I also have the humility to admit that no Divine Revelation has mandated my view. It comes from my own sense of Christian principles. Those principles also center around the “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” concept. You are not treating LGBT families in any way close to how you yourselves expect or want to be treated…. Why do you hope that a bullied, closeted LGBT teen sees your call for privilege which will send them further into feeling isolated and unwanted?… Your point is to make us feel inferior and illegitimate. Your point is to make us feel, by embracing our own families, apart from God. That does not make you “holy,” it makes you cruel.
It would be easy to wax indignant at some length about the moral cancer that is Ted Cruz, who stands for nothing even remotely positive…unless you’re someone who believes that belittling and oppressing others simply because of who and how they love is the “godly” thing to do. My point here is not to bash Cruz, richly deserving though he may be. Nor is it to bash Christians, many of whom are as “Christian” as I am the Queen of Denmark. No, my beef is with those who conflate their proclivity and predilection for hatred with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I may not believe in God, but I was force-fed enough Sunday school as a youngster to remember that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament was about love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion. Those are the things he preached…and if you actually read and believed in the teachings contained within the New Testament, you’d understand that.
Of course, Christians aren’t the only ones steeped in hatred, but today’s racism and homophobia does seem to have a decidedly “Christian” slant to it…at least among those bent on justifying their hatred on religious grounds. This is perhaps the biggest reason I believe that religion is just about the worst thing imaginable these days. Well, not religion per se, but some who practice- or claim to practice- it are some of this most hateful and truly objectionable bipeds you’d ever have the misfortune to encounter. Jesus never preached against homosexuality or same-sex marriage, not did he provide Caucasians with the imprimatur of the Almighty as the Master race. Listen to the American Taliban, though…and you’d think that God His Own Self will surely smite those who dare to endulge in The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name ©.
The idea that someone would go out of their way, even to the point of spending money, in an attempt to humiliate a minority class of people simply because of who and how they love is astonishing to me. That’s not evocative of Christian love and charity, nor of leading a Christ-like life; it’s the calling card of a sociopath willing to use their faith as a means to justify their abject hatred of and desire to destroy those whose only “crime” is being different.
Why so many are so obsessed with the sexuality and sexual practices of other adult human beings is something I struggle to wrap my head around. Normally, that degree of intense fear and loathing is indicative of a pronounced deep-seated fear- the old “We fear what we most hate in ourselves” phenomenon. A member of my own family falls into this camp, and his intense homophobia and aversion to homosexuality makes me wonder what he could possibly be so afraid of? Perhaps in his heart of hearts he isn’t nearly so convinced that he’s as totally, completely, undeniably heterosexual as he thinks he is? Why else would someone be so concerned about and obsessed with the private sexual practices of others? Why else would someone be so focused on the personal and very private sexual practices of others? How could something that impacts them not at all be the subject of such intense calumny and disdain when it has NO impact on the quality of their life?
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible to be kind.
- The Dalai Lama
Once upon a time, in the mid-20th century, miscegenation was seen by many as an abomination before God- an evil and callous disregard for natural law and the natural order of things. Interracial marriage terrified many, because it was predicated on the idea that love knows no color and that white skin was not universally accepted as proof of superiority and a place at the top of the sociocultural food chain. If Black men married White women, if “they” took “our women,” then before long, there would be no difference between the races.
Never mind that once one looks past skin color, people are people…and far more alike than different.
Here in the midst of the 21st century’s second decade, interracial marriage is no longer an issue, except for a few diehard knuckle-dragging troglodytes who refuse to recognize that their prejudice and hatred is no longer the way of the world. With this as precedent, there’s hope the same will happen with same-sex marriage. I hope to live to see the day when two members of the same gender get married…and the response is no different than it would be for a heterosexual couple. Love is love; it shouldn’t matter whom or how you love, it should only matter that you do love, for those who love and are loved tend to be healthier, happier, better-adjusted people. Love doesn’t put up billboards telling people that their lifestyle is an abomination. Love doesn’t refuse service to someone simply because of who they are and how they love. Love recognizes that we’re all in this together and that acceptance and inclusion make for a far more harmonious world than intolerance and exclusion.
Hatred is an ugly, corrosive emotion that’s not conducive to having love and happiness in one’s life. It’s like matter and anti-matter; where there is love, hate can’t take root and thrive- and vice-versa. The question, then, is why anyone would choose to lead a life in which hatred is the dominant emotion? Why would anyone choose to carry a heavy, corrosive, soul-crushing emotion with them when the alternative- love- costs nothing and weighs even less?
The 2016 election seems, at least from where I sit, to present a stark choice: Do we want to be led by those who wrap their hatred in a bastardized, unrecognizable version of Christianity? Or do we want to be led by those who recognize that hatred and oppression are exceedingly poor choices and serve no one’s interests? This isn’t to endorse one particular candidate (though my support for and endorsement of Bernie Sanders is no secret) but to encourage all to think about what kind of America we want to live in. The lives and ethos of some who seek power are riddled with hatred and the desire to exert control over the personal, private lives of others. There are those who’d force their narrow, hate-fueled agenda on all Americans, because they believe themselves to be morally superior and more godly than those whose lifestyle, sexuality, faith, and/or politics makes them “less than.” Or because they’re terrified of turning their focus inward and learning the truth about themselves…and so they desire nothing more than to suppress and destroy what they most fear (and can’t acknowledge) within themselves.
What kind of world do YOU want to live in?
