Ah, youth (and other non-terminal diseases)!

It's been far too long, Hobbit Fans! I confess that some of the itches this blog was meant to scratch have been soothed by the beast that is Facebook. I can fire off a bon mot or some trifle that catches my attention soooo easily with a link or a status update. But I haven't forgotten you. And yes, the dissertation is yet unfinished. But soon, my pretties, soon!

Facebook also has a blog-ish function called Notes, but that doesn't go out into the wide world (which is what I call the 4 of you still paying attention). These posts go there, too, thanks to the miracle of RSS. I guess what I'm trying to say is, sorry for leaving you to languish.

What Facebook has also afforded me is a glimpse into the hearts and minds of friends and acquaintances. I think a lot (vs. alot) of people forget that what goes on the 'net stays on the 'net and that privacy doesn't always mean what you think it means. So, people say what they mean and it's sometimes something they wouldn't say if they know who all was reading it.

Today was a prime example. Someone I consider a friend has a friend I would never consider a friend. I don't know this third party, but I know what's in his heart, since he used a word I find abhorrent to describe someone I greatly respect and with whom I share an ethnic heritage. This is not the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last. Were it not for Facebook, I would not know that this person even exists and certainly would not know what he thinks of uppity black people. Because of Facebook, however, I was assured that other people I know and respect (and even love) also find not only the word, but the uncouth discourse, as abhorrent as I do. So it's not all bad.

Another time on Facebook, I commented on a Houston political issue that also concerned issues of LGBTQ equality. If you don't know, I have pretty strong views on it and am wholly supportive of it. Especially as LGBTQ rights equate to the Civil Rights movement.

Now, I know a lot of young people. I'm even related to some. One of them jumped into the fray with both feet, perhaps being unaware that I have a lot of friends who are well-versed in the art of rhetoric. They kind of ate my young friend alive, perhaps being unaware that he was a young person. I didn't agree with his standpoint, of course, but I found this to be a teachable moment.

What I (later) told him had less to do with his views and beliefs and more to do with the fact that those things can and do change with experience (experience also, hopefully, allows one to make more elegant arguments, but I digress). So here's what I said:

You kinda jumped into it over there on my status. No hard feelings. I applaud the fact that you have a strong faith that guides you.

What I want for you, though, is to entertain the notion that things are not as black and white as it is convenient to believe they are.

As you grow and get older, you will find that it is in the gray areas that we need to forge who we are and what we stand for. I have learned so many things and had so many of my beliefs and assumptions challenged. It is in those challenges that I was forced to look at my beliefs and assumptions, really examine them and their foundations. Then I was able to truly own them as my own— tested and found to stand.

Please do not ever allow fear and misunderstanding to guide you. And if you find yourself challenged, do not hold tight to a position just because it's the position you've already held— or because others have given it to you.

Fear is just that, and usually it comes from not knowing that which you fear. Believe me when I say being black and being gay are very much the same issue. Go back through your history books and look at the reasons— some of them Biblical!!— why white people said blacks were not full members of humanity, why servility was the only thing we were good for, why we were genetically inferior to whites, why we were demonized, and why, even in 2009, you can scare some people by even inferring that a black person could be in charge of them and theirs.

No human created by God is wrong, inferior, or bad. You may not like some peoples' actions or behaviors, but their personhood is a gift from our Creator God and born to His glory.

Just like you cannot assume what people will do because they are a different race or gender from you, you cannot assume (and therefore fear) what they will do because they are not built with the same sexual orientation as you.

I think my counsel applies to a lot of issues— and probably to a lot of people. So I'm sharing it.

Now, back to that dissertation...