"Gay baiting" and bringing in religion in college classroom (soul, churches)
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Can any religious people give a good explanation of what I experienced in my college classroom 4 years ago?
Basically I did a presentation to the class on parenting. And when I sat down the professor remarked if anyone had comments. Immediately a woman in her thirties started talking about how being gay was against her church. She started talking about being Southern Baptist. And she started talking about how it was sinful and if parents could change the sexual orientation and so forth. I could tell she was baiting the students to open up a "bible study discussion" against gays. But I was extremely perplexed and flustered because my presentation had nothing to do with gays, gay parents, or gay adoption. I didn't know if she was trying to "gay bait" and start friction or trouble? Was she announcing to the class in a covert manner that she thought I was gay? If maybe she just plain flat out was stupid and didn't pay attention to my presentation? I've also read about how churches use congregation members to infiltrate colleges to sway perception to be more conservative and religious. I believe she was doing that IMHO. Your thoughts?
Well, don't take it personally, she probably had a personal incentive to speak out as she did. Just like we all know the gays get a microwave for every 5 people they get to convert to "their side", the Southern Baptists probably get a blender or something for every 5 they get "back"...
Ha ha I guess she was a salesperson for her church and denomination. That's so sad religion has gotten to that level. The church needs money and the pastor needs a new pair of shoes every 6 weeks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by helios666
Well, don't take it personally, she probably had a personal incentive to speak out as she did. Just like we all know the gays get a microwave for every 5 people they get to convert to "their side", the Southern Baptists probably get a blender or something for every 5 they get "back"...
Was this a Gen-Ed class? Sometimes they get people wanting to cause a raucous. Also some people have a tendency to want to steer the conversation to what they want to talk about. Although it sounds like she wasn't so much steering as careening.
Ha ha I guess she was a salesperson for her church and denomination. That's so sad religion has gotten to that level. The church needs money and the pastor needs a new pair of shoes every 6 weeks.
Seriously- I think you're onto something about the "salesperson" thing...I swear, it always sounds to me like some sort of "sales pitch" when religious people proselytize, be it about the 'horrors' of homosexuality or anything else; it really IS selling...what, exactly, I have no idea, and I really don't know what the incentive is. Because the kind of thing we're talking about is never about people just trying to make their point in order that others may simply understand them and learn a different point of view (which is what any healthy debate *should* be), it's more about condemnation and judgement wrapped in a preachy package. If one really gets to the bottom of it all, it's basically the whole notion of "if you don't fit into my little box of rule, and live by MY prescribed/imagined morality then YOU are not OK" sort of mentality...which, I guess, is perhaps an effort to make others who feel and believe differently then they feel bad about themselves (which never works, it usually backfires and just makes the person who is being preached at feel stronger in their convictions, and in the process makes the preachy person look like a moron to anyone with intelligence who happens to be within earshot...).
But again, why the preaching as a means to 'sell' faith or religion, or any belief or tenet? In hopes that others change, in order that one day everyone be EXACTLY like them i.e. the same? Think about that for a moment. How TOTALLY weird, unnatural, and utterly wrong would that be if everyone was the same and we all believed the SAME thing as each other?! Really, it defies logic. Then again, religion does as well, so there you go...
Seriously- I think you're onto something about the "salesperson" thing...I swear, it always sounds to me like some sort of "sales pitch" when religious people proselytize, be it about the 'horrors' of homosexuality or anything else; it really IS selling...what, exactly, I have no idea, and I really don't know what the incentive is. Because the kind of thing we're talking about is never about people just trying to make their point in order that others may simply understand them and learn a different point of view (which is what any healthy debate *should* be), it's more about condemnation and judgement wrapped in a preachy package. If one really gets to the bottom of it all, it's basically the whole notion of "if you don't fit into my little box of rule, and live by MY prescribed/imagined morality then YOU are not OK" sort of mentality...which, I guess, is perhaps an effort to make others who feel and believe differently then they feel bad about themselves (which never works, it usually backfires and just makes the person who is being preached at feel stronger in their convictions, and in the process makes the preachy person look like a moron to anyone with intelligence who happens to be within earshot...).
But again, why the preaching as a means to 'sell' faith or religion, or any belief or tenet? In hopes that others change, in order that one day everyone be EXACTLY like them i.e. the same? Think about that for a moment. How TOTALLY weird, unnatural, and utterly wrong would that be if everyone was the same and we all believed the SAME thing as each other?! Really, it defies logic. Then again, religion does as well, so there you go...
Inconsequential Differences . . . R.L. Wing:
. . . Like all matter and energy in the universe, the emotional and intellectual structures that we build are constantly transformed by outside forces. Much of our power is wasted in propping up our beliefs, defending them, and convincing others to believe in them so that they might become 'permanent.'
Our consciousness, like all consciousness, is a cellular component of the total human consciousness in existence. But, more importantly perhaps, that consciousness is potentially a cellular component of the consciousness of God (after a little "refining" . . . Ok . . . a lot). In other words, each one of us potentially represents one cell of God's "Cosmic Consciousness."
Our consciousness is designed to serve in the same role that each cell of our own body serves to reproduce us. As Paul said in I Corinthians 3:9, we all are ". . . the co-workers of God," or the co-procreators in this case.
Our confusion and misdirection is the result of our experiencing our "in-process" cellular conscious lifetime as if it were all that we are. You can use your imagination to better understand this predicament with another analogy.
Try to visualize what your life would be like as a single cell of your own body. Every day billions of cells in your body 'die' and new ones replace them. The constantly changing cellular conditions create the experience of birth and death sequences for various cellular lifetimes. The passage of such cellular lifetimes would have special meaning to you as one of the cellular lifeforms.
At the cellular level of existence, you would experience the time flow for that level of becoming and not your current one. You would be unaware that the transience of your cellular existence was illusory. That illusion of transience is the problem our cellular consciousness faces at our current level of becoming.
In your own body, you need not be concerned that a cell in your eye develops differently from a cell in your ear. Similarly, a cell in one part of the Cosmic consciousness need not be concerned that other cells do not think as it does. In fact, the striving for homogeneity in beliefs and thought is clearly wrong. Corinthians 12:14
. . . For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?. . . If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling?
When you think about it, if we were not diverse of mind, a monotonous eternity would be unavoidable! Our goal is to produce a consciousness that has the appropriate characteristics of the consciousness of God (AGAPE LOVE . . . the basic "Key" of the Cosmic Symphony), all other characteristics can be expected to vary.
I Corinthians 12:4,
. . .There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them.
Therefore, differences among us concerning the "Word of God" are nothing to be concerned about. We needn't all agree. People believing, thinking, and developing differently poses no problem for the achievement of humankind's purpose.
However, cancerous minds are another story.
Cancerous Minds.
Cancer is a problem in our physical bodies because cancer cells try to develop AT THE EXPENSE OF the development of other cells. Cancer cells literally destroy other cells in their process of growth. All cells that are NOT LIKE the cancerous cells are destroyed as the cancer spreads throughout the body, ultimately killing the organism. That is what makes cancer so dangerous to physical life.
Cancer is a problem in our consciousness because cancerous minds try to develop AT THE EXPENSE OF the development of other minds. Cancerous minds literally destroy other minds in their process of growth. All minds that are NOT LIKE the cancerous minds are destroyed as the cancerous minds spread throughout society, ultimately killing them. (Islamic terrorists, Jihads and the Christian Crusades come to mind in this context). That is what makes cancerous minds so dangerous to spiritual life and to the development of the total human consciousness.
For this reason, we all must try to understand the process of successful, non-cancerous, development of our embryo Spirits, and influence, if possible, our fellow human beings to do likewise. Remember it is a sum total. Taoist philosophy addresses this goal of human consciousness from an atheist perspective,
. . . If individuals do all of their thinking on the physical plane and make little effort on the nonphysical plane --- cultivating intuition, gaining instinctive knowledge of the workings of the universe, and developing the insight to evolve both themselves and their society --- then those lives have no real meaning or significance in terms of the physical reality. This is so because work done on the nonphysical plane is more aligned with the purpose of the universe, and therefore, it has a more powerful effect upon our physical reality. Our inner work influences and evolves the universe, which in turn, evolves our reality.
In plain language, we are cells of consciousness designed to produce the very consciousness of God, or at least our designated cellular portions thereof. All of our universe is merely the environment for God's continuous reproduction.
The very act of creating each conscious thought is truly a Divine event. (Unfortunately so much of the garbage that is created is far from Divine.) Nevertheless . . . every story told or written is a Divine event to the extent that it captures the attention of our soul and evokes conscious thought and experience. (This is why I carefully screen what I read or watch . . . garbage in garbage out.) But most importantly, all sincere speculation about our existence is a Divine event because it directly impacts the evolution of the total human consciousness toward understanding.
Such sincere speculation is what true "prophesy" is, as Paul in I Corinthians 14:1, said
. . . Aim at charity, yet strive after the spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. . . . He who prophesies speaks to men for edification, and encouragement, and consolation.
Well said, Mystic. And a very good analogy as well; you've definitely got a remarkable talent for outlining things on a complex, yet easy to understand level! Let's hope your words don't fall on deaf ears.
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Inconsequential differences
). In other words, each one of us potentially represents one cell of God's "Cosmic Consciousness."
) Nevertheless . . . every story told or written is a Divine event to the extent that it captures the attention of our soul and evokes conscious thought and experience. (This is why I carefully screen what I read or watch . . . garbage in garbage out.) But most importantly, all sincere speculation about our existence is a Divine event because it directly impacts the evolution of the total human consciousness toward understanding. 
