.
.
.
.
|
.
.
|
.
.
|
.
.
|
.
.
|
.
.
|
.
.
|
.
.
|
.
.
.
|
.
.
.
.
|
. r73 --- How Gay Rights and Abortion Rights Are Connected http://www.choice101.com/r73-gay-rights.html Page Content . |
.
|
.
. |
.
.
|
.
|
.
|
. Religious Freedom & Same-Sex Marriages: Those opposing marriage rights for same sex couples are publicly declaring that they are, "Defending the sanctity of marriage." Once again, we have a clash of church and state. Let's examine the language and see if we can gain a little clarity on this issue. Marriage: The term "marriage," in this context, is a contract created by the state defining the civil and legal relationship between two people. License: A License is "ticket," a "letter of permission" granted by ruling authorities. That certificate gives its holder permission to engage in certain specified activities, activities that those without the license are prohibited from engaging in. Sanctity: Sanctity is a word common to religious places, things, activities, or situations. It is rarely ever used in secular contracts, and to my knowledge, it is never used in government contracts. Webster's dictionary defines "sanctity" as: 1 .
Saintliness or holiness; Defining Sacred: The Pro-Truth Team has spent years looking for a clear distinction between what is sacred and what isn't, and the clearest answer we've been able to find is this: "Either everything is sacred or nothing is." If a state's marriage contract is sacred and holy, which religion gets do define what saintly, sacred, and holy mean? Is my drivers license also sacred? If not why not. What's the difference? Bars and nightclubs have licenses. Are those contracts sacred? What makes one government contract sacred and the other not? What is sacred, anyway? God and Government: We cannot exclude "God" from the government.° That is literally impossible! Why? Because humans cannot separate their divine nature from the governments they create. Our spiritual nature (our religious, and spiritual beliefs) dominate our lives. Even ego-atheists are not religion-free. Many of them (the ego atheists) have simply turned money into a secular god. And besides, even atheism has to be accepted by what, in religious terms, is called, " Leap of faith," which, in essence, means to believe without any proof. Protecting Individual Rights: How then, do we honor all religious beliefs? How do we honor religious freedom? The best thing we can do is to prevent any religious faction from dominating government and to prevent any religious group from using government laws, money or property to promote their ways at the expense of others. (See the section titled: Church and Sate -- How do they relate?°) The Goal: The goal is protect everyone’s rights, religious and otherwise --- to protect the rights of the minority from being trampled on by the collective will of the majority --- to prevent any group from interfering with the rights of those who do not believe in that groups doctrine/theology. Open the Door: I haven't heard any gays or lesbians proposing that would in any way, violate, injure, profane, harm, or do away with the legal contract called marriage. Actually, they are just demanding the right to entry into that secular, legal contract. Millions of heterosexual couples have already signed state-sanctioned legal contracts. Discrimination: Why then, are some people denied access to this contract? Could it be that the presence of gays and lesbians would profane the contract? That sound a lot like the racial bigotry that conservative Christians have, in the past, been so infamous for? How about taking a short, one-question test. Please tell us which set of words best describes the opposition to same sex marriages: a)
justice, freedom, tolerance,
open-mindedness, equality, b)
discrimination prejudice
inequity chauvinism, bigotry, |
.
|
. Who Gets to Make Your Decisions: Then there's the age-old question, who gets to define what the words mean? Who determines what is and what is not profane? Who defines what the word "marriage" means? Who gets to define sacred and who gets to decide what is sacred, and who gets to decide how something that is sacred fits into government laws? Anti-Sex is the Core Issue: Those opposing gay marriages claim that granting same sex couples the same rights now given to heterosexual couples endorses and promotes homosexuality. Does granting stores liquor licenses endorse drinking alcohol? It could also be said that licensing same sex marriages is just releasing long-held, anti-gay, anti-sexual bigotry. When you examine the group opposing gay rights you'll find most of them are controlled by strong fundamental-Christian-induced anti-sexual belief systems. Open the Door: Gays and lesbians are simply saying; "I'll no longer ride in the back of the bus! I'll no longer drink form the separate water fountain! I demand to be served while seated at the lunch counter!" Bigotry: Gays and lesbians are also asking: "What about you makes you better than me? How are you injured by my having a legal marriage contract? Why are you defying the words in your own sacred text?" Perhaps it's time to give more than lip service to the concept of religious freedom. Who is Supporting Gay and Lesbian Rights? The religious, social and political beliefs of gay rights activists completely cover the board. Supporters of gay and lesbian rights can be easily found in every religion, every race, every culture, every age group, every social and economic status. Many of them are completely heterosexual. Who is Opposing Gay and Lesbian Rights? Those leading the antigay parade are the same people opposing abortion rights, sex education, birth control, and stem-cell research. They are primarily fundamentalist Christians or traditionalist, old-school Catholics. The opposition leadership has strong anti-sexual, conservative, religious roots. Those opposing same sex marriages are basing their opposition on religious grounds only. They offer no physical or secular evidence in support for their opposition. There are no victims who would be harmed. They simply claim to be "Defending the sanctity of marriage." They are defending a belief system --- a religious belief system --- a Christian religious belief system. The evidence tells us that the war against gay and lesbian marriage a religious freedom issue. Gay Rights and the Christian Bible: Perhaps we should direct our anti-gay friends to the words written in their own Christian Bible: Here are a few sentences from Romans, Chapter 14 of the Christian Bible: “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that [there is] nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him [it is] unclean.” 14:14 "Who art thou that judges another man's servant?" --- "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." --- "why dost thou judge thy brother?" --- "Let us not therefore judge one another any more --- "no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in [his] brother's way." --- "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace" --- "...All things indeed [are] pure; but [it is] evil for that man who eateth with offence." 14:20 And here are a couple of classics: ".
. . He who is without sin, let
him first cast a stone. .
.
John
8:7 And with all the Roman Catholic priests having been exposed as homosexual child molester, perhaps we should direct them to read Matthew 7:5 and Luke 6:42 in that same Christian Bible: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." The Supporting Biblical View: In the Biblical references related to Jesus, He never mentioned homosexuality. However in Romans 14:14 (a statement directly attributed to Jesus) there is a passage that can easily be interpreted to support gay rights. Here's the quotes form Romans 14:24 and 14:20 written in slightly different language: "Like beauty, ugliness, obscenity, and sexual immorality are all in the eye of the beholder. That which is labeled as "unclean" is only unclean to he who thinks it to be unclean, and it is unclean only because belief and perception make it so." This leads us to the common practices of denial and projection. Projection: Are you familiar with the common practice of denying one's own disliked character traits by looking for them in someone else and hating them there. It's called projection,° and it's based on the findings that, “Men [and women] hate in others those things -- and only those things -- which they despise in themselves.” It stems from the tendency to disown un-liked aspects of one’s own personality. We wonder how many anti-gay Christian leaders are denying their own represses homosexuality? Considering the large number of gay Catholic priests and Protestant Christian Ministers who, over the years, have been exposed as Gay, we would guess that number of hidden homosexuals in the anti-gay movement to be extensive. Projection: In keeping with the anti-gay movements practice of waging war against everything they that attracts attention and makes them money, the gay-rights movement could easily throw their own game back at them and introduce legislation in every government body making it a crime to discriminate against anyone based on his or her sexual preference. Propose a constitutional amendment supporting Gay rights If we don't stand up against bigotry here and now, . |
.
.
|
. Hypocrisy and Sins of Lifestyle:
|
Standard
Paragraph Format