A couple news stories today show that people can’t handle the truth.
A pastor from Colorado has stepped down from the pulpit because he’s gay.
(Fark headline: “Evangelical megachurch preacher in Colorado admits he’s gay. No, not that preacher, the other one. No, the other other one”)
Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County says,
“I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy… I can’t tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.”
Well, if he understood that being gay is not a choice (an idea Barnes chooses not to accept, opting instead to find the “childhood influences” that lead to his homosexuality), maybe this wouldn’t torment him so much. But still, traditional doctrine can’t change, can it…?
Then again, if he didn’t believe in God, this probably wouldn’t torment him as much either… Incidentally, this is why Richard Dawkins equates religion teaching to child abuse. Thinking at a young age that you’re going to hell because of something you can’t control is akin to mental abuse.
And what “childhood influences” are we talking about? What would influence someone to be gay at the age of five? Sitting on Santa’s lap…?
Speaking of which, a grade school teacher from Britain was fired because she told her nine-year-old students (approximately 4th grade) there is no Santa.
Now, I’m not advocating she should’ve done this. It probably wasn’t in the curriculum. But c’mon. They’re nine. What harm was done? At what age do you tell them the truth?
One student’s mom said, “It’s taken away the magic.”
Yes. That’s exactly what is supposed to happen with magic. Magic looks real, but it actually isn’t. The fun of magic is trying to figure out the secret.
It’s one thing to withhold the secret if people know there’s something behind it. But what good does it do to children to let them think magic is real?
Wouldn’t they be better off in life knowing that there is an explanation for many improbable events and they may just not know it yet?
If anything, this teacher just made her students more intelligent.
This winter, they will be questioning how those presents get under the tree. That kind of critical thinking is essential in life.
[tags]Colorado, pastor, Fark, Evangelical, megachurch, Paul Barnes, Grace Chapel, Douglas County, God, Richard Dawkins, atheism, Christian, Britain, Santa, magic[/tags]