I sometimes ponder deeper issues than I care to recognize.

Like; how can one guy state his beliefs (in a crude way I wouldn’t have believed he’d use understanding some innocent people will read a leading magazine dedicated to men’s fashion) concerning his faith and referencing the words he understands from studying HIS bible, get into trouble with so many people?

I guess it’s because having ethics and morals based on an ages old concept, belief and practice of Christianity has become passé. Maybe it’s because the expedient path of saying you practice your religion and then break every one of its precepts is so much easier to do. It’s so much easier to recognize because so many of us have done it so often and without consequences: yet.

I’ve not been a very good Christian. I’ve been instructed in my former faith by charlatans, liars and fools believing they could gain the grace of god by tithing Caesar’s coin to gain access to, and passage through, Heaven’s gate. Others have spent serious amounts of time simply breaking faith with their parochial curricula and relied on the idea one simple passage would save them as they approached the light; that by calling the Son of God’s name, all will be forgiven.

I must admit I don’t know. I do know as I was readied for a heart catheterization in 2002, I called that name and asked forgiveness. I came out the other side in the condition I now endure with a great deal of gratitude for what I have as opposed to what I thought I needed to return to at the time. Where I stood prideful at my accomplishments I neglected to thank the one responsible for my accomplishments. I was too busy patting myself on the back to remember I was carried along that beach more often than I walked it on my own.

I don’t think people need to voice and criticize another while taking their insecurities and shackling them to who questions the acts and practices seeming so foreign to their understanding of love and the sharing of that love. If it’s all about what feels good, if it’s all about what gives us pleasure; if it’s no more than finding out what our place is in relationships, then the physical is no more than a tickle, or a giggle away from developing and suffering trials we never imagined. When we indulge nothing but our pleasures without regard to the consequences for our acts, we affect so many more than ourselves when we walk into the wall we know as reality as it pertains to illness.

Our societies are in danger. We’ve become more and more hedonistic and self-centered. Some expect (and demand) acceptance for their practices and beliefs. They demand respect for what they believe is their right to practice these beliefs. Okay. I can do that. Go ahead and do what you want: behind closed doors and in the PRIVACY of your own little world.

But stay out of mine. I expect you to mind your own business. That means keep your mouth shut about your sex life, its practice and your pathetic little need to let everybody know you’re “different” and “special” in who you are and what you do. If you’ll do me that courtesy I’ll do you one and try to respect you for your accomplishments, your acceptance for your responsibilities and what you do to benefit your fellow man.

Stay out of my business and I’ll stay out of yours. If you want to rattle the doorknob as you come out of the closet don’t wonder why I tell you to stop making all of that noise and learn some self-control. If you want to proclaim, at the top of your lungs and for all to hear don’t be surprised when people speak out in controversy to your disturbing them.

Maybe they already recognized your differences and were praying for YOU, and not your conversion to their way of life. Maybe you should give people a chance to change instead of demanding they see everything the way you do like spoiled brats wanting a toy.

You want respect? Shut up and earn it. You want acceptance? Behave acceptably. You want love. You already have it. It simply isn’t physical beyond a hug and it isn’t sexual. Sex is an act. Not an emotional reality.

Love is a reality. Accept it and learn from it.

Thanks for listening and MERRY CHRISTMAS. (I’m outta here. HO, HO, HO!)