{"id":110,"date":"2018-11-17T10:44:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T02:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=110"},"modified":"2018-12-06T12:08:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T04:08:39","slug":"no-one-can-escape-ones-experiential-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=110","title":{"rendered":"No one can escape one’s experiential base"},"content":{"rendered":"

David was 7 years old and hoping to become a farmer like his dad.\u00a0 Lisa was 12 and hoping to become a teacher like her mom.\u00a0 A few years back, I was giving David and Lisa a tour of my garden.\u00a0 Then, I lifted up a rock and, underneath, five pill bugs[i]<\/a> came to life and began to flee.\u00a0 I picked up one and placed it in the palm of my hand, and I showed them how the bug immediately curled up into a perfect little sphere.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s called a pill bug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"David came closer and attentively watched as the pill bug gradually felt safe enough to abandon its pill-shape [left side of pic] and to turn into a scaled bug crawling over my hand.\u00a0 When this unexpected transformation took place, David was fascinated and came closer while Lisa backed away in fright.<\/p>\n

I took the pill bug and placed it gently in David\u2019s hand.\u00a0 It immediately rolled itself into its pill-shaped defense.\u00a0 Then David watched it attentively until it came out of hiding and began to crawl forward on his open hand.\u00a0 He touched it briefly, and again the bug rolled itself into a \u201cpill.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked Lisa if she wanted to try this for herself.\u00a0 \u201cNo way,\u201d was her reply.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want to be bitten by a nasty bug.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lessons learned from the pill bugs<\/h6>\n

I\u2019m telling you this story to illustrate how, in the face of the pill bug, David and Lisa have massively different reactions.\u00a0\u00a0 Neither David nor Lisa had ever experienced pill bugs before.\u00a0 David was attracted by the bugs and interested in their activity.\u00a0 Lisa was repulsed by the bugs and drew back because she was afraid of being bitten.\u00a0 She wanted to keep as far away from the bug as possible.\u00a0 In her experience of bugs, they were almost always nasty and prone to bite her.\u00a0 She wanted nothing to do with pill bugs.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of our discussion here, let’s assume that the entire population can be divided into three subsets:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. DRs = those with David-like responses;<\/li>\n
  2. LRs = those with Lisa-like responses;<\/li>\n
  3. BiRs = those with a mixture of mild fascination and mild repulsion.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Imagine for a moment that you, the reader, have the opportunity to visit my garden in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that I, as part of your garden tour, would pick up a pill bug and set it in the palm of my hand. . . .\u00a0 Just imagining this usually has the effect of letting you instinctively feel and know in advance whether you would be among the DRs who came forward to explore the pill bugs because they were experiencing a spontaneous fascination.\u00a0 Likewise, my picture and story might be enough to persuade you that you were among the LRs who instinctively pulled back because they were experiencing an undeniable disgust.\u00a0\u00a0 Alternatively, perhaps you could say in advance that you would expect to find yourself among the small number of persons who are BiRs.<\/p>\n

    Now I want to invite you to do some speculation<\/h6>\n

    Consider what it would take to convert a DR to a LR?\u00a0 I imagine that this sort of conversion would be rare but not entirely impossible.\u00a0 Once a positive attraction is rewarded and reinforced through repeated positive experiences, it is difficult to revert back to a frightened repulsion of pill bugs.\u00a0 Only something very traumatic could wipe out the historical sequence of positive experiences.\u00a0 I could imagine, for example, that a DR could read a medical report that proves that pill bugs are the carriers of a deadly disease.\u00a0 Fear of contacting this disease would be sufficiently traumatic to cause a DR to pull back when spotting a pill bug.<\/p>\n

    Now, consider what it would take to convert a LR to a DR?\u00a0 I imagine that this sort of conversion would be rare but moderately possible.\u00a0 One would have to gain the trust of the LR and to gradually expose him\/her to acknowledge some positive aspects of pill bugs.\u00a0 Along the way, the LR would have to discover, vicariously, that the pill bug did not sting or bite.\u00a0 Then, under the guidance of a trusted mentor, to cautiously come forward and to allow pill bugs to rest and foam on one’s hand.\u00a0 Thus, with slow and gradual steps, the spontaneous negative repulsion could be gradually recognized for what it truly is, namely, as a fear and flight response based upon the irrational prejudice that the pill bug had a nasty bite.<\/p>\n

    I refer to the LR fear and flight response as based upon an irrational prejudice.\u00a0 The pill bug does not, in fact, have a nasty bite.\u00a0 Lisa\u2019s repulsion was based upon her projection of a character trait that was never actually experienced.\u00a0 Lisa\u2019s fear of the unknown cannot compete with David\u2019s delight in what is known.\u00a0 David\u2019s appreciation of pill bugs is not based upon an irrational projection.\u00a0 It is based upon first-hand positive experiences.\u00a0 In an open society where free and open judgments are arrived at freely, one could expect that the conversion rate to the DR position would, over a period of time, slowly overcome the conversion rate to the LR position.<\/p>\n

    Applying the pill bug experience with the homophobic experience<\/h6>\n

    This is exactly what is happening in our society when it comes to responses to gays and lesbians.\u00a0 At any given time, only a small portion (5 to 8 %) of men and women experience a same-sex attraction.\u00a0 The majority of the population, meanwhile, is heterosexual and instinctively feels bewildered, perplexed, and repulsed by those who claim to have this attraction.\u00a0 This homophobic reaction is an\u00a0 instinctive response that operates very much like the LR.\u00a0 As a result, LRs pull back in horror and are prone to amplify their fear and flight response.\u00a0 When feeling attacked, LRs use their negative emotional energies to manufacture irrational projections.<\/p>\n

    Here is an example from a Christian website of how negative emotional energies are being creatively used to manufacture irrational projections.<\/p>\n

    As witnessed in the Bible in Genesis 19:1-11 [the story of why God decided to destroy Sodom], homosexuals are predatory, continually on the search for their next sexual experience. Homosexuals are characterized by morbid, unhealthy, sexual desire (which the Bible calls lasciviousness). Homosexuals are prone to multiple sex partners, because homosexuality is rooted in sex-addiction. I heard a homosexual say that “sex is sex, whether male or female.\u201d May I say [in response], sex with the same sex is a horrible sin, and a form of mental illness[ii]<\/strong><\/a> caused by spiritual rebellion against God and His holy Word.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The author defines all homosexuals as “predatory,” as “characterized by morbid, unhealthy sexual desire,” and as “rooted in sex-addiction.”\u00a0 These characteristics would better apply to pediphiliacs or\u00a0nymphomaniac<\/span>s.\u00a0 The latter might indeed say, “sex is sex, whether male or female.\u201d Only in the last line does the author touch on homosexuality as such and here is labeled as “a horrible sin” and a “mental illness”[ii]<\/strong><\/a> caused by “spiritual rebellion against God.”\u00a0 So this brings up back to Gen 19:1-11 where the men in town (seemingly all homosexuals) rape the virgin daughters of Lot.\u00a0 The author does not seem to notice that the crime here is that “gang rape” is being used to send the message to Lot that “visitors [angels actually] are not welcome here in Sodom.”\u00a0 Gang violence has nothing to do with any of the two dozen homosexual lovers that I know personally.\u00a0 This author clearly has had a different experience.\u00a0 Of this, we learn nothing. The author alludes to Gen 19:1-11 but forgets to label homosexuals as “prone to gang violence.”<\/p>\n

    God inspired the prophet Ezekiel to say why He brought those cities to ruin. \u201cNow this was the sin of \u2026 Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen\u201d (Ezekiel 16:49<\/a>\u201350, NIV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Here is another example where work-place experiences are in the forefront:<\/p>\n

    The secular workplace is hell-on-earth for many Christians, because of constant harassment in a hostile work environment being around the wicked. God-fearing Christians and the unrepentant wicked don’t mix! Gays are disrespecting Christians every time that they wave their filthy lifestyle in our faces. There’s no way that sexually deviate, left-wing, liberal, homosexuals can co-exist with conservative, Bible-minded, Christians.[iii]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The author here fails to say precisely what is meant by waving “their filthy lifestyle in our faces.”\u00a0 Does a female worker with a 5×7 pic of her female spouse and two daughters on her desk fit this definition?\u00a0 Maybe so.\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 In a world of LRs, it would be downright insensitive and repulsive to have a framed pic of pill bugs on your desk.\u00a0 Is this what the author means by “constant harassment in a hostile work environment being around the wicked.”\u00a0 Clearly the business world is “uncomfortable” hearing about gay and lesbian marriages unless it is buffered by the smoldering hostility of “jokes.”<\/p>\n