A Mother's Day Reflection
This evening, here on DK, I got sucked into a troll feeding frenzy. I have no one to blame but myself. You know how it goes: a few strong, but not extreme, comments get you responding and you turn around two hours later to find you've just spent all that time cooking and stocking a Las Vegas-style buffet for a cave-dwelling, bridge-claiming troll. My apologies to all those who had to scroll through that mess of comments. I will try to be more troll-wary in future.
But the topic of the diary (bridge?) that the troll was trying to claim centered on what Christ had to say about the gays. Which started me thinking about my mom.
(All will be explained below the Orange Squiggle of Doom.)
I've written about my mother here before. I hope you'll indulge me one more time.
My mother is approaching 73 years of age. Both she and my father were born and raised in a small, rural, western Nebraska community. They were raised Christian and conservative (which is considered to be repetitious where they come from).
I get my values, both Christian and otherwise, from them. They loved, cared for, taught and raised my sister and me to the best of their abilities and in the way they had been.
I tend to identify mostly with my mother for two main reasons: 1- I'm a guy and boys seem to bond to their mothers more and girls to their fathers (wow, very broad brush strokes there, please take them for what they're worth), and 2- Our house was a "traditional" house were dad went off to work and mom raised the kids.
So here I am, pushing 50. I'm certainly not the Christian my mom is. But nearly everything I learned of values I learned from her. When I judge anyone's beliefs, values, or morals, it is my mother I weigh them against.
My mother, because of her age, her geography, her upbringing and her religion, believes homosexuality is a sin: "It says so in the Bible."
But when it comes to marriage (or any other civil rights) my mother believes in equality: "What right do I have to impose my beliefs on others?"
Christians, Jews, religious people of all stripes, agnostics and atheists: This is the standard I will hold you to. Believe what you will. But defend the rights of others! That is, after all, the American way.
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Thank you, Mom. I couldn't have asked for a better.