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Friday, January 31, 2014

Dramatic Things.


Well then.

It is official.

My mother has labeled this blog as dramatic.

In honor of this recent labeling, I am thus devoting this post to a list of things that more dramatic than my blog. You know, just to keep things in perspective.


Things that are more dramatic than Emily's blog.
  • The Notebook.
  • Soap operas.
  • Spanish soap operas. Good lord.
  • Taylor Swift.
  • Frozen.
  • John Boehner.
  • Twitter. (Except my Twitter is lovely. @debater_rosebud)
  • Freaks and Geeks.
  • Actually, just about anything on TV.
  • Teenager Posts on Pinterest.
  • Justin Bieber's fans.
  • Justin Bieber's love life.
  • Downtown Abbey.
  • Fox News.
  • Interp speeches.
  • My persuasive speech.
  • My brain.
  • Car rides with my family.
  • Debate partnerships.
  • What my mother thinks about me.
  • Relationships in general.
  • The struggle between pizza and not pizza.
  • The struggle between "stay in bed" and "make coffee".

A toast to things that aren't as dramatic as those things up there.
You're welcome.
I try to keep this blog, in my humble opinion, pretty drama-free.
Love you, mom.
~Emily

Thursday, January 30, 2014

To all you kids.


To the kid who’s struggling to make it today. To the kid who doesn’t think they can take it anymore. To the kid who isn’t going to eat today. To the kid who is going to hurt themselves tonight. To the kid who hasn’t slept well in weeks. To the kid who feels like they’re falling apart. To the kid who exists haunted by the decisions they made yesterday. To the kid who just wants it all to be okay. To the kid choking on reality. To the kid who wants to be happy, just for a split second. To the kid who can’t get over the shame and regret.

Please. You are beautiful. Your soul is beautiful. Trust me. Your pain is maddening and the hurt is suffocating. The shame is taking over and blocking the light out. Tiny fissures and miniscule cracks show on the surface, revealing an overwhelming sea swimming with regrets on the inside. I know because I have felt those same fissures myself. I know because, every now and then, when it storms, I get swept into that sea of regret too. But you don’t have to stay there. You don’t deserve to stay there. There are some things you should know.

That same pain, weakness, and regret have done something incredible inside of you. They have made you alive. The same hurts that threaten to break you are the very indications that there is hope left. Crazy paradox, isn’t it? Pain makes us alive. It forces us to feel. It forces us to realize that we are still alive and breathing and feeling and experiencing.

Pain does not allow us to be superficial.

“And now, I finally know what it feels like
To risk everything and still survive
When you’re standing on the battlefield
And all the pain is real
That’s when you realize that you must have done something right
‘Cause you’ve never felt so alive.”
-Leader of the Broken Hearts by Papa Roach

The fact that you are hurting is indicative of life. You may be broken, but so long as you can feel, so long as you’re even breathing, gosh dang it; you know you’re alive. Press on and keep breathing. Keep living. Keep tasting each moment. Keep allowing yourself to feel everything; make yourself feel everything. Don’t let yourself suppress the hurt. Don’t let yourself become numb. Feel. Experience. Breathe. Relish being alive. Relish feeling. Relish the bittersweet realization that hurt indicates your very existence.

Realizing existence is sometimes an incredible realization. The fact that you’re here, alive, feeling and breathing and seeing and hearing and knowing and being known, is a beautiful existence.

I’ve been there. I know that feeling hurt seems like a rather crappy existence.

But please, dear. Hold on to that hope that it will be okay one day. Wait on time. Wait for the hurt to pass. Defy it. Love yourself, because you are wonderful. Know that you are being transformed into a truly lovely person; one who is not superficial, who has known hurt and pain and shame and regret, and yet one who keeps fighting. You aren’t paper. You know reality and you know hurt. That renders a tender, compassionate, empathetic person. It renders you to be real. It renders to feel the hurt of the people you meet everyday and share their load with them.

It renders you to be anything but superficial. And that is a beautiful thing.

You’re breathing. It may not seem like much, but some days, that is the sole most incredible miracle and realization in the entire world. The fact that you’re breathing opens up a whole other world. Breath is opportunity. Breath is a miracle in and of itself. Breath is a miracle that is a constant reminder that, so long as you’re existing, things could get better. Any moment.

Breath is beautiful.

And so are you. So just breathe, beautiful. That is all I require of you. Wait for the opportunities. Wait on time. And so long as you are breathing, you have those two things. You have opportunity and you have time and you have a future. It won’t be perfect. It won’t be easy. It might suck on some days. But you are incredible, and real, and not superficial, and you have made it so freaking far. You can do this. Maybe not alone, but you don’t have to do anything alone.

As someone told me yesterday, “Friends are here to help you carry your cross when you can’t carry it by yourself.”

Remember that. And breathe. Please. For me.

In my humble opinion, you are lovely, and I hope your future is as lovely as you are.
-yours truly.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Horseblinders.


And the following is an attempt at proper, only mildly-sarcastic writing. I feel so stupid writing properly. But anyway. Enjoy.

Don’t blame what feels like the entirety of humanity for hating your choices, or you, for some acquaint the two interchangeably. Don’t blame them for not seeing your struggles for the choices that disguise it. Don’t even blame anyone for vainly attempting to “fix” you: how could anyone know how hurtful that really is? No, don’t blame them, for they truly just do not know. Mankind is blind except for that which we desire to behold. We do not see in earnest; we see through a cloudy lens which filters the sights of our souls to be only that which we want to see. And some days we make it in this life only because of our misconception of it. We choose to see only that which we can bear to see, and then one always forms their beliefs based on what they have seen. Thus we function in a world of broken and stitched-together people, each living in their own misconception which enables them to barely survive in this crazy place. And then we go on, despising and ridiculing each other if someone happens to have a different misconception than ourselves. We cherry-pick what we wish to believe is “truth”. And we go through life with our horse-blinders on, hoping that nothing happens to disprove what we have chosen to think is “truth”. We live in a misconception, willingly.

By calling each man’s worldview a “misconception”, I am inadvertently admitting that there is a conception that is truth. For a misconception is only such if it is amiss from the truth of things; the correct conception, that is to say. And yet I argue that not one of our kind is born with the innate ability to form a correct conception of this world. Instead, we’ve almost created a sort of blurry “dream-state” in which we perpetually function. This “dream-state” is more or less on a personal level, although it is on a mass level too, since the masses are affected by individual experience. You probably think I’m crazy for alluding to such a state, a state removed from reality; as if we could deny the reality of our surroundings. But I think this isn’t such a fantastical idea. Since we’ve tailored our sights to fit the capacities of our souls, we’ve limited our ability to take in and process truth: forming and functioning in the misconceptions to which I have continually referred. Living in these lies, these false sights, these misconceptions, we stop taking in reality. Rather, we each create a manufactured “reality”, and we prefer to live in that. Perhaps some news reaches us that a friend has spread a rumor about some secret conduct of ours’, a conduct about which we thought no one knew. We take in the news, not with the realization that someone has guessed the truth of our secret conduct; rather, we sputter angrily that the friend is spreading pure libel, has no right to sacrifice our reputation without evidence, or even that the friend is basically insane and thus has zero credibility to his accusations. And with this reaction, what have we done? We have denied the truth of reality and created a separate, more comfortable one in which we can now live. We’ve cherry-picked and distorted the truth. Fabricated realities are of course more comfortable and easy than admitting the truth of things. I hope you realize the irony of this situation. We justify reality to ourselves, rationalizing the secret action, for example, and we deem our distorted facts as acceptable. Anything to keep people from knowing the truth. And besides, it’s incredibly easy to deceive oneself. But when someone questions our distorted truth, we accuse them of libel, falsehood, intentional distortion; and yet we commit the same crimes against ourselves. We lie to ourselves about the truth of things, but we kill if someone else is supposedly “distorting the truth”. At the end of the day, man is not offended by distortion or falsehood at all. He only expresses offense when such a “falsehood” contradicts that falsehood which he has chosen to believe.
           
So basically, that’s where the contrived “dream-state” comes in, because we’re not actually living in reality if we’re distorting and cherry-picking the truth, existing with our enormous horse-blinders over our eyes. We create for ourselves an existence which often isn’t even reality, but a manufactured reality. That reality which may express bits of truth, but in such a twisted way that it can longer be categorized as truth at all. That twisted truth which we conveniently accept or disregard depending on the circumstances. This twisted state of reality is a pretty bad thing for us humans. True, for some it is worse than others’; those who have the worst case of it usually end up in either prison, a madhouse, or Congress.
            
With these contentions I am, in no way, supposing that man is incapable of unearthing any kind of truth. I think we’re of course capable of unearthing it; we just choose what truths we feel like believing. And often, when we discover a truth, we just discard it. Truth is often discarded with three lame excuses.
  1. The first of these excuses just negates the very premise of the truth. In the example of the friend exposing our secret conduct, one of the responses was to claim that the rumor was just simply not true. Falsehood. After all, if we can negate the very fact that truth is indeed true, we can justify discarding it.
  2. The second usual excuse admits that the premise of the truth may be true, but not without the plentiful support of evidence. Evidence is a qualifier. The most absurd, random ideas can be qualified if someone finds support for it. Support is pretty key. And quite often, if a truth is discovered, we discard it on the idea that there is not enough evidence to support it. That seems reasonable enough, right? But as men, we have the tendency to be pretty sly. We’re pretty good at distorting the evidence or discarding the evidence or simply ignoring the evidence. Gosh, we are such experts at contorting anything in our path that might (God-forbid!) change what we want to believe.
  3. The final excuse for discarding truth is to disqualify the bearer of the truth. If we can convince ourselves that the messenger of the truth is dishonest, misinformed, or even just plain crazy, we can easily just throw out the truth he brings. Simple enough, right?
And in these ways, truth is easily discarded by men everyday. Dang are we screwed up. So you see, it’s not that we’re dumb creatures, incapable of discovering truth; it’s more like we’re disgusting creatures, for we would rather get rid of the truth than allow it to change us.
            
I said earlier that not one of mankind is capable of forming a “correct conception” of this world. Perhaps that would be better phrased if I said that not one of mankind is willing to form a correct conception of this world. And if someone happens to think themselves willing to believe truth, and perhaps prides themselves on their logical, correct, and deliciously radical view, their pride clouds their view to the extent that it should probably not be trusted. I think that man is a being created to yearn for truth, and yet his carnal desires for safety, comfort, or even sin often overtake this yearning for truth. That’s probably our greatest flaw as people. And yet, it is sorely inescapable! We are, by nature, unarguably susceptible to abandoning, twisting or ignoring the truth, and thus seeing selectively: all coming together to allow us to function in our lovely, comfortable misconception of things.
            
And believe it or not, it’s not like mankind has ever been devoid of this atrociousness. I mean, take Genesis 3:1. Man was introduced to a conveniently distorted truth, and he fell prey to it. The serpent twisted the truth God had breathed to His creation; he discarded the words of God based on the same basic premises we discussed earlier. He first attempted to negate that words of God were entirely true: “You shall not surely die [if you eat of the forbidden fruit].” He then attacked God’s “lack of evidence” by pointing out to Eve that “the tree was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes, and that it was desired to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). God had not provided substantial “evidence” to support His claim, so to speak, and the serpent capitalized on this lacking by providing counter-evidence. He lastly disqualified the validity of the messenger, as he portrayed God to have intentionally withheld information from Eve: “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you shall be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) He employed each of the aforementioned justifications for discarding truth, and man bought it. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and when God confronted them, they just further distorted the truth of the matter by uttering falsehoods to disguise their wrong. Distortion, falsehood, and misconceptions: providing horse-blinders to mankind since the very beginning of time. Sucks that this is basically human-nature now and we can’t escape it.
            
Or can we?
            
As I said earlier, claiming that our views are a misconception admits that, somewhere, there is a conception that is truth. For, in the end, it’s not like you can call something amiss without realizing that there is something right to compare it to. What, then, is the correct way to view this insane world? Through what lenses should we see this place? Great leaders over time have sought the answer to those questions. Failed miserably. But they did try. Mohammed argued that the Islamic religion was the correct conception. Budha claimed that that his conception alone was the right one. Ghandi thought that the lenses of peace were the right ones. Hitler wanted us all to look at things through the mindset of racial supremacy, which he believed translated into moral supremacy. Lincoln wanted people to see things through the eyes of justice, freedom and equality. Christ wanted us to look on the earth with the eyes of hope, forgiveness, trust, and love. What could be the correct view? Weren’t each of these great “philosophers” just men, and thus also capable of forming grave misconceptions? Can we trust their viewpoints if, after all, they’re just a mortal like the rest of us?
            
Hmm. Perhaps, then, in the end, truth is undiscoverable; for if it supposedly “discovered”, it is unearthed by men with a tendency towards screwed up viewpoints. Perhaps there isn’t even any truth at all; we should all just do as we wish, being careful to generally be considerate of other people, you know. Perhaps we’re just so deeply messed up that we’re just incapable of even discerning truth. Or maybe, truth just isn’t worth searching for.
            
Yeah the world’s gonna tell you that.
            
But you know what, maybe those assumptions are wrong. Perhaps man is incapable of discovering truth, but perhaps the creator of truth isn’t really a man at all. Perhaps the only being qualified to discern, unearth, and perpetuate truth is the only being to ever exist in pure, undefiled truth. And this “being” is not, of course, man. Man yearns for truth and yet he cannot create it, cannot manufacture it, cannot buy it, and on his own, can’t even discern it. But perhaps, just perhaps, there is One who can.

            
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” –John 14:6

Take off those horse-blinders. There is truth. 
And actually, that's not simply my humble opinion. It's just the truth.
-Emily

Monday, January 27, 2014

Debate Partner Appreciation Day.



Debate partners are good for many things. Today, I asked Haley to help me out in a fun project/game. The rules were as follows: Haley writes a description of Emily, and then Emily writes a description of Emily, and then Emily writes a description of Haley and then Haley writes a description of Haley, and then they compare their descriptive talent. The results were quite...interesting. Clearly, we appreciate each other immensely. Observe.


Haley Appreciates Emily. 


"Emily tries to define herself as "hipster" citing the fact that she listens to "hipster music" and likes to drink tea. But in fact she is very mainstream because being a self proclaimed "hipster" is mainstream. As are hipster music and tea and hipster clothes. Emily is better defined by her fondness for personality tests, movie quotes, Jim Moriarty, and cuss words. Emily is a major extrovert people-person. She has a rebellious streak. No.. Emily has so many rebellious streaks she would look like a zebra if they weren't invisible (thank goodness.) She likes boys and thinks they are all hot and also thinks that the world would be a better place without them and wants them all dead (it depends on the mood.) On the bright side, you can say the most crazy or ridiculous stuff and she still likes you, so that's good. Emily has a silver tongue and can make the randomest crap sound like the most persuasive crap you've ever heard. and she also is a backwards S and stuff so you should date her but you have to get past me first.
the end."


Emily Appreciates Haley. 



"Haley. Where do I start. Do I start with the fact that she loves her ability to be cuttingly sarcastic? Or do I start with the fact that no one else appreciates that ability as much as her? Or, perhaps I should start with the fact that she spends her life watching TV shows, doing homework, finding meaningless YouTube videos on the internet, adoring children, taking pictures, being a fangirl, reading good things, and of course, making time for hating things. Ah, Haley. She is a unique girl. She’s extremely pretty, but guys do not hit on her as much as they should because they are usually too busy being offended by her. But she’s super good at offending the ones who deserve to be offended. I adore her ability to hate things in the beautiful way that she does. My brothers have differeing opinions of her. Sam thinks she is sexy and perfect. Will thinks she needs to gain a butt and a personality. But no one should listen to Will, because his butt is ugly and, in the way of personalities, he seriously has no room to talk. Haley introduces people to good TV shows. Haley likes purple. She is not afraid to voice the (sometimes rather harsh) truth. Her honesty is adorable and perfect. And rare: no one is as honest as Haley. She likes cute things, and she is cute in her fangirliness, brutal honesty, and hatingness. I yub her. She is cool."

And today, children, may you all follow our examples and appreciate that special person in your life known as your debate partner.

Mine is pretty great, in my humble opinion.
-Emily

Friday, January 24, 2014

I Gave You My Number...I Thought You Might Call

Ladies and gents, meet the love of my life, Jim Moriarty.

DISCLAIMER: my debate partner indeed introduced me to Sherlock. Thanks to her (and as per her recommendation/prediction), Jim Moriarty is now in my life. Thank you Haley.

All goofiness aside, this is really just going to be a lighthearted post. Also, this post's title has a legit Moriarty quote. "I gave you my number...I thought you might call..."...all in this beautiful creepy ironic voice which gets me every time. And I planned this wonderful connection between the Moriarty quote and Christianity; you know, ever feel like you give God "your number" and expect Him to "call", and He just doesn't? You know, kind of like, "Father, I gave you my number. I thought you might call. And you haven't."

It's just...I don't want to write about serious topics today. Sorry.

Thus for once, I shall spare you guys of my endless thoughts/rambles. I'm actually just going to chat about some fun things in this post. Facts about Emily. I asked an adopted brother from R8 to determine five random questions for me to answer, and he's given me some interesting things to work with. So here we go.

1) What is your favorite politician and why?
My favorite politician...is a tie between Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. I just honestly adore those two men as people. I've met Santorum several times in person and, even though his policy ideals and morality are more conservative than I usually like, he's just a fabulous guy. I also basically adore Paul's policy. His blatant sarcasm is also beautiful. Insanely beautiful. Chris Christie deserves a spot here as well.

2) Why do you love Will so much?
  • He's my brother.
  • He's freaking hilarious.
  • His admitted lack of brain cells pump up my ego.
  • He has this adorable sweet side. You did not hear that from me.

3) If you could have any animal for a pet, what would it be and why?
I want a tiny, fuzzy white rabbit. If not purely for the ability to hold it and yell IT'S SOO FLUFFEH! Or a horse would be lovely.

4) If you could have any car, what would it be and why?
I desperately want an 80's Volkswagen Beetle. As for the "why"; why not? It's freakin awesome.

5) What is your favorite hobby, and why? 
I have a lot of hobbies. They're all my favorites; it depends on how I feel about the world at the moment (i.e, mood). I write songs, short stories, and poetry; I read a lot; I really adore making tea and coffee; I further adore drinking the tea and coffee; I hunt; of course I'm a sucker for debate/speech; I particularly enjoy watching my Netflix shows (Psych, Freaks and Geeks, and now Sherlock); listening to music may honestly be my most favorite; I also like snuggling (shout out to my baby brother here); I enjoy verbal spars which include primarily movie quotes, sarcasm, and moments of total insanity; I like hanging out with my debate peoples; I lovelovelove to dance....I am horrible at making decisions and thus I can't pick a favorite.

This thus closes your first introduction to things about me. You can also comment with question ideas of what I should answer next time. Muah. xoxox

-Em

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

People suck.



People suck.

Sorry to break that news to you guys. ::waves::  But people really do suck. I used to say that life sucks, and it's your attitude that determines how bad it sucks. I don't exactly think that's true anymore. Sometimes, life (and people) remain sucky despite our cute attitudes. It just...happens.

But before you go read someone else's blog because you are concerned about the depressing material in mine, let me just say. You know how they say haters gonna hate? Well, people gonna suck. Always. Always, always, always. So stop denying it.

In me humble opinion, denying the fact that people suck and sucky things happen is about the suckiest thing you could ever do to yourself. I think humanity in general has a syndrome. It is called the "tough guy syndrome". Essentially, we just think that by denying any existence of hurt, we can become immune to it.

We don't let ourselves experience hurt anymore.

All we do is cover it up, mask it, hide until it goes away, escape the reality of it, avoid it like the plague, deny it. Someone asks if you're okay, and you're like, "Yeah, I'm great." I don't know why you told me that, because it's a lie. I can freaking see it if you're not freaking okay. {Just FYI.} Do we think that by telling someone (even ourselves) that everything is okay makes it okay?

Because it just doesn't. If something rather painful happens to us, it's not like you can escape it. One thing my grandfather told me a long time ago is that stuff will catch up to you, even if it you push it to the bottom of the stack. You can't outrun facts. Even the sucky ones. They tend to surface and have the ability to resurface if not fully addressed.

I guess I've never embraced that. I've just always thought that I could escape hurt by covering it up with stuff, or denying that it hurts, or just by becoming paralyzed. Brilliantly, I supposedly escaped stuff by escaping it.

seem legit?

I was on the phone with a friend earlier this week and was trying to convey my hurt concerning a recent situation. He said something to me that really stuck with me. He said, "Know that I am praying for you, and so are all your other angels." Hmmmm. People. Coming together. What if...that's the key, or at least one of the keys, to finding a less-sucky existence? And I don't want this blog post to turn into another I HAZ ALLLLLL THE ANSWERS thing. Because guess what. I really haz no answers and I'm just trying to make life less sucky.

I think one of the ironic things is that, even though people suck, people can make things such much less sucky. I used to think that things made life less sucky: things like books and coffee and music and babies and hugs and kisses. And grantedddddd. Those things do make life less sucky, by a lot. But then again, things only do a good job at masking the hurt. People are a tool to help address and mend the pain. Don't be scared to use people as your resource rather than things. Things have a way of covering up pain, while people - albeit, even though a lot of our kind sucks - people can help out.

People coming together is a beautiful thing. Try to utilize that. <3

And  thank you to people who do not suck. We know you have volunteered as tribute.

IMHO,
~yours truly~

Friday, January 3, 2014

{isn't it funny?}

you're probably wondering what my beautiful coffee cup has to do with this post.
it doesn't. it's just pretty.


Isn't it funny that I haven't posted anything in forever?

Would you like to know why I haven't posted anything in forever? It's because I have so much on my mind, when I think, "what should I blog about today?", I don't even know where to start.

But recently my cousin, grandfather, and I were sitting at lunch talking. And for some reason, we always end up talking about homosexuality and/or Duck Dynasty. And CONVENIENTLY, those two topics are recently very closely linked.

I'm sure you've heard about the outrage in which Phil Robertson has been bashed for bashing gays. He was temporarily suspended from his role in the Robertson family's reality TV show on A&E. Cracker Barrel now refuses to sell Duck Dynasty merchandise. Much of the population surged with righteous anger when they heard of Phil's suspension. But much of the population also surged with anger when they heard his comments.

I'll come right out and say it: this isn't just a battle of morals, as the Robertsons and Christian leaders have portrayed it. It is somewhat a battle of morals, true; some of Phil's comments were in line with Scripture, but some of them were just ill-spoken and crude.

Here's the article itself if you'd like to read it. Don't say I didn't warn you about strong language and crude humor. http://www.gq.com/entertainment/television/201401/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson

“It seems like, to me, a {woman's private}—as a man—would be more desirable than a {man’s private}. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

This happens to be exactly what Phil said. I see what he was going for. He was trying to appeal to a man's God-given sex drive, and I think most men, including my grandfather, see his point there. The problem is, that's not exactly how the Bible words it. And the Robertsons have portrayed this to be a purely moral issue: "Phil spoke the biblical truth and is being persecuted for it!"

um, no. That's not exactly it, martyrs.

If he had quoted Scripture and then was persecuted, I'd tell A&E to get a life, because we all know they wouldn't persecute a Muslim for quoting the Koran (I hate how that's becoming the stereotypical Christian example. Sorry to use it. :P But it's true.). It's just that the Bible has become inherently offensive today. However, not quoting the Bible, and then acting like your suspension for your crude comments is a bash on the Bible, is messed up.

And what about the "sin is illogical" comment? Seriously, what the heck? Since when is sin illogical? Sin is the most logical thing on the planet. That's why we sin. Sin feels good, it looks good, it doesn't usually have immediate consequences, and sometimes we escape the consequences completely. The consequences, if/when they happen, suck; and the effects on our spiritual life/other people suck, and it also sucks that sin kind of distances us from God, but sin is hardly illogical. Sin is our logical action. We're human; all we do is basically screw up. We suck. However, completely denying human nature and offering hope and eternity with a perfect God is illogical, beautifully illogical. Sin is logical. Grace is not.

The bottom line is this: Phil should have chosen his comments more wisely. I see his point, but his crude words do not "speak the truth in love". His crude words are offensive and do not seek to convince someone of their sin; rather, it seems to show someone that their sin is more illogical than someone else's.

The bottom line is this: A&E had the right to suspend him, they're a private corporation for gosh sake, but I doubt it was for pure moral reasons. Money, friends, money. Offending someone based on their sexual orientation isn't a smart marketing move. So A&E needs to quit acting like they're the savior of same-sex couples.

The bottom line is this: Cracker Barrel is screwed up for discontinuing their carrying of Duck Dynasty merchandise, because, admittedly, this is due to an uproar of customers. "Ah, our customers will likely be pissed off. No more Duck Dynasty t-shirts." Are you freaking serious? You're a private corporation. You have the freedom to make your own decisions, you know. You have a thing called "morals", you know. It's not all about money, you know.

The bottom line is this: Regardless of what sin you struggle with - lying, self-harm, homosexuality, idolatry, drunkenness, adultery, and the list goes on - you are not beyond hope. Even if someone calls your sin "illogical", it's more illogical to realize that you are offered hope and grace regardless of your choices. Even if you are "gay", listen. You're loved anyway. Madly, desperately, and recklessly. I can't lie, the Bible does not endorse homosexuality; I mean, that's the fact of the matter. I'm sorry if that offends anyone. But I'm not sorry if anyone is offended by the fact that God madly adores sinners, even gays, as much as He ever has or will. His love is not unconditional. His disapproval of your choices =/= rejection of you. Calling your action a sin =/= withholding His grace and love. And homosexuality =/= worse than any other sin. Christ had to die for that one as well as the 12 year old who steals Cracker-Jacks at a supermarket (shout-out to my dad, yo).

And now I'm done bashing everyone. May God save all our souls.