Two-Mom Family moving to Austin- need advice on where to live (Howe: build, homosexual)

[NativeTexan76]

This is exactly why we're a bit leery of moving to Texas- self-righteous, judgmental attitudes like those expressed here. We don't want our kids to live around people who think we are the moral equivalent of alcoholics and gamblers. I don't understand why this person thinks that my family is 'bad'/self-destructive (by equating us to alcoholics and gamblers). We are not. But, life if too short to figure out why. We are not going to change and he/she probably won't change either.

I can understand not wanting your kids to be around alcoholics, etc. I don't want my kids around destructive behavior either. However, I don't understand their anti-Mormon bias. Why does this person even care about Mormonism? Nobody is making them be a Mormon. Nobody is making them be gay. I doubt gays and Mormons are bothering them. Who cares???

[EzPeterson]

Originally Posted by NativeTexan76

This is exactly why we're a bit leery of moving to Texas- self-righteous, judgmental attitudes like those expressed here. We don't want our kids to live around people who think we are the moral equivalent of alcoholics and gamblers. I don't understand why this person thinks that my family is 'bad'/self-destructive (by equating us to alcoholics and gamblers). We are not. But, life if too short to figure out why. We are not going to change and he/she probably won't change either.

I can understand not wanting your kids to be around alcoholics, etc. I don't want my kids around destructive behavior either. However, I don't understand their anti-Mormon bias. Why does this person even care about Mormonism? Nobody is making them be a Mormon. Nobody is making them be gay. I doubt gays and Mormons are bothering them. Who cares???

Please do realize that you're reading the opinion of a small handful of people blessed with the anonymity of the internet. I do agree that the opinion you've referenced above is extremely biased, but I disagree that it would be representative of any large percentage of the population here in Austin (get outside of Austin and the game changes for sure). You'll find those closed minds everywhere (including where you are now) - IMO, they just get a little more vocal when it's the internet.

[NativeTexan76]

You are absolutely right. I'm sure there are closed minded people where we live now, but they aren't vocal because it's not socially acceptable.

We lived in Austin 7 years ago, so I'm sure the city has changed a lot since then and will be different than we remember it. We are excited to get out of the Bay Area and live a more laid-back lifestyle in Austin

[scm53]

Originally Posted by EzPeterson

Please do realize that you're reading the opinion of a small handful of people blessed with the anonymity of the internet. I do agree that the opinion you've referenced above is extremely biased, but I disagree that it would be representative of any large percentage of the population here in Austin (get outside of Austin and the game changes for sure). You'll find those closed minds everywhere (including where you are now) - IMO, they just get a little more vocal when it's the internet.

What self righteousness. What has you guys so wrapped around the axle is an inability to distinguish between acceptance and approval. You are demanding approval to feel accepted. Is is the height of irony to decry any position that isn't yours as a "closed mind", when it is you that is incapable of even accepting that there is a valid position other than yours. Maybe that is the root of the problem - can YOU accept an opinion, or anything that you don't approve of? I, and I will bet the majority of my neighbors, can make that distinction.

It has been my experience that "progressives" are the real closed minded people. Recent research has shown "progressives" are more likely to block or unfriend someone they have a political disagreement with. Look at the examples here of people wanting to move to Austin because they want their liberal opinions agreed with. I will be astonished to see a analogous situation where a conservative wants to move to XYZ because of the political zeitgeist. Maybe that is the disconnect here - what "progressives" are recommending are pockets of homogenous thought because there, acceptance and approval are tied together.

Until that mega-church pastor moves in across the street, and all hell breaks loose...

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

Wow, I would not call this full acceptance, more like full self-righteous condescension. To the OP, I think this attitude of considering your sexual orientation as the moral equivalent of a mental illness like alcoholism, or a self-destructive behavior like gambling would be rare in suburban Austin, though from the above post it clearly exists.

You are being way too hard on him, and probably misunderstanding.

The comparison to alcoholism and addictions isn't meant to be a morality statement, but to compare to the evidence of some people being born with predispositions that they do have an amount of control over, though it may be difficult. There is not conclusive scientific evidence that we are born with sexual orientation 100%. The closest we got was the "gay gene" in the 90's which turned out to be fraudulent. On the other hand, your race and gender is something you are born with and have no control over.

He said he can accept it but doesn't agree with it/ approve of it. What more do you want, are people in this country no longer allowed to think freely and have opinions without being called nasty names if it doesn't follow the attitude du jour?

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by scm53

What has you guys so wrapped around the axle is an inability to distinguish between acceptance and approval. You are demanding approval to feel accepted. Is is the height of irony to decry any position that isn't yours as a "closed mind", when it is you that is incapable of even accepting that there is a valid position other than yours. Maybe that is the root of the problem - can YOU accept an opinion, or anything that you don't approve of? I, and I will bet the majority of my neighbors, can make that distinction.

It has been my experience that "progressives" are the real closed minded people. Recent research has shown "progressives" are more likely to block or unfriend someone they have a political disagreement with. Look at the examples here of people wanting to move to Austin because they want their liberal opinions agreed with. I will be astonished to see a analogous situation where a conservative wants to move to XYZ because of the political zeitgeist. Maybe that is the disconnect here - what "progressives" are recommending are pockets of homogenous thought because there, acceptance and approval are tied together.

Until that mega-church pastor moves in across the street, and all hell breaks loose...

^This.
It's like some people are totally blind to the hypocrisy of it....

[NativeTexan76]

I don't need your acceptance or approval.

[bridgebats]

I don't think progressive people begin to have issues with others until they start declaring that certain people should go to hell, etc. When you know that the mega-church pastor neighbor is spending his time protesting against you and training children to be against you on the weekends for being who you are, not who you choose to be, I think that it's okay to unfriend him on Facebook! The big difference here is that one person makes a choice to be hateful while another hates him because of the choice that he made.

I absolutely believe that the OP has the right to try to find neighbors that think nothing of who she is and how she lives because it was never a choice of hers to begin with-- unlike, apparently, people in certain areas in Circle C who CHOOSE to believe that there is something wrong with the way that she lives and raises her family.

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by bridgebats

I don't think progressive people begin to have issues with others until they start declaring that certain people should go to hell, etc. When you know that the mega-church pastor neighbor is spending his time protesting against you and training children to be against you on the weekends for being who you are, not who you choose to be, I think that it's okay to unfriend him on Facebook! The big difference here is that one person makes a choice to be hateful while another hates him because of the choice that he made.

Lots of fallacy in here....

- Pastors' jobs are not to "protest against you" and "train children" in that way, despite what the liberal media and fear-mongerers might have you believe. Most sermons address topics such as living better, charity, guidance through hard times, spirituality. Anyone who regularly attends church will know that. Only rarely do topics like homosexuality come up, and the purpose is never to "hate" (a word thrown around WAY too carelessly with this topic these days.)
- Not everyone believes it is 100% not choice, as science doesn't support this, as I have already pointed out.
- Disagreeing with something does not equal "hate." Hate would mean disdain for the person. Most civilized people can disagree with something without disdaining someone.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by sxrckr

Lots of fallacy in here....

- Pastors' jobs are not to "protest against you" and "train children" in that way, despite what the liberal media and fear-mongerers might have you believe. Most sermons address topics such as living better, charity, guidance through hard times, spirituality. Anyone who regularly attends church will know that. Only rarely do topics like homosexuality come up, and the purpose is never to "hate" (a word thrown around WAY too carelessly with this topic these days.)
- Not everyone believes it is 100% not choice, as science doesn't support this, as I have already pointed out.
- Disagreeing with something does not equal "hate." Hate would mean disdain for the person. Most civilized people can disagree with something without disdaining someone.

Preacher's kid here. Not a liberal, not a conservative, not a fear-monger, not part of the media (any more than anyone else posting on social networking sites is), prefer to engage my brain rather than follow party lines. Can tell you that while that SHOULD be the pastors' jobs, some of them prefer, for financial reasons, to pander to the basest instincts of their congregations by doing exactly what is bolded above. Other, true, ministers, don't like it, don't approve of them, and I think they've never read word one of the New Testament and definitely nothing that Christ said, but the fact is, they exist. Everywhere.