Texas Preacher Calling for Shooting Gay People in the Back of the Head
It isn’t as unusual as you might think.
Recently, when a Texas preacher told his flock that gay people should be shot in the head, it sent me down the rabbit hole — again.
I’m down there more than I’m above ground these days.
I’m heartsick. I have a very dear transgender friend. She’s absolutely brilliant, too. Pursuing her PhD at a top university is just one of many things she does well. I am so proud of this young woman.
When I think of her trying to live her best life in such a hateful world, I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. It keeps me awake at night.
Why, why, why, are humans so horrible.
I asked my mother this question many, many years ago when I heard about the Holocaust for the first time. And, she only had the standard answers. There are lots of good people out there. God is looking after us. Everything will work out in the end.
Yes, mother.
But then I realized that my mother couldn’t offer me protection and she knew it. She’d brought me into this strange, violent world with no way to really keep me safe. I was literally on my own.
Yet, I turned around and had two children of my own.
What was I thinking? I wasn’t — thinking, that is. Our brains are good at deceiving us otherwise we’d go extinct, I guess.
There is a lot to worry about if you’re alive.
It doesn’t seem like we’re evolving socially either. I winter in Spain. The first time I saw the Plaza Mayor (in my photo above) I was deeply disturbed to find out that 100s of people had been executed and tortured in that very spot during the Spanish Inquisition. I was enjoying a beer where screams of terror once filled the air. It sent cold chills down my spine.
Mother Nature alone can give you nightmares.
But the things that humans do to one another cause me the most pain. And then, you get an evil bastard preaching hate from the pulpit, deliberately trying to influence some other evil bastard to hurt people like my beautiful friend and I’m ready to scream …
“Stop this merry go round. I want off.”
I don’t know what to tell my granddaughter when she hears this stuff. I still don’t have any answers. Decades later after asking my mom to explain why humans are so despicable, I’m still without an explanation.
Ugh!
I know I’m just supposed to live with it, like I’m expected to live with so many unacceptable things in life. I’m not suppposed to dwell on it. It does me no good. I’m supposed to do some random acts of kindness and then get on with my life.
But I can’t.
It’s too ugly. It’s too grim. It’s too much.
Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
