Tuesday, October 21, 2008

In Which I Bore You to Death with Politico

A lot of the blogs that I read have lately discussed the issue of gay marriage. In AZ there is legislation to be voted on that would ban gay marriage in that state. Now, I’m proud to say that I voted against a similar proposition last year, and proud to say that a whole lot of other Arizonians did as well – enough to strike down the proposition. And since the majority of the blogs I read are written by a more conservative bunch, I’d like to at least get my ‘crazy liberal’ perspective out there, and maybe even spark an intelligent debate that does not involve the word “God” (because last I checked, America was founded on the principle of separation of church and state).

First, let me say that I fully appreciate the views that a lot of people hold. In a religious sense, homosexuality is a sin and I get that. Hi, I was born into a Catholic household. Catholic, people! As for now, I hold no religious affiliation, and that fact makes it easy for me to divide this into a religious issue as opposed to a political issue, which is what we are voting on. (I am also proud to say that despite my lack of religiousness, I’ve been to more churches than you. More types of churches, I mean. I have attended services of lots of faiths, and I think that every single one of them is beautiful and that not one of them is more right than any other. But that’s a whole different story.)

Onto the issues. Homosexuality is not something that I engage in, nor is it something I actively support. The way I see it, it’s a matter of fairness. See, the beautiful thing about being an American is that we have freedoms. You know - speech and right to bear arms. And we have an unquestionable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I live by the absolute premise that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, and to me that stands regardless of education, faith, gender, socioeconomic status, and all the other variables that make us individuals. This includes, of course, sexual orientation. I try, though I don’t always succeed, to treat every single person I meet in the same manner. I would never, ever, ever try to deny someone a basic right (in this case, pursuit of happiness) based on any qualifying characteristic (in this case, sexual orientation). I call that being a good American (and a good person).

Further, I don’t think that the government should be involved in this issue. And frankly, I don’t see how a lot of you can ask the government to get involved – to unfairly lump you together, you’re a conservative bunch. You’ll be voting for McCain. You believe in deregulation. You agree with Palin when she said “you know, government, just get out of my way”. Except, of course, now that this comes up you are all begging for government intervention. If someone has a plausible explanation for this I’ll be glad to take it all back, but aren’t some conservative voters out there being just a little bit hypocritical right now? I feel that this is a moral issue for each person to decide on their own, not a place for laws and regulations.

And now, let me present my problems with the ideals of those who feel differently than I. One blog I read (I won’t be quoting or naming any names) argued that allowing homosexual marriage would create a more tolerant society. Oh, and they were arguing that this would be a bad thing. Does anyone else find this totally ridiculous?!? Tolerance is the most important thing we as people of the world can strive for. And while I don’t know a whole lot about the specific teachings of the church that this person subscribes to, they used the church to justify their position. Fair enough, except that this person is a Christian. As in, follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. Who, incidentally, taught a whole lot of tolerance. I don’t think that anyone who calls themselves a Christian (or a Jew, for that matter) can use his principles to argue for less tolerance in the world, as doing so directly opposes the teachings of Christ.

Random side note: other things that I am against include all the construction still going on in my building. All this hammering really cannot be necessary.

A second reason I cannot support a lot of the ideas I’ve read is not so much the conclusion (not supporting gay marriage) as much as it is the thought process that has brought about that conclusion. A big big reason that people come to their conclusions is religion. However, this is not a religious issue right now, it is a political one, and the responsibility of being an American includes not mixing those two parts of your whole. Again, I understand that this is much easier for me to do than for a lot of other people because I have no religious affiliations. Growing up, I was not taught morals through religion but rather through more concrete ideas of right and wrong. (Disclaimer: I only say ‘more concrete’ because there are a LOT of religions that teach a lot of different rights and wrongs. My morals are (simply) things that all religions can hopefully agree on – killing is bad, being nice is good, etc.) As a result I find it easy to think that its wrong to discriminate based on sexual orientation – I have no religious authority telling me otherwise. I see how it can be difficult for those of you that are religious to discriminate moral and religion because for you those two things are so tightly interwoven. But morals do exist outside of religion (and, sadly, religion can exist without morals) and this gray area is the one that we must be arguing on – that space that exists in the separation of morality and religion. The issue is not and cannot be “homosexuality is wrong because my priest/pastor/bishop/rabbi/whatever told me that it’s wrong”; instead the decision must be “do I believe that all people should have equal rights, or do I believe people can be disqualified from rights based on certain characteristics?” The key words there are “DO I BELIEVE”. What are your personal beliefs? What do you think, outside of what your church teaches you? Do you really believe that people can be stripped of rights based on one single characteristic? And if you do, remember that people once thought that people could be stripped of rights based on skin color – was that fair? How different was that from what could happen now to homosexuals?

Time for disclaimers. I’m not trying to swing your vote. I’m not trying to attack your religion. I’m not trying to corrupt the minds of young America. I just wanted to present a (hopefully) somewhat coherent argument about why homosexual marriage may not be a sign of the apocalypse. I would appreciate somewhat coherent responses, from all different perspectives, but don’t get angry with me. The end.

2 comments:

  1. Being extremely middle of the road, politically speaking, I've had a really hard time with this issue. I still haven't made up my mind.

    However, out of all you said, I do understand where that person arguing against gay marriage and increased tolerance in the name of their religion is coming from.

    Christ taught love and tolerance of the sinner, not the sin. He taught us to divorce the person from their actions. I think Christ wants us to treat gays/lesbians/transgenders/etc. with love and respect without condoning their lifestyle. To Christians, legalizing gay marriage is effectively legalizing sin.

    Also, there is a widely held belief that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they openly allowed homosexuality. I think many Christians see the legalization of gay marriage as the beginning of the end for our society. If God didn't spare Sodom and Gomorrah when they allowed legalized sin then why would He spare us?

    So you might see how, for some, this is not a political issue. It's a moral and religious one. To many Christians, this is more than whether the government has the right to poke their nose into our business, it's an issue of saving our society from condemnation and possible destruction.

    And I know you wanted to have a debate that didn't include the word "God", but that's discounting the basis of the Christian right's argument. Which is why the left and right can never agree. The left argues with reason and freedoms and the right argues with morals and God. It's like pitting oranges versus apples. They're never really going to be fighting the same battle.

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  2. I don't think that arguing against tolerance of others is ever really the right move. Tolerance is accepting someone despite their differences and faults. It's loving the sinner. I think tolerance is EXACTLY what religion should stand for, period.

    I don't think I made my point on morality clear. I think that morality is something that exists outside of religion (though it obviously can exist within religion too). In essence, I think morality is best defined as what you would do if nobody was watching, even God. For example, you wouldn't kill someone, even if laws and religion said it was ok - you just don't kill people. It's wrong. In this case, if God didn't care, how would you feel about gay marriage? This is obviously a view that's come from my upbringing, and I'm sure we see things a little differently, but I just have a hard time grasping the concept of morality as 'what you do because that's what God says to do'.

    You make a very good point about the use of the word god. I think you made some very valid religious points without crossing lines into overly-zealous territory. I don't want quote after quote after quote from your bishop or from a rabbi or any other human being. I just want real opinions and beliefs.

    In the Bible, God didn't just get angry and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham asked God to show mercy, and God agreed that he would if he could find righteous inhabitants. They were only destroyed when there were no righteous people - and He spared Lot. So if you are going to compare legalizing gay marraige to Sodom and Gomorrah, then all you have to worry about is your own marriage - if He was merciful before, why wouldn't He spare the righteous again? And what about the Jews - a good majority of them believe that Sodom and Gommorah were not destroyed for homosexuality, but for other sins. And the Jews did write the thing, after all :)

    Either way, agree or disagree, thanks for your opinions and ideas. Although this is an issue I have stronger feelings on, I'm also pretty middle-of-the-road politically and I love bouncing ideas off people who have different backgrounds and beliefs. Thanks for being a good sport!

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