(Note, this is the 2nd attempt at this update so some of the wind was removed from my sales by a 2 hour wait in line to get free passes to a free screening of the Hellboy movie. More on that later)
It's now official. The judges and local politicians have been scared "straight" by the GOP. In a couple years it will be unconstitutional to love who you want, live with who you want and will your worldly possessions to who you want.
I tire of this fight. I'm tired of it because I'm sick of hearing how religion is playing such a big part of law making. I'm tired because I just can't see the other side on this one, I just can't. I tried. I tried reaching back into my catholic alter-boy days, searching for a bit of compassion for those of the faith and how they view life. What I came up with was anger. Anger and pity.
You cannot govern with religion. You cannot. There is a separation of Church (aka the Bible) and State (aka the government) and you shall not use your faith to make laws to control the masses. I'll give you the use of religion as a guideline to morally correct laws, but you must look at the reality as well. The reality of this is there are thousands of law abiding citizens who pay taxes and have jobs and contribute to society who are considered less of a human being in the eyes of the government because of the religious undertones that are swallowing the White House.
How can you look at a fellow human being, look them dead in the eye, reading all the 40 hour weeks, lost wages, childhood traumas, car repairs, Christmas parties and sleepless nights and say that they aren't just as human as you are. By passing laws like this, laws and city ordinances and amendments, you are classifying another human as a lesser entity.
You in the 1920's attacked women who wanted to vote.
You in the 1860's enslaved a race and hung them if they tried to escape.
You in the 1600's beheaded, tortured and persecuted people for believing in a different way of life.
You 2000 years ago crucified a messiah.
Brings it home, doesn't it.
The faithful and strong are bad guys. They've always been bad guys. They get power and they use it for their agenda instead of trying to see what's good for the people. There is no democracy. There isn't in this country or any other country. But making a stand like this, that classifies another human by a 2000 year old tome, turns us from a free republic into Canada's red necked stepsister. Hey, I'm all for hockey, but this shit's gotta stop.
And it's over such a small piece of this book, this Bible. (In case you're wondering, it's Genesis 19:4-11, Leviticus 18:22/20:13, Deuteronomy 23:17-18, Romans 1:26-27, I Corinthians 6:9, & I Timothy 1:10.) And it doesn't even say "homosexual." That was a term introduced in 1946 in the umpteenth revision known as the King James bible. There is no Hebrew word for what the US is threatening to ban. And there is no word for my level of confusion towards those who would seek it.
At this point I want to site what else the Good Book has to say about things that we're doing now with no repercussions, but I'll let a fictional president to it instead.
Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My chief of staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or is it okay to call the police? Here's one that's really important because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side-by-side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you? One last thing, while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.
I have friends who are gay, and I have friends who believe in and live by the Bible. But I also have pagan friends, black friends, jewish friends, guy friends, girl friends, artist friends and friends who I've never met face to face. In all these cases I chose to ignore everything but the simple fact that they are human beings, no more, no less. There are so many reasons to dislike a person based on how they act and what they say. If you chose to dispise and degrate a group based on the preachings of a book written 58 years ago based on stories told 1800 years ago about a group of people who lived 2004 years ago in a country 13,000 miles away that doesn't even resemble anything of what it was today, well then frankly Jed, I don't even know who you are.
Yeah, cuz these people are more threatening than bombs on commuter trains.
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