I was raised up without a religion. My parents never coerced me to do anything, I found the paths myself and decided to trek further as I saw fit. I had freedom of choice. I experienced freedom of religion. I found my own church, started attending, converted to Christianity and got baptized during high school. I attended youth group camps and small groups in college and church every now and again, especially Easter. Finding myself dabbling into more important issues like the election, I have kept myself busy with thinking about Prop 8.
Religion has taught me a lot. It has taught me to be fair. It has taught me to not pass judgement on others. It has taught me to be generous with the world, to share my ideas and artistic abilities in order to better the world around me. Religion has taught me to be civil, to be calm and to be patient, to be accepting of the most evil people and treat them with kindness and respect. To expunge hatred and to practice forgiveness, to look at our enemies and to forgive them in an instant, blessing them with the forgiveness that God has taught us. I saw people around me and I used to get annoyed because I thought this about their race or I followed that stereotype. Religion has taught me to forget stereotypes and judgement and appreciate those that are most different than us. Religion has taught me important values that I will never forget. All religions continuously teaches us to practice the golden rule of reciprocity.
All religions practice the golden rule. The golden rule is the key basis of our country and the reason why we have rights and freedoms. Equal justice for all who live under our great umbrella. America is great because America lets its citizens live freely. When one religious institution rises and says that because America was raised on religious beliefs and marriage is a religious practice that we have the power to restrict the rights of gay minorities. We act frantic now because us the majority are losing power. It once felt so stable and safe at the top and now the lower class is rising, and we definitely can't have that.
(taken from Julian L's first post)
(taken from Julian L's first post)
I Corinthians 6:9-11 - "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
If we are punishing homosexuals and revoking the right to marry because they are practicing sin then we should be implementing laws to take away rights from all of us sinners. The sexually immoral should be burned alive. Idolaters should have their legs cut off. Thieves should have their arms chopped off. The greedy should be hung and the drunkards should be tortured. Adulterers should be executed. All of America would be dead. But we still feel like we are safe from all the persecution because we mistakingly sit on the pedestal with God. We sit high in the clouds with God and the illusion that we will receive the right to throw lightning bolts at sinners. We forget our place and we are quick to judge others. "So what gives [sinning Christians] the right to tell other sinners not to sin (Hannah J)?" In this case us sinners are telling gay sinners not to sin with the banning of gay marriage; we have no right to do so, only God can judge. And for our duration here on Earth all decisions should be up to ourselves, not to laws restricting the freedoms of minorities. After all, gays are easy to target. The greedy, lying, drunk swindlers, thieves and adulterers are not so easy to target. We can easily point our fingers at the scape goat as we bathe in our own sins. It's easiest to blame others, hardest to see the mistakes in ourselves.
Us religious people like to see it as 'us' versus 'them,' the 'good' versus the 'evil,' those who go to 'heaven' and those who go to 'hell.' Those who follow the word and those who stray away from it. Those who actively seek forgiveness for their sins and those who betray God because of their sexual orientation. We can differ on our views towards the right or wrongfulness of gay marriage but we cannot revoke their rights as human beings. Not even us religious people sitting on our pedestals can judge the non-religious next to us. For we have to practice equality and justice for all even if our polluted minds think others are below us.
So you might be thinking, "marriage is a religious union between a man and a woman." I argue that marriage has evolved far from a religious union and has become a great symbol of our American society. Marriage has evolved socially into a symbol of stability in this great country attached to financial stability and even emotional stability. The idea of marriage has evolved into a union of two people without any limitation to race and religion and holds the right to marry and establish a family. "Marriage is what social constructs teach us, we know nothing else but to follow that model (James C)." I think marriage should be equally offered to any citizen of the United States, regardless of religion and sexual orientation. The dollar bill has "In God We Trust" inscribed onto each note, but not everyone needs to believe in God to own money.
I do not speak on the behalf of my gay friends and their futures but I speak on behalf of all humans of our society. We live in the United States where change is not a new thing. We have been reforming our ways since racism towards Asians, Blacks, Mexicans and all minorities as well as sexism towards females. Asian Americans were once denied the right to own land. 125 years ago a law was passed to prohibit interracial marriage between Chinese and Whites (Judy C). Japanese Americans were forced into camps because of the color of their skin. Blacks were denied the right to be counted as a full human being. Women were denied the right to vote. Gays are now being denied the right to marriage. We have come a long, long ways, and it would be a pity to be scared of change now.
"Thank you for those who went against "tradition" in their time, those who were by no means in the same circumstances as those of the people whose rights they supported. Those who chose to stand for others, when the others couldn't yet do so. Isn't it beautiful to think of how much our country has been able to progress, to ensure the same rights for every individual?" (Nancy N)
I will always find my place standing up for others when the others couldn't yet do so themselves. Once we realize that our function in life is to better society, we fight with whatever tools we have. We sing, we dance, we draw, we express ourselves, we speak, we blog, we argue, we become passionate people again. We sacrifice ourselves to the idea that we can make a difference and our efforts can influence change. We voice our opinions and use our weight to sway things in our favor. It is the actions of all the writers that wrote about the election this year that has given me new inspiration or 'faith' for our generation. People are starting to think again, there is dialog happening in unpredicted spaces again. Rather than close-mindedness and regressivity, people all over are starting to voice their opinions. Instead of meddling in stagnancy, we are preparing for the inevitable changes to come. No law can hold back the gay community, they will one day if not today become free of their shackles of enslavement.
I hope we keep up the good work because its about time we woke up from the nap of apathy. Thank you Julian, Tomoe and Nancy for giving me the inspiration to speak my mind. I am going to end with another quote, this one really moved me because it relates and explains every facet of my efforts in the world today.
"As the world becomes more and more complex, it is the artist that helps us to see our society with both a critical and hopeful eye. It is the artist that dares to tell the truth against the tyranny of fear that is propagated by all those who fear change. Change in society and its people is inevitable yet so many of our institutions are either helpless or refuse to nurture it forward. Perhaps more than organized religion, art enables us to view the world with an open mind and challenge ourselves to learn about ideas beyond the comfort of our personal lives. " (Tomoe)
"To omit evil on the path of the journey of life,"
-12FV.
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8 comments:
You bring up a lot of good questions that are on a lot of people's minds. I was hoping to address them along with my thoughts on what the Bible has to say about this very sensitive topic, but given the many directions response to my post (and/or this issue) has gone, I haven't been able to in time for the election. Nonetheless the questions you bring up deserve answers. I appreciate you not holding back your thoughts because when we lay it out for each other uninhibited but respectful that prevents us from brewing uneducated conclusions.
I'm working on this next post to hopefully tackle the questions you bring up, among many, many of the others. Definitely has to be the most carefully approached of all the posts, but I hope you can join me when it's done.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
Religious or not, we all need to abandon the easy and perhaps even natural path of hypocrisy and self righteousness.
Glad you've put thought into it and have figured some stuff out.
you cant just let the lesser of two evils be acceptable. just cause we dont chop off the hands of a robber doesnt mean we are allowed to allow gay rights.
biblical times are way different from modern times.
in the biblical times, God did not allow pork. not because it was sin to eat pork but because, back then, they didnt have the ability to cleanse the pork of disease. some laws in the bible do not apply to our generation.
when Christ said be perfect, he didnt literally mean be sinless. he commands us to be mature. we are sinners, yes, no argument there. we are to reflect the image of christ in the way we live, and we arent going to if we do not speak truth.
you're right though, we are in no place to judge others. thats why God judges. and God condemns homosexuality in the bible. maybe you should read it.
in regards to marriage being between a man and a woman, i completely believe that is and only should be between a man and a woman. Yes, it is a symbol of unity. but the bible says that it should be between a man and a woman. there is a reason for that.
God says that the man is the head of his house and the woman is the helper. if its between a man and a man or a woman and woman. wheres that relationship?
the other reason is that the marriage of a man and a woman paints the symbol of christ and the church. the church will always be below christ because christ is God, he is the greatest. the man symbolizes christ and the woman the church.
when a man and man marry, it breaks down. even if they settle who would head the house. we can never be on the same level as christ is and therefore breaks this analogy. as for a woman couple, the church cant stand up with another church for long. it will break down without christ's redemption and guidance.
i really suggest to deeply look into God's word. skimming the surface isnt going to help. Words in the american versions of bible doesnt have the same meaning as the hebrew words. the bible tells us to dig deep into God's word. you cant just bite the meat and let it stay in your mouth, you have to chew on it and digest it.
blessings,
bryant
I like the direction you're taking
with your blog. great stuff
Bored. Thought I'd chime in.
Religion can be a great thing. On the other hand it can also be a great thing that causes people to do terrible things. E.g. The Crusades, the actions of the Conquistadors, etc.
I think Prop. 8 is interesting because it's being battled on a legal front. With that said, although there are heavy undertones of religious belief against Prop. 8, I'm pretty sure they are not fighting on purely religious grounds (on the face of things); the Constitution's separation of church and state concept almost ensures it.
I thought I'd share (what I think) is one of the major cornerstones of the arguments in favor of Prop. 8. So here it goes. Prop. 8 is opposed to gay marriage because giving homosexuals the right to marry would necessarily invoke the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment - this is the same clause used to grant equal rights to people of different races and sex. The two main standards of the application are race and sex. Race and sex are biologically determined (you are, what you are born as). People in favor of Prop. 8 argue that homosexuals are so by choice. To many that seems absurd but there is some justification to the claim. Twin studies (subjects with identical DNA) have been done to determine whether homosexuals are born homosexual or are homosexual by choice. The results show a 60-70% rate of "biologically based" homosexuality (both twins gay) and a 40-30% rate of "choice" (one gay, one not - despite identical DNA). Because the results do not match up 100% (as race and sex do [hermaphrodites are not excluded either; they are hermaphrodites upon birth]), the argument is that homosexuality should not be on par with race and sex.
I just thought I'd let you know the angle of the other side (you need to know where the mountain is before you start to climb it, right?). The 40-60/30-70 argument will only be able to hold up for so long. There's a number of arguments that can be made against it (See: 14th Amendment protection of disabled persons = one exception to the race/sex standard that is already in play, as one example). So I think the gay community will eventually prevail in taking down the ban.
As a non-religious person, I have no problem with what gay people do with their lives (to a reasonable extent, of course) so I don't think it's necessary to limit what they can or can't do based on sexual orientation. I can see where religious persons might object to homosexuality, especially in the context of marriage, but my advice to you to deal with those persons is to: (1) remind them that we live in the US, (2) remind them that the US was founded on the basic principles/laws set out in the Consitution, (3) remind them that Prop. 8 is a matter of law, and (4) direct them to the First Amendment (http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am1).
- Doug
*disclaimer: I know I sound like an asshole all the time so my bad if this comment ruins the feel of the post*
one man and one woman? really? I seem to remember hewbrew royal marriages being one man and several women. Were two women who were married to the same man also considered married to each other?
there is no doubt the bible says homosexuality is wrong, but there is nothing that says christians need to fight it and impose that on non-believers. In fact, the Bible says exactly otherwise. I won't repost my argument here, but any christians who think they know what the bible says can go check my site.
Jeff 小弟, you're the kind of christian who made me glad to be called christian while I was still christian
Bryant makes a valid point; just because there aren't laws in place to punish all the sins listed in the bible doesn't mean that there can't be laws to punish at least some.
Having said that, I'm not entirely sure if it's the role of a religiously neutral society (as the Constitution is now interpreted to guarantee) to punish sins at all. Sure, we have laws to punish sins like murder, and theft, but that's because those sins directly affect society-- "victim-ful sins."
But homosexual marriage is a "victim-less sin." No one's life is taken, no material possession denied from another-- if ANYTHING, the two "souls" of the two homosexuals getting married condemn their afterlife.
But that's God's job. Humans don't determine post-mortem fate. God does. So as a society, it is our responsibility to make things run smoothly so that each individual can worship as they see fit so they may pursue an afterlife they want. Murdering and stealing one another stifles that freedom. That's why we have laws to punish those actions.
If you want to go on TV and condemn homosexuality, that's fine. But this great nation should not be allowed to prevent two willing adults from performing an action that doesn't seem to have any negative impact towards another.
Byrantosaurus gets it..
I'd take heed of his words.
Timbo's goin off on a tangent.. stick to things actually encouraged by the Bible.
If you're not sure, refer to Byrant's post and delve deeper into the word for clarity
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