What can we hate?

Do you spend time critiquing the people around you? Do they just keep looking worse and worse to you? Judah exposes this attitude for the narrow, self-centered posturing that it is. Look on the world with love! -Editor.

I can’t stand those blind idiots who rant about the self-satisfied fools who condemn judgmental morons for categorically hating bigots (and just between you and me, although I believe that bigots are people too, you know what I think about people…) So I was reading Secrets of Heaven no. 1,079. It’s about Noah, after the flood. The water has gone down, and Noah and his clan have disembarked and thanked God for their deliverance. Life returns to normal. Noah even plants a vineyard and makes some wine, but he overdoes it. Drunk and naked, he is sprawled out in his tent, asleep, when in walks his son, Ham. Ham goes and brings his two brothers, presumably to let them in on the joke. But it’s no laughing matter, as Shem and Japheth are savvy enough to know, and they walk backwards until they’ve draped some clothing over their father’s bare form.

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Homosexuality

This is the opening essay in our series on homosexuality. Here Coleman elaborates on his position that homosexual attraction is disorderly. By voicing that conclusion, he feels he can offer people who experience same sex attraction the opportunity to disconnect from that inclination with integrity and pursue a higher path. -Editor

“Growing up I thought homosexuality was kind of gross, and I just kind of accepted the church’s teaching that it was wrong, although even then I guess I had doubts about it. Then as I got older and went to high school, and then to college, I made friends with a lot of gay people. And I realized they were real people. And not only real people: real good, loving, warm, funny people. I realized that the ones who were in relationships truly loved their partner and were committed to the relationship. And so, yeah, I think the General Church’s stance on homosexuality is wrong. God cannot possibly disapprove of a loving relationship between two people. Love can’t be a sin.”

That quote isn’t from any one person, but it’s a sentiment that I’ve heard expressed again and again by my peers. If you did a poll of people raised in the General Church in my generation, I think you would find that the vast majority of them think that homosexuality is not evil, and that many homosexual relationships are positive and healthy.

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Clothing

What do clothes say about who you are? Is it reliable? What's up with angel's clothing? What about envying or desiring nice clothes? Malcolm tackles some of the spiritual ideas behind one of our three basic necessities: clothing.

Introduction

George Carlin observed, “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?” The same principle applies with clothing. People make lots of different choices about clothing—how much money to spend on it, what style to go for, how much time to spend putting together an outfit on a given day, etc.—and those that make different decisions than we do are either slobs or snobs.

So, in an effort to get beyond thinking of each other as a bunch of slobs and snobs, here are a few different New Church perspectives on clothing.

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