Post by ravin on Nov 28, 2009 22:18:51 GMT -5
I was introduced to the NLQ blog by a thread on the WTM homeschooling board. Over the last several days, I've been reading the whole thing from the beginning, and the stories here are truly amazing.
More than once, I've thought to myself, "There but for fortune..."
If I'd been heterosexual, I suspect I'd have been thoroughly sucked into a similar lifestyle. I broke away from the fundamentalist Christian mindset at sixteen, over my struggle with my sexuality. I made the call to reject a God who would reject me (or whose followers would reject me), rather than reject a part of myself.
I told my mom about this yesterday, and she didn't believe me. She doesn't think I'd stand for it. But truthfully, if my worldview and those around me gave more reinforcement for certain spiritual inclinations I have (to seek spiritual fulfillment in my role as a mother, to dress modestly, and I want a large family), I'd have been in it up to my eyeballs. Only my resistance to the notions of monogamy and heterosexuality as the only right way kept me from going there.
I felt it was time to post after I read Vyckie's Tour de Crap post entitled "Please do not refer to Homosexuals as Gay." That cracked me up, more than offended me, because I literally made a worldview shift in a matter of weeks at the age of 16, from wanting to belong to the home church crowd I'd met at university, to coming out of the closet. I am very familiar with the mindset Vyckie had when she wrote that.
To me the truly amazing thing is that you (Vyckie and Laura in particular) were able to break away from that worldview as mature adults. As someone who tends to hold strong opinions and get set in my ways, I doubt that I could make such a major sea change in my thinking now, in my early 30's, when I have so much invested in my way of life. It seemed easy enough as a teen, but it's something else altogether as an adult, even in the face of misery.
More than once, I've thought to myself, "There but for fortune..."
If I'd been heterosexual, I suspect I'd have been thoroughly sucked into a similar lifestyle. I broke away from the fundamentalist Christian mindset at sixteen, over my struggle with my sexuality. I made the call to reject a God who would reject me (or whose followers would reject me), rather than reject a part of myself.
I told my mom about this yesterday, and she didn't believe me. She doesn't think I'd stand for it. But truthfully, if my worldview and those around me gave more reinforcement for certain spiritual inclinations I have (to seek spiritual fulfillment in my role as a mother, to dress modestly, and I want a large family), I'd have been in it up to my eyeballs. Only my resistance to the notions of monogamy and heterosexuality as the only right way kept me from going there.
I felt it was time to post after I read Vyckie's Tour de Crap post entitled "Please do not refer to Homosexuals as Gay." That cracked me up, more than offended me, because I literally made a worldview shift in a matter of weeks at the age of 16, from wanting to belong to the home church crowd I'd met at university, to coming out of the closet. I am very familiar with the mindset Vyckie had when she wrote that.
To me the truly amazing thing is that you (Vyckie and Laura in particular) were able to break away from that worldview as mature adults. As someone who tends to hold strong opinions and get set in my ways, I doubt that I could make such a major sea change in my thinking now, in my early 30's, when I have so much invested in my way of life. It seemed easy enough as a teen, but it's something else altogether as an adult, even in the face of misery.