Introducing the November Love, Relationships, and Controversy Series

Because I like to think and write about impossibly big issues and ideas, I have been wanting to write a blog post on Love and Relationships since I started this blog, but every time I sat down to try and write something I became overwhelmed with the massiveness of the issues, the number of points to be addressed, and controversy I could stir up. In order to try and bypass those first two obstacles I decided that I would make the project a month long one. Instead of trying to cram all of my thoughts on Love, Relationships, Marriage, Dating, etc. etc. into a single post, I decided to divide the topic up into a series of posts over the course of November with each post dedicated to focusing on a different topic within the realm of Love and Relationships.

As for the controversy part, this is a blog titled "The Opinion Section" after all.

Seriously though, I am pretty sure that what I'm going to say in these posts is not going to sound entirely agreeable to all of you. In fact, I'm pretty sure I am going to say some things that have a high likelihood of being highly objectionable to you. Many of the people I know read my blog (Hi Grandma) will, I hope, actually be in agreement with me on most, if not all, of this, but there are a lot of people I can see getting rather upset with me and my opinions on this particular topic. Because of that, I wanted to make a few points in this here introductory post.

1) I Am Not Specifically Attacking Anyone: I may be highly opinionated and firmly set in what I believe, but that doesn't mean I am trying to attack everyone who holds a different view point. I truly believe that there is a very real difference between right and wrong and in a very real distinction between right and wrong, and I will defend and forward what I believe to be right and true, but that doesn't mean that I am setting out to bash, insult, mock, ridicule, or belittle anyone that stands by what I believe to be wrong or untrue. I disagree with you, that is true, but my goal is to express the truth and uphold what I believe is good, not to attack anyone.

And that leads me to my next point...

2) Just Because I Don't Agree With You Doesn't Mean I Hate You: Being the opinionated person that I am, there is a very good chance that we are going to disagree about something. Even my closest friends do not agree with me 100% about everything. A dispute or disagreement between us does not necessarily mean that I hate you and your guts. Again, I will defend what I believe is right and true, but just because you do not believe what I believe does not mean I want your head upon a stake. As another human being (and likely a friend if you are reading this), I respect you and your stance on any given topic even if I think it is wrong. Depending on the significance of the issue, I may try to persuade you otherwise, and I will never condone that that goes against my beliefs, but I don't hate you.

About my beliefs and opinions...

3) The Bible Is God's Word: I'm not going to even say "I Believe..." for this point, because the truth of the matter is that my personal belief doesn't have anything to do with it. The Bible is the infallible Word of God, and the teaching of the actually confessional and liturgical Lutheran Church are the foundation for night everything I believe in and hold to be true. You aren't going to persuade me to believe something else through Blog comments, and those beliefs are going to come out in this series of posts and pretty much every other post I write (if you haven't noticed already). If you have an issue with the Lutheran Confessions, or Christianity in general, than I am very sorry and I will respect that, but you aren't going to agree with me and it is going to be fruitless to try and refute my arguments by attacking my faith. I will entertain the possibility that my personal opinions about Love and Relationships are invalid or flawed, but attacking my underlying beliefs and faith isn't going to get you anywhere.

I write on this blog for a few specific reasons. A) It helps me to think about things and obtain a better grasp on what it is I really think and believe about complicated issues, B) Some of my friends/family asked that I have a blog, C) Some of my friends/family seem to enjoy reading what I write for some reason, and D) Because I believe that real good can come from us making our stances and beliefs known. I do not write here because I believe I am going to change the world, because I have a vendetta against anyone, or because "haters gonna hate."

I may be Mr. Opinionated, but I'm not a jerk.

Anyway, back to the November Love, Relationships, and Controversy Series... At this point I am thinking that there will be four installments with one post coming each week and the first one completed and posted by Friday.

Pax