Have you ever notice that what we think about constantly we end up talking about.

If you’ve gone through life never noticing that, that seems incredible, yet would I have noticed it if some good books and teachers hadn’t pointed out the fact?

Amazing what goes over our heads when we’re not trying to think. It’s also amazing what we pick up on when we do try.

I think standards are one thing we absorb without knowing it. I frankly hold views that are widely unpopular even among other Christians sad to say. Which is not to say I get to complain. I don’t. The truth is, it’s better to know what’s right and wholesome than to get a gold star for pretending it’s impossible to know for sure. I do make mistakes. I don’t rely on my own judgment alone in deciding what’s good because I haven’t a clue where I would even start if I did. That being said I have an example I’m half afraid to bring up and half afraid not to, because it’s hot, and it burns. It’s popping up everywhere I look and growing hard to ignore.

Now for the bombshell: homosexuality.

Before someone blows their top, I’m not saying I believe it’s wrong to have homosexual feelings. It’s not something I know much about, but a man did write a book on the subject called A Strong Delusion.

I do want to say that there is a difference between feeling something and acting on it. I actually think your feelings can lie to you. But I know already that thousands of people would be angry with me for suggesting homosexuality is a lie, and not natural. I also know that if someone does not wish to be unconvinced you will not change their mind in a blog post.

But let me say this, there is scientific and sociological evidence that it is not natural. There is also a biblical mandate that it is forbidden and an abomination to practice it.

I ask the readers, why is it wrong for someone to consider the evidence? Whether it points to a favorable conclusion or not. Also, I believe in the Bible, do I get to pick and choose what parts of it are true for the culture?

Actually, this post isn’t really about the issue I brought up, but it effectively makes my point. Like it or not the culture will always give one set of beliefs power over another, and people conditioned by the culture will go with the flow, and be quite shocked and angered if anyone questions it.

You can’t love truth and goodness and also love to be liked by the world. That is so. Some of my followers on this blog probably have strong views of right and wrong and maybe don’t disagree with me. Some may say it should be people’s choice how they live. And I agree, to a point. Everyone had the right to choose whether they will live rightly or not, and what their standard of right will be set by, I won’t argue that; but when their choice takes away someone else’s by forcing that person to accept it, that is wrong. It is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is so common nowadays that it goes without saying. In our entertainment, in our politics, in our beliefs.

To be different is not about your gender, it is not about your background. It is about your heart, not whom you love, but how you love them. Not what you will do but why you will do it. If your motives are correct then there are some things that you will never do. If your motives are shaky you may be persuaded to do anything. But motives aren’t enough, you have to have the guts to stick by your morals, or your motives will change.

We can’t all be right. Someone who believes they are right scares me less than someone who doesn’t believe in anything.

I too absorb the culture, but when I absorb I also drain, because it exhausts me. I can release it when it’s not good, and fill up on what is, but only when I stay aware of the effects it could have on me. When I cease to be aware, the effects are nearly complete. ( As in C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair.)

So I guess I’m hoping this post might inspire people to ask themselves how much of what they think is their own conclusions. And what shocks them and angers them? If this post did either of those things, then that’s scary, because I said very little directly about any separate belief system. If I offended you, it was because you took something out of my words that I did not actually say.

I realize it’s laughable for a teenager to think she has any new wisdom to offer the world. Or to think she can make a good point. So I hope this is all taken with that in mind, and that furthermore very few opinions are based on experience when you’re young. Since I’m hoping young people are reading this, that goes for all of us.

Until next post–Natasha