Bonus Post: "abomination"

Abomination: "something regarded with disgust and loathing."

I saw a video today of a woman being extremely cruel to a lesbian couple. Her words were filled with hatred, with violence, and with the threat of hell; and to her these were the words of “God”. Our core narrative of who and how “God” is has gone heart wrenchingly awry, and is very much a result of centuries of misunderstanding and misinterpreting scripture through the lens of false “power” and unhealthy ego.

It seems to be time, sweet loves, to enter the art of pondering, of truly pausing and taking a long, loving look at what is, and asking ourselves some very difficult and also heart freeing questions... Be aware, though, that as you ask these questions and truly ponder, the "heart freeing" will first be weeping the tears of grief as you beginning to understand the harm that was and is done "in the name of God". Your willingness to see and to feel is holy. This weeping, though, beloved, is the art of allowing your tears to baptize you into new life, into a new way of seeing and of being in the world and is so intensely needed.

Looking back within translations and devastating mistranslations of scripture, by the seeking of false power, we discover the "abomination" told in relations to "homosexuality" was actually originally linked to the "abomination of sexual violence" no matter the gender of the people (so NOT homosexuality). For truth to be "true" it is true EVERYWHERE and cannot be owned but can only be lived.... Where "love" where "God" cannot be found: in the act of violence; in the act of sexual violence, for violence and sexual violence is an abomination and I loathe it. That is not to say that God is not present, God is weeping with and holding the one suffering and heartbroken over the narrative that allowed the violence to take place at all.

I found myself weeping at my typewriter as I pondered this and allowed myself to see how mistranslations purposely allowed for human beings to be thrown into "hell", not by God, but by the obsession with false "power" creating a world that got more upset by homosexuality than about violence, or sexual violence, which is rape. Our culture has become numb to violence, more concerned with owning guns than with the children killed by them and that is just one example.

Two things come to mind here, one is the reality that a person who committed sexual violence is praised and elected, thusly really supporting this thesis of the twisting and twisted "abomination" where a horrifying mistranslation aided in creating a culture that was more scared of homosexuality than it was of violence or rape. The other is the paradox that the violence was and is so very often committed onto the queer community “in the name of God”. and Jesus wept.

Let me be very clear, 2SLQBTQIA+ relationships and marriages that are rooted in love, in connection, in sacred peace and communication reflect the image of love, of deeply and beautifully living, just as straight relationships ..... relationships that are rooted in violence in word or deed no matter what gender or sex cause deep and horrible pain.

Violence and sexual violence are an abomination. War is an abomination. Cruelty is an abomination. None of these descriptors can lead towards love, towards community, towards following life, following how Jesus lived... it’s quite simple, really... the hard part is the needed weeping and grieving for how we have all been complicit to this system of hatred disguised as love and safety, and yet we must have mercy because we simply didn’t know this truth within our depths, for we were not taught it.

I will add here, that even if scripture was translated saying “homosexuality is an abomination” (which it doesn’t say), it’s time to speak out and say that phrase is wrong; homosexuality is not an abomination the human experience has taught me so, just as it has taught me that my clothes can be made out of more than one fabric, I can eat pork, and seizures are not a “demon” but a medical condition. Human experience has shown me that violence is an abomination and that mercy and love, no matter from whom or what religion or none at all cultivates peace, connection and community, all needed for living life.

Love. God is love. Love looks like tender compassion, cherishing, mending and delighting in our living God/the sacred dance of loving who always invites us into mercy, into connection, into deep listening and the power of unlearning for as we get release our clinched fists, we can get lost within our unlearning and we can now begin to be found in the expansive newness that is always inviting us into our lives in new and beautiful ways of human’ing. May we have the courage to “get lost” and unlearn together and bring forth the love that is always longing to be lived.

Grace and Peace, Friends.