No Survivor Thursday

At least I have Thursday lunch with Shannon to look forward to.

Made it to the gym every morning this week until today. The first thing I heard when the alarm went off was thunder and rain. Not much of a motivator. So I got out of bed anyway and did some yoga. Well, my poorly executed versions of 5 or 6 postures, anyway. Flexibility and me are not friends, no, we are not. The fact that “Mountain Pose” is awkward for me is evidence of this. For those of you who don’t know what “Mountain Pose” is, it’s basically standing up straight. It was better than nothing and it kept me on a schedule, despite blowing off the cardio. I even actually feel a little burn from the stretching.

Tonight we’re going to see the Matrix Reloaded with a group of folks from my office. Were it not for the social element we wouldn’t have rushed out to see this on opening day but I think it will be fun. It will also be a nice segue into my Survivorless summer.

I got irritated earlier this week by an online journaler who posted a fairly hateful entry about the sinful nature of homosexuality. The gist of her entry was that homosexuality is “obviously wrong because the parts don’t fit together.” Usually, this kind of thing on the Web doesn’t faze me at all. In this case, the entry came from someone who participates in a forum I post to frequently and because the other big crux of her entry was about abortion (and you can imagine how she feels about that), it created a tremendous amount of pain and drama in a discussion forum that is always fun and free of trolls and petty bullshit. It’s hard to find a forum on the Web that doesn’t devolve into squabbling chatter, so it was icky, to say the least. Especially since there were obviously a lot of hurt feelings going on. And I actually like these people.

Anyway, I can’t link to any of this because the journal entry in question has been removed and the journal has now been password protected, which to me, is one of the feeblest responses to criticism I’ve ever seen. And I could go on about that too but it isn’t my point. The thing that got to me about this entry is that the woman posting it has recently found God and her discovery of God is changing her life in powerful ways. So she’s sharing. Unfortunately, somewhere in her personal discovery of God she has learned/decided that God approves or disapproves of certain things/behaviors and that she should also approve or disapprove of those behaviors as well, not only for herself, but for others.

I fail to understand how very often, a person’s personal faith journey leads them to the conclusion that their interpretation of God’s word matters to anyone else. Or that somehow, in order to “take up your cross and follow,” you have to announce loudly to the world that you believe this, this, this and this are wrong and that this is the RIGHT way to live — all else will burn. Why does your belief that homosexuality is a sin have any bearing on my life? And how is calling me a sinner an act of faith for you? How does voting against my right to marry or my right to avoid discrimination in the workplace make you a better Christian? I missed this installment in the “What Would Jesus Do?” program apparently.