James Finn
1 min readNov 20, 2021

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When Evangelical notions about eternity and the transitory nature of our comparatively brief non-eternal existence are taken to their logical extremes, all sorts of seemingly horrible things become justified.

Why shouldn’t a gay man remain without love and partnership his entire life? After all, that life is but a blink of an eye compared to eternity. Why shouldn’t a woman submit herself to men and have children she doesn’t want, cook and clean for a household she didn’t ask for? Even if that causes suffering, the suffering will last for no time at all compared to her joyful eternity.

Few Christians today push things as logically far as they could. (I mean, not like the Inquisition justifying torture the way they did in the Middle Ages.) But the above two examples are positions they really do take all the time.

I’m not a religious person and I don’t crave organized religion, but if I had to choose one, I would probably choose my late partner’s Reform Judaism, whose spiritual tenents are based on living lovingly and morally in this world while we connect with a shared sense of the Divine.

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James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

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