I researched that group after reading your post and they truly are insidious…talk about getting attention by behaving outlandish!!!!

They are making fools out of themselves as you said…

Sure…use any of my comment that you would like in a post…

Thank you!

Elise

One of my thoughts behind such a post as “Hated Family” is this: the bad types of mold dies in the presence of Light.

I will be asking you if I may ‘lift’ your comments as a post..there is so much good stuff there..!

Blessings..

I wonder, though, about even giving people with these strong and misguided opinions any kind of attention at all.

We are not going to change their views…and the more we pay negative attention to them, the more they become solidified in protecting their position and feel driven to act out in even more violent ways.

I have struggled wtih these types of strong reactions my whole life and I am finally coming to the place where it’s better for me to live a life of example and to use these events as an opportunity to cultivate compassion for myself and others.

Pema Chodrin gives some really great guidance for developing compassion in her book “Start Where You Are”…she teaches the practice of tonglen…

We start with situations that are very easy and natural to have compassion for and continue to move, when we are ready, out further to the next group, until we reach the hardest situations to have compassion for.

I know how hard it is to feel wronged and completely unappreciated and misunderstood…it is so painful. And, it is everywhere, in every walk of life and it will be a very long time before we all reach enlightenment…it won’t be in our lifetime for sure.

We will be at peace when we stop the war inside ourselves and can co-exist with others and their opinions…we all truly have a right to our opinions (fortunately and unfortunately).

A teacher that I love very much says to learn to be translucent, allow everything to move through you and let it go, be a witness to everything, be curious always…live the question…”what was that reaction? what got hit inside me that needs to be healed and loved directly by me? what needs to be understood and paid attention to and taken deeper to the original wound that has been left open and needs healing?”

i have such a long road to go and I have been so reactive in my life…it is hell on earth and i am slowly choosing to be that witness that co-exists with “what is” moment to moment..the truth is there is a lot of pain all around us and rather than giving space to the pain, people act out…and that creates more pain…and more reactions and then more pain…

on the other hand…we do have a responsibility to call people on their actions that are ignorant and hurtful to us…i suppose the real trick is finding that way to do it that does not create a war and push our “opposition” further into aggression…they need to be heard and are feeling frightened and desperate..there is something else going on for these people that they are completely unaware of…why attack gays? really…think about it…who does that serve and why, in the scope of life, does it matter if people are gay, straight or bi? there is something else that they do not want to see about their pain and they are using this ’cause” to stay in denial and to make their world safe (and paradoxically, their world is less safe by their actions!) I love Paradox!

Anyway, this is all my opinion….and thank you for bringing this all up…it has been a good lesson for me.

Elise B.

If there is a hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them all end up there.

I’m happy to join you n that Phelp’s nightmare scenario. I know there is hope for all of us, but for some of those peole it seems to be fading quickly.

And, no, I don’t know about Texas faith Network..

I have this . . . not dream, really . . . sort of a Phelps nightmare, that one morning they will awaken and realize all their colleagues are sinners, wearing mixed fabrics, eating shellfish on occasion, and they’ll picket each other to death.

And no one at all will go to their funerals.

We don’t have much longer to wait for the Lord’s return, so just keep picketing and preaching truth, and I hope to see you all on the other side, and what a day that will be. Glory to God!

Joan