Hello fellow ULC members and anyone who happened to stumble upon this. I've spent the majority of my life in the bible belt of the US, in the great state of North Carolina. I never really put much thought in the acceptance of other people. I just held fast to my own beliefs and never shared them with others. Everything changed when a little more than 5 years ago, I was struck down by Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, a blood cancer that packs immature white blood cells into your marrow so bad that it can break your bones from the inside out. While extremely painful and very difficult to defeat, it was an extremely enlightening experience, opening my eyes to a lot of bigotry and injustice being masked by charity and faith.
When you are thrust into disability, the government expects you to apply for assistance for various things. Naturally, I started reading all the information included. All of the non-government charities, which you are directed to by Social Services, that offer assistance in my area are unanimously Christian. While yes, I respect the Christian faith, I started seeing a trend throughout these charities that rattled me to my core. Out of 10 of the major charities in the area linked to churches, 9 of those churches overtly denounced homosexuality, and over half of them try to force recipients to "renounce their evils". These practices seem to ostracize anyone who holds any other beliefs or lifestyles, but there are no alternatives.
Common sense would tell you "If you don't share those beliefs, don't go to those churches." Simple, right? Wrong. Many times, you are required to attend services and join groups in order to receive aid from their organization, which are endorsed by local government. I fully support their freedom to worship and believe how they will, but think of this from the perspective of someone their belief system doesn't support. Is it fair for a homosexual to have to sit in an establishment where they are overtly shunned and told they are going to hell, simply because they need help? If anyone falls are hard times, for any reason, is it fair to demean or degrade them? These are serious problems, when you consider the suicide rates in young Americans, as well as the emotional damage this can cause a person of any age.
I am an Omnist. I have a firm belief that all religions, great and small, can benefit mankind and aid one another along the path we choose. I believe faith and beliefs are founded on pure intention, but we get caught in the sinkholes of inherited prejudice and fear. All belief systems, personal and organized, hold merit. Acknowledgement of any faith or any belief should automatically cause a person to be curious and considerate of others with differing beliefs because we are simply human, it is not our place to command one another on what the right and wrong ways are to live. If someone has a belief system, lifestyle, or inherit difference that you don't understand, the appropriate way to respond is mutual learning.
I have no delusions of grandeur, I never expect to preach to millions or spread the message in my heart across the world, but if I can make a difference in one life... if I can reach out and open the eyes of one person, planting that seed of progression and mutual growth through Omnism, all my efforts would be worth while. I have planned and pondered for long enough, so now is a time of action. My goal is to open a church in my area, from which I can share what I have learned, learn from all those that attend, and work toward fulfilling the needs of my community. There is great need for a place of acceptance, where all people from every faith, every lifestyle, every culture, can gather and grow together. There is great need for communications between faiths, a realization of shared goals, and a unification of effort to achieve them. I know I am only one man, but I have always lived by a single quote:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
