Something I wrote a long time ago that I needed to move off of Facebook.

http://hayleyghoover.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-christians-can-believe-in-gay.html

This is what I believe. It's like Hayley went into my head, fished around for the more coherent of my thoughts, and put them on her blog, even before I realised I believed it.

There is still a part of me that says "Marriage is a sacred institution, it should only be between a man and a woman." That's mostly my upbringing and my own personal sexuality. Most of me says "Marriage is a sacred institution, and just like all of the sacred elements of my religion are not limited to heteronormative people, neither should marriage."

Let me say this: I am straight, and I am Christian. There are times (more often than I like to admit) when I question both of these claims, but that is a topic for another post. The point remains, you don't have to be gay and/or nonreligious to believe in gay rights.

There are a few things that I would like to add to Hayley's wonderful post:

First, in both Matthew and Luke, Jesus says: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Word for word, the same speech in Matthew and Luke (Matthew 7:3 and Luke 6:41). If homosexuality is indeed a sin, (which I don't believe it is) then so what? I lie. I cheat. I don't love others how I would want to be loved. I gossip and slander. Who am I, that I should judge any other sinner, let alone one whose sin is so ambiguous? Along the same lines is the "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7) story. Who am I to judge anyone?

Secondly, I am not God. I do not claim to be all-knowing, ever-present, etc. I am JR Urban, a seventeen year old girl living in Ottawa, Ontario. At this point, I doubt if I'll ever amount to much of anything. So how can I say who may love whom? Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Land the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-39) All I can do is love my neighbour, who Jesus identifies as anyone I come across. I cannot judge, I can only love. Who am I to say who can be happy and who can't be happy?

Finally, it's not homosexuality that is the issue in most common Biblical aguments against LGBT rights. It's violent homosexual rape that is truly the issue. In Genesis 19, Lot takes into his house three angels, not realising that they are, in fact, angels. During the night, the men of Sodom came and said to Lot, "Where are th emen who came to you tonihgt? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." (Genesi 19:8) When Lot refuses, and offers them his two virgin daughters instead, they "kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door." (Genesis 19:9b) Later in the chapter, Sodom is destroyed, not because of the homosexuality, but because of the violent tendancies and the profanity of the men and women who lived there. Genesis 19 is one of the most quoted passages when I argue homosexuality with other Christians, and it makes me wonder if people actually read the Bible or if they just listen to what their parents and Sunday-school teachers have taught them. For generations, this passage has been misread and misunderstood. Isn't this the sort of thing that Martin Luther wanted to change when he nailed his 95 Theses to the cathedral door? Isn't this the type of misunderstanding he hoped to avoid by translating the Bible into the vernacular?

Those are my thoughts. Please feel free to offer rebuttals. Please feel free to tell me I'm wrong. I look forward to those arguments, and I hope that I may defend myself in a respectful and well-researched manner.

individuality has been stripped from you in order that you be managed - Professor MacIsaac

I'm trying something new here, blogging about my vlogs. It's something Charlie (of charlieissocoollike fame) does, and I think it's a pretty good idea. We'll how it goes.

I wanted to go into a little bit more detail about my first class. One of the other things that my prof, Professor MacIsaac, said was, (and I quote) "All individuality has been stripped from you in order that you be managed." This is not okay. This is the fault of the beaurocracy, and this is how computers run our lives. I am a number, in both the Canadian and American school systems (because I took an American standardized test in the spring). I am compartmentalised into a number and a letter grade, in order that the people who are important (my superiors in the university, my future employers, all the way up to the government) can fully understand who I am. But this is not true! I am more than a number and a letter grade, and that is why I am taking this course. I'm basically taking a great books course, where we will study primary texts and try to understand the world as it is.

The difference between science now, and science before the Enlightenment in Europe, is that we now want to understand how the world works and how we can change it to better serve our desires, whereas before the Enlightenment, people wanted to understand how the world works in order that they might understand what it means to be human in this place we call home. That is why it didn't matter about things like nuclear fission etc. Science was no more practical than philosophy, and sometimes the lines between the two blurred.

And I'd really like to have lived then, even if, as a woman, I wouldn't have been allowed to participate in the excitement that was the new discoveries.

Secondly, I'd like to state: I am usually pretty good at directions, but I am totally lost on campus. I wouldn't even be able to find my classes without Alanna's help. But I'm really excited to be out on my own in Ottawa, and I'm sure I'll get better at finding my way around, soon.

And now, I am going to go be social, because there are two interesting people behind me who I am ignoring that I should talk to.

DFTBA,
jr

These are hard times. The world hurts. We live in fear and forget to walk with hope. But hope has not forgotten you. So ask it to dinner...

It's probably hungry, and would appreciate the invitation. - Libba Bray

I've been lost more times than I can count today. I tried, and failed, to find the library. I got lost trying to find the bus stop off campus. I almost got lost on the way to the grocery store, and I tried to go in the wrong door to my residence building.

It's hard to imagine that in a year or two I'll know this place like the back of my hand. Right now, everything looks the same. All the building are the same ugly '70s style. All the pathways look the same. The only reason I can find my building at all is because it's near (but not beside) the construction. Argh!

But I now know how to get to the grocery store which is also my bank, and that's important. Alanna and I are going to the bookstore tomorrow, and that'll be good. I know where that is - I bused past it this afternoon. We're getting up early to beat the crowds.

And then on Thursday, classes start! I'll be sure to post something about that then.

DFTBA
jr

Hello world! I'm gonna get you! - Lord Voldemort (A Very Potter Musical version)

Seriously, though, I thought it'd be different.

I was all excited about going away to university, and now here I am, at university, and all I can say is I'm bored out of my tree. I mean, classes don't start 'til Wednesady, I have no friends, and there's really only so much time you can spend on the internet and reading books. I went out to play beach volleyball today with my sister because I wanted to get out so bad.

I guess I shouldn't complain, though. The weather hasn't been great, so I explored the tunnels for a while last night. Once classes start then I'm sure I'll have more to do. I just thought I'd feel different when I moved away. I don't.

DFTBA
jr

Holy barking spiders - Scott Westerfeld

You know what I love? I love steampunk. If I could, I'd dress in steampunk costume every day. Unfortunately, for the next approximately 60 hours I live in a small town where that sort of shenanigans is neither tolerated nor possible.

For example: There is a small antique type store downtown. In the window right now is a gorgeous black dress that is just begging me to alter it slightly (it looks like it'd be way too big) and wear is around. It's hard to describe, but it's very steampunk, and with the addition of a bit of clockwork here and there, it could be the very beginning of my steampunk wardrobe. But it's sold. I would pay large amounts of money to buy that dress, and it's sold. I nearly cried when I saw the tag that said so.

However, on Saturday I'm moving to this nation's capital, and there maybe I can find/create some pwnawesome steampunk costumes. I still need to learn how to sew well, but that will come with time.

On a side note, this week marks a few important dates, and I'm sorry that I didn't post them earlier: yesterday was the launch of A Very Charming Vlog, my latest vlogging project. www.youtube.com/averycharmingvlog. Also, tomorrow is the launch of Rosethorn, a Harry Potter fanfic-type blog that I am sharing with my friend Eoin. I will probably post the first post in the morning. www.scorpiusnrose.blogspot.com, if you're interested.

That is all for today,
DFTBA
jr

It smells like rain and laughter and the unexpected - Libba Bray

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_l782c2YCEZ1qbl0ayo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1282102395&Signature=ndhKMfr7ISvEUsg5CgduG3vm6w4%3D

This secret bothers me. Not because the person loves John Green's books, or because they think that they are better than anyone else's. I tend to agree.

It bothers me, I guess, because it's the opposite reaction I had toward John's books. I read John's books, and they showed me how much more I can love books. Since I read Looking for Alaska, I have read and reread books at a faster rate than ever before in my life.

I guess what really bothers me most, is that reading a good book shouldn't make you afraid to read other books. Read a good book is just one step on the way to reading lots of good books, if that makes any sense. And yeah, not all books you read will be very good, and maybe you won't read another book you like as much as John's. But you should still look!

Being human is an excuse for just about everything, but it also kind of sucks in a way – Frank Portman

So, I'm sitting at my desk, watching YouTube videos (because I'm about two weeks behind) (yeah, that's right, I caught up about two weeks of videos in the last three days, and when you're subscribed to the amount of very verbose people that I am, that's quite a feat). For this post to make sense, I first should tell you the layout of my bedroom.

It's a very small bedroom. When you come in the door, my bed is about two feet to the left, and then at the other end of my bed is a little drawer thing, and that's about a foot wide, and it's sandwiched in beside my desk, which is right beside the wall. Right by my desk is my window, which is open (for some reason) and it's rather breezy outside my window today. On the right side of my bedroom is my bookshelf and my closet, both of which are quite full but will be quite empty soon.

The reason why I tell you this, is because my curtain keeps getting blown into my face, and then my shoulder gets cold, because the cool breeze blows right onto it. It's rather chilly outside today (it's only 24 degrees Celsius), and I'm wearing a strapless top right now. So it's quite problematic. But instead of standing up and a) closing my window or b) switching it so it's open on the other side, I just sit here and suffer.

And this is why I tell you this story: either I'm a masochist, or I'm ridiculously lazy, and I know I'm not a masochist. I could tell you that I'm totally engrossed in my video-watching, but that'd be a lie. I am actually rather bored - I meant to hang out with my parents today, but then they went out to see my grandparents and from there are going out for dinner, and I stayed home because I'm not invited to the dinner. So, we are left with the option that I am, in fact, ridiculously lazy.

I just thought you'd all like to know that. Since you're all in my head anyway, I can blog about whatever I want, and no one can critisize me for being a boring blogger. Which is probably why no one reads this.

DFTBA
JR