JESUSLAND

[max sg]

JESUSLAND
by Max Gordon
November 23, 2004

There is a thirteen-year-old boy in America who walks to school this morning. He believes he is a pervert because he is sexually attracted to a boy in his class. Undressing in the locker room for gym, he is terrified he will get an erection or his friends will notice him staring at the other boys and call him a homo.

At night, he lies in bed. He promised God he wouldn't look at pictures of naked men having sex anymore, but he did it again after school. As a punishment, he pinches his penis between his fingernails until he breaks the skin. He believes the pain is good for him. It is only a fraction of the pain that sinners feel when they go to hell, or what Jesus must have felt on the cross.

He sits in church on Sunday and knows the priest is referring to him: deviants whose unnatural desire will keep them from entering the Kingdom of God. When he takes communion, he prays that God will heal the sickness inside him and make him clean and perfect like his Son. He promises to try even harder not to sin than he's ever tried before.

After failing again, he decides he has no more tries left in him. He cannot stop the thoughts or change them. He believes God is disgusted with him and that He refuses to help. He stands looking in the bathroom mirror and wonders if he is what a homo looks like. He thinks of his youngest sister coming home from kindergarten with school papers tucked under her arm, and wonders if the boy from his class is in bed sleeping. He lifts his father's gun and shoots himself in the head.

On January 2, 1997, 14-year-old Robbie Kirkland committed suicide after struggling with his homosexuality for four years. His mother said at the time, "Our family loved, supported and accepted him but could not protect him from the rejection and harassment he experienced at his Catholic schools." On May 8, 1995, Bill Clayton, 17, took a fatal overdose after being hospitalized for depression. He'd been assaulted by a group of boys in his community because of his sexual orientation. Jacob Lawrence Orosco, 17, hanged himself on September 3, 1997, in his mother's home. When Jacob and nine of his friends tried to form a Gay/Straight student alliance at his school, a group of students at a nearby high school formed SAFE-Students against Fags Everywhere.

(read the rest of this article at

http://americaforjesusland.blogspot.com)

[99Pancakes]

1. Catholic boys?

Weren't these the objects of desire for all those Jesus lovin' priests?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. WOW

Excellent article.

[zulchzulu]

3. The God Of Hate and War sure is popular these days

As long as people can think that being homophobic, hateful and for war against innocent people are traits of some "God", we will always have tragedies like this.

Next thing you know, people who believe in evolution will also be hated and attacked.

[karlrschneider]

4. Welcome to DU. I haven't yet read the article but I've known at least 2

teenagers with confused or unresolved issues (years ago) who committed suicide. Two more suicides I suspected hinged around the same issue but I had no real evidence for it. The current hysteria will surely 'improve' on these statistics, I have no doubt. :grr:

[Downtown Hound]

5. Not to play down his parent's grief but

if he was experiencing that much torment at a Catholic school why didn't they send him somewhere else? I know that public schools are far from free of bigotry but at least he wouldn't have heard that God hates him every day.

[leesa]

16. Exactly. What do they mean they couldn't protect him from

the Catholic School's torture? They didn't do their job unless it was the only school for miles around?

[Bouncy Ball]

6. That absolutely breaks my heart.

I have a family member who attempted suicide three times in her teens over this. Fortunately she didn't succeed and is happy today, but dear God......

[WI_DEM]

7. I guess it depends where you go to church

I go to a non-dominational Christian church where everyone is welcome. Many Christian gay/lesbians are in the congregation and are part of our church family. The "sermons" are usually on social justice issues that people here on DU can relate to. Too bad too many other churches in this land feel that there has to be a litmus test to attend church and be considered a true christian. Of course those churches distort Christianity to meet their own vile purposes.

[kimchi]

8. Must-read.

An incredible article.

[mngreen]

9. real followers

Good article! It seems that there is controversy in the religious world. I have been listening to radio talk shows of both religious and nonreligious conservatives since the election. I think I understand moral conservatives pretty well now. They won because they misled the public by using the word "God" to defend their needs and desires. But the truth is that we liberals are the ones who stand by God and the Bible by action. If the public knew the truth, the election results would have been different. I think bringing out the truth should be one of our jobs for the next four years.

[donheld]

10. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[readmoreoften]

13. Welcome! n/t

[newyawker99]

15. Hi mngreen!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[donheld]

11. Very sad

How many more will die because of Hatred?

[readmoreoften]

12. Interestingly enough the statistic has been at 1/3 of all suicides

committed by kids are due to GLBT-related suffering.

It hasn't changed. What was it? 72 hate-crime murders against GLBT persons in the US this year. 44 men and 28 women (I don't have a clue how the transfolk fit into the statistic.)

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. It's close-minded hateful, hurtful people who want "different" folk to

suffer if they refuse to change, not Jesus.

Seriously, fundies want Jesus to come back and kick some heathen arse, but me, I confess to having a teensy little desire to see him do the same to the fundagelical pharisees.

[lakelly]

17. A environment of hate.

That article was truly heartbreaking. We now live in an era of lies and intolerance passing for Christianity. I have a 14 year old son. It would devastate me if he were persecuted for who he was his. People ask themselves WW JD- "What would Jesus do?" He would embrace that precious child and tell him he is loved for who he is, not despite who he is. As Dylan asked "When will it ever end? When will it ever end?"