Keeping Our Schools Safe

I am writing to ask that you do everything possible to keep our own schools safe. The continuing mass killings of our children is unacceptable and we cannot assume that something similar cannot occur in our local schools.
Our schools must have secured entry, metal detectors, and armed guards. We need a system to insure rapid response from the police department. I am hopeful there is already internal procedures in place for most of our schools. We need a method of tracking known people who could be threats to follow “see something...say something”.

Mental laws in most states are very lack.. Efforts to force mental health holds on those with serious mental issues have continued to fail. We need laws that law enforcement and mental health professional can use to protect the public. While not want to further stigmatize the mentally ill there is a need to provide more compassionate care to those who by the various nature of their disorder lack understanding and insight to their illness.  While most mass murders have not suffered from a serious and persistent mental illness being able to provide needed resources is urgently needed.

The issue of gun controls evokes emotional and often unfounded reactions on both sides of the issue. The argument is that guns do not kill our children it is the people. This is partially true.  However, the AK-15 has been the weapon used in the majority of mass killings.  What can be done to ensure owners of these weapons are responsible individuals?  No other economically developed nation has this issue. What can we learn from them?
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Please join me in contacting your local school administrators, board members, state and federal senators and representatives. Parents must take the lead to hold these stakeholders accountable to create a safe environment for our children and teachers.  Finding solutions are possible when there is an open mind to collaborate on solving the problem. Unfortunately in today environment please do not just sit back and offer your prayers please take action.  Enough is enough....

Dr. Bob

Reflection on Religion and Being Gay

Many evangelical Christians have a foundational belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible. There is a belief that all words in the Bible are factually the words of God.  The context of the Bible is without fault.  They believe in creationism that the earth was created in seven days solely through the work of the Lord.  There is also a belief by some of these evangelicals Christian the earth is less than 10,000 years old. They believe that Adam and Eva are the sources of all people and so forth.  These beliefs exist even with overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.  Most fail to understand there can be both a “big bang” theory (by which God created the universe including the earth) and the evolutionary process that explains how God made the earth and all in it.

The Bible has been used and continues to this day to support slavery, war, hate crimes against non-believers, interracial marriage, genocide, gay bashing, and so forth. These acts perhaps based on what the followers thought were well intentional beliefs were taken out of the context of the Biblical text and are used to justify their actions. Fortunately, at least in the Western economically developed countries many Christians, when confronted with facts their beliefs evolve.  For many years it was thought the sun revolved around the earth.  In fact, Christians persecuted Copernicus for this belief.  Forgiveness only came after substantial evidence emerged of proof that the earth’s rotation was around the sun.

This same evolution on the etiology of homosexuality is also occurring.  The homosexual behavior exists even during Jesus’s time on earth.  He did not speak against loving and caring individuals in a gay relationship.  The context often cited in the New Testament (Matthew 19:1-12) against homosexuality is when Jesus is discussing marriage and divorce.

There is also a lack of understanding that the term homosexuality as used in the New Testament is the translation of three specific Greek words.  Religious scholars have debated what is meant by these three Greek words.  The contemporary interpretation is the words were intended to serve as a prohibition against prostitution rather than homosexuality.  The debate among religious scholars regarding the context of these words is to begin the journey to understand the evolution of a social and biological understanding that has evolved regarding homosexual.  St. Paul’s multiple statements about sexual behavior needs to be viewed in this context given widespread prostitution (both men and women) as well as pederasty.  These behaviors from St Paul’s perspective were incongruent with Christian teaching.

Bottomline beliefs evolve depending on the issue.  It is common to “pick and choose” language particularly when discussing homosexuality for example from the Old Testament book of Leviticus.  Many other prohibitions described in Leviticus are merely ignored by most evangelical Christian.

There has become an increasing understanding that homosexual behavior is primarily a biological determinate.  Aversion therapy conceptualizes that being homosexual is a lifestyle choice. Attempting to change the orientation using aversion therapy has proven unsuccessful.  No gay person wakes up one morning and decides that he/she be going to be a homosexual.  Who in their right mind would choose a lifestyle where so many people who still lack an understanding of the etiology chose to be gay.  The persecution and hate generated by many people in societies all over the world usually based on some religious beliefs would make choices to be gay illogical.  It is like for heterosexuals, did he/she wake up one day and decided he/she are straight?  Of course, not it is a biological factor that merely exits.

In a free society, we have the right to believe whatever we have come to view as right. We can justify our position on a literal interpretation of the Bible.  If this is the position chosen, then one needs to be careful not become a hypocrite by only picking those passages or translations that fit a viewpoint.
A statement by the Nashville Christians United in Support of the LGBT + Inclusion in the Church Statement in their August 30, 2017, a report signed by over 300 religious leaders, educators, and activities from ALL major Christian denomination sum up an approach that reflects Jesus’s teaching.  It reads:

“WE AFFIRM that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God and that the great diversity expressed in humanity through our wide spectrum of unique sexualities and gender identifies a perfect reflection to the magnitude of God’s creative work.”

Dr. Bob