Reply #14: I guess secularism and civil rights aren't for Americans [View All]

[Selatius]

I'm serious when I say that. There are many Americans who firmly believe that God's law is the basis for American democracy even though that tradition of the people's government has its roots in the Greco-Roman tradition. This seems to go over the heads of people until someone actually mentions history that people should already know.

With civil rights, there are many who simply don't want gay marriage because "marriage" has Christian religious connotations to it, yet even if we change it "civil unions" to avoid the use of the word "marriage," we still run into a wall because it would be seen as an endorsement of homosexuality, and some of the referendums this past election banned both "civil unions" and "same-sex marriage."

The argument that seems not to be made effectively by the Democratic leaders is that it is all right to disagree with homosexuality, but there is a difference between beliefs and actions. One can disagree, but when one tries to legislate religious beliefs, then one comes up against the rights of another, and THAT is where it becomes not an issue of religious beliefs but an issue of CIVIL RIGHTS. You have a right to believe what you want, but you do not have a right to make a decision for another with respect to those beliefs.

"Equal rights for all except for fags."

The issue of abortion is a bit more complex. The bills banning abortion have been rejected by the courts because there have been no exceptions in cases of rape or where the health of the mother is put at risk, but the message is that women don't have such a right to choose because a pile of cells that cannot yet live outside the human body has the same rights as the mother. Even if such a bill that provided exceptions passed muster, the hypocrisy is evident.

"We believe in the right to life for all but not with the death penalty."

What is the prognosis? Well, it seems to me that no matter what people in general say about equality for all and civil rights, we have simply not moved far enough so that our actions match our rhetoric. We, as a country, simply have made an exception to that rule, no different than when we made exceptions with black people when we, as a country, said that we're free and equal.

If religion is an issue, then perhaps we should point out that Jesus never condemned homosexuality directly and that he advocated tolerance and acceptance of others (a fundamental tenet of Christ's teachings) regardless of beliefs and said that if one had to remember anything from what he said, then that would have been to "love thy neighbor as one loves thyself."

Now, how would you feel if someone told YOU that you could not marry someone you loved???