Recently Fr. Robert Arida, Rector and Dean at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Boston, wrote an article for the Wonder blog that has since been taken down. I did not have a chance to read the article but I did read some of the dust up around it and it really got me thinking about what we choose to be concerned about and why the people got all upset about what he wrote, I gather it had something to do with homosexuality and marriage, but remain silent on other, more pressing, issues in our world today.
What is the most pressing issue facing the world today? I am not sure there is a simple answer to that question unless you read the posts that have popped up recently on Facebook. Once again homosexuality seems to be the pivotal issue that some of my Christian brothers and sisters are concerning themselves with.
Now let me say right from the start, so there is no confusion, I believe that ANY sex outside of marriage is sinful, we call it fornication if you are not married and adultery if you are having sex with someone who is not your spouse. This is what my Church teaches and has taught from the start. I also believe that same sex marriage goes against the will of God and therefore cannot be supported by my Church. With that said I will say, and make no mistake about this either, I do not think people with a same sex attraction, or whatever we are calling it now, are evil people in fact I believe that they are just like me, a sinner, trying to figure it all out. I love you and accept you no matter what, and I would expect that you do the same. We are all in this together.
I guess that fact that Childhood hunger in on the rise. According to Feeding America, 15.8 million children lived in food insecure households in 2012, not in Botswana but right here in America. 14.7 million or 20% of Children in the US lived in poverty in 2013, not in Ghana but right here in the US. But you keep worrying about Homosexuals and how they are destroying our culture! Your time might be better spent working to end hunger in America and writing about that.
According to the Veterans Administration 22 veterans commit suicide every day, 22! That is 22 of the young men and women that we sent to fight our war are coming home broken and have to wait an inhuman amount of time to access the care that they deserve, that’s right you go and fight a war to keep me safe you deserve to be taken care of when you return. For these 22 soldiers, sailors, and marines the only way out for them is to take their own lives! But you keep worrying about how homosexuality is killing the moral fiber of America! Your time might better be spent volunteering with the VA or using your pen to advocate for better Veterans health care.
According to the website Poverty in America, a program of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, 46 million Americans live in poverty (this is the highest rate in the 54 years that poverty facts have been recorded) and 1.6 million children had to stay in some sort of shelter in America. In America, the richest country on the face of the earth. But you continue to worry about how homosexuals are destroying the fabric of American moral culture. Your time might be better spent using your pen to advocate for a living wage or using your hands to work with Habitat for Humanity to help build houses for those less fortunate than you.
By the way, America has the 6th highest divorce rate in the world! If there is anything that destroys families it is divorce. But lets not focus on that!
My words may sound harsh but they do not come close to the words of some of my brothers and sister who could care less is a child goes without health insurance or food or adequate shelter but if a man has an attraction to another man they world is coming to an end!
I am ashamed of all of you!
You can continue to focus on homosexuals and I will chose to help the man in Fort Lauderdale who has been arrested and fined for daring to feed the homeless on the street. I will continue to be the voice for the voiceless and fight for equal pay, affordable health insurance, veterans care, affordable housing and the many other things that ACTUALLY destroy the moral fabric of American society. Oh yes, and I will love my neighbor, no matter what he or she does, because that is what Jesus COMMANDED us to do. Do I have to accept their behavior, no, but I will reach out may hand and help anyone who needs help and I will help them because I am a sinner as well and we all need each other.
In my opinion it is time to focus on what really matters.
