The Lord's Prayer in Tok Pisin

As a kid, I lived in Papua New Guinea for a while.

There I went to Church, and, obviously also attended Sunday school. Although I went to an international school where we spoke English, Church was always in Tok Pisin.

My inability to speak the language didn't matter: kids just play and chase each other around and don't need to communicate their feelings eloquently. I picked up the language eventually, but thanks to sunday school, the first thing I learnt to speak properly was the Lords Prayer.

Once I moved back to New Zealand I haven't spoken extensively in Tok Pisin for years, but I find it oddly comforting to pray in. 

Anyway, I wrote it below if you're interested.


Papa bilong mipela, yu stap long heven. 

Mekim nem bilong yu i kamap bikpela. 

Mekim kingdom bilong yu i kam. 

Strongim mipela long bihainim laik bilong yu long graun, olsem ol i bihainim long heven. 

Givem mipela kaikai inap long tude. 

Pogivim rong bilong mipela olsem mipela i pogivim ol arapela i mekim rong long mipela. 

Sambai long mipela long taim bilong traim.

Na rausim olgeta samting nogut long mipela.

Tru.

It’s okay to not like things, but don’t be a dick about it: Gay Marriage.

Among other things, I am a child of the early nineties. Therefore I am a girl who has grown up immersed in popular culture. I grew up watching an hour or two of television per day. I read until my Mum banned books and kicked me outside. I’m a self-professed audiophile who listens to a ton of music.

What I’m trying to say, is that I’ve grown up in an age where LGBT culture is celebrated. Because I’ve dedicated my life to Christ, I do my best to love everyone. I believe every human should be treated with dignity and respect.

There were also two big influences on my life which determined how I chose to react to LGBT culture:

Influence 1:

I was raised in a Christian home. In the middle of my teenage years I explored other religions and atheism, however Christianity as defined in the New Testament is now the core of my life. My parents never specifically spoke about homosexuality, but when I did enquire they explained that while they believed homosexuality to be wrong, Jesus calls us to love everyone and therefore I was to “hate the sin, and love the sinner.” My Mum is a firm believer that it is not for us to judge people for what they do, but instead offer friendship and care to all who seek it. 

Influence 2:

 I am currently 19 years old. Since I was 14, I have spent a LOT of time on the internet. For a phase in my life I was closer to my internet friends then the ones I connected with in daily life. They understood me. They related. They had the same interests. They taught me to not judge, because everyone is dealing with their own history. They believed that homosexuality was fine, and that homosexual marriage naturally leads on from that.

So, I went along with this, never giving homosexual marriage any thought. Not until recently, when Louisa Wall bought to New Zealand parliament the proposal to change the Marriage law to include same-sex couples.

On the surface, this seems fine. However a lot of consideration and thought has left me with the opinion that instead of just concerning those in the marriage, marriages have a profound effect on others, also. There are two main reasons I believe this:

1.       I believe that gender matters and gender roles are important. Two men might individually be fantastic fathers, but neither can be a mother. In the same strain, two woman might be great mothers, but neither can be a father. “Plenty of children are raised by single parents and are fine”, you might say. This is true, but I believe that society should never intentionally create fatherless or motherless families. Same-sex marriages would mean a birth certificate would be reworded from “mother” and father” to “Progenitor A” and “Progenitor B”. To me, deliberately depriving a child of a parental influence from both genders seems fundamentally wrong. 

2.       Equality is not sameness, and difference is not inequality. Marriage rightly discriminates: a 14 year old cannot get married. Three or four people can’t get married to each other. A person who is currently married cannot marry another person. A father cannot marry his adult daughter. A mother cannot marry her adult son. Even those wanting ‘equality’ believe there should be restrictions: which shows they do not believe marriage is an absolute right for everybody or every type of romantic relationship.

In New Zealand, homosexual couples are free to be joined in a civil union. In 2004, then-Prime Minister Helen Clark said: “Marriage is only for heterosexuals. The Government is not – underline – not, changing the Marriage Act. That will remain as an option only for heterosexual couples.”

This culture which promotes “equality and fairness” doesn’t seem to be doing that at all if you dare disagree with the masses. The loudest voices are those saying that Homosexual Marriage is natural and spitting bile onto anybody who says it undermines marriage as one of the core foundational values of society.

The internet’s theme song is basically this:

“It’s okay to not like things, but don’t be a dick about it.”

I guess that could commonly be interpreted as “You can disagree with Gay Marriage, but you may only do so quietly.”

I’m sorry to be a dick about it. But I quote Gay Senator Dean Smith from the Parliament of Australia in Sep 2012:

“I reject the suggestion of marriage equality. Marriage equality has been a slogan: it has been a campaign. The claim to equality ignores the widely accepted act that marriage is an institution that has a long and well-accepted definition – a definition that is heavily laden with cultural meaning and values crafted by custom and by law over the years.”

I hope I’ve given you some food for thought.

Charlie :)

Notes:

-A lot of the information I have included here was sourced from protectmarriage.org.nz

-Also, click if you’re interested in "It's okay to not like things"

How to achieve ALL THE THINGS (how to get things done)

11.       Plan

22.       Be realistic with your plan

33.      Stick to your plan

44.      Seriously, actually stick to the plan. 

I wrote this super-useful list to tack on my wall as I have just resumed University. It is a valuable lesson which I learnt last year through my first year of tertiary education, and I thought I should extend this knowledge to those desperate enough to trawl through google for answers.

Good luck achieving your things!