California Bible Ban
May 3, 2013
Will Jesus freaks be locked up in mental institutions for "speaking to the sky" after the Bible is banned?
Sounds dramatic, but that's what a lot of believers across America and overseas are wondering after California's recent onslaught of new gay rights laws on top of an increased animosity toward devout religious conservatives.
The most polarizing of the new laws is the California Gay Conversion Therapy Law, which bans state licensed therapists from administering gay-to-straight therapy to anyone under 18 years of age.
No surprise that the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has put a temporary halt to this new law, which was originally slated for 2013, in order to first examine its constitutionality.
The state giveth a license to practice, though, and the state taketh away.
If this particular law goes into full effect, state licenses will be at stake when a state-licensed professional counselor violates state law by simply offering options to teenagers.
State --- but not Church.
The new law would not ban ministers and religious lay people from such counseling to minors with sexual preference/identity issues. Christians, Jews and Muslims can still freely pray-away-the-gay if they so choose.
The next gubernatorial election is November 2014. Those who don't like this governor's gay-friendly style are free to organize and vote Moonbeam out of office.
The Internet has become a war zone again between Bible lovers and Bible bashers over this new California law. Some out-of-state preachers are even calling for the judgment of Sodom to rain down on California.
According to some, there is a conspiracy among various factions working together on an evil agenda, and "greedy corporations are behind it all." That's what you will hear from many believers today.
Going with that flow, wouldn't the best solution be to refrain from purchasing anything coming from a corporation? Shut off that electricity, water, gas, cable, sewer and Internet, and throw out the TV, computer and cell phone.
Don't drive a vehicle, stop buying gasoline, make your own clothes and roll your own toilet paper. Start planting food crops and pray like crazy for rain. Better start chopping wood for heating and forget about any AC.
Not easy to do, is it? Human life has its difficulties for every one of us.
In the 21st century, it is much easier to be a sinner than a saint. Living a pure, sanctified and holy life today is uphill. That goes for all of us.
Don't believe people are born gay? Okay, that's cool, but wouldn't believers at least agree that we are ALL born in sin? Hasn't every human sinned and come short of the glory of God?
It's either true or it's not.
Apparently, we each have our own cross to lug around, like it or not. We each have our own personal journey. Surely, we can throw an occasional smile out there for another who struggles.
I am not a gay apologist nor am I homosexually-oriented, but I do know that I started out in the womb as female, then changed to male a few weeks later due to a hormonal surge.
All male humans are transgender by the time they are born. Medical fact, not opinion.
Do I know every nuance of the hows and whys? No, and I really don't care that much. This life is a long series of classes anyway. We will graduate and move onto our professions in The Great Beyond, based on lessons learned here.
God wastes nothing.
Look around you. Everything you see came from rocks, dirt, sand and dust. All of it is presently returning to that state, including these bodily vehicles that get us from point A to point B. Temporary, disposable, recyclable.
Bible believers are aware that in Heaven, there will be no marriage or sex. We will exist as the angels do. Average earthly marriage vows are only "til death do us part" and no further.
Who's gay and who's not? Who cares and why? A boring distraction, but it sells a lot of tabloids at the supermarket checkout.
The truth is that we all have urges. Urges to steal, kill, destroy, lie, cheat, and "do it" with half the sexy people on TV, in movies, or at work. Do we act on every urge?
For the most part, no, because we have so many other things to attend to.
Most gays and lesbians I've met in 47 years of California life aren't grabbing everyone they see. They can act on impulses or not. They have brains in their heads just like straight folks do.
Rain the judgment of Sodom down on California? Bring it on, dude. Make it rain up in here, bro.
Read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah again. Closely. What is glaring is that both cities were selfish, greedy, lacked self-control, turned a deaf ear to the poor and starving, and were psychopathically abusive to out-of-town visitors.
The biblical description of Sodom and Gomorrah sounds more like places crazed on drugs, narcissism and greed than anything else. Yes, the people were totally into weird desires, but wow.
They foolishly consumed their own collective future in ignorance and were left at a dead end every which way they turned.
Sorry, but doesn't this scene apply to a multitude of cities around the world? California does not have a monopoly on this subject. Not by a long shot.
The Bible warns against pointing out the speck in another's eye when we have a log in our own eye. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Do either of these statements sound familiar to anyone?
Judging others totally sucks.
I hope every gay person reads this next section, along with every professing follower of every spiritual faith:
Jesus never pointed a finger at people nor singled them out in ridicule and condemnation because they felt trapped in a life that wasn't theirs, a body that was the wrong gender, a mind that wouldn't shut up, or a socially unacceptable lifestyle.
Those whom Jesus always confronted, loudly, directly and openly, were hypocritical religious leaders who held people tightly in their sins. Sins are simply mistakes, misjudgments or errors.
As long as some can keep exploiting groups of sinners without ever freeing them, the more money, power and superiority they can continue to extract for their selfish, self-centered selves --- like parasites.
Jesus, The Christ, showed how to constructively liberate individuals from the clutches of religious control, social manipulation and spiritual vampirism. He simply said, "Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more."
He showed people the purest empowerment by freeing them from complex psychological traps. He let people finally exhale. No more walking on eggshells. It is finished. Roll credits.
Let's say the California Legislature manages to write, sponsor, introduce, debate, argue, vote, revise, re-vote, pass, and send a Bible Ban Bill to the governor's desk, and he *gasp* signs that bill into law.
Does that kill God? Does faith stop?
Haven't we absorbed so much of God's words, wisdom and world after a lifetime that it's burned into our subconscious minds and written upon our hearts?
Have we been in a collective coma? Not completely, so take off those chains of fear.
What's to fear? Loss of ritual? Loss of a 501(c)3 tax-exempt status? Who ever said that ministries, churches, synagogues and mosques should be in bed with the government anyway?
Church. State. Separate. Now.
Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and pay the tax, but speak the truth, raise the dead, heal the sick, feed the poor, and usher in the Kingdom of God here on Earth.
Billions of people are seeking personal freedom right now. Kindly get out of their way.
Banning the Bible? Outlawing the Gospel? Go ahead. God will speak through a donkey if He wants to. Been there. Done that. Whatever.
Everyone with money will die. Everyone with power will die. Gay or straight, we will all move on soon enough without these private parts anyway, so what is the big deal?
Why don't we all just ditch this game? We can, you know.
Stop politicizing human "private parts" and start changing the world, people. We have a common adversary and it's definitely not each other.
We are humanity, the artwork of The Creator. Look ahead. Much further ahead. Behold!
If California truly is a leader, then let's lead humankind to the place prepared for us where everyone has their own personal color. Hell is beige. God would have it no other way.
Let's all focus, ignore distractions, face forward and join hands from every shelter, apartment, home, street, block, neighborhood, community, town, city and county in California, marching together across every state, nation, continent...
...and right on into the FUTURE.
Don't Look Back.
