Hi Blackstone,

Blackstone>> Despite disagreeing with you on many points, I really like the way you think. I hope you don't think I'm being too critical; it is the nature of online forums to be conducive to debate and it's rare that good opportunities for debate come up around here.

First of all, thanks for the complement. You know, it's kinda funny: I was THIS CLOSE to responding (to your original reply to this thread), to tell you -- in a kind, diplomatic way -- that your post came across, to me, as a little bit too confrontational. It's not that I have any problem with debate, or with someone disagreeing with me. The fact that you don't normally bother with "pleasantries" (like "Hi Rainboy" ;-) meant that your post launched almost immediately into a whole message of criticism. I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, and didn't mean anything personal, but to someone who doesn't know you outside of a few postings, it stung a bit. I'll just throw that out, now that you've broken the ice on that issue :-) It's cool, though. No harm done. We're good!

Blackstone>> Here's something I still have a problem with about your view:

Rainboy>> OK, it probably wouldn't be sin. I overstate that. I wouldn't want to go there, though, because, as I just wrote in another post seconds ago, I feel it would be "feeding" the "broken" aspect of my sexual identity.

Blackstone>> Loving boys (in a non-sexual context) is a good thing. There are countless boys out there who are desperately in need of love and affection and there is a serious lack of male role models willing to provide that. I don't think I can count the number of times a parent or other adult has thanked me for doing what so few men are willing to do and making a difference in the lives of children. If feeding this makes it stronger, then doing so actually helps make you a better person. Feeding the positive, non-sexual aspects of who you are instead of the destructive sexual aspects is a good thing, if we believe that feeding something makes it stronger.

I think we're close to being in agreement on this. It's mostly semantics at this point. If we're talking about father/brother-type love for a boy I say YES, BRING IT ON! That's fantastic, and I am all for feeding something like that! It's really just the romantic "in love" aspect of it that I find troublesome.

Thanks for the comments. It's good to debate things like this every now and then. [It's also exhausting :-)]

Blessings,
Rainboy