Barneyisfat

Now that my blood pressure has jumped dramatically I will close out the window for the Philosophy Club. I just can't stand being along the sidelines of a good argument. But, I know for my own sake (I do claim to be a pacifist) I must refrain from commenting.

[{Michael erases his two paragraphs full of commenting on different threads, writing very un-christlike things, and tearing down his brothers in Christ.}]

I think the Christian church could do a lot better if we could define love. I watched a short clip about writing the screen play for Brokeback Mountain. They kept throwing around the term love. Now, I'm liberal enough to believe that homosexual love is still love ... but it's not real love. Neither is anything we see on TV or the movies. People hooking up - that's not love. People getting married after brief encounters - that's not love. The world teaches us this message that's really easy to believe - lust=loves.

If you're a 7 your goal is to date an 8. You can stoop to a 6, but don't go near a 5 or a 4. We look on the outside first. There's a huge pressure to get married. Parents demand grandkids, high school reunions beckon, and the world preaches the message that you can't be single and happy.

Well, I'm single - and I'm happy. "We can live without sex, but we can't live without love; Jesus is love." -(a monk) Mary and I joked about living together. I think I'm serious about it now. I don't think we could handle married life. I don't want a wife and kids to raise support for. If I was single I could just pick up and go anywhere in the world. I wouldn't have to maintain an empty house in the states for my return. I wouldn't have to find a girl who (a) has the exact same calling as me (b) is so submissive that my calling is naturally hers (c) will have to give up a career for my missionary work. Mary can do whatever God calls her to do - and when I'm in the states we could live together.

It's just crazy enough that it might work.

I believe that love is much, much more than lust. When I was learning Russian I was bewildered by their usage of the word love. You love food items, but simply like other stationary things. Then I began looking at how we use the word love. When two people get married because they are both 7s and it seems right and we call that love - well, we've perverted the word. I believe that love is only found in Jesus Christ.