Having a strong committment to a beleif system and faith structures is commenadable in anyone Newleaf. Blatant bigotry is however, not an admireable quality at all. Afterall, I live in a little country where such attitudes kill, maim and destroy lives. If your truth directs me to hell, along side of murderers and rapists and the dregs of society...so be it! But is it necessary that you publicly condemn with such fervour?? What gives any of us the right to be so damning?
In my time in these forums....I have been respectable to everyones beliefs and faith. I do not flaunt my sexuality as some badge of honour..I am what I am...you are what you are and at the end of the day we both know who we are answerable to.
Instinctively...I find it hard to swallow what you claim to be sorry about.
Be happy in knowing that you have made the forums an unsafe place for women like me.
Be happy in knowing that if I was in a public realtime situation with such attutudes...I would get to heck away from the situation. You have no need to tire or take such a hard line publicly from this point, as I will not put myself in front of the firing squad for no one.

Let this be an end to this thread....leave me with some dignity intact.

Pauline.

Pauine & Celtic,
I'm a profoundly spiritual person, passionately and head-over-heels with a God I have wrestled with, argued with, bartered with, cold-shouldered, crawled into, been disillusioned by, misunderstood, forgiven, and returned to over and over again. The most profound lesson I've learned in my long, arduous life-long journey into the mind and heart of this God is that He is LOVE, pure love, unfathomably unconditional love. He loves each and every one of His created beings more than you or I or anyone on the face of the earth could possibly imagine. For me, that's all that matters. That we are loved, more than we can imagine, with no strings attached. Nobody can steal the truth of that neverending love away from us...it isn't theirs to steal away or diminish. Nobody can steal the essence of who we are in God's eyes - that is unchanging and unfathomable - precious, infinitely loved, cherished and forever His alone. Nobody's belief systems, including my own, nobody's words, arguments, or scriptural interpretations should EVER diminish the truth of God's love for you, for each of us. I believe now that anything that tears us down or threatens to diminish our sense of being loved by this God is not of God. Genuine love builds bridges, begets more love, raises us up and helps us to see the wonder and beauty of who we are. Anything that diminishes us is NOT LOVE!

Please, feel safe here. There are so many more of us here who DO BELIEVE IN YOU and cherish your presence in our lives and on this board. Please lean against our deep heartfelt care and be raised up by our genuine love for you.

Every now and again we come across a topic where women in the forums are hurt and it breaks my heart. BWS was launched to connect, encourage and support baby boomer women. It is rare that we get off track. I feel badly that several are probably shaking when they read this thread.

But I have to say that in the midst of this uneasiness, lessons are being learned. I know I've learned much from the open sharing. I'm sorry it's at the expense of others hurting.

My prayer is that after closing this topic, all of us will read and consider how God is speaking to us through the honesty shared within this topic. Hopefully, all of us will take something away that will allow us to open our hearts and love more.