Where Oh Where Has the Blogger Gone?

I know I have a limited audience for the blog (consisting of my wife and maybe two or three other people, but who’s counting?), but I have to say I miss getting my point across. The truth is I’ve been writing, just not here. I’ve made comments over the past couple years that I’ve wanted to write a book. It’s been dream for about a decade, actually, yet I could never discipline myself enough to start writing. However, that’s changed recently. About two or three months ago, while I was taking my normal lunch walk across Silver Bridge into Newport, Kentucky, I got an idea for a fictional story that got me excited, and it also wrenched at my heart. When I came home and pitched the story to Jenn, she jumped on board and told me to go for it. Ever since she told me it was a good idea, I’ve been working on it, baby steps at first but now I’ve become much more disciplined in how much time I spend writing. I’ve set goals for how many words a day I write, and, as a result, my blog entries are down. I love writing. It’s become a passion of mine, and right now I’m passionate about finishing this first manuscript before I start school in January. I hope and pray that this story I’m writing will be published one day and will touch a lot of hurting souls.

I have a lot of other random thoughts to post as well. Here goes:

A. The political campaigns this year are making me sick. It seems like the Democrats are going even more left than they already are, and the Republicans are more to the right. Why can’t we have a party that mixes the best ideals of both sides?

B. I find it interesting how so many people are trying to get “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” repealed, people who have no idea how life in the military would be affected by it. Even the upper echelon officers who are for it don’t have a clue. Why? Because they rarely, if ever, have had to share a close confined space with anyone else who may or may not be gay while in the military. The only exceptions may be while they were at the academy. They’ve always had their own rooms or just one roommate since they were commissioned. That is why it’s important to note that it’s been reported that most Chief Petty Officers are against the repeal. They’ve had to live in close quarters conditions throughout their careers and understand the privacy issues at stake here. My point is that so many people are trying to take care of the interests of the minority in this respect, but what about the interests of the majority? Do they not matter? I remember sharing a berthing onboard the USS Supply with eighty-seven - let me say it again: eighty-seven - other men, some of whom we knew were gay. It was very difficult. Why? Because we didn’t have privacy. There was one guy whose rack was right across from mine. His name - I kid you not - was Casanova. One day we had both just come out of the shower, and he looked across the aisle at me and stared at my “area” as I was getting my uniform on, then proceeded to make inappropriate comments to me about his genitals. I was very angry, and a week later I moved all of my things to another rack.

The problem with repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is that a large percentage of our troops live and work in close quarters. Our berthing areas are built for men and women to live apart separately. If the law is repealed, then you’d have to separate openly gay servicemen and women from the straight ones and provide berthing for them to provide privacy to the other servicemen and women. That becomes a conundrum in itself because, then, where do you berth them? You can’t berth together gay men and women in one berthing, nor can you give them their own individual berthing. Military ships don’t have that kind of space and it would insinuate special treatment. So there are a lot of issues that are not being addressed by proponents of the repeal. All they are thinking of is that they want equality and rights, but they are not thinking of how it affects the troops who are straight and have to live everyday life with them. My solution: If you are going to repeal it, work out the logistics first and take into account how those logistics affect everyone before you repeal it.

Anyone who knows me knows where I stand on the issue of homosexuality in general, but I must stress that I consider my feelings to be separate in this case. This is a military policy that needs to be addressed.

C. So there is hope for the Rams after all. I’m glad to see progress with my favorite squad!

D. It’s almost been a year since Jenn and I got married. It’s been an amazing ride so far, and there is no better woman out there to take that ride with. I look forward to growing closer with her as we grow older together. I love her with all of my heart.

The Language of Hate

Let me ask you a question: How do you feel when you see a skinhead burning an American flag on the evening news? What about all those times we’ve seen citizens of other countries burning the American flag, chanting ‘Death to America’? When I see images like that, I think that they hate us, they hate America. Whenever I see someone burning a flag, a book, or another object, it’s always been in hate. So when I read about Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones’ plans to hold a Quran-burning on September 11, 2010, I cringed. Aren’t Pastor Jones and his church sending a message of hate?

According to Pastor Jones and his church, he believes the Islamic faith is ‘of the Devil’ and incites violence among radical Muslims, so they are taking a stand against these radical Muslims by burning the Quran. Now let me be honest and very blunt: I don’t believe that we as Christians should be tolerant of other religions, nor should we not call them what they are, which is false. However, there is a line that none of us should cross. Muslims believe the Quran is their Word of God and therefore is something they cherish, just like I cherish my Bible. The Quran is part of them, as the Bible has become part of me. Therefore, even though I believe the Quran to be false, I disagree with this public burning of the book. This book is part of who they are, and by burning these books publicly we are telling them that we hate them. How would I feel if I saw people burning the Bible? It would hurt me personally. This becomes not just about religion. This becomes about the person. And regardless of what any radical Muslim has ever done, if you are a Christian and told by Jesus to ‘love your neighbors as yourselves,’ then you have no business burning those books in a public manner. Pastor Jones states that this is in protest to radical Islam, but because the Quran is the holy book for all of Islam, he and his congregation are essentially saying they hate all of them.

There are other factors now at work: General Petraeus has noted that Jones’ protest puts American troops in Afghanistan in danger, and he’s right. The Muslims who are violent enough to take action against Americans are already angered by the threat of Jones' protest. They are already burning images of Jones and the American flag and we can all be sure it’s not just in protest of what Jones is about to do, but because they hate him and the country he’s from. Christians are held to a higher standard than this. We are not called to hate people. The Bible tells us to hate what is evil and to cling to what is good, but it does not tell us to hate people. It tells us to love people. We are all God’s creation, and if Christians were to remember that, then maybe, just maybe, we’d be seen for what God meant for us to be: images of Christ.

For further information about the Dove World Outreach Center’s plan to burn the Quran, as well as reaction to it, see below:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/7189605.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/09/07/2010-09-07_terry_jones_pastor_of_dove_world_outreach_center_will_go_through_with_koranburni.html?r=news
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/07/petraeus-burn-a-koran-day-could-endanger-us-troops.html