Scotland....at what cost?
I'm so torn right now.
As I type this, Fraser should be touching down in Scotland. He never has a lot of money, but every year he seems to find a way to squirrel enough aside to take a fantastic trip somewhere. To say that I'm envious isn't saying enough.
Tonight my Father came home from one of his 'meetings' and handed me a few color-copied pages. He tells me that one of the best times he ever had was him and my Mom taking a cruise with his parents. He tells me that the brouchure is for a trip to Scotland in July for about a week. He and my Mom would pay our way if Kris and I were interested in going with them.
Ironic, eh? But here's the catch:
The trip is a religiously organized endevour.
The trip is with "Bishop Robert & Mrs. Nara Duncan" and goes from July 8th to July 19th. Here's a description of him from Beliefnet.com that precludes an interview with him.
Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. of Pittsburgh, 55, is the de facto spiritual leader of conservative Episcopalians outraged over the consecration last year of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire--a gay man in a long-term relationship. Once Robinson became a bishop, Duncan began helping to organize what he calls a "realignment" within the Episcopal Church and, by extension, the Anglican Communion. It is not yet clear what lies ahead for the Episcopal Church, but Duncan says he is sure that change will happen.
In other words...not only is it a trip put together by people with (I'm assuming) ulterior motives, but it's people who consider homosexuality a sin, and want to break up their "church" because of it. Oh...he's not too keen on abortion and "remarriage after divorce" either.
He has become a major mouthpiece against the previous ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire.
Bishop Duncan considers homosexuality a "sexual brokenness" and a "decision that may lead to death and destruction". Later focusing on anal sex, he says "It's not how the human body was intended to be used".
(Does that mean lesbians are OK, then?)
So this is where things stand....my Father is offering to pay our way to a place Kris and I have wanted to go for so long. But we would spend much of that time surrounded by the people whose hypocritical religious philosophies shows the entire world the fallacy of so-called Christian Charity, with the entire trip organized by a man whom is considered one of their spiritual leaders.
Of course, we could wear "Another Straight Person for Gay Rights" buttons the entire time. That could make it fun....
Kris isn't home from school yet....can't wait to throw this at her when she gets in the door......
...on a side note, I wonder if they know that God hates shrimp, too?
2 Comments:
First note, stay away from Guinness in a bottle, pale attempt at the real deal. It's carbonated like a "regular beer", not foamy and thick. Stick to the cans. Just discovered that the wrong way.
Anyhow, that aside...I don't envy the situation. Of course you want to jump at a great chance to travel. Most of us do. I think you need to ask the question directly about whether anyone has an issue with just doing your own thing. Or if 1 or 2 days are set aside to hang with the folks and the rest is YOUR time.
It's a loaded gun, because someone will be bound to spout some far right religious zealotry...and I can just hear you screaming, "NO ASSHOLE, GOD HATES YOU AND YOU'RE GOING TO BURN IN HELL FOR BEING A NARROWMINDED FUCKWAD!!! YOU BACKWARDS REDNECK FUCK! Do you think god has a bigger problem with sword swallowing or hateful, divisive, exclusionary behavior and NOT ALLOWING PEOPLE TO WORSHIP HIM? Hmmm, I wonder?"
Or maybe that's just me talking...
Fuck, why'd they mess with Guinness? I may have to pour the rest of the bottles out in the toilet.
I say go. Your parents are trying to do something nice. If I could only surround myself with people who agreed entirely with everything I say, never insulted me and demanded nothing of me, I'd die of boredom.
But here's what's also behind my opinion: In 1998 I was in a very serious car accident- three days after defending my Master's Thesis, and on Mother's Day, no less. After some dicey neckpain, concussion and severe dizziness tha made walking entertaining, we figured out I'd heal. My father was nearly devastated. I could feel the loss he knew he had just avoided. But the reverie did not last. Of course, this is the man who did not understand why "a girl" had to go to college, never mind graduate school. [had I not been returning home to my apartment in Rhode Island...never would have happened...etc,.] Mom, as usual, was loving but ineffective.
But my brother had just kind of suddenly moved to Arizona, and Mom and Dad missed their precious granddaughter. So a few weeks later, I got a FREE trip to the lovely, heat-stroke-inducing hamlet of Yuma, Arizona, for TWO WEEKS. I had just started walking again. Cervical collar around my neck and a purse full of painkillers I had no choice because I had no other place to go to convalesce from the accident. The added bonus was the trips over the border and the revenge on my insides. Seems refried beans, tequila and Vicodin don't get along.
It still hurts my feelings sometimes. But we actually had some great laughs on that trip. A year later my dad had a massive fatal heart attack. Grab the tissues and cue the exit music.
Post a Comment
<< Home