Something/a matter, incidentally, upon which the Russian President is, oddly enough, 'right on'...
Oh for more people - women and men, boys 'n girls (whether 'teeny-boppers' or pre-adolescent) - with the grit, the gumption, the gall (& the gonads, if you will); the moral calibre, the depth of character, to do the same; to call a spade a spade, and to do so unapologetically and forthrightly, 'devil take the hindmost'...
But before you rather automatically and reflexively relegate my views to those of some prehistoric cave-dweller, and instantly and instantaneously 'discontinue' reading my blogposts and make me the sorry little subject of your upcoming round of 'cancel culturism', let me respectfully beg to differ (from that rather harsh and negative assessment/evaluation), and remind you that such bold and courageous stands and stances actually follow in the footsteps of and in the good old tradition of such moral giants as...
Martin Luther King: in our own day willing to go to gaol and beyond - and even die if necessary, as ironically he eventually did as a martyr in the righteous cause of civil rights for *all Americans - in defence of those timeless principles of truth and justice, of life, liberty and happiness for all people...
His namesake, 450-some years previous, Martin Luther: who nailed his 95 theses to the door of that fabled church in Wittenberg (Germany), ***declaring: "Here I stand, I cannot [in good conscience] do otherwise."
Or as a certain modest, self-effacing servant of that selfsame God once put things (in a classic quote it would be hard to better):
The greatest want of the world is the want of men -
men who will not be bought or sold;
men who in their inmost souls are true and honest;
men who do not fear to call sin by its right name;
men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole;
men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.
(P. 57, Education.)
(Though I've no doubt whatsoever that the writer, Ellen Gould White (nee: Harmon), would've included women in that statement were she to be alive today.)
*As a song my (almost 24-years deceased) beloved Grandma (Wilhelmina) - 'Billie' as she was affectionately known - once shared with me, 'Jesus Loves the Little Children', expresses things:
Jesus loves the little children, **all the children of the world...
red and yellow, black and white, **all are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world...
**In 'quoting' said song of yesteryear I'm only too well aware that folk reading this may well turn upon me and, as folk in His day did with Jesus, (effectively) say: "Physician, heal thyself!" In other words, I'm declaring the 'all-importance' of love, whilst evidently denying the same to a large number of people...i.e. those affiliated with the LGBT community...
Not at all, not even on your nelly - if you happen to have one, which is doubtful...
Jesus Christ had and displayed - once for all time - His undying love for every single person who has ever lived, yes, even the likes of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Pol Pot, Mao-tse Tung, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Vladimir Putin - just to name a few of the infamous 'characters' who've strode, larger than life, across the stage of human history...
upon a lonely cross (of Calvary) outside the city gate (of Jerusalem) on Golgotha's hill in Palestine...
But the love there demonstrated proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was sin which caused the death of God's dear Son, and that that sin is so deadly serious that it cost the very life of God to atone...
...so let's beware of considering and treating anything that God's own word deems sin/ful to be anything but...
No, in this life we may not always - or ever - understand all the whys and the wherefores - if anyone was ever a fly on the (night)wall listening to my 'conversations' with my Heavenly Father sometimes they'd realize I know of what I speak (although they'd find it odd that a Christian could carry on so, and might well even disbelieve that I was really one after all, but be that as it may)...
***Admittedly it's quite possible, though such a sentiment well expressed Luther's feelings upon that fateful occasion, he actually spoke those words on another, such as when he faced the intimidations of cardinals and prelates and priests in a convocation of a church court...
Postscript:
And yes, though it's taken me a heckuva long time to 'come out' and 'out myself' (as it were) - but certainly not in the way that folk hearing such a disclaimer normally assume one means - I will here and now declare my conviction that (the now in/famous) kiwi-born 'Australian' Israel Falau...
did absolutely nothing wrong a couple years ago when he simply echoed the Holy Bible's declaration that there are various sins/sinful practices which - unrepented of - will usher one into eternal darkness
But more on that on another occasion, suffice to add (Jesus' own most searching words, ones among many He fearlessly uttered which are strangely neglected by those who only seem to hear and notice His gentle, meek and mild sayings in accents of softest love & doings of merciful lovingkindness )...
...that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God...
I'm sorry, folks, yes, Jesus Himself did say such a thing, and as the 'ole sticker succinctly puts it:
God said it - I believe it - and that settles it.
El finito. End of story. Nuff said.
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