I'm Third
Submitted by mvanhouten on November 26 2000 08:56:45
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When I was a kid, we were all taught "I'm third." We were even given buttons saying "I'm third." "I'm third" (for those unfamiliar) was a take-off of "love God first, love your neighbor second, and yourself last. I can't really explain the theology behind it. ("Love your neighbor as yourself" would make "me" tied for second, as far as I can discern.) Anyway, everyone here seems not very concerned about boys and how they feel about sexual things. There seems to be a broad understanding here that adult christian boy-lovers really shouldn't be concerned about a boy's own interpetation of his sexual and spiritual life. There seems to be an assumption here that the adult is destined by God to make the spiritual and moral decisions for the boy, not with the boy. For example: Would the typical poster here reject a boy's erotic advances? Would they try to "teach" the boy that such advances are "wrong?" Would the typical poster here ever listen to such a boy long enough to re-evaluate their own sexual guilt and ethics? Would they be humble enough to allow a message that the their sexual/ethics view might be mistaken? And would they even consider that a boy could be the messenger telling them such a mistake is being made? That maybe we could do well to listen to a 12-year-old, just as the temple scholars listened carefully to a 12-year-old two thousand years ago. |
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