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 w/ 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.
