I truly believe the anti-gay advocates around the world bring God to tears.
To deny equality to your fellow man, regardless of what kind of lifestyle he or she lives, is absolutely unacceptable and unjustifiable. Worse, it is not "of God" in any way, shape, or form.
Sadly, it is Biblical "truth" that often creates anti-gay people within Christianity itself. Unfortunately, it is done with incorrect information, as much of the Bible was either designed with myth, legend, or allegory in mind; or, was written with strong cultural influences of the time that should not interfere with the way we live our lives and write our laws in the modern world.
I'll give you an example... In 1850 it might have been completely normal for someone to write down a handbook on owning a slave. If a religion were to develop independently during this time period, the practitioners and founders of that faith may very well record in some written form the ways in which slavery relates to God or the good of mankind. This is because slavery was considered the normal order of things.
There is no questioning in today's society that slavery is wrong; at least, not in the Western developed countries. It is because we have grown as a global race (I'm talking about the human race) to understand that the right of freedom is fundamental toward each and every person, and cannot be rebuked in favor of slavery. Our freedom is only hampered when we commit crimes and are incarcerated, under which terms we have voluntarily given up our freedom by choosing to break the law. There is no crime in being born black, or any other skin color... although if you had a time machine, you might be hard-pressed to convince people of that a couple hundred years ago.
My point is that we've grown to understand our world better. But some of our growth and progress seems hampered in certain ways... in the ways under which we have grown to understand black people are not inferior to white people, we have failed to come to grips with the fact that homosexual individuals are not inferior to heterosexual ones.
Placing restrictions on gay marriage, or speaking out in favor of such restrictions, clearly indicates that you believe gay people are sub-human. I'm sorry to put it so harshly, but it's a legitimate flow chart. If you believe one group of people does not deserve the same rights as another group of people, than you consider the first group of people to be less than the second. But there is no crime in being gay, whether or not you believe it is innate (you are born with it) or otherwise (you have chosen it).
If there is no crime, than the limits of freedom do not apply, and these people should be afforded perfectly equal rights in all forms under the law. And at the very least, non-religious marriage is a civil institution whether Christians want to accept this or not.
I will admit that religious institutions must be free to accept or reject whatever they like, so long as it does not counter the laws of the state in question (for instance: A religious group could not advocate slavery, it just doesn't work that way)... this is because I believe in complete separation of church and state from a civil perspective; however, from a religious perspective, I believe they must heed the laws of the state, unless those laws are morally wrong.
Is being gay morally wrong? NO! Being gay is something straight people don't understand, and objections to homosexuality are cultural, not moral, based on that misunderstanding. It is a cultural and/or personal perspective that is actually easy to grasp (even I, for instance, don't fully understand homosexuality because I am not gay), but that does not mean it is acceptable to adopt into our religious institutions as some kind of issue used to rule against people's freedom of rights.
Civil marriage is a right, or at least it is here and it should be everywhere else. In addition, civil marriage is separate and apart from religious marriage. That means the religious institutions of the world should have no bearing on a person's ability to gain a marriage certificate through the state; and similarly, the fact that marriage is legal civilly should not force religious institutions to perform religious marriage for those it does not think are "worthy" of it, as much as it pains me to state that. Religions may do whatever they please so long as it does not contradict the law, and since civil marriage is separate from religious marriage (even though they really shouldn't be), they are not forced to abide under the rules of States.
I'm certainly not out to make them. Religion does have it's freedom to do as it sees fit to a large degree -- however, I'm out to tell religion to back off when it comes to objecting to people's rights as human beings under the state, not religion.
----
But this is more than Gay Marriage. I use gay marriage because it is a common issue that Christians in America and other places around the world are most familiar with when it comes to gay rights... that's not really what I want to talk about today when I discuss a person's rights as a member of the global human race.
What I want to discuss, is similar to what is happening in Uganda. Sexual relations between gay people are already illegal in Uganda, which is already a terrible tragedy.. but did you know that under the brand new legislation, a person who was gay could be punished by life in prison? Did you know ... that under the new legislation in Uganda, a person could also be punished for being a homosexual, by the death penalty. The ultimate infraction of someone's freedom... imposing on his or her freedom simply to remain alive.
So now, I'm angry. And I'll admit that anger is not always the most productive emotion to bear; however, none the less, here it is.
This is the world you create. I can't say for sure if the values of anti-gay-Christianity (be it fundamentalist, conservative, or any Christian at all who supports it) really did or did not have any influence [*coughs* Rick Warren] in such travesty as the above, in Uganda and at home and everywhere else across the globe, but what I can say for certain is this is the world you lobby for. You... the anti-gay people, especially of the West... who work to suppress the rights of your brethren in humanity... you are whom I address. Your intolerance for human conditions that are different from your own, and your pressure on the world both on the small and large scales to comply with your demands, lobby for a world where people are not even worth being allowed to breathe another breath on this earth.
To you I have only this to say:
Progress will be victorious over ignorance. All of the people you trespass against with outdated cultural values will be awarded their rightful freedoms under the law, be them gay, straight, white, black, or purple. Progressive peoples will rejoice in triumph over ignorance, and many others who were once subscribers to that ignorance will learn to understand what a travesty has occurred and how the outdated values of the past have worked against faith and religion in negative ways. They will shed the useless iron-clad locks created by the ignorant sheltered mis-interpreted "values" of the past in order to open the doors of true belief in God to everyone. Willingly, without being forced. Those who finally understand true equality and live in God will open their arms to all humans, regardless of condition.
I don't know if I will live to see the fall of negative literalism that holds the world back on it's heels, kicking and screaming and begging to proceed into the light... but I really do hope it happens in my lifetime.
To deny equality to your fellow man, regardless of what kind of lifestyle he or she lives, is absolutely unacceptable and unjustifiable. Worse, it is not "of God" in any way, shape, or form.
Sadly, it is Biblical "truth" that often creates anti-gay people within Christianity itself. Unfortunately, it is done with incorrect information, as much of the Bible was either designed with myth, legend, or allegory in mind; or, was written with strong cultural influences of the time that should not interfere with the way we live our lives and write our laws in the modern world.
I'll give you an example... In 1850 it might have been completely normal for someone to write down a handbook on owning a slave. If a religion were to develop independently during this time period, the practitioners and founders of that faith may very well record in some written form the ways in which slavery relates to God or the good of mankind. This is because slavery was considered the normal order of things.
There is no questioning in today's society that slavery is wrong; at least, not in the Western developed countries. It is because we have grown as a global race (I'm talking about the human race) to understand that the right of freedom is fundamental toward each and every person, and cannot be rebuked in favor of slavery. Our freedom is only hampered when we commit crimes and are incarcerated, under which terms we have voluntarily given up our freedom by choosing to break the law. There is no crime in being born black, or any other skin color... although if you had a time machine, you might be hard-pressed to convince people of that a couple hundred years ago.
My point is that we've grown to understand our world better. But some of our growth and progress seems hampered in certain ways... in the ways under which we have grown to understand black people are not inferior to white people, we have failed to come to grips with the fact that homosexual individuals are not inferior to heterosexual ones.
Placing restrictions on gay marriage, or speaking out in favor of such restrictions, clearly indicates that you believe gay people are sub-human. I'm sorry to put it so harshly, but it's a legitimate flow chart. If you believe one group of people does not deserve the same rights as another group of people, than you consider the first group of people to be less than the second. But there is no crime in being gay, whether or not you believe it is innate (you are born with it) or otherwise (you have chosen it).
If there is no crime, than the limits of freedom do not apply, and these people should be afforded perfectly equal rights in all forms under the law. And at the very least, non-religious marriage is a civil institution whether Christians want to accept this or not.
I will admit that religious institutions must be free to accept or reject whatever they like, so long as it does not counter the laws of the state in question (for instance: A religious group could not advocate slavery, it just doesn't work that way)... this is because I believe in complete separation of church and state from a civil perspective; however, from a religious perspective, I believe they must heed the laws of the state, unless those laws are morally wrong.
Is being gay morally wrong? NO! Being gay is something straight people don't understand, and objections to homosexuality are cultural, not moral, based on that misunderstanding. It is a cultural and/or personal perspective that is actually easy to grasp (even I, for instance, don't fully understand homosexuality because I am not gay), but that does not mean it is acceptable to adopt into our religious institutions as some kind of issue used to rule against people's freedom of rights.
Civil marriage is a right, or at least it is here and it should be everywhere else. In addition, civil marriage is separate and apart from religious marriage. That means the religious institutions of the world should have no bearing on a person's ability to gain a marriage certificate through the state; and similarly, the fact that marriage is legal civilly should not force religious institutions to perform religious marriage for those it does not think are "worthy" of it, as much as it pains me to state that. Religions may do whatever they please so long as it does not contradict the law, and since civil marriage is separate from religious marriage (even though they really shouldn't be), they are not forced to abide under the rules of States.
I'm certainly not out to make them. Religion does have it's freedom to do as it sees fit to a large degree -- however, I'm out to tell religion to back off when it comes to objecting to people's rights as human beings under the state, not religion.
----
But this is more than Gay Marriage. I use gay marriage because it is a common issue that Christians in America and other places around the world are most familiar with when it comes to gay rights... that's not really what I want to talk about today when I discuss a person's rights as a member of the global human race.
What I want to discuss, is similar to what is happening in Uganda. Sexual relations between gay people are already illegal in Uganda, which is already a terrible tragedy.. but did you know that under the brand new legislation, a person who was gay could be punished by life in prison? Did you know ... that under the new legislation in Uganda, a person could also be punished for being a homosexual, by the death penalty. The ultimate infraction of someone's freedom... imposing on his or her freedom simply to remain alive.
So now, I'm angry. And I'll admit that anger is not always the most productive emotion to bear; however, none the less, here it is.
This is the world you create. I can't say for sure if the values of anti-gay-Christianity (be it fundamentalist, conservative, or any Christian at all who supports it) really did or did not have any influence [*coughs* Rick Warren] in such travesty as the above, in Uganda and at home and everywhere else across the globe, but what I can say for certain is this is the world you lobby for. You... the anti-gay people, especially of the West... who work to suppress the rights of your brethren in humanity... you are whom I address. Your intolerance for human conditions that are different from your own, and your pressure on the world both on the small and large scales to comply with your demands, lobby for a world where people are not even worth being allowed to breathe another breath on this earth.
To you I have only this to say:
Progress will be victorious over ignorance. All of the people you trespass against with outdated cultural values will be awarded their rightful freedoms under the law, be them gay, straight, white, black, or purple. Progressive peoples will rejoice in triumph over ignorance, and many others who were once subscribers to that ignorance will learn to understand what a travesty has occurred and how the outdated values of the past have worked against faith and religion in negative ways. They will shed the useless iron-clad locks created by the ignorant sheltered mis-interpreted "values" of the past in order to open the doors of true belief in God to everyone. Willingly, without being forced. Those who finally understand true equality and live in God will open their arms to all humans, regardless of condition.
I don't know if I will live to see the fall of negative literalism that holds the world back on it's heels, kicking and screaming and begging to proceed into the light... but I really do hope it happens in my lifetime.
