My Jesus I Love Thee

My Jesus I Love Thee

The classic hymn performed at the Glass Church by Ray of Light. For more music by Dennis Ray Davis see www.GuitarMinister.com

If You Were Given $25 Billion . . .

If You Were Given $25 Billion,
What Would You Do With Your Time?

I often play a game with young people and people looking for a work. It has three questions, but the most important one goes like this: If your rich uncle Robert died, and left you $25 billion, what would you do with your time, now that you don’t have to work for a living? 

I try to get the obvious stuff out of the way. So I say “After you have taken 4 trips around the world, bought castles, ranches and homes in ten cities around the world, and each house now has 15 luxury and sports cars in the garage. You give each of your friends and relatives $50 million each, and your favorite charities $100 each, you still have $23.5 billion left. What are you going to do with your time, now that you don’t have to work for a living?

Let me tell you something amazing. I would be doing exactly what I am doing today, only on a larger scale. I would be helping obese, poor, gay and homeless kids, which is what I am planning to do this weekend.

I also plan to go on the road, live in a RV, and do Christian concerts, vegan cooking classes, health seminars and preach God’s word. I hope to record my music, and bless others with my songs. I want to make photography books about social issues like gay suicide, obesity in children, or homeless children. If I had $25 billion dollars, I would use my time to help people and make the world a better place. Since I have less than $25, I will use my time to help people and make the world a better place. What's different? Only the scale, I have to help people one at a time.

I will be giving concerts and health seminars in churches, and I am going to do vegan cooking classes and a fun weight loss program web or TV show for obese children. I will pitch the shows to the food network or the Logo channel; however, I am perfectly happy doing web broadcasts, if that is God’s plan.

Now here is the fun part. Miguel and I plan to live in an RV, and travel to different cities and national parks, doing our ministries. Wouldn’t it be great to do a vegan cooking broadcast in a beautiful new RV, and the go outside and film the eating under a waterfall in Yosemite? Los Angeles is where my larger photo shoots usually are, but I expect we will tour the nation if God continues to lead in this way. I can buy a brand new 5th wheel trailer and a 1 ton pickup to pull it for under $90,000. Payments can be as low as $700 a month, which is less than the $1,200 I am paying for my two bedrooms in downtown Long Beach.

We will support our travels by shooting both assignment and stock video and still photography, and by selling books and music at our concerts. We just started the stock photography business this month, and already have over 200 images on sell.

So OK, your uncle lives on your sofa, and is trying to borrow money from you for booze instead of leaving you $25 billion. What are you going to do with the money you have in your pocket, and the time God has blessed you with today? Life is not about dreams and plans for the future; it is about grabbing life and living for all you are worth today.  What would you do with your time if you had $25 billion? OK, do some of that today. Get busy living or get busy dying.

Volunteer to Change the World

They turned the gas off while I was cooking potatoes for Christmas dinner for the Homeless Ministry.

For maybe 3 seconds I thought about how unfair that seemed. A picture of the protesters at Occupy Long Beach flashed through my mind, and the protests they are doing. My cell phone had been cut off the day before, and the electric was tomorrow. Then I remembered that our gay friendly church, Christ Chapel of Long Beach, had about 20 homeless people to feed in 20 minutes, and I still had two flavors of gravy to cook to go with the mashed potatoes. As I had been trying to teach my husband the serenity prayer that week, I began thinking of a way I could follow God’s direction to feed the homeless, now that I only had no stove. Hah! I spotted the Coleman camp stove on a top shelf, and asked Miguel where he had put the green canister of propane for it. Within 5 minutes, I had water boiling on a table in the back yard, and we got to the park in time to serve Christmas dinner to my homeless family.

God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; 
Enjoying one moment at a time; 
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; 
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life 
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Before the “Great depression of 2008”, I was making $12,000 to $15,000 a month with my commercial photography business, maybe in the lower middle class, but ok. But as I specialize in advertising photography and advertising costs are the first to be cut by corporations during hard times. I had foolishly leased what many considered one of the world’s best camera systems, a 60 mega pixel Phase One back on a medium format body. At $850 a month, it cost more to lease than the average luxury car. With a $2,400 a month studio lease, and income dropping from $12,000 to $3,000 a month in 2008, it didn’t take long before there was a man knocking on my door at 3:00 am one morning telling me he was reposing my beautiful Honda Mini Van.

But today, even with no money in my pocket or bank account, even though the rent is a month past due, I still have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear, and excellent, world class tools to make money with like computers and cameras. I grew up with poverty, so I am not afraid of it, but it has never been such an adventure in trusting God to provide before! Because now there are homeless children, sick people, and people needing to hear God’s word waiting for me to arrive – in a car that has had a flat tire 5 times in the past 6 months. If anybody fits the "99%" I do, yet I have chosen charity and ministry work instead of Occupy protests, and I believe that it will get results faster, and help more people.

What nobody can believe, including me, is that with all this poverty in my own life, I am filled with so much joy and happiness that I almost cannot stand myself! I smile all the time, I walk into a store and the clerks always comment on how happy, cheerful and kind I am. Why? I am living in the center of God’s will, and He fills me with joy. I burst in singing several times a day. My happiness is not dependent upon money; in fact, I told a friend today that if I had $25 billion I would be doing the same thing I am already doing today. Think about what you would do with your time if you had $25 billion. Would you help other people, or live to please yourself?

 For me, money is always coming, and is usually only a few days and or a photo shoot away. I love how Jesus always comes through at just the right time! Life has become an adventure in depending upon God. I have client to will be providing the all money for my nephews Christmas presents, which is tomorrow!

Last weekend something happened to me that put my gas and phone being turned off in perspective. I went to the Fred Jordan Missions Christmas 2011 for the homeless children of downtown Los Angeles. My husband Miguel had volunteered us to shoot pictures of the mission handing out Christmas presents, so I expected maybe 20 or 30 families in an indoor setting, and brought indoor studio photography lighting to shoot it.

When we got a few blocks from the mission, the whole street was blocked off. Miguel had to walk several blocks just to find out that it was an outdoor event, and would we please drive our car up next to the mission? We met Tom and Peter Jordan, and their mom, all amazing Christians that love to help people. But the scale!

Thousands of homeless people were waiting in line in the rain, some since noon the day before. One block after another filled with children in strollers, wheelchairs, backpacks or playing in the street. They let them through the gates about 2000 at a time, mothers with children first.

They got a visit from Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters from Disneyland, some singing, good old fashion Christian preaching, and then Santa Claus came! What did they get? I saw some leave with cookies and milk, some with shoes or a jacket, some with a toy. All of these people, out of work, no food, cold – and on almost every face a smile. All around, I could hear homeless people and volunteers calling out “Merry Christmas”, “God Bless You”, “Feliz Navidad”, “vaya con Dios”. See the images on my portfolio called “LA Homeless Christmas 2011” at http://www.DennisDavisPhotography.com

Miguel and I hope to be returning to work with the Fred Jordan Mission again this weekend, but there are a lot of other charities that need help. Within the last year we have done photo or video shoots for Brain Cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease and others, but Miguel seems to love orphan children and homeless ministries the best.

So, here is what I think. Are you waiting, breathlessly? Are you one of the many hundreds of thousands of people that are out of work today? Are you sitting at home sending out resumes a few hours a week, and watching boring daytime television the rest of your day? Why?

You could be volunteering to help people, and I promise you, you will help yourself when you do. Do you want to learn more about computers? Volunteer at the Red Cross, American Heart Association, Gay and Lesbian Center, AIDS Walk or whatever charity you like. They all have offices full of computers with internet access, and other volunteers to show you how to use them better. Want to get a job as a cook? Start cooking at a homeless shelter, a church pre-school program, whatever. What I have found is as you start doing what you want to get paid to do, people notice that you do it good. Go to any church and ask, “What can I do to help” and I bet most of them need volunteers in a position that can give you skills to get a paying job.

Lots of people that work with charities are business owners, TV celebrities, lawyers, doctors, etc. Do awesome work in their presence, or let them see a brochure or fund raising letter you made. How will it look on your resume that you volunteer for a charity? It may get you a job you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Are you sitting at home reading this wishing you could do something to change the world? Change it one person at a time. Are you broke? Volunteer, it will help you get a job. Are you homeless? Volunteer for a homeless shelter, you will at least get the best bed and the freshest food there. Help the person next to you. You will help yourself.

When Jesus was praying over 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish which later feed 5,000 men, plus their wives and children, the disciples suspected nothing, So when He handed the loaves and fishes to the disciples, He said. “Give them food to eat.” The loaves did not start expanding until they started passing them out. They could have looked at the 15,000 people, and the five loaves of bread, and told Jesus “No way”, but instead, they obeyed. When your pocket are empty from giving your money to homeless children, I just got to believe Jesus is going to fill them up again if you have faith and patience to wait upon the Lord.

I don’t believe you can out give God. Put it to the test. If you are broke, but have two pieces of bread, give someone else one. If you have two jackets, give someone else one. Happiness is best found in helping others. It’s an empty cup that gets filled. Occupy Congress? No, let God’s spirit occupy you!

Keywords: charity, volunteer, help, homeless, homeless children, Jesus, Christian, Gay, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Los Angeles, Fred Jordan Missions, Los Angeles Skid Row, broke, unemployed, job search, find a job, get a job, no money, poor, Occupy Congress, Occupy Paris

Eight Reasons to Become a Vegan

www.DennisDavisPhotography.com

Part One – Health Reasons

Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. So what do vegans eat? Fruit, vegetables, nuts, beans and seeds make up most the diet. What don’t vegans eat? Meat, fish, seafood, cheese, eggs, milk, dairy products, and anything with eyes, a nose and a mouth are not vegan.

I also keep at a minimum all concentrated foods, including vegetable oil, sugar, salt, seasonings and margarine. Nuts should also be limited, as they are wholesome, but high in fat and protein, and only people exercising regularly should eat lots of them. Chemicals and preservatives are not food, and should not be eaten at all.

Today my meals went something like this;

Breakfast:      Frozen whole wheat waffles from Trader Joes, with Almond Butter from Fresh & Easy, and stewed fruit. The stewed fruit was made with fresh blueberries, fresh blackberries, fresh strawberries, frozen mangos and pineapple juice; it was thickened with one tablespoon of corn starch, a concentrated food.

Lunch:                        Stir-fried vegetables with tofu and Morningstar Farms Grillers – a soy protein meat substitute. The vegetables included broccoli, red bell peppers, onions, cilantro, green peas and water chestnuts.

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Dinner:           Whole Wheat Pasta, with Cashew Tomato Cheese sauce, topped with fajita vegetables.

So why would you become a vegan?

1. The huge reduction in fat and sugar, and the resulting reduction in calories, of course causes weight loss overweight persons. Vegan body builders eat lots of soy and wheat protein, as well as nuts, and get good bulk and incredible definition with very low body fat. Average vegans weigh about 30 pounds less than non-vegetarians. You can be skinny!
2. No animal product means any cholesterol at all in your diet. The average person will see a drop in blood pressure, and their cholesterol will go way down.
3. Many slaughter houses cut open animals and find tumors or cancerous organs. Often they will cut this out and put it in the meat to go into hotdogs or bologna, or cut it out and throw it away. However, if an animal has a cancerous tumor, it is carried in the blood stream throughout the entire animal’s body. Eat the hotdog made from the cancerous animal, and you are now enjoying fresh cancer viruses on a bun. Vegans have almost 34% less cancer than the average American.*
4.  If you have lower fat, lower cholesterol and more fiber in your diet, you can expect to reduce your risk of heart attacks or heart disease. Vegans have about a 40% reduction in risk of heart disease. **
5. Less expense. Beans are cheaper than steak, and tofu is cheaper than lobster. Expect your restaurant bills to be cut in half.
6. Reduced risk of diabetes. No sodas, no ice cream and no candy bars mean no diabetes, and much happier visits to the dentist.
7. The fiber you will be eating from all of that whole grain, vegetables and fruit will clean your system out, and reduce the toxic waste in your colon and intestine. Any kind of liver problem due to drug or alcohol use will be improved. Constipation is rare.
8. 
   

Ellen and Brad Pitt are Vegan because Thin is In

How to get started

Get some vegan cookbooks, and find interesting looking recipes. Make a shopping list from the ingredients. Plan on shopping at a natural food store like Whole Foods or Trader Joes for some of the items, as a regular grocery store will not carry them. 

At a farmer’s market or grocery store, get every kind of fresh fruit and vegetables that look good to you.

Then you want to buy dry beans and grains. The last time I went shopping I bought lentils, spit peas, pinto beans, black beans, black eyed peas, and kidney beans. For grains I bought old fashion oatmeal, corn meal, whole barley, brown rice, couscous, millet and bulgur wheat.

Make sure to get whole grain bread, whole grain crackers, almond or soy milk, fruit juice, humus, salad fixings and several kinds of nuts. I always have raw cashews, raw almonds, raw walnuts and shredded coconut.  

Try to go from where you are now to completely vegan in a month or two. Go through your cupboards, and get rid of things that will tempt you.Think about buying some small kitchen appliance to help you. A blender, a food processer, a juicer, a popcorn air popper and a crock pot are things you should consider.

What to do about your family

Leave them behind and join a vegan commune. Just kidding! Take them out to Subway, you order the veggie patty with sweet onion sauce on Honey Oat or Whole Wheat. They can order chicken, beef or whatever they like, but suggest they try the whole grain bread instead of white. Take them to Burger King and get the veggie burger, or take them to Chipotle Mexican Grill, and get the black bean burrito with veggie fajitas, brown rice and guacamole, again vegan, but your family can get chicken, pork, beef, etc. 

You will have to wash more dishes; however the following method will work for most families. Start with a skillet or pot with the base part of your dish. This could be stir-fry vegetables, whole wheat pasta, brown rice or other basic dish. In a separate pan, cook whatever meat or seafood your family enjoys. This could be chicken, shrimp, beef, etc. In a third pan or skillet, cook tofu, soy meat or textured vegetable protein for you. 

When you serve stir-fried fajita vegetables, for example, perhaps your family’s version would be topped with chicken, and your version would be topped with farfel, tofu or veggie meat. 

The health benefits of becoming a vegan are overwhelming. I myself have lost 45 pounds since June 2011, and my doctor took me off the diabetic medication he had just put me on a few months earlier because I no longer needed it. I have more energy, my mind is clearer, and people say I look ten years younger. This leads me to reason eight:

• Longer life. The study quoted earlier regarding less heart disease and cancer in vegans, also turned up another interesting fact. Vegans can live 11 to 12 years longer than the average American!*** OK, it’s not immortality, but hey, wouldn’t you rather be hiking, mountain biking, swimming, sailing, and other active sports in your 80s, then be confined to a bed in your 50s or 60s because you have had heart attacks, strokes or diabetes?

In our next discussion, we will look at how if enough people become vegans, it will stop global warming, world hunger and help save the planet. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? Let’s just start with you and me becoming vegans, and go from there.

____________________________________________________________________________

Loma Linda University, a Seventh-Day Adventist school in Southern California, has been studying vegetarian and vegan Seventh-Day Adventists since the 1950s. Their second population study in the 1970s compared 96,000 vegetarians and vegans to the general population group. A sample of the result is below.

·         The Adventist Health Study: Findings for Coronary Heart Disease

Extensive studies of coronary heart disease have been conducted among Adventists, both in the United States and abroad. However, the Adventist Health Study has gone an important step further in collecting data on both fatal and non-fatal cases of coronary heart disease.

For fatal cases of coronary heart disease, the older Adventist Mortality Study found that the mortality rates for Adventist men in particular were only 66 percent as compared to their non-Adventist counterparts. When compared only to non-smoking non-Adventists, the figure rose to 76 percent. Differences for women were less impressive.

See http://www.llu.edu/public-health/health/heart.page?

** Lifestyle, Diet and Disease

Our data show a progressive weight increase from a total vegetarian diet toward a non-vegetarian diet. For instance, 55-year-old male and female vegans weigh about 30 pounds less than non-vegetarians of similar height. Additionally, levels of cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, and the metabolic syndrome all had the same trend – the closer you are to being a vegetarian, the lower the health risk in these areas. In the case of type 2 diabetes, prevalence in vegans and lacto-ovo vegetarians was half that of non-vegetarians, even after controlling for socioeconomic and lifestyle factors.
See http://www.llu.edu/public-health/health/lifestyle_disease.page

*** Overall cancer mortality, comparing Adventists to their American Cancer Society counterparts, was 60 percent for Adventist men and 76 percent for Adventist women.
Comparing specific types of cancer deaths, with the non-Adventist population as the standard, lung cancer deaths among Adventists were 21 percent. Colo-rectal cancer deaths were 62 percent among Adventists.
Breast cancer death rates for Adventist women were 85 percent; prostate cancer death rates for Adventist men were 92 percent. For lymphoma or leukemia, the death rates stood at 86 percent for Adventist men and 100 percent for Adventist women.

Death from coronary heart disease among Adventist men was 66 percent; for Adventist women, it was 98 percent. Stroke death rates for Adventist men were 72 percent, compared to their non-Adventist counterparts. For Adventist women, death from stroke was 82 percent.

Comparing all causes of death among the two populations, Adventist men had a death rate of 66 percent and Adventist women had a rate of 88 percent.

Since smoking has been shown to be a major factor in causing diseases such as cancer, researchers from the Adventist Mortality Study compared the mortality rates of non-smokers from both populations. As would be expected, the mortality rates for these non-Adventists were closer to those of the Adventists. However, an advantage for the Adventists generally persisted which could now not be accounted for by differences in tobacco use. Thus, other characteristics of Adventists, apart from their non-smoking status, such as diet and perhaps social support, are also clearly important in reducing the risk of disease.

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All cancer mortality among Adventists, as compared to their non-smoking non-Adventist counterparts, was 85 percent for Adventist men and 78 percent for Adventist women

See http://www.llu.edu/public-health/health/mortality.page?

Keyword: health, healthy diet, weight loss, vegan, vegetarian, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, longer life, 8 reasons to become a vegan, gay, skinny, Dennis Davis, Veganism

Does Anyone Choose to be Gay?

My sister tells a story about the day when my baby bottle was cut in half.

I was three, riding a tricycle, and always sucking my bottle. You see I loved to suck. I loved sucking my thumb. I was crazy for sucking my mama’s breasts, so you think I would have turned out straight. But when my mama took away her tittles, my bottle became my best friend. My bottle was my life, my comfort, my food, my happiness, my substitute for a mother who had abandoned me for 3 other kids and a 16-hour work day. The way my sister tells the story, it seems like she wasn’t even there. She describes a happy child, gaily putting his baby bottle pieces on the handles of his tricycle, and riding down the street. What my sister didn’t know is that I still sucked on the bottle nipple, even after it was cut in half!

Scene: Daytime, Family kitchen, circa 1960, Modesto, CA

I am three or four years old, lying on my back on the kitchen floor, looking up into the face of THE POWERFUL GIANTS, towering over me, laughing, mocking me. I am screaming and crying no, no, no, don’t take my bottle, no don’t cut it, and don’t take it. My brother, ten years older, and my sister, my sweet, dear loving sister, were helping my laughing family, use a hack saw to cut my very last baby bottle in half. These huge laughing giants, my family, my enemies, sawing my baby bottle in half with a hack saw.

There was no privacy in my family for small kids; we were less respected than the cat. Our family was poor and only had one bathroom. The men who had to go, walked in on the male kids and peed, making loud noises of satisfaction and shaking their big, grown up men penises at the toilet, or at me if I stared at it enough, and I couldn’t stop staring at them. “What are you looking at?’ I would hear repeatedly. I can remember staring at them and wanting to touch them.

Scene: Daytime, bathroom, shortly after previous scene

One of my first memories is as a small child, naked and in the bath, and a man came into the bathroom. I remember seeing him pee, and wishing mine looked like his. I remember wanting to touch it, to feel its size and weight.

Did I choose to become gay at that moment? Or was I a gay child discovering what I was born for? Well, in the very near future, you and I will have to give an answer for every moment of our lives, and there will not be a game show host saying “is that your final answer?”

When I stand before the Great White Throne of God, with ten thousand times ten thousand angels surrounding the judgment hall, and the books are opened, and I have to give an answer for my life; will my Maker, my Redeemer, my Creator speak to me of that very moment? As a young child, laying in the bathtub naked, looking up at man’s organ and wanting to touch it, to hold it, to see what it feels like, will my Jesus say, “You choose unwisely, and ruined your entire life. Enter the everlasting Hell you deserve?”

There are lots of people claiming to be Christian that would love to escort me to the gates of hell personally, and throw me in for even suggesting that being gay is genetic, and not a choice! Do I deserve an eternity of hell fire for that moment as a small child in the bathtub? As all of the major science in the last 50 years has shown that it is genetic, does the church really want to be on the wrong side of the truth again?

Was I already gay from birth, and the orientation was just working its way out? When I was still around 4 or 5, my mother let my hair grow out long and in curls, and put me in dresses. We had a thrift store, so there was lots of cosmetics, jewelry, and a wide selection of colors and styles of wigs. My mother wanted another girl, and liked to pretend I was one. Did this nurture change who I already was, or did my mother just see that I was a big gay girly boy?

If I was gay as a baby, can you imagine me as a newly born gay baby boy, right after my hands got strong enough to explore? My mother is changing my diaper, and I am playing with my organ... My mother says “nasty, don’t touch that.”  And slaps my hand.  I slide my hand under my diaper, and touch it again when she isn’t looking. I like how it feels. I am a male baby, so I am a slut, a whore, promiscuous, sex crazy - because all males are, but also because I am a gay baby. I can’t leave my little baby organ alone.

Now I imagine that I am a 6 month old gay baby boy, and I am pooping in my diaper. I like how the poop feels, coming out. I like touching my hole. I like sticking my finger in it, and playing with my poop. “Nasty,” my mother says, and slaps my hand, washes it hard, and with an angry voice screams “Don’t touch the poop!”

She doesn’t like me playing with my penis; she doesn’t like me playing with my anus. What do you imagine a gay baby boy would do differently from a straight baby boy?

At what age did I become a “perverse fagot, a bound for hell, a man controlled by the devil?” to quote our good friends at GodHatesFags dot com? When I decided, perversely, as a 6 month-old baby, to disobey my mother and play with my anus again? Is that when gay men become condemned to hell, when they first disobey their mothers and play with their nasty parts?

I am a man; therefore I am a whore by nature. But God can overcome our sinful nature, our sinful flesh, and change our whoring ways.

Men like women to be pure, to save themselves for marriage, but we are whores. We are like Solomon with 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines and still shopping for a new boyfriend to see on the down low. I am a gay man, and so I am a man-whore who loves man-whores.

Puberty is when kids develop physically and emotionally into young men and women. Usually for boys this starts around no earlier than 9 for boys, and age 12 is the average. With boys, the voice changes, hair starts growing around the genitals, etc. A precocious puberty, one where a child starts to show signs of being interested in sex, would be any younger than age 9. Any younger, and it would emotionally or physically stress the child.

I invited the neighborhood skateboard star to spend the night with me when I was around 7 or 8, and we played with each other naked. That was my first male to male contact, so I did have a precocious puberty. I guess I had sex with dozens of other boys before I was 18, mostly boys at school or in the neighborhood, many of which are now married, have families and are normal straight guys. Why didn't they choose to be gay, after me showing them such a good time? Once I discovered how easy it was to talk other teenage boys in to playing around, there was no stopping me. I was a teen-age whore.

In the book of Romans chapter one, Paul talks about people like me, who boast about their whoredoms. He speaks of that kind of gay sex as “all lust, no love.” I have to agree, most of mine in the past has been just that. I went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico one time and had sex with five guys in one night. I couldn’t wait to get back to Denver to tell my friends about how many I had had. We boast about being whores, we boast about being sluts, that’s part of being a man and a sinner.

Growing up, I was fat, unattractive, and had low self-esteem. I wanted my friends to think I was as sexy as they, so I would brag, I would boast about my sexual adventures, trying to make them envy me, and trying to feel good about myself.

My republican, straight nephew has a theory about why gay men are such whores. He says “All men are whores; it’s the women who try to slow things down. All men want nothing but sex immediately, so if you put two men together who want nothing but sex, of course they won’t wait until the 4^th or 5^th date.”

Can God bless a gay marriage? Are all gays going to hell unless they are celibate every minute of their lives? I am sure that when God put Adam in the garden, He did not accidently forget to create Steve. God’s original plan was for man to be bonded to his perfect “helpmate”, which before the fall would have been Eve. But Eve did eat the fruit; we do have the result of thousands of years of sin in our bodies. I think being gay is a genetic result of the fall of man, along with heart disease and bad breath, neither of which was a part of God’s plan for man in Eden. So maybe God did not create Adam and Steve to be together in the garden, but then, we are a long way from the garden, and all of us have to deal with the result of the fall of man.

There are about 7 billion people alive in the world today. Say for example, 2 or 3 percent were gay, or about 30,000,000 or so. Did God forget to plan ahead, and forget to make a way of salvation for everyone but the gays? According the Westboro Baptist Church, as stated on their website GodHatesFags dot com, “God Hates Fags, they cannot be saved, and they are all going to hell.” Oh really? Did we forget about John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not die, but have ever lasting life.”


Do you qualify as a “whoever?” Yes, even if you are a dirty, stinking faggot, a queer, a butch dyke or a simple whore, you are still a who ever. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will save you from your sins? If so, the bible says you will not die, but have ever lasting life. Does God want you to stop sinning? Yes, but He will help you, and in His own good time.

If God were to bless a gay marriage, I think it would be a monogamous marriage. I do not know if God can bless my own gay marriage as it is based on an open relationship. I do not speak for the gay community, I only speak for myself.

I have an open relationship with my partner, because we are both men, and almost all men are whores by nature. A very few men allow God to control them, and are faithful to their partners or are celibate. I expect my partner to have sex with other guys, and tell me about it or not. Most straight men are whores, have sex with other women, and then lie about it. Is God blessing their marriage? I think not. They are committing adultery, as forbidden by Jesus and the Ten Commandments, but these same cheating, lying man-whores will not allow gays to get married, as it “redefines marriage” – as if their cheating didn’t.

Should I get married and promise to be faithful, to love, honor and cherish as long as my life shall last? No, my partner is not willing to make that promise, and when he is, I think we should get married again, but this time for real.  I am a whore who is in mad love with a whore, and we want to be together for the rest of our lives and grow old together. We just want to hook up with other hot men along the way. Is that what God wants for me? Not likely, but He is changing me and teaching me so rapidly it is difficult to keep up! But one thing I know about God, He is love and if I am to please Him, my sex needs to be about love, not lust.

My partner and I got married in the Hollywood Lutheran Church, and in our vows, I did not promise to be faithful, but only to love him for the rest of my life. Did I redefine marriage with my open, gay marriage? I don’t know, but I do know that I am in love with an amazing, wonderful man, I love him with all of my heart, and he is a hot, sexy, man-whore. I think I got married partly because it was the first time I legally could, and I wanted to be publicly living with the man I love. I would love to marry him again when it was really legal in the USA, and marry him with the intention of being faithful. Could I do that?

I think that any sex that hurts someone else is wrong. 

If having sex with someone else’s boyfriend, wife, husband or whatever causes jealousy, or breaks up a family, it’s wrong. I think people that physically damage the tiny sex organs of children by forcing their sexual members into them are monsters, and I hope that God has a special place in hell for them where small trees are forced up their . . . well, nobody better hurt children around me. I think that people who intentionally and knowingly pass STDs to other people are cold-blooded and uncaring, and are hurting people with sex. When you get the clap, get treated and stay home! Are you hurting someone else with sex? Repent! Ask God for help, and stop it!

I am still exploring what I believe about sex and promiscuity, but if two men are single, wearing condoms and they both want it, which is getting hurt? But that’s just my opinion. The bible seems to restrict all acceptable sex to within marriage, as it says to "flee fornication." But as gay marriage is illegal in most of the United States, it appears that the entire “Christian right”, the GOP, and particularly Rick Perry want to force us to be fornicators, and want all gays to go to hell for having sex outside of the very marriage they will not allow us to have. This seems rather rich, considering the current front runner "Newt Gingrich's record and his personal life—including two failed marriages that ended, in part, because he cheated." How many people do you know that have been married for more than 20 years, and there was no cheating? Are you sure?

I think that marriages where both partners are faithful are beautiful, and I would love to have one. However, I am married to a man, and almost all men are whores, so I am out of luck. Only God could keep whores like me and my partner from hooking up with other hot guys, and if He wants that, I expect He will show me in His own good time. I spent 12 years at a missionary training center in my 20's, trying to stop being gay, and I was celibate for the first 7 years. I am willing to go wherever God leads me, including being celibate if God asks it of me.

Jesus loves whores. The woman at the well had 6 husbands, and the man she was living with was not her husband. I think that when Jesus told her to stop sinning, he was asking her not to be a whore anymore, but He loved her, and she became a missionary. Can I stop being a whore? I am a gay man, a huge whore and the chief of sinners, but I love Jesus who the chief of Saviors. My God is big enough to save even me, through the blood of Jesus Christ my Savior and King. Who are you to say He cannot? Your god is too small if he can’t save gay man-whores like me. My God can do anything, that’s what makes Him God!

keywords: it gets better, gay, gay suicide, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth (LGBT), Jesus, sex, Christian, rick perry anti gay,  Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, gay marriage, anti gay, gay teen suicide

What if Jesus were born gay?

What if Jesus were born gay?

How would his life been different, if at all? As He was celibate, how would it matter? The subject of Christ’s humanity has been argued by theologians for centuries. The Catholics are loading their hand guns and rifles right now, just for asking the question. Blasphemy! I hear them cry.

“Did you ever hear of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception? And do you know what it is? Some of you possibly have supposed in hearing of it, that it meant that Jesus Christ was born sinless. That is not the Catholic Dogma at all. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born sinless. Why? Ostensibly to magnify Jesus; really the work of the devil to put a wide gulf between Jesus the Savior of men, and the man whom He came to save, so that one could not pass over to the other.” E.J. Waggoner, 1901 General Conference Bulletin, page 403-406.

On the flip side of the view point, I have read articles by gay authors that claim that because Jesus hung out with 12 dudes, and let John, “the disciple Jesus loved” lay on His chest, this proves that He was gay. They want to imply that the disciple “Jesus loved” was in the physical sense.

If you take the viewpoint that all gay sex is sin, then this could cause real problems with your belief system. Because if Jesus sinned, then He cannot be our Savior, and if Jesus is not my Savior, I am ending my life, as I have no more joy, nor reason to live. However, if you believe the viewpoint that a gay sexual orientation is genetic and that gays can live a holy life, then I am not sure where to go with this one. How was Jesus different from me as far as His humanity?

My Most Holy Savior and King, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, was “tempted in every way you are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15. Although Jesus was the Son of God, He was also the Son of Man. Which man? “Regarding His Son, who as to His human nature was a descendent of David.” Romans 1: 3 NIV. King David was a “man after God’s own heart”, yet he murdered a man under his command so that he could sleep with his wife. Now that’s not very nice, if you ask me. So Jesus had in his blood line a murder and adulterer. David had several wives, but wanted one that belonged to another man. Did he also want a man?

In addition to multiple wives, David had a very special friend. The son of King Saul, David’s employer and soon to be enemy was David’s best friend. When the young courageous prince died, David had this to say”I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.” 2 Samuel 1: 29 NIV

Now if David preferred Jonathan’s love over that of women, I would say there was a chance there was some hanky panky going on.  I wasn’t there you see, and you were not either, so let’s read what else Jonathan and David did together. David, a handsome, strong lad had just killed the Philistine giant Goliath, a man about 4 times his size, and this impressed Jonathan. The bible never comes out and says that “David lay with Jonathan.” Maybe they were the most amazing of life-long friends. I could only hope for a friend that true in my life time. At least some gay authors, including me, hope that there was more. But that doesn’t make it true.

Jonathan was “deeply impressed” with David. “By the time David had finished reporting to Saul, Jonathan was deeply impressed with David – an immediate bond was forged between them. He became totally committed to David. From that point on he was be David’s number-one advocate and friend.” 1 Samuel 18:9. OK, so we have two hot, athletic guys, alone in the woods, and Jonathan is “totally committed” to David. “Jonathan, out of his deep love for David, made a covenant with him. He formalized it with gifts: his own royal robe and weapons – armor, sword, bow, and belt.” 1 Samuel 19, 3-4 the Message Bible. The NIV says “Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to him, along with his tunic” in the same verse.

A covenant is a formal, unbreakable, lifelong agreement, like a contract, usually made with a promise or oath. The “new covenant” is God’s agreement to save us through the Son of David, King Jesus. Or, a covenant can be a marriage. What kind of covenant did Jonathan make, when he took off his clothes and became bonded to David? Was David bi-sexual, and Jonathan gay? I wasn’t there; I am just looking at the bible text, and saying, it’s possible. As a gay man, I can see possibilities. But elsewhere it is called a “covenant friendship” so it could have been just friendship. But Jonathan’s father didn’t like the friendship, and maybe it was like when my father didn’t like the friendships I had with other boys.

“Saul exploded in anger at Jonathan: You son of a slut! Don’t you think I know that you’re in cahoots with the son of Jesse, disgracing both you and your mother? For as long as the son of Jesse is walking around free on this earth, your future kingdom is at risk.” 1 Samuel 20: 30, 31. Saul thought what Jonathan and David were doing was a disgrace, and disgracing his mother. By calling him a son of a slut, he as saying he was not his son. Have any of you had a parent tell you that if you were gay, you were not their son? That’s what some of my family members told me when I announced I was gay; they told me I was going to hell and no longer in the family.

So what do you think of this sad scene? “After the boy was gone, David got up from the stone, and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together – but David wept the most.” 1 Samuel 20:35 NIV. We tend to paint what we read in the bible with our own brush. Wither or not there was a sexual, physical relationship between David and Jonathan is not nearly as important as is the question, “did King David, ancestor of Jesus, carry the genetic code so that he COULD have been gay?”

What do you believe?

So did Jesus have “sinful flesh” or ‘sinless flesh”? You look at the great, great grandparents of Jesus; you will find prostitutes, murderers, Sabbath breakers, blasphemers, so why not gays? Don’t gays fit in with this list of sinners? So what kind of humanity did Jesus get from his mother Mary? Could the Christmas story have been about a child with the genetic code of a homosexual, but the lifelong actions of a sinless human being under the constant control of His Father's Spirit? If not, why not? Someone needs to ask these questions, so don't kill me for just trying to understand and live by God's word.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” Hebrews 4:15 NIV.  If Jesus was tempted in every way, in every respect, like I am, then he had to be tempted from inside, from his flesh, his body. If I see a hot, hunky married guy, walking with his wife and children, and I get hard for him, where is that arousal coming from? I am being tempted to commit adultery with a married man, to try to seduce him and get him to leave his wife and children for me. If Jesus was tempted in every way I am, how would His body respond when the man walked by, or would he be tempted by the woman’s body? I don’t know I just want to understand the text. What is temptation, and where does it come from?

“When tempted, no one should say: “God is tempting me” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. But each one is dragged away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then, after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin; and after sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.” James 1:13 Was Jesus “dragged away and enticed by his own evil desire?” Temptation has to come from within, something inside you has to respond to the bad thing, and you have to want it.

Was Jesus the plastic, fake, cartoon man that the many have painted Him to be, with even his mother someone who was too holy to be tempted? Does the TV cartoon Family Guy give an portrayal of Christ that matches what most people believe? Did Jesus walk two inches off the ground everywhere He went? Or did Jesus have to eat, to take a dump, to take a bath because He was sweaty and stinking? Did His breath smell bad when He ate garlic, did Jesus fart after He ate beans? While standing in AWE in respect of the Incarnation of the Son of God, was he really, as He claimed, "the Son of Man?"

Was he a real man, with real pain and feelings, or some pie in the sky Holy man that has nothing to do with your very real temptations? As the bible says “God cannot be tempted by evil" and as Jesus was God / man, just how did this work?

“God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In His Son Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity, in order to set it right once and for all.” Romans 8: 3, 4 the Message Bible.
 

Of course, the father of Jesus was not Joseph as most people believed at the time, but the Holy Spirit. But the question you must answer for yourself, was Mary a real human being, with real lust, hate, hunger and sin? If she was not and if Jesus had “sinless flesh” as did Mary, then no one has any right to ask you to do anything but party, get drunk, get high, and have sex with whomever you like, because your sinful flesh is controlling you. Because if Jesus couldn’t win the fight over sin in your flesh, in your body, then how can anyone expect you to win it? Are you better than Jesus?

No, Jesus was tempted in every respect, in every way like you - but He never sinned. And that’s what we find so hard to believe. It takes away all excuse for sinning. If we actually have a fair fight, if God actually showed us through Jesus Christ an example of what He wants for your life, then maybe through the Holy Spirit living in you, you can have a holy, powerful life of pleasing God just like Jesus. What if you, even if you are a gay human being, could be like Jesus in your daily life, through His Spirit living in you. What if you could not only be saved, but that you could live a holy life?


keywords: gay, christian, Jesus, victory, sin, nature of Christ, human nature,  it gets better, gay, gay suicide, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth (LGBT), Jesus, sex, Christian, rick perry anti gay, anti gay, gay teen suicide, Jesus gay, Jesus born gay, gay genetic, gay gene, Christmas, Christmas story, Christ, angels, 

Treating a cold with a hot bath

All drugs are poisons.

The drugs your doctor prescribes for you are toxic poisons, or you could go to the grocery store and buy them. Even stuff like cold medicine, sleeping pills, over the counter headache medicine, can kill you if you take too much. The doctor has to give you small amounts of a drug to deal with your problem, without killing you with an overdose.

Drugs can never cure you. For example, if the cause of your diarrhea is you ate spoiled food, how is paralyzing your intestinal tract going to fix the problem? That’s what several diarrhea medicines do; they paralyze your digestive system, so your diarrhea stops. However, the spoiled, rotten food that is causing the problem is still in your digestive tract, isn’t it? The drug didn’t deal with the problem; it just dealt with the symptom.

I am not suggesting that you give up all drugs today. Some of us are taking drugs for blood pressure or heart that we need to live. However, if you are taking 8 or 10 pills a day, I bet you could get rid of half of them if you could lose some weight. Your blood pressure, heart, diabetes medicine, is all because you are too fat. Why are you killing yourself? Why are you taking these poisons just to live? Become a vegan! Don’t stop using any drug without your doctor watching your progress. But if you have a doctor that all she wants to do is keep your medicine cabinet full, find another doctor! You want to be healthy, not keep the pharmacist rich.

There are many natural treatments you can use instead of drugs for treating many diseases. Herbs, hot baths, moist heat packs, charcoal, poultices, massage – people have been using these things to get well for hundreds of years. The problem with these treatments is: A. They take work and effort. B. You can’t eat junk food, sugar, and garbage and expect simple things to cure you, they are not as powerful as drugs, and they are slower. C. You have to learn how to do simple treatments. So it is easier for your doctor to give you drugs, rather than explain what herbs, massage, or whatever that you need. Your doctor needs to get you in and out of his office in less than 20 minutes to see 25 people a day, and make enough money to drive a Jaguar or BMW. So it is up to you to learn. Well, stick with me, because I lived with several doctors who used natural treatments, and wrote books about them.

So today I am going to tell you how to use your bathtub to treat a cold, flu, or anything you would need an antibiotic for, like pnunomua. You start by bringing a bowl of ice and a cloth to the bathtub. This is for your head, to keep you from getting heat stroke or over heated. Fill the tub half full with hot water. Get in the tub, and gradually increase the water temperature until you are sweating and your heart is pounding. As soon as you feel too warm, put the ice on your head. Wipe your face, the back of your neck, with ice. You will stay in the bath for 30 -45 minutes. If you have a mouth or bath thermometer, you want the bath water about 105-110, and you want to get your oral temperature up to 102 or 103. You are artificially giving your body a temperature. After 30 - 45 minutes in the hottest water you can stand up slowing, and support yourself so you don’t get dizzy. Finish your hot bath with a cool or cold shower for 30 seconds.

Dry off quickly and rub your body hard with the towel. Then go to bed and sweat for a half hour. Bed is part of the treatment, don’t skip it! The first few times you do the treatment, have someone else stay with you, and monitor your body temperature.

So how does all this work? When you put your hand in hot water it turns red, from the blood coming to the surface of the skin. Most of your white blood cells are within a ¼ inch of your skin. Taking the hot bath forces your blood to circulate past the white blood cells faster, cleaning your blood of bacteria. But the fever also causes the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. So all of your body’s soldiers are chanting “fight, fight, fight!” in unison. Your sweating causes you to clean your system, and doesn’t a hot bath just feel good when you are sick? Somehow you know it’s what you need to get better. The cold shower at the end helps to close your pores and increase your circulation even more.

Now the one way to destroy the benefit of this treatment is to get out of the bed and drink a soda, or even vitamin water or 20% juice drink. What drinking does to soldiers in the military, sugar does to your white blood cells, so they kill fewer germs. Because sugar gets your white blood cells drunk, and they cannot focus on killing bacteria. But more about that another day.

But if you behave yourself, eat healthy, and avoid sugar, you should be able to keep a cold or flu under control with one or two hot bath treatments a day for the first few days you are sick. But why get sick at all? Do the hot bath when you feel the first tickle of a sore throat, or the first sniff of a cold. Don’t wait! If you do it fast enough, and hot enough, you will not get sick at all, or it will be a much milder illness.

Reading list:

Home Remedies by Agatha Thrash, M.D.

Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss
Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

keywords: natural remedies, colds, flu, natural treatments, hot baths, drugs toxic, vegan, health, healthy

Cold Showers and Surrender to God

I don’t like cold showers.

A hot bath treatment that I have written about recently was introduced to me in the late 1970s. My friend that told me about taking a hot bath to get over the flu told me start the bath with a prayer, and end it with a cold shower. However, I don’t like cold showers. At all. They make goose bumps all over my body and I start shivering – burr, burr! I hate cold showers!

However, I want to tell you about the day when God ask me to take a cold shower, and I told the big Man Up Stairs NO! No way no how, am I taking a cold shower.

It was about 2 in the afternoon in my Santa Cruz, California home I was sharing with 3 roommates. I had a really bad flu, with a runny nose, cough, sore throat, and all the standard stuff. A friend from church had told me about a hot bath treatment that could treat a cold or flu, followed by a cold shower to close the pores. Only thing is, I don’t do cold showers. So here I am today, standing in the hot shower, sniffing snot up my nose because my flu is so bad, and the Holy Spirit tells me “Dennis, I want you to get the water hotter first, then end this hot shower with a cold shower.”

But the spirit of rebellion, of Satan, rose up in me, and I told God, “I don’t like cold showers, and I’m not going to take a cold shower.” Now you know the still, quiet voice in your head I am taking about. That voice that tells you not to take another bite when you are about eat another serving of ice cream, not to gamble the rent money in Vegas, not to take that drug the hot stranger says is fun. That’s God’s voice.

So God told me again, “Dennis, I want you to finish your shower with cold water.” “No,” I quickly replied.

Now I have been memorizing bible texts since I was a 6 year old kid in church. God used that unfairly against me, to remind me of a quote in my head; “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrafices, holy and pleasing to God - -This is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12: 1, 2 NIV

The second verse God brought to mind was even Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 1:Cor. 6:19 NIV. Or as the bible in Basic English puts it “and you are not the owners of yourselves;”

So here I am, standing in the shower, with the hot water running down my back, feeling so o . . . o…o...o    comfortable, and I reached down to turn the cold water on, and said out loud;

 “OK God, this is your body. If you want to take a cold shower with your body, go ahead.”

 I got out of the shower, dried off, and began to think about what I had just said. I liked it! So I amplified it. “God, these are your feet. If you want to go to South America with them, if you want to go to the ghetto with them, they are yours. These are Your hands, Jesus. If you want to wash dishes with them, if you want to play guitar with them, if you want to dig ditches with them, they are yours.”

These are your eyes. I give up the right to look at sexual smut; I give up the right to look at evil movies and television. This is your mouth. I give up the right to eat anything that is harmful to the body you have made, now Your body, again.  I give up the right to use my mouth for sex that’s all lust, no love. This is your mind. I give up the right to think lustful, evil thoughts, and I leave hate behind. I will go anywhere you lead, and do anything you say, I am yours, God.”

 I was dead serious about my surrender, and that day was a beginning of a journey that led me to becoming a vegan for the first time, going to a missionary training center in Alabama for 12 years, and traveling with a doctor giving spiritual talks, health lectures, Christian music and teaching others how to live a healthier and more Christ filled life.

The only problem with a full and complete surrender of your life, body, heart and mind to God is you have to do it again every day. I went off of the path leading to heaven for a number of years; however I am happy to be back again in the center of God’s will. I am again a medical missionary, again traveling and teaching others how to live a healthier and more spiritual life. Although I am much older this time around and my body fails me at times, I still believe God will use me, an openly gay Christian man, sent to rescue those with no hope, without God, in the world.


keywords: surrender, Christian, God, Jesus, spiritual, victory over sin, spirit filled, healthy, vegan, medical missionary

Skinny is Better

I have spent most of the last 20 years as an overweight, fat slob. I have been fat and I have been skinny, and skinny is much better. 

The sad thing is, for that entire 20 years, I knew exactly how to eat to lose weight, but I tried and failed to go on my diet again about twice a year. So instead, I looked like a pig. Gross, bloated, distorted, with bedunk a dunk thighs, elephant butt, and a gelatin blob of a belly. Ugly! Not sexy! Keep your clothes on, please!

My tittles are something special however; I say tittles and not chest, because the fat men in my family have tittles that compete with those of their wives’. I was 6 foot tall, and weighed 262 pounds just this spring. I have dropped to 215 in four months, and the pounds continue to melt off. I have no doubt that within 6 months I will lose at least 25 or 30 pounds more. I went from size 42 waist pants to 36, and from a XXL shirt to a L, and sometimes mediums. Did I spend $12,000 for lab band surgery? Buy a gym membership? Find a pill that causes weight loss? Some easy, magic method to win the battle with the bulge I have been fighting my whole life?

No, I did what I always knew I would have to do, I became a vegan again.

Again? Yes, after spending a horrible childhood as the butt of every fat joke ever told, I was really ready to become thin when I finished high school. In the dictionary next to the words “childhood obesity” my picture should have been there. I got asked my bra size almost every day at school. My tittles were bigger than most of the girls in high school!

Fat? I weighed 250 pounds in 7^th grade. The cool kids, the athletic boys, all hated me at the “Christian school” I attended, because I was the fat, gay kid. They would fight over me when picking teams for baseball or basket ball. “You take him. “No, we don’t want to lose! You take him.” “No, we took him last time, it’s your turn.” I was the fat, gay kid that nobody understood or wanted. I was so lonely, I hated myself and wanted kill myself, but I was afraid of hell. This is very typical of what fat, gay kids get at “Christian schools," and I felt totally alone, and desperate for a better life.

I lost over 100 pounds the first time I became a vegan when I was around 20. I had been a lifelong vegetarian, as my parents were Seventh-Day Adventist. There was no meat in my diet the first time around, so I was giving up candy, cheese, sour cream, milk, eggs, sugar, butter, fried foods, and junk food in general. My weight went from around 250 to 135-145 for my life between ages 20 and 32. I kept this thin body for 12 years, and felt strong, healthy, and alive.

But then I moved away Georgia where there was a vegan restaurant near work. I could no longer visit my parents, who cooked vegan; it was no longer easy to be a vegan, as I had to cook for myself all the time. My friend ordered a pizza and asked me if I wanted a slice. And just that fast, my 12 years of self-sacrifice and self-discipline when right down the drain. Pizza was my downfall, and cheese continues to be the biggest reason I am fat, as some cheeses are over 60% fat.

My hard, skinny, 32 year-old vegan body, trained by walking 3-7 miles up and down hills almost every day, was 6’, 145 pounds on the day I ate that first slice of cheese lover’s pizza. My nipples barely bulged in my t-shirt, and no one had suggested that I get a bra in over 10 years. When I walked into a gay club, at least half the heads would spin around, and the eyes go up and down. Well, no more.

Wouldn’t you know it, that first pizza came with a soda, and several hundred sodas and pizzas later, I was a hundred pounds heavier and fatter than a puffer fish about a year later. Oh, yes, I was still a vegetarian – specifically a lacto-ova vegetarian, which means one that eats dairy products and eggs. But sugar, milk, cheese, sour cream, whipped cream, ice cream - I scream, I scream because my fat butt is back! My tittles are D cups, and I just still keep eating the candy bars, sodas, pizza and fat fat fat!!! Vegetarians are not necessarily healthily, and my diet defined unhealthily just a year after deciding that being a vegan was too much trouble to cook.

Well, I no longer have the same excuse. Brown rice no longer takes one hour or more to cook. Uncle Bens has pre-cooked boil-in-bag brown rice that cooks in 10 minutes. Trader Joes sells brown rice in microwaveable bags that heat in 90 seconds. Lots of things have changed since I was a vegan in the 70s and 80s. So many things that had to cook for hours are now quick and easy. I am exploring exotic new flavors and spices, as I live with a Hispanic man, who likes his food as exciting as he is.

So is being skinny enough reason to become a vegan? For me, you better believe the answer is yes! But as they say in the TV commercials, “but wait, there’s more!”According to a 10 year study done at Loma Linda University in the 70s, vegans live about 11 years longer than the average American. This study, published in a book called “6 years longer”, compared 100,000 average California residents, with 100,000 people who were a mix of lacto-ova vegetarians and vegans. The study showed that vegetarians have an average of 75% less cancer, and 85% percent less heart disease then the comparison group. The vegetarians lived 6 years longer, and the vegans lived 11-12 years longer than the comparison group.

Nearly half of all Americans 65 or older have multiple chronic ailments, and are on multiple drug prescriptions. Many of the ailments we have, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and even cancer, can be prevented by weight loss and low sugar, vegan diet. So yes, you can be skinny, sexy, healthy, and forget about all those drugs the pharmacy is waiting to give you.

This means that when you are 80 or 90, your friends that are still alive could be saying, “How does he/she do it? How much liposuction has she / he had. What, yes, well he says none, but look how hot he / she looks, and has great grandkids!” Or, they could come say goodbye to you in the hospital when you are 58, dying of some obesity-caused disease. Your choice.

As I have tried and failed to become a vegan again about 40 times in the last 20 years, I know how difficult it is to make the change. What’s different this time?

Jesus is controlling my mouth and my fork, instead of me. 

I have given my appetite to God, and have totally surrendered my life to Him. You see, when we are used to sugar and rich, fatty foods, simple fruit and vegetables taste boring. So when we eat strawberries or blueberries without sugar, they taste like cardboard because our taste buds have been perverted. So go without eating, until you can enjoy simple food. Jesus and Moses went 40 days without eating, you can last a day! Fast one or two days a week, drinking only water if you can, or fruit juice if you can’t. If you can get through the first month, you can be a vegan the rest of your life.

Keywords: vegan, health, weight loss, skinny, fat, Jesus, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, diet, dieting