Why are those sins not discriminated against or made illegal?
This is why I do not understand religion.
13 comments:
Anonymous
said...
What I don't understand is how the evangelical right can cling to their religion when the whole world saw how ugly it really is. Hate-mongering and viciousness seemed to be the rule.
While all religions have their radicals and I know plenty of evangelicals who were appalled by what they saw, I do not recall a single leader of the evangelicals reprimanding their congregations for the horrible things we heard and saw coming from so many of the rallys and protests.
Honesty and integrity? Ha! How about hypocrisy and intolerance?
Fortunately, we live in a country where the government does NOT dictate moral or religious choices. Unfortunately, religious "choices" did dictate state law in this case.
The way I see it, churches should absolutely be able to say "we don't want to perform certain ceremonies here" - just as doctors can say "I don't want to perform abortions."
But the laws and the rights should exist for everyone. Unless of course, the government would like to be fair and punish all "sinners" equally.
I cannot understand either. While my beliefs are my own and very strong in some cases, the idea of me using them to legislate the life of another adult person is beyond me.
My thinking is this: the moment marriage became codified by a government entity, it had to follow government's rules: namely, non-discrimination. The beautiful thing about the separation of church and state idea is that, while the government can't discriminate in the bond it recognizes, any religious group can do whatever they please. Theoretically, everyone should be happy.
I don't understand it either. It is not as if the law will be that now everyone HAS TO marry someone of the same sex. It just means that people who love each other can get married.
I hate that a decision was made for the gay community by people who are not going to be affected by whether or not they even get married.
Last time I checked there was never enough love in the world.
Fear not. The battle is certainly not over. The ACLU filed a petition with the CA Supreme Court for injunctive relief. In short, asking the court to invalidate Prop 8.
The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities.
This is the same court that overturned Prop 22, so there is hope. If that happens, expect it to go to the USSC at some point.
Did anyone catch that 69% of blacks in California voted Yes on 8? Black people make up 6.7% of the California population...Mormons make up just 2% of the population...I'm just sayin'
But, keep in mind, Mormons funded 48% ($15M) of the campaign. Although they may have been only 2% of the vote on election day, they drove public opinion.
If Mormons were told to vote only, and not contribute time and $$, the measure surely would not have passed.
I don't think the strong backlash is directed toward the LDS church because people think Mormons voted in such great numbers as to pass the amendment. I think the feeling is that church leadership went above and beyond what many would consider to be reasonable. Couple that with the misleading and in some cases blatantly untrue statements in propaganda largely funded by Mormon donations and door knocking, and it's a recipe for hard feelings.
This is the first time (well, since they did basically the same thing with the Equal Rights Amendment for women) that the church has gone beyond a simple "please vote your morals" message. The fact they assigned a member of the seventy to direct the effort, organized call centers in UT and ID to call voters and broadcast satellite messages are not sitting well with many on both sides of the movement.
Please don't see the strong messages as hating Mormons; I really don't think that's the case. I think it's a backlash against church leadership for getting the rest of you embroiled in an issue that really isn't an issue. The signs may call Mormons haters, bigots and Nazis, but I'm sure there's no more truth to those labels than the ones of deviants, perverts and child molesters that were placed on the gay community by all the people going door to door getting out the vote.
Mormons in UT will now have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the love and tolerance they claim to have for the gay community by supporting the five bills that will be introduced during the 2009 legislative session for the equalization of some key gay rights in our state. Specifically, the ones the church said it has no problem with in various press releases during the Prop 8 campaign: hospitalization rights, medical rights, probate rights, fair housing and employment protection. It's an opportunity for the LDS church to support its position, a chance at some healing and a great leap forward for our state.
13 comments:
What I don't understand is how the evangelical right can cling to their religion when the whole world saw how ugly it really is. Hate-mongering and viciousness seemed to be the rule.
While all religions have their radicals and I know plenty of evangelicals who were appalled by what they saw, I do not recall a single leader of the evangelicals reprimanding their congregations for the horrible things we heard and saw coming from so many of the rallys and protests.
Honesty and integrity? Ha! How about hypocrisy and intolerance?
Fortunately, we live in a country where the government does NOT dictate moral or religious choices. Unfortunately, religious "choices" did dictate state law in this case.
The way I see it, churches should absolutely be able to say "we don't want to perform certain ceremonies here" - just as doctors can say "I don't want to perform abortions."
But the laws and the rights should exist for everyone. Unless of course, the government would like to be fair and punish all "sinners" equally.
I cannot understand either. While my beliefs are my own and very strong in some cases, the idea of me using them to legislate the life of another adult person is beyond me.
I totally agree with Alysha. Our personal choices are ours to make -not our government or our church.
You week gets more and more contemplative every day. I would have never guessed the Monday boob testing outfit would lead to this.
My thinking is this: the moment marriage became codified by a government entity, it had to follow government's rules: namely, non-discrimination. The beautiful thing about the separation of church and state idea is that, while the government can't discriminate in the bond it recognizes, any religious group can do whatever they please. Theoretically, everyone should be happy.
Shame it doesn't work out that way...
I don't understand it either. It is not as if the law will be that now everyone HAS TO marry someone of the same sex. It just means that people who love each other can get married.
I hate that a decision was made for the gay community by people who are not going to be affected by whether or not they even get married.
Last time I checked there was never enough love in the world.
Fear not. The battle is certainly not over. The ACLU filed a petition with the CA Supreme Court for injunctive relief. In short, asking the court to invalidate Prop 8.
The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities.
This is the same court that overturned Prop 22, so there is hope. If that happens, expect it to go to the USSC at some point.
Did anyone catch that 69% of blacks in California voted Yes on 8? Black people make up 6.7% of the California population...Mormons make up just 2% of the population...I'm just sayin'
But, keep in mind, Mormons funded 48% ($15M) of the campaign. Although they may have been only 2% of the vote on election day, they drove public opinion.
If Mormons were told to vote only, and not contribute time and $$, the measure surely would not have passed.
Lara,
I don't think the strong backlash is directed toward the LDS church because people think Mormons voted in such great numbers as to pass the amendment. I think the feeling is that church leadership went above and beyond what many would consider to be reasonable. Couple that with the misleading and in some cases blatantly untrue statements in propaganda largely funded by Mormon donations and door knocking, and it's a recipe for hard feelings.
This is the first time (well, since they did basically the same thing with the Equal Rights Amendment for women) that the church has gone beyond a simple "please vote your morals" message. The fact they assigned a member of the seventy to direct the effort, organized call centers in UT and ID to call voters and broadcast satellite messages are not sitting well with many on both sides of the movement.
Please don't see the strong messages as hating Mormons; I really don't think that's the case. I think it's a backlash against church leadership for getting the rest of you embroiled in an issue that really isn't an issue. The signs may call Mormons haters, bigots and Nazis, but I'm sure there's no more truth to those labels than the ones of deviants, perverts and child molesters that were placed on the gay community by all the people going door to door getting out the vote.
Mormons in UT will now have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the love and tolerance they claim to have for the gay community by supporting the five bills that will be introduced during the 2009 legislative session for the equalization of some key gay rights in our state. Specifically, the ones the church said it has no problem with in various press releases during the Prop 8 campaign: hospitalization rights, medical rights, probate rights, fair housing and employment protection. It's an opportunity for the LDS church to support its position, a chance at some healing and a great leap forward for our state.
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