It Matters What We Believe [About Sexuality]

from the UU Sexuality and Our Faith for adults, workshop three. © Unitarian Universalist Association. Written, without the bracketed text, by Sophia Lyon Fahs. 

Some beliefs [about sexuality] are like walled gardens. They encourage exclusiveness, and the feeling of being especially privileged. 
Other beliefs [about sexuality] are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies.
Some beliefs [about sexuality] are like shadows, clouding children’s days with fears of unknown calamities. 
Other beliefs [about sexuality] are like sunshine, blessing children with the warmth of happiness.
Some beliefs [about sexuality] are divisive, separating the saved from the unsaved, friends from enemies.
Other beliefs [about sexuality] are bonds in a world community, where sincere differences beautify the pattern.
Some beliefs [about sexuality] are like blinders, shutting off the power to choose one’s own direction.
Other beliefs [about sexuality] are like gateways opening wide vistas for exploration.
Some beliefs [about sexuality] weaken a person’s selfhood. They blight the growth of resourcefulness.
Other beliefs [about sexuality]  nurture self confidence and enrich feelings of personal worth.
Some beliefs [about sexuality] are rigid, like the body of death, impotent in a changing world.
Other beliefs [about sexuality] are pliable, like the young sapling, ever growing with the upward thrust of life. rr