Religion doesn't save everyone

Pam had a post up last night about Peter LaBarbera and his website, Americans for Truth. Apparently, “Porno Pete” has a webpage up which lists deviant “Pro-Homosexuality Resources”. Some of the categories listed as deviant are: Sin-Welcoming Churches & Movements, Pro-Homosexuality Blogs, and Pro-Homosexuality Websites TARGETING CHILDREN (getting a little shill with the CAPS Petey?).

Well naturally my interest was piqued and I ventured over to check out Porno Pete’s “in-depth research”. There I saw that Pam has distinguished herself with a coveted place on his deviant blogs list, as well as a few blogs I’ve never checked out before.

And what a good job ole Pete has done! He really has invested a lot of time in this area. It is so good in fact that I bookmarked his website for future reference. I certainly don’t want to miss out on any good reading and I’d hate to see his massive investment of time to this “deviant subject” go to waste…

Thanks to Pete, I did venture over to a blog called “

Faggoty-Ass Faggot”. I decided to bookmark that too (Thanks Petey). FAF has a story posted about a friend who committed suicide, called Religion doesn’t save everyone, and it is well worth the read, but here are a few excerpts:

William was kind, and quiet, and gentle. He loved his family and his two best friends, and they loved him in return.

And yet one day this June, William delivered CDs he had created to several of his close friends, e-mailed a final note to family, locked himself in his bathroom, pulled his stuffed animals close and killed himself. He was 33.

***

William had been raised Catholic, and the Catholic Church doesn't do very well with gays and lesbians, much less a gay man with HIV. As I read his words and heard friends speak at his funeral, I learned he had been a man searching for answers for much of his adult life.

***

I think William felt he would be alone no matter what choice he made -- either forsake human love or the love of his God. His ultimate choice, to kill himself, meant he no longer had to fight his internal war.

Religion can be a positive guiding hand when wielded lovingly. But too often it is used to control people -- to make them doubt they are good.

William was good. He was loving. He wanted his God, and his religion, to look on him favorably. But his religion taught him that he could never be loved the way he was born.

I grieve when I think, in the end, William didn't fail. But his religion failed him.