Quashing the truth always worries me. I’m concerned for a generation of kids growing up with confusing messages from (supposed) grown-ups who tell stories with facts conveniently omitted because those facts don’t support their narrative.
Ontario Premier-Elect Doug Ford is one of those people. He wants to take the sex-ed curriculum out of schools. He’s pandering to parents and others who still think abstinence works despite all of the evidence to the contrary. Ignorance doesn’t prevent babies. This tweet from the former NDP candidate in Elgin-Middlesex-London, and the reply from a surprising source, brings it home.
Michael Coren used to be the most hard-core conservative man you could meet. (I know – I met him, and appeared on his TV show several times.) But he understands that sheltering young people from the truth is counterproductive. My high school sex-ed consisted of a couple of hours of lecturing in the high school library, where a woman we’d never seen before put a condom over a banana. We were left with lots of questions.
Even though Donald Trump finally reversed his cruel policy of separating young children from their parents when they were being processed as potential refugees, he is still lying about it. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions is on the record discussing the President’s directive and citing the Bible as his reason for supporting it.
“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.”
Why is the Bible never used by a politician as evidence for feeding the hungry or sheltering the homeless? But I digress.
Even as he withdrew the directive, Trump continued to blame the Democrats for it. It will take generations before America recovers from the damage this man is doing to the truth.
But I take a sliver of optimism from someone like Rory Feek. I didn’t know who he was until his fellow country-singer-songwriter-wife Joey died from cancer a couple of years ago. People online followed the couple’s struggle to cure Joey and then to make her final days as comfortable and meaningful as possible. Not long after Joey’s death, Rory’s eldest daughter came out to him. Homosexuality is one of those “forbidden” things in Feek’s version of faith. But he analyzed it intellectually and with compassion, and realized that, “My job is to love her even when it’s hard.”
Sure, Rory Feek isn’t in politics but lots of people look up to him. He’s taking a great deal of flack from the hard-core evangelicals. You know the ones. They won’t bake a cake for a gay couple or even let them purchase a cake that’s already baked if they admit that gay people will eat it at a celebration of something gay. And they’ll wave the Bible around again, conveniently ignoring all of the stuff about helping and giving and forgiving. They’d rather this man shun his own daughter than accept her as she is.
Feek is setting an example that one can be faithful and still deal with the complex realities of life in a loving way. Nothing else makes sense. Not the law, not a duty to one’s Commander in Chief. If I were a praying person, I’d pray for the souls of Jeff Sessions, Doug Ford and White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders. It would be a waste, though, because those souls were obviously already sold.
Thank you for ending this blog on a positive note about Rory and his daughter. My heart aches for all of the pain he’s going through but he is being a good father to a girl who lost her mother. He’s showing love and compassion just as Jesus would.
After a week of unspeakable horrors right before our eyes, the tone deaf trolling by Melania with her $49 Zara jacket (I point out the price because I’m pretty sure her socks cost more than $49) saying she doesn’t care, and a husband and his administration who wear those same feelings on their sleeves, it’s been heart wrenching to say the least. I am so tired of people who claim to worship Christ and act in the exact opposite of his teachings. And the whole Bible thing from an AG? What has happened to separation of church and state? It’s always been tenuous but now these people (to put it kindly) are trying to rule by a Holy book. Sound like any other countries the US has bombed in the past century? I don’t know how this can end but pray that it does – without nukes – and this all becomes a stained chapter in US history. As for Doug Ford? We can hope he comes to his senses…it’s early days. All kids will know of sex is what pops up on their devices and computers. Or parents could step up and, you know, parent…but where will THEY get their information? (PS – I don’t think condoms on bananas work. We still have lots of little bananas.) 😉
I love my pal Lisa’s take on many things. IMHO she nails it again with this blog.