Settlement?

The settlement between Rugby Australia and Israel Folau left a bad taste in everyone's mouths.

What could have inspired Rugby Australia to apologize?

Folau himself took this as an admission of guilt and claimed that he had been vindicated.

He immediately invoked the religious freedoms legislation destined for parliament next year.

The role of Rupert Murdoch's Foxtel behind the scenes is murky to say the least.

And the central issue of the spiritual fate of homosexuals was sidestepped.

Confidentiality hid the truth.

And homophobia prevailed.

The tiny sect that Israel Folau represents may insist on hell for homosexuals but the vast majority of Christians no longer support this view.

Homosexuals go to Heaven.

And nothing Israel Folau can say will change that fact.


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The World.

Jesus said: "'The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil.'"  John 7:7 (NRSV)

But I say that the evils of this world are caused by fear.

So the remedy is not to attack evildoers but to love them.

Because "perfect love casts out fear."  1 John 4:18 (NRSV)

And when their fear is gone their evil will be gone also.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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Evil.

There is no devil and no dark powers.

Evil in our world is the work of men and women in the grip of fear.

And as such evil must be dealt with as we deal with people.

There are reasons why people act in ways that we call evil.

They have been abused and threatened like the rest of us.

God does not condemn them.

He waits for them to change.

And when they are ready He enlightens them.

Darkness is not a substance or a spirit it is merely our unknowing, our ignorance.

We are not born omniscient.

We learn as we live.

It is inevitable that we will make mistakes.

But God forgives us.

And we learn.

But we are not forsaken.

If we cry out to God in distress He will answer us.

We must lay down the sword and pray.

Pray for help.

And pray for those who attack us and harass us.

For they are people like ourselves.

And they are God's children also.

Pray for Life, Light, and Love.

Then you will be like God.


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Gays in Heaven.

Gay men go to Heaven.

Of this there is no doubt.

Those who say otherwise are misguided.

They do not know God.

God is good.

He is our loving Father.

He does not punish His children.

He loves us as He loves all His children.

We are His gay sons.

And we go to Heaven.


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Grey Power.

In the 1980s we saw the emergence of Grey Power.

This was the re-empowerment of the older generation under Ronald Reagan.

They were conservative, homophobic, and intolerant.

But now Grey Power is the Hippie Generation and their politics is left-wing, green, multi-cultural, and gay friendly.

So the power demographic is changing.

In combination with the Millennials we may be about to see a sea-change.


Photo Credit: Lost at E Minor.

Persecution.

We are seeing the last stages of the persecution of gay and lesbian people.

Several countries are considering the death penalty for gay sex.

And many others enforce jail terms and ostracism.

Even in Australia where gay marriage is now legal there are religious groups calling for our expulsion and threatening us with hell.

So the battle is not yet won.

It will be over when the last bastions of homophobia overcome their fears and accept equal rights for gay and lesbian people.

LGBT+ people are still persecuted in our world.

I pray that this will come to an end.


Photo Credit: Beyond Lisping.

World AIDS Day.

AIDS is over!

Doctors can now stop HIV from developing into AIDS.

And when treated HIV is undetectable - which means that you cannot pass it on to your partner.

And there's PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) which is a pill that can help prevent infection with HIV.

So AIDS is over!


Photo Credit: solanoaidscoalition.