Stardust Memory

Dear Followers,

A lot has happened in the past few days as many of you probably know. This Wednesday, Bradley Dawson posted a post about homosexuality on his Teen Awakening blog. That very night, Oliver He posted a response on his Heliuchuan blog. At school the next day, events simply escalated with Bradley and Oliver both showing people what they had posted. Needless to say, bringing such a controversial topic into Wayzata High School sparked even more controversy. By fourth block, students were barring their fangs at one another and bickering over who was right. A dichotomy was developed from the beginning. The previous history between Bradley an Oliver didn’t help prevent such a development either. No doubt, Twilight-esque Team Bradley and Team Oliver duels have been flooding Facebook over the past few days.

Where do I stand? After I had read the post at lunch on Wednesday, all of my actions were motivated by anger. Passing over phrases like “No baby is born homosexual,” “Sin hurts people in the long run,” and “Before the homosexual can turn from this perverted lifestyle,” made me angrier than I have been in a long time. When Bradley came over with a Cheshire-Cat-smile on his face to show me his post, I lost control. I wanted to punch him in the face. Instead, I gave him a handful of explicatives and sent him on his way. When I was walking back up to class, he came up to me to defend his case. I wasn’t in the mood. Throughout the rest of the school day I thought about what I was going to do. When I got home I used the first chance I could to let everybody know how mad I was by posting on Facebook the words “Naveen Jain has lost all respect for Bradley Dawson.”

As I began to do my homework, more and more of my Facebook friends commented on my post. As I was about to check my notifications, Bradley messaged me. We fought one last duel. Bradley left with the idea that ending our friendship was the best option. I didn’t stop him. With that taken care of, I clicked on my notifications and looked over the comments on my post with a victorious grin.

And then I realized something.

What was I doing? As I read through the comments and saw what everybody was saying about Bradley and how he was being categorized, I realized my mistake. I had just made the problem infinitely worse. At least 10 people sent me messages on Facebook chat about how Bradley’s post was bogus and how offended people were. All of these were legitimate concerns from reasonable people and I respected the input they had to give. However, on my post, I began to notice others who viewed this whole event as another form of entertainment, the usual suspects. That’s not what I had wanted. I immediately deleted my post.

What the hell do I know about Christianity or homosexually? While I personally know a few homosexuals, I don’t know the squat about homosexuality apart from my own assumptions. In that respect, I am no more knowledgeable than Bradley in terms of homosexuality. And, to be completely honest, the only passages I have read of the Bible were those of Jesus dying on the cross because I was simply curious (please don’t interpret this the wrong way). Most of the time when I argue with Bradley Dawson I am merely luring out his viewpoints so I can learn more about his belief system. However, I am not nearly enough of a biblical scholar to win this religious debate against Bradley Dawson.

Let me make one thing clear. I disagree with Bradley 100%. In the words of Aneesh Sohoni, “THERE IS NOT A SINGLE COMPELLING ARGUMENT TO BE HOMOPHOBIC IN ANY REGARD.” To do so is appalling to me.

As far as Bradley’s post goes, I now believe he was simply trying to present his views in a positive light and demonstrate that he does not hate homosexuality but rather views homosexuality as a sin. However, his “everybody is a sinner” approach was definitely not the best approach, especially with inconsistent articulation. On top of that, I believe he made sweeping generalizations about the nature of homosexuality in developing his point and his defense of the label of homosexuality as sin was dehumanizing. Because Bradley uses mainly passages for his support, many of his explanations are offensive as well. Even so, I believe his intentions were well meant.

As such, the point of this post is not the lend support for one side or the other. I feel like we can learn from both posts. Observing first-hand the people who were hurt by these posts has made me reevaluate my values and my own ignorance. Any such reevaluation is valuable in my mind.

As a debater, I believe that argumentation in most cases is beneficial. Argumentation fosters an articulation of one’s views and the views of one’s opponent, and allows one to understand more about an issue than with passive discussion. Many of you have chosen to use this experience to open up further discussion (Miranda). This event has no doubt brought more focus to the question of homosexuality than perhaps ever before in our school. As many of you know, tomorrow is the Day of Silence. This year, participation will probably skyrocket.

However, many of you continue to be locked in duels concerning personal questions of Bradley’s and Oliver’s actions. I hope many of you will allow these skirmishes to pass, especially those of you who are dragging this whole ordeal on for the sake of entertainment or using this opportunity to let out your personal frustrations with Bradley. What’s said was said. Now we can move forward. After all, it’s Friday.

Place Of Promise,
Noel