Recently, a college football player announced he was gay and was planning to be drafted into the NFL as the first openly gay football player. Sorry for the lack of specific facts. I don't follow professional football like I did in the past. If the story had been about a cheerleader who came out as gay, I probably would have paid more attention to the story (CAUTION: Please keep your mind out of the gutter. I'm just more interested in cheerleaders than football players. Wait, that didn't help. Nevermind!).
So I've heard various opinions expressed on this. Some people think it is great. Some people are indifferent (like me). Some people have concerns on the matter and have brought up the old "What is he thinking?" question. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. A straight football player in the locker room sees a gay football player look at him and, in a fit of paranoia, decides the gay football player is leering at him and is disgusted at the thought of a man finding him attractive. Paranoia is bad. Absurd paranoia is absurdly bad. People! Chill! Knowing with 100% accuracy the thoughts of another person is impossible without that person actually stating what he is thinking.
Years ago, while in a serious relationship with a young woman, I decided I needed help dealing with my gender issues and went to a friend who happened to be a psychiatrist. Back in the day, I was worried if I was a transvestite or transexual. After several visits, the doctor told me that was not the question. He said my problem was depression (which I knew I had and had refused to seek treatment for) and we needed to deal with that first.
I told my girlfriend I was seeing a therapist, but outside of that I didn't tell her much. I didn't give her weekly reviews of what we discussed or what I was thinking. It never occurred to me that she might want this. One day we got into an argument and she yelled "Well, that doctor is helping you to become a woman anyway, so I guess I don't have much room in this relationship!" I was stunned and tried to assure her that was not happening. I found myself wanting the doctor to cure me of gender issues, the doctor wanted to cure me of depression, and my girlfriend was convinced the doctor was about to prescribe hormones and a sex change for me. Why was she so certain of all this? She had apparently read my mind, which is impossible and absurd. You can't win against impossible and absurd arguments.
The Good Book says we are to bear "good fruit" and we are to know others by the fruit they bear. This refers to the works we do in this life. A good person should be bearing good fruit, or doing good deeds. An evil person will bear bad or rotten fruit -- evil deeds. If a person has never done evil to me, why should I consider that person evil? If I know for certain of no evil deeds done by this person to others, why should I consider that person evil? The same works in reverse. If a person does me evil, I should not be expecting good from this person.
By the way, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth that we are to basically give each other the benefit of a doubt too. To misinterpret a person's actions and accuse them of evil when the actions had a good intention is bad too.
Stop trying to read people's minds. You'll save yourself some grief and paranoia. Now if only I could convince the NSA of this.
Kelli
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