[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I really hate going down with the ship over something I don't care about or even really believe (that gay marriage is the most important moral issue of our times). I hate being lumped into the same category as Westboro Baptists.

I'm willing to stand and fight and be different. I'm not not just bowing to the crowd. But I just don't feel the fire for this issue, quite the contrary. And of course I have personal skin in the game, having a gay brother.

I have to say I've become more "emotionally tolerant" of people who have left the church. It doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I've always believed that people have a right to do what they conscience dictates, but now I have more empathy for people who have decided to leave the faith. And part of me kind of feels like what the Brethren say about the children of gay parents--doesn't really matter if they are banned from being members or not, cause God will work it out. Well, if God is just going to work all that stuff out, I'm not going to sweat about things I have no control over.

Life kicks you in the nads a certain number of times, and then you get to thinking maybe that's what life is about. To get kicked in the nads. And there's not a lot of purpose to hoping that life won't kick you in the nads. You just try to be a good and decent person, and if a higher power, God, sprinkles some faith into your bosom, then you are blessed. Some of you keep the rest of us going. Cause you know, I hope for something larger than this life. I hope for a benign higher power. I hope for a reunion. I hope for the great group ride in the sky.

May your FTP always be rising.

Well said. I agree. But so too man is that he might have joy. That's what makes us able to carry on through the nad kicks.