until this week I've went into my Religion in Film class every week with an open minded curiousity in order to gain a basic knowledge of something I don't agree with. I've done this because I pride myself on my ability to see and respect different points of view, and they help me understand my own views better.
but like i said, this week sucked. I left class this week questioning the entire basis of my taking the class but more importantly the entire education system. During a class discussion about one of the directors of a film we had watched in class, my teacher commented on the fact that this director 'claimed' to be Christian but also was 'a self proclaimed gay'. Immediately after saying it, the entire class erupted into a fit of laughter. As a woman who's openly dated both men and women, I obviously didn't laugh. I, in fact, tentatively raise my hand and asked for clarification of what was funny, clearly i had missed something. As soon as the words, "maybe because I"m gay or at least have gay tendencies, I didn't understand..." Ten self-righteous, Christian hands shot up in the air. I was so starled by it I couldn't even finish my sentence. No need to though, because instead of my professor taking his oppurtunity to redirect a conversation to keep it from crashing and burning on his watch, he decides it's a good idea to just call on one of these people.
BAD IDEA. A seemingly timid girl who sits in the back row, I don't think I've heard her say a word all semester, clears her throat and says in response to me, "You can't claim to to believe in God and be gay. if you were 'born gay' (yes, she used air quotes) then you should have the discipline to lead a celibate lifestyle, God doesn't approve of your homosexual sex."
FLOORED.
I was speechless, and yet i could feel blood begininng to boil. How could this classroom of students, and what I thought was supposed to a professional teacher, have sat and watched Passion of the Christ, watched this man 'die for our sins' while geeing his God to forgive them men who put him on the cross, sit and pass judgement on me? kind of seem contradictory doesn't it?
In the 21st century how the hell can a college professor really thin it's okay to allow such a conversation to take place? The person who's in charge of mediating class discussion didn't say one word about respecting other peoples rights, not one word about to each his own, nothing, silence. I retaliated with the ever common response, "If 'God' (yes, i used air quotes as well) made me in his image and he was so against homosexuality, why did he create the desire in anyone in the first place?" I didn't wait. I gathered my cigarettes and lighter and went for a smoke.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
<3
the list of people i'm going to marry is getting kinda long.
-andrea gibson.
-kacie lynch.
-michael cera.
-katherine moenning.
-robert pattinson.
-joshua jackson.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
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