Tuesday, April 27, 2010

GCN Radio's New Season Opener

Praise the Lord,

God is good. He is a great God and worthy of praise and glory and honor.

First off, I’d like to apologize for falling behind after having prepared myself for the upcoming season of GCN Radio. That said, let’s jump right into it, since I have a lot to cover today.

Starting off with the April 9th, 2010 episode, let me just say right off the bat, LOVE LOVE LOVE the new intro. It really does sound like a choir. Great job to the contributors. Backtracking just for a moment here to the March 26th, 2010 preseason show, the coca-cola/GCN Radio song from that episode is really catchy and sounds really awesome. Back to the April 9th episode, according to Brian and Justin the GCN (Main) Conference back in January went really well. Congrats to everyone involved and to all participants and attendees. Hopefully, in the near future I get to attend one so I can give my response from firsthand experience of the conference (I’m so excited to hear that Shawn Thomas, a favorite singer of mine, was a participant in Jan 2010). Once again, congrats. While I’m on the topic of the GCN Conference, the January 2011 conference in Denver sounds very promising.

For the sake of space and time, I’ll skip all the rest of the preshow talk between Brian and Justin since I feel it’s important for me to deal with the heart of the April 9th episode: Catholic Scandal. Before I jump head first into the topic of the episode though let me just backtrack into the preshow talk between Brian and Justin so as to mention the new book by Wesley that’s’ coming out’ (nice pun huh) in September/October of 2010. I am so looking forward to getting a copy (Justin has rave reviews for Wesley).

Now let’s dig into the heart of the April 9th show. A brief recap of what’s been going on in the Roman Catholic Church is that the priests (worldwide) have been abusing teenage boys. I think that it was wise of Brian and Justin to expel the myth that pedophilia and homosexuality are related in any way. I feel that it is vitally important for all people, gay and straight alike, Christian and non-Christian alike, to understand this reality: pedophilia is a psychological illness, while being LGBT is not an illness and it does not mean that if you are an LGBT (whichever of the letters you are – I am an L), that because or since you are gay/bi/trans/etc, that you are attracted to children. I am so grateful to Brian and Justin for dispelling this myth.

Justin made, I believe, an accurate parallel between gay priests and teenage boys and straight priests and teenage girls. In other words, for a gay priest, being around teenage boys, particularly in close private proximity would be equivalent to a straight priest being around teenage girls. Both would be equally tempted.

Brian made a key comment which I agree with wholeheartedly. Brian believes that honesty needs to be the key to dealing with the issue. He goes on to say that both the victim and the perpetrator needs to be truthful about it and that both need to seek counsel and guidance professionally. Kudos to Brian for this wise observation.

This led to the question for the week: What’s your reaction about the whole situation? Justin’s reaction is 2-fold: (1) there needs to be accountability and no one should be spending one on one time with impressionable persons and (2) there needs to be more openness about the abuse and about our sexuality.

My response: I think both Brian and Justin are on the right track. People need to realize that being gay doesn’t make you a pedophile and if you are having sexual thoughts about children you need to seek professional help (which I believe should include Godly guidance). Also, like Justin stated, there needs to be openness, honesty and accountability from all parties involved in such situations. If no one is open and honest about what’s going on, how can there be any accountability and how can both the victims and perpetrators seek the help they need? I think there’s more to this issue than what Brian and Justin can cover, but I think they made a great effort in shedding some much needed light on the situation.

The Church, be in Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, or whatever or whatever your denomination, is supposed to be the Light of the World, according to Scripture. How can we be the Light of the World if there is still so much Darkness that we refuse to shed Light on? What kind of testimony and witness are we showing to the World? I believe we are to be Christ-like, and while we may never be perfect like Him, we can seek His help and guidance as to how to flush out the evil that threatens to destroy us as a family.

We are family. We are God’s family. As God’s family we should be uplifting one another regardless of our individual beliefs. As God’s family we should be praying for one another when we stumble and fall, as we all do from time to time, instead of being judgemental and critical. As God’s family, we should have open arms toward each other instead of an accusing finger pointed at each other. I hope Brian’s and Justin’s effort to shed light on this issue in the RC Church helps us to be more open to one another as children of God instead of thinking we need to shy away from each other when we don’t quite make the mark.

I'll be back soon with my response to the April 16th and April 23rd shows. Look out for these and I'm open to your response to the April 9th, April 16th or April 23rd shows.

God bless...

Lady J (aka LJ)
"For With God Nothing Is Impossible" Luke 1:37

The Message (MSG) John 3:16-18
16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

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