For most of the day today, I was in a celebratory mood… How quickly that disappeared when I read this article that my dad sent to me.
It is deeply disappointing that, just as we symbolically overturn racial prejudices that have existed since the beginning of our country and make great strides towards a government that emphasizes social freedom, our largest state goes out of its way to diminish personal rights and reinforce bigotry in some other way. California’s passing of Proposition 8 represents a huge loss for thousands of people who just wanted to be able to marry their loved one, not to mention the damage done to the great “American” ideals of liberty and equality.
When a state like California that is populous enough to wield a great influence goes out of its way to change its constitution in order to deny people their happiness - happiness that is not in any way harmful to anyone else - this reflects a major downfall for the entire nation. Not only that, but it is so disillusioning to think that the minority group that finally had their voice heard and finally beat prejudices in a huge way today played a key role in depriving another marginalized group of their rights.
So to the racial minorities that were involved in this insult to humanity: consider, for a moment, how you’d feel if it was still considered constitutional and socially acceptable to pass laws depriving you of your individual liberties.
And for all those conservative Christians who voted yes to Prop. 8, just ask yourselves: are you loving your gay neighbors as you love yourself? Are you really doing as Jesus would do?
California, I am disgusted with you. Haven’t you ever heard of “live and let live?”
Did I say California? I actually meant 48/50 states, since "Tuesday's vote drops the number of states that allow gay marriage to one, though it will soon rise again to two." As I recently mentioned, it seems like we are never able to progress without in some way regressing to compensate.
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4 comments:
Here's a debate I've been having, and I have no idea what the answer is. This is not about gay marriage specifically (though the parallels are deliberate) but what to do with two conflicting viewpoints. Questions posed at the end.
Let's say there's some person (person A) who vehemently thinks that painting the outsides of ziploc bags green is morally wrong. Let's also say person B, person A's brother, really enjoys painting ziploc bags green. Personally, I see nothing wrong with painting ziploc bags green. Who's it harming? Like, person A wouldn't have been upset if they didn't find out, so clearly this is an issue of A not minding their own business, right?
Additionally, lets say person A believes very strongly that they should love others as themselves (especially their brother). If they had no say in the rules regarding ziploc bags, they would simply find themselves presented with the only option of loving person B. On the other hand, let's say A is given the choice of if it should be allowed or not. Now, A loves B, but disagrees with B's choices quite strongly. Which should win out? If A does the thing that B will call loving, it will be voting for the allowance of something they morally can't stand for.
So, in this scenario, what will make person B happy is at odds with what person A feels is morally right.
So, given this set up, here are my questions:
1) Should one vote with their morals at all? If yes, to what degree?
2) Are morals absolute? If so, then isn't one person "wrong" and another "right"?
3) If morals aren't absolute, how do we determine what to implement as law? Democracy? If so, then necessarily some groups will be hurt.
Personally, I'm very upset with the "face of Christ", or lack thereof, the Christian church recently seems to be showing on such divisive issues, such as ziploc bag painting (insert your favorite hot topic here), but I don't know what to do about it. Do I tell church members to vote against their conscience? Or that their conscience is wrong? Maybe it's my conscience? How would I even know? Or is there another option?
Additionally, I'm struck by the Biblical admonition that the world will hate followers of Christ. However, in the particular case of gay marriage, I am certainly not convinced that modern-day homosexuality is any worse biblically than wearing non-woven clothes, or whatever. If woven clothes was specifically the Levitical nitpick, I certainly don't see any complaining about that. So it seems like a lot of Christians are just picking their battles poorly, or wrongly, but who am I to say?
I apologize for the post length. I trend toward monolithic treatise.
Ha, lastly, in previous news, this is a fantastic link if you haven't seen it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/reactions-around-the-worl_n_141187.html
I guess my tendency is to think that Tuesday's election was "two steps forward, one step back." I think the progress the country made in electing the first Black President, and moving the country more towards a progressive, liberal agenda, may help issues like Prop. 8 in the near future.
I suppose it comes down to ranking your issues. For me, I'm horrified at the passing of Prop. 8, but at the same time, my constantly pessimistic attitude regarding voting in this country was quite surprised on Tuesday, both by the results and the turnout. I think there are more changes to come, hopefully regarding liberties like gay marriage.
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