http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Elton John has accused the Vatican of “hypocrisy” over its decision to prohibit the blessing of same-sex unions, pointing out that the Holy See reportedly indirectly invested in his Rocketman biopic. Good for Elton, I say.
Now, poets are inclined to be very spiritual people and I reject the view that I should be denied a sense of spirituality because I do not subscribe to any of the world religions; religion does not have a monopoly on spirituality.
The main reason I have been drawn to Pantheism for many years is that it has a spirituality to which I can relate, can feel, something religions of the world would deny me because I am gay. Gay men and women need a physical as well as a spiritual relationship with their partners; it is an expression of love, after all, above and beyond anything words can say.
The idea put forward by certain religious leaders that being a gay person is acceptable so long as he or she remains celibate is absurd, and just goes to how they are so bound by dogma that they have little real understanding of the natural human spirit.
Being gay is a human condition, not a choice. Homosexuality can be dictated by no one, nor does it deserve to be abused by way of interpretation from any source that would have it make a 'sinner' of anyone or, worse, make them appear less human.
Religions of the world are, of course, entitled to their convictions regarding same sex relationships, but those who don't share those same convictions deserve better than to be verbally and openly abused for it.
As
for a sense of spirituality, whether it relates to an ethereal God-like Being whom Holy Books would have us believe in, and/ or addresses the
spirituality with which the natural world embraces us... who's to say engaging with either or both is right or
wrong?
L-I-F-E, THE MANY FACES OF LOVE
He
said he liked my tie
(as
good a chat-up line as any
then
offered to buy me
a
beer, taking my broad grin
as
the go-ahead
for
a conversation’s many a twist
and
turn of face
before
we finally got around to going
back
to his place
I
hadn’t expected to fall
in
love with the guy, but love
has
an agenda
all
its own, and I was hooked
from
the start,
the
heart, too, inclined to move
in
mysterious ways
as left
mine feeling, oh, so happy-sad
and
wishing on stars
It
was on the anniversary
of
the first hundred days since we met
that
we saw a pastor,
asked
him to marry us, let us make
the
kind of home
to
which all couples in love aspire,
but
he sighed, insisting
we
confess to be living in sin, ‘God is Love’
notwithstanding
but can religion wholly answer for Heaven?
Copyright
R. N. Taber, 2021
[Note: This post-poem also appears on my general poetry blog today.] RT
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