Not What God Intended

by Corey Whelan

I wish I could say that I felt a healthy surge of anger.  I didn't.  I just felt tired.  I saw the video and read the transcript of an interview given by Republican Governor hopeful, Karen Handel.   She doesn't believe in "gay marriage" because it's not what God intended.  She doesn't believe in "gay adoption" because it's not what God intended.  She spoke a lot about one man and one woman, and she believed every word that she said, with righteous and unwavering conviction.  No room for another opinion.  No room for a shred of doubt.  Unfaltering, unwavering conviction  Certainly, there was no room in her thinking  to allow that people unlike herself might actually have the right, or even the ability, to love one another. 

Not what God intended.  When asked if she knew any gay parents with children she replied, not that I'm aware of.  When asked if gay couples are less qualified to function as parents than straight couples she replied, in a household with a situation where the parents are not married, as in one man and one woman, it is not the best household for a child. 

What is it, within herself, that makes her so very very sure?  What makes so many people like her so completely sure that they know what God intended?  So unequivocally sure that there is no room, none at all, to question that?  No room at all.

What is it that makes people so committed to their own version of the truth that there is no room within their own beings to pose a question, even to themselves?  Is that what God intended?

But you know what made me tired?  My first reaction to Karen Handel's interview.  My first thought, when I saw her video, her passive, unemotional face saying those hateful words, was that I hate Georgia.  What in God's name is wrong with all of them down there?  That's what my first unbidden thought was.

You know what?  That makes me no better than Karen Handel.  And in case you didn't notice, I don't like Karen Handel.

Why are so many of us so quick to hate?  And to generalize?  And then, even worse, to stop questioning?

Is this built into us as a species?  Is this what made ancient tribes fight each other?  I just don't get it.  And where I get stuck, what I can't figure out is this.  Is this built into us?  The desire to hate, or even worse to completely discount, to nullify, entire groups of people who are not "us".  Do we all share the ability to do that to the "other"?  To passively and calmly assert, Handel style, that "they" do not have the right to human love, dignity, marriage, children?  Is this human tendency what enabled an entire nation to fuel an SS that sadistically killed 6 million?  Germans often compared Jews to bugs in the 1930's.  No better than cockroaches.  Easy to kill.  Not human, so it's ok.  Did German youth need to learn that?  How hard was it to learn?  Maybe not very hard at all. Is this what has allowed revolting atrocities in Congo to happen?  Is this what God intended?

No, Karen Handel doesn't want to kill gays.  But she does want to kill gay spirit.  She is unwaveringly sure that LGBT people don't have the right to marry, to love, to change diapers, to wipe runny noses.  She has no doubt about that.  And she is not alone.

So what's the moral of the story.  Maybe, that we are all too quick to hate, too quick to generalize, too quick to think that we are right.  Maybe we need to stop and reassess, well, everything that we think is so.  No matter what our belief system.  No matter what the cost to us personally of challenging our existing, unwavering convictions.  Even if the cost is ostracism from those we now cleave to.  No matter what the cost to ourselves.

What has God intended?

Comments

[Corey Whelan]

Thank you, Derek.

[Derek]

This is a beautiful post Corey.