Morality and The Collective Greater Good Are All You Have for an Argument Against Someone Else's Choice For Their Lives

If sleeping with a bunch of men and women makes me a slut then, I'm a slut.

If sleeping with and loving a married man makes me an adulteress, then I'm adultress.

There. I bear your labels. I accept that my choices disgust you. Now what? You have no power over me anymore. I am what you say I am and I don't care that you think it of me.

I know what it is I'm doing and I've chosen it. I, alone, bear the consequences for my choices. If anyone, in the faith, is "led astray" by my choices, that's on them, not me. That's on them for listening to what it is that is in them, and it is on them for wanting it above what they know is "right". I know this from two decades of carefully following my faith. Two decades of watching other people fall away and, upon consideration of their choice, having to choose to stay the course or embrace what's in me. 

This country, America, was founded on individualism. And, I hate to break it to you but, so is the Bible. While following the Lord, as an individual, I'm supposed to care about the impact of my choices on others, but in choosing my own paths, which God gives to each individual to choose, I, the individual, am released from the collective. My choices are my own. And, it is the responsibility of the individual in the collective to stay there or to choose their own way.

Do you know what I love about Nazis? It's not their world view or their politics. It's that they say, "Sure, if objecting to race equality makes us racists, then we're racists, so what?" 

There is something individually empowering in owning your shit.

There is something collectively disarming in saying, "Yup. OK. I am what you say I am, and here's why. So what now?"

I am a slut and an adulteress. So what? Every objection one could give is based on their own moral disgust OR their fear of how my individual choice impacts the collective. I don't share your morals and I don't care about your collective. There. Problem solved. Well, at least for me.

While thinking on this last night, I remembered a talk given by Jonathan Haidt to a group of Libertarians:

The only "what" there is your need to force everyone to see it your way, to have everyone agree with you, to have everyone hold to your collective idea of how the world should be. You should ask yourself why you just can't let individuals be free to choose and accept responsibility for their paths? The answer is because you care about the collective impact. Because, without the collective impact, all the conflict that exists is your ideological or preferential disgust. 

And, to that, I say, "Fuck you". You stay in your collective if you want. I did not want. I moved away from the collective to embrace a different path, to embrace my individualism.

I know the road I've chosen is antithetical to my faith. It's OK. I chose it. I bear the consequences of it, not you. And, I bear it openly and honestly, which is more than I can say for many of my detractors.

I bear the heartache. I bear the responsibility. I bear the decisions about how to move forward with my life. I bear the impact, not you. Not you. NOT YOU.

You are responsible for your life. If Christians were any smarter than the general sheeple public they would seek an understanding of their faith's principles. But, unfortunately, their intelligence is a microcosm representation of that which is found in the general population. The Bible says that when a member is in sin, the one who knows it is supposed to confront the one in error. If he, or in this case, she, will not listen, then the first, is supposed to go back with another to confront, again, the one in error. If that does not turn the one in error away, that one should be brought before the congregation. If that doesn't turn then, they are to be cast out from fellowship, away from the collective, and, as an individual, given to the devil for "the destruction of their flesh".

That "destruction" is them having to endure the natural consequences of living outside of God's plan for a peaceful and protected life until it drives them back to that plan and to the collective. Thus, it is no longer your responsibility to put yourself, your energy, your time, your care into what they're doing because they've chosen to go their own way. Your responsibility is to nurture those who are choosing to stay in the collective. 

I took myself out of fellowship. I took myself out of communion because I, better than my detractors, believe and understand this principle of my faith. "Be sure your sin will find you out" and, "there can't be sin in the camp."

And, I sincerely, did not want to put my brothers and sisters in the faith through the drama of the biblical process of trying to change the mind of someone who's mind didn't want to be changed.

I want to travel this path and I, alone, bear the consequences of it. I am responsible for it, not you. Not you. NOT YOU.

I am responsible for myself and my family, and I take that responsibility seriously. I am not responsible for the feelings, disapproval, or disappointment of the people of faith or those who exist on a nonfaith scale of morality for, I have long since removed myself from the faith collective and have not joined any other.

I helped make a mess of the Lover's world AND I love him. And, all involved - all of us who actually bear this - are accepting of what it means to be in this. All of us want to try to move forward together. So, Yup. I'm a slut and an adulteress. That can't be undone now and I'm OK bearing your labels.

Now what?

Here's what: I'm gonna go on living my life now, and you go ahead and think of me what you will. That's your business and your problem, not mine.