to help me through the pearly gates when it’s my time and to be my guardian angels until then.
We’re all just like you but with something extra.'

Be vigilant, don't be afraid or too lazy to check on someone you think may be suffering, you could literally save a life.

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