Dabbi Taylor

Hey ya

I'm having a wee bit of a dilemma.
I was on facebook earlier and saw that my friend had shared a video named "Two Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got."
The vid is on a 19 year old boy who is describing his upbringing, clearly very intelligent and a incredible speaker (I felt). Like the title implies he is raised by two women.
It is some sort of a petition or a campaign for allowing that homosexuals should be allowed to marry in the video (it's somewhere in the U.S.).

I felt good after watching this video and it gave me some kind of a inspiration, after having watched it I pressed 'Share'. But before I managed to finish to share this with my friends I realized that this, naturally, conflicts with the laws of Faith.

By sharing the video, am I breaking on my own conviction? or by not sharing am I breaking on my own conscience - suppress this constructive feeling I got from the video?

I ended up not sharing it.

This is no big deal, just a small thought

LordOfGoblins

Well that is a tough one for sure!!!
I think all we can show is that the man and woman dynamic is the ideal one, but in the eyes of God and to respect the institution of marraige. Rather than throwing tomatoes so to speak to the campaigns for gay marraiges, we can help bring peoples attention to what God intends in a marraige. There is nothing to suggest all children will turn out bad if the same-sex marraige goes ahead, but I wonder, if the survey is fair, or if they want to do a statistical analysis they have to do it across the whole board with many examples from a sample population rather than just taking one shining example to their advantage- if you get what I mean. That is not how statistical studies work...
I hope that helps.

cire perdue

It is hard to accept people for themselves and not accept a lifestyle that they believe is good for them. It is kind of a double bind. It is going to take a long time for the apparent ills of this lifestyle to become apparent if it ever becomes apparent. This society lives with a lot of denial. There is not reason to think there will not be denial about the effects of a gay lifestyle. I don't think it would be more than just a mistake to have shared that with others. Many Baha'is do not have information about homosexual develpmental theory and think that it is genetic which has yet to be proved. Even if "genetic" there are many recovering homosexuals who show adaptation to Baha'i lifestyle or Christian lifestyle.

However Baha'is should be used to being rejected for believing truth. We have had a lot of practice. Your heart is in the right place to love the individuals. Perhaps more love in the first place could prevent some of the problems we see being externalized today.

Dabbi Taylor

Well personally I have nothing against homosexuality, whatever lifestyle one chooses for himself if between them and God.

In my mind statistics can be completely irrelevant to the truth.

What troubled me was the fact that it troubled me to share an inspiring video. I guess by inspiring I mean someone that doesn't really 'fit' into society's standards can end up like such an inspiring figure and stand up for him, his family and his cause.

LordOfGoblins

inspiring eh?
Something that inspires you might not necessarily be something that is "good"...
Just saying.

LordOfGoblins

And even if it was proven by statistics that they had better children than normal marraiges, this still wouldnt change the Bahai standpoint. But people find justifications on an emotional level for some or a scientific level for others...

LordOfGoblins

By the way. I forgot to say Hi and welcome to the forum. That was a bit absent of me... sorry.

ahanu

I agree. Opponents of same-sex marriage may try to say evidence suggests children will turn out bad if their parents are lesbian. Since the young man Dabbi speaks of appears intelligent and compassionate, I think this video would help build a fact about lesbian parenting: it does not turn children into rotten fruit.

It depends on your reason for sharing. If you're sharing to show lesbian parenting does not turn children into rotten fruit, then, no, I do not think you are breaking your own conviction. If you're sharing it to show Baha'u'llah accepts same-sex marriage, then I think you are "breaking" your own conscience.

Perhaps you should clarify your reason for sharing the video.

As for this lesbian couple being allowed to marry, I see no problem with them marrying . . . just as long as it is not a Baha'i marriage. So, with that in mind, I do support same-sex marriage, but not a Baha'i same-sex marriage ().

Dabbi Taylor

Thank you, its nice to see there is a forum like this online, where you can raise questions and thoughts at any hour.

I'm sorry Lordofgoblins but I feel like your twisting my words a bit. My post is a lot more straightforward than I feel you think.

But maybe I should have been more clearer like Ahanu suggests.

To clarify, it was not that the parents were lesbians, it could have been a single alcoholic dad, alcohol is forbidden by the laws of the Faith (kinda takes it out of context, but you see what i mean). But again what troubled me was the whole dilemma on whether I should act on my conscience or my conviction, in this case they seemed to oppose each other. Found it interesting and wanted to share.

I suppose there is a negative aspect to everything ie. hitler (the classic example of evil) was an inspiration to many. The 'inspiration' I gained from it was definitely of a more positive kind, motivational. Sort of - stand up and act.

Thanks Ahanu. Yes I suppose it all boils down to motive. From that point of view I probably should have 'shared' it (not that I'll lose any sleep over it).

The reason why I raised the question is that I feel its healthy to think about these things. I wasn't able to find a happy conclusion by myself so I came here.

tonyfish58

I think we have to take the sexual orientation out of the picture, it is not really the issue. If the story is pushing the issue, then I would think you could not use it.

Bright and intelligent people are brought up by all types of combinations of parents.

It also works in reverse, not so bright people are brought up by the same combinations of parents.

What we have is a person who did good with the education given to Him. The sexual orientation of the Parents had absolutely nothing to do with the final outcome.

Regards Tony

Sboyce

only BAHA'IS follow BAHA'I law so it's simple, nothing wrong was done.

cire perdue

Gee, I thought my life was wonderful at age 19, but the truth of the matter was I am still working on issues from alcoholic parents many, many years later. It is premature to say how well this 19 year old turned out. As a Baha'i I neither support nor work against gay marriage. It is an incredibly political issue.What I know from experience is that the gay lifestyle is not healthy and people are very unaware of what that entails when they blindly accept gay people and gay marriage. The married gay people are usually no less than in their late 20's and early 30's and what one does not see is what went on prior to that marriage. Judging gay lifestyle through gay marriage is like trying to see a victorian building beneath a complete 1960's transformation, in order words, it is invisible. Gay women tend to be less overtly and publically sexual than men and tend to be couples the most often. Baha'is need to be better informed and to stay out of the controversy regardless, and to uphold the Baha'i standard. Many Baha'is come across as terribly naive in this issue. It is a chance to practice obedient silence and acceptance of individuals rather than lifestyles.

Is anyone here aware that 100 year old Catholic adoption agencies have been closed, because of refusal to put children with gay couples? This additionally shows the disadvantage of accepting outside funds and not being self-supporting.