Dear Kirk Cameron

In response to my friends blog I have decided to write an open letter to Kirk Cameron.

You might want to check this out first, for context of this post:



Dear Kirk Cameron,

Back in 1990, when I was 6 and you were on Growing Pains I had a weird crush on you and Tracey Gold. I wanted to be a part of the Seaver family. It was a great show that was exciting to watch and always could offer a laugh.

Time goes on, and TV shows disappear and you and Tracey moved from the limelight of my 6 year old eyes into the recesses of syndication.

19 years later, and I've discovered that you are crazy as a loon! Here is a list of my several problems with your video:

1. I'm an agnostic. I have been since YEARS before college! My top 100 university professors did not teach me how to be agnostic. My high school teachers didn't teach me to be agnostic. The Catholic Church taught me to be agnostic. I spent 14 years of my life trying to believe the "word of the lord." But it just didn't make sense to me. How could there be fossil evidence of dinosaurs when the Bible said the world started with Adam and Eve? How could Jesus have been the son of god (yes that is lower case) when god is incorporeal? And hundreds of other questions that didn't make sense: Most importantly, how could the church hate like it does, when Jesus loved everyone.

If we take for a fact that everything in the Bible is true, than Jesus was a miracle worker, he kept company with prostitutes and beggar and lepers. Basically the slums of the people of the time. He preached love, tolerance and acceptance of these people, not total disregard for who they are. He taught everyone to love all of god's creations. Not HATE! (Like you and the Christian right are doing). How could a religion based on the teachings of this "saint" be promoting bigotry and intolerance? That's when I left Catholicism.

When I understood that I was gay, and that god no longer accepted me, I realized that religion wasn't a place where I would find solace and acceptance, just hate and ignorance.

2. I believe there is a higher being, for some of the same reason that you mention. There is no scientific proof that on what actually created the universe (whether some sneezed and we're the by-product on it, or god needed to be created and in the process the big bang happened, but until we have a reason for the big bang, I have to agree that something started the whole thing). But I do hold the believe that that is where it ended. God isn't part of my life, he doesn't control my choices, he isn't holding a scale to weigh my heart against my sins. He's just not around. Where's the proof?

3.  I'm a teacher. I teacher Kindergarten. I allow my students to read whatever they want. I allow them to talk about whatever they want. And as long as they are talking pure and unhurtful words, I allow them to say whatever they want. When they ask if I believe in God, or if I go to church I answer truthfully, and say "Yes, I believe in a god." And "No, I don't go to church. Do you?" And if they ask religious questions I always defer with "This is a question to ask your parents." I don't push an agenda on them, I just help them be tolerant of EVERYONE!! (not just who the religious right think we should be tolerant of).

4. You are a loon! And you and the religious right need to rethink your scare campaigner. Us on the left won't put up with it for long. Even you said that Atheism and Agnosticism are on the rise. You loose more and more people when you preach hate and intolerance (btw, how many modern scientists would agree with your statements, it's easy to pick names from the distant past to give credit to your argument. How many of those same people believed the Earth was flat!!!!!).

It's time to understand that the Bible is not the word of god, but a few men's stories.

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:5


Thom

P.S. STOP BEING A LOON

Does college play a role in date-ability?

So I came across this article on my friends facebook Marriage eludes high-achieving black women. The title gives you a great synopsis of the article: Educated Black women are staying single longer (or forever) and/or not birthing children because of the lack of educated Black men (not that Black women only marry Black men, but the argument is that this is one factor in the article - "black women... comprise 71 percent of black graduate students" Brian Alexander finds in a census study).

I completely understand the idea of marrying in your same educational level. When I really started dating, I've got to say, when I found out a guy didn't finish/attend college, the date was over for me. (One time the date ended when he told me he didn't have a driver's license - it would have been fine not to have a car, but no license!). 

I do tend to find the more educated to be more attractive (someone can be bumped up from a 5 to a 7 just by studying for his PhD!).

I know an advanced degree doesn't mean intelligence. And when I discovered one of the reasons for my "elitism" I was shocked with myself! It's class-ism! In today's society people of our age (mid 20's +) go/went to college - it was a given. But I went to a tier two school because my parents had money (well the availability to borrow the money). But if my parents hadn't had the money... state school here I come. But if I were from a lower economic status, I might not have been able to go anywhere... work force here I come!

So I was appalled with myself when I put two and two together. And although I'm conscious of this fact and try not to let advanced degree play into the factor of date-ability, it does.

I don't know the solution to this problem (neither the struggle of the educated Black woman to find love nor my perplexing classist view of higher learning), but I do know that this is something I struggle with and can empathize with the Black women in the study.