June 29 2022
Compounding Confusion.
I grew up in simpler times, when there were only male and female, both recognizable as different, something the French celebrated by coining: Vive La Différence. Today we have expanded possibilities:
LESBIAN: Usually refers to a woman who has a romantic and/or sexual orientation toward women.
GAY: Used in some cultural settings to represent men who are attracted to men in a romantic, erotic and/or emotional sense. Not all men who engage in same-gender sexual behavior identify as gay, and as such this label should be used with caution.
BISEXUAL or BI: A person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction to more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree.
TRANSGENDER: A person whose sense of personal identity or gender does not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth, or does not conform to gender stereotypes. Sexual orientation varies and is not dependent on gender identity.
All this is causing confusion.
Not only confusion, but also feelings of concern, accompanied by anxiety, uncertainty, misunderstanding, unhappiness, until a modicum of stability is attained.
It’s difficult for me to understand all this, because, basically, I am not a very intelligent person. You could categories me as a B- guy. I am quite slow in analyzing matters and coming to a conclusion. However, a long life has been an advantage, giving me time to acquire some literary skills, but more important, I have learned to be more tolerant, more understanding, more focused on what really matters, and, since I love the Lord, I have gained a perspective that especially takes his creation into account and sees humanity in its follies and fumbles and foibles, its state of unbelief and aimless searching, as it has abandoned ‘biblical’ directives and failed to find the true focus.
The church?
The church has been right in its “Rapture” stance, predicting the world to end, but wrong in its interpretations, forgetting or ignoring that Noah and his family – all believers then and now – were saved and remained on earth, while the ‘sinners’ then and now were taken away.
That basic mix-up alone has made the church a failed institution. Dr. Lynn White was right when he blamed the church for our climate crisis, outlined in his 1965 essay: The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.
Also, the church’s intolerance on sexual matters and gender inequality has alienated many, including me.
How then should we live?
The perennial question. Fifty years ago, a book, The Limits to Growth, greatly influenced my thinking. It predicted that by 2022, the world would go beyond repair, unless carbon consumption was curtailed. That has not happened, causing one of the original authors to write: “We are now in overshoot. Managed decline has not happened; collapse is in our future.”
For the young people this compounds their confusion. So, they search for answers, and, in their mixed-up state, which is shared by many, try to find focus, and not finding it.
As for me?
I see this life as a proving ground for eternity: we all are in a learning stage. Life is discovery, and the gender issue and sexual orientation are part of that experiment, I believe. We have to find our true self, whether that is emotional, intellectual, sexual, or physical and spiritual. In a way, life is an experiment, a road to explore how to fit into eternity.
I was – again – struck by this when I read Galatians 3: 28 in my morning devotions. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ”.The footnote there says that unity in Christ transcends ethnic, social and sexual distinctions. Perhaps ‘sexual’ here is meant ‘gender’, a common error. In contemporary parlor we could read: There is neither black nor brown, pauper nor billionaire, lesbian nor straight, for we are all one in Jesus Christ.
Compounding confusion is coursing through the masses. We all know or sense that something is amiss, that economic and ecological and religious conditions are beyond remedy: it’s now so purely plugged into contemporary life, that it can no longer change: we simply must manly – not an acceptable word anymore – carry on to the fiery finish.
I live by Jesus’ words, “Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given as well”. (Matthew 6: 33).
I see the ‘kingdom’ as central to my life, and interpret it to mean, seeking the welfare of creation, so, when the New Creation comes, we fit right in.
That’s why Jesus continued to say (verse 34): Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
Those rules do away with confusion.