"Thou Shalt Not" - Except for...

I was watching QI just the other day and I heard an interesting little bit about the Ten Commandments. Being one to love hypocrisy, I thought I'd point out some lovely little hypocrisies from the Bible. While I could take my pick, I'm going to elaborate on the QI one. The piece from the show was as follows;

"Well, in the list of those commandments that were taken down from the mountain, there are actually fourteen in both Exodus and Deuteronomy, not ten, but in Exodus generally speaking there are 613 commandments, including the really important ones which should be, as you say, put in bold, like ‘You shall not suffer a witch to live' or ‘You shall not vex a stranger'…"

Now then. Where shall I start?

"Thou Shalt Not Kill" - It is made explicitly clear by the commandments that murder is a big no no. However in Exodus, as pointed out by QI, there is a commandment which states that "you shall not suffer a witch to live." So what do you have to do the uphold this commandment? Simple; kill her. Oh, but wait, thou shalt not kill. Hmmm, bit of a pickle. I'll let you figure that one out. Oh, and just to add, right after Moses received the commandments, he proceeded to have half of his tribe killed. Seriously Moses, what did God just get through telling you? Oh, and the crusades. And the Inquisition. And every other murder committed in the name of God. And in America, the states that have large Christian base tend to favour the death penalty. I don't think He's happy.

"Thou Shalt Not Make Any Graven Images" and "Thou Shalt Keep Holy the Sabbath" - I've put these together for one reason; I have been asked how I can worship God properly if I'm not in church. Well, I'll tell you. He's everywhere. So I do keep the Sabbath day holy because on Sundays I always send up a prayer. But there are some people who would say I'm doing it wrong because I'm not in a church. I say this to these people; the church is full of graven images. That doesn't bother me in the slightest. But to the ultra religious, I ask this; to successfully uphold the "Sabbath" commandment, do I have to go somewhere that is breaking the "graven images" commandment. Again I'll leave that with you to decide.

What do Christians look like?

I was on the metro this morning and two middle aged women sat opposite me. They were obviously friends (or extremely polite strangers) as they were having quite the conversation. I was reading my book so I don't really know what the conversation was about, but I can tell you that it wasn't about religion. Nothing they said on that train was about religion (why is that relevant? It'll soon be explained.) As the sun was shining through the windows, the metro basically became a green house and, as such, I had my coat unfastened. I didn't have it off. It is only February. As my coat was unfastened, the small silver cross I wear was on show and could easily be seen and I could feel eyes on me. I looked up and the two women hurriedly looked away from me and returned to their conversation.

As the metro pulled into Sunderland, the two women stood up to get off and as they walked away from me I heard one say to her friend,"You know, people shouldn't wear crosses if they don't believe in God." I'm sure you're confused by this statement. I can assure you, I was. But I didn't have time to question anything as they had already got off the metro. As they hadn't mentioned religion any time before that, it couldn't simply be an expansion of a conversation. As they were sitting opposite me, could see my cross, and blatantly stared at me, I can only assume this statement was about me.

Why did they assume that I don't believe in God? Did they think I was too young and, that because the majority of my generation believe religion to be a lot of mumbo jumbo, I must think that too? Or was it because my bag is the shape and design of vampire fangs and thus I must be evil? Or was it because I had purple jeans and two different colour shoelaces and thus someone as colourful as me cannot possible believe in the normally conservative religion of Christianity.

Clearly, as I am not a middle aged man who carries a Bible under one arm and holy water in another, I cannot possibly be a Christian. How can someone tell if you're religious or not from just looking at you? Short answer, and in fact the only answer is, they can't. And anyway, why shouldn't people wear crosses if they don't believe in God? Some people just think they're pretty and want to wear them. No harm in that.

Personally I think God has more important things to worry about.

Bless me Father for they won't

Before the act was passed, the Church of England was banned from performing same-sex marriages despite a significant majority wishing to perform them. They shouldn't have been banned from performing them; individual churches should have been given the choice to perform them or not but I will rant about this some other time. However, despite same-sex marriage becoming legal, the Church of England have recently announced that they will not even bless the married couple, allow priests to enter same-sex marriages or allow anyone in a same-sex marriage to be ordained.

This saddens me as this means that, should I fall in love with a woman and marry her, I can't marry her in a church nor have my marriage blessed. What kind of message does this give to LGBT Christians in England? I consider myself very fortunate; I have easily reconciled my faith to my sexuality. I love God and He loves me. However, there are too many LGBT Christians who don't have this personal reassurance and this new revelation will not help them. Those already struggling with their sexuality who may turn to the God and the Church for help cannot get an answer from one and have been given a painful answer from the other. The Church of England says often enough that they wish to help the LGBT community but they are not showing it through their actions. How can they say "we are here to help LGBT Christians in their search for God" at the same time as saying "we will not bless this same-sex marriage because we believe it to be wrong" and think they are doing good?

Furthermore, they allow straight priests to marry the opposite sex and anyone in a Heterosexual marriage to be ordained but they do not allow priests to enter a same-sex marriage or allow anyone already in one to be ordained. This is pure discrimination hidden behind religious freedom. Yes, religious freedom is a good thing but it is not an excuse to discriminate based on sexuality. In the Bible, we are told to love one another for we are all Gods children. He created us and He makes no mistakes. So how can the Church of England make the LGBT community feel like a mistake? Were we not born this way? Did God not create us in this way? They like to make us think that we are going against God by loving others of the same sex. But it is they who are going against God by daring to say that He made a mistake when creating us. They call us sinners but they are the biggest sinners of all. 

Lesbian Pride: Bisexuals welcomed

So today I was browsing on Facebook and I saw one of the adverts that always pops up on the side. It was a group that said Lesbian Pride: Bisexuals Welcomed! Join if you're bi and have lesbian pride. 

First of all, I'd like to start off by saying thank you to this group. Too often, Bisexuals are prejudiced against by the one community we are a part of; the LGBT community. Too many people who have experienced prejudice forget that the B exists. They say we are closeted homosexuals too scared to come out, that we are promiscuous, that we are lying. So thank you to this group for saying we are welcome.

However, this group have to stop and think a moment. Why would a Bisexual have Lesbian pride? If they are proud of who they are (as I am myself) surely they would have Bisexual pride? Another example, perhaps, of erasing the B from LGBT. As I am a woman who is attracted to women, some people have asked "are you a lesbian?" The answer is no. Some accept this and some are confused by it. "Yes, but don't you fancy women?" The answer is yes. But that doesn't make me a lesbian. And being attracted to men doesn't make me straight.

So Lesbians; have lesbian pride. More power to you.
Bisexuals; have Bisexual pride because too often we are the only ones who remember we exist.