Let me start off by saying (and my conservative Christian friends may not like this) that I believe a person has the right to love whomever they want, and if they want to display that love in the form of a binding legal contract (marriage), I feel they should be allowed to. Secondly let me say (and my liberal friends may not like this) I feel that any person has the right to disagree with this viewpoint, and to express their disagreement. It is their constitutional guaranteed right to speak freely of how they feel. If the courts say that a man who has never served in the military can say he is a war hero if he wants too; then surely a man, businessman or not, can say he believes in traditional marriage.
Now, let me lightly tread into the whole Chick-Fil-A absurdity. First of all I think the owner was basically just exercising his right to express his views. He in no way was saying we should hurt, harm or bully homosexuals; he simply said he was a supporter of "traditional families". And suddenly his stores were the target of a boycott from the homosexual community. Also we need to note, he is not an elected lawmaker or a judge on any court, so really his personal views are harmless, and have no effect on national or local policies.
What I find funny about this is that just a few weeks before this incident, several of my gay friends (yes, I have friends who are gay, and very wonderful people) were posting things on their facebook basically making fun of Christians who were boycotting some company or another about their pro-gay-marriage stance. And I had to agree that it is silly, even pointless to try and boycott a company because of the views of management on an issue. And suddenly these same friends who had mocked the Christian boycotts were calling for a boycott of a company based on the view of their owner. This confused my and reeked of the hypocrisy that Christians were being accused of.
Now let me put in here my view of boycotts in general. They are a stupid waste of time. I do not mean this as disrespect to any of my friends boycotting on either side of any issue; but they are a waste of time and breathe. The company, whether a smaller chain, or a huge conglomerate are not really going to care much whether or not you shop/eat there. There will always be people who will not care about the issue, or be on the other side, and support the business. The only people who are hurt by a boycott are those boycotting, if they were a regular customer of that business. And if they were not a regular customer, what's the point of the boycott. "I never ate there before, and now I'm never going to." ..Guess what, they lost no business and you have made no sacrifice. If you were a customer, then you lose out on something you enjoyed, and they find another person to fill your spot.
A few years ago the Southern Baptists decided to boycott Disney. Disney, not too worried, continued to make money off everyone else. Only people hurting were the Southern Baptist parents whose kids wanted to see Cars (or whatever Disney cartoon was out at the moment) and couldn't. Sorry, boycotts don't work, plain and simple.
Hopefully I have not ticked off too many of my friends yet; but at the risk of stepping on a few more toes I have a final message for my friends who are homosexuals, and a message for my more conservative friends.
First of all to my conservative Christian friends; I just want to tell you that I have many friends who are homosexuals, and despite what I have often heard from the Church, none of these friends have ever tried to recruit me over to their side. None have come to try to lure my son off to "the dark side". There has been no "gay agenda" shoved down my throat, and several of them have been involved in loving monogamous relationships since the time we were in college (several lasting longer than the marriages of some of my straight friends. In short, these friends are great people who just happen to love members of the same sex.
Now a message for my homosexual friends; I have a lot of conservative Christian friends, and as far as I know, none of them have ever bullied or harassed someone because of their orientation. None of them have ever invited me to West Hollywood to go gay-bashing. None of them teach their children to hate people with an interest in theatre and fashion. They are just people who are trying to live in the way they feel God has called them to live.
In short, I feel we all need to take a moment to stop seeing "The Gays" and "The Christian Right" as groups that are just a mass of stereo-types. I challenge you my friends to get to know a few people from "the other side". Get to know them as people at as members of "THE" group, but as individuals. I think you will find that though you may have some differences, you will have much more in common than you think. I know there some bad apple extremists on both sides that tend to mess things up and make their group look bad to anyone outside of it. But most of the individuals on either side are just people trying their best to get through this voyage of life. Try to get to know some of these wonderful people, who may hold differing views than you; maybe you could get together and work on a way to help the poor in the neighborhood. Move beyond your differences to make a difference....just a thought. Love ya!
Showing posts with label hate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hate. Show all posts
Friday, August 3, 2012
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Love, hate & gay marriage
I have been trying to formulate this particular blog for quite a while. I realize this is a very touchy subject, and I may even lose some friends over it, although I hope not. So before I go any further, I want to say I love you all, and what is expressed here is only my opinion, and I ask you to respect my right to this opinion as I respect your right to disagree.
In the state of California, there is probably no hotter topic in recent years as that of Gay marriage. It is a political hot spot, and this makes me very sad. Marriage was designed as a symbol of love, but now the topic of marriage has become a topic surrounded by hate. There is even a NOH8 campaign, where the supporters of gay marriage are calling out to end the hatred of gay people, as they perceive the writers of Prop 8 as hating all gay people. And I can"t say they are wrong, because I don't know the hearts of the writers. I do see that many so called Christian groups tend to cringe at the mere mention of the word "gay" or "homosexual", at the same time many gay people, especially those who end up on the news, tend to cringe at the term "Christian" or "Republican". On both sides of this issue hate seems to be flowing. People have long ago forgotten that marriage is supposed to be about love. Gay marriage supporters, at least the most outspoken ones, seem to just be demanding the right to have a ceremony performed, and the opposition just seem to want to stop them because they are gay.
In my opinion (and now you all can direct your hate at me if you want to) we should throw out the term marriage all together. It has long ago lost the meanings it was intended for, and become a tool of political, and social manipulation. There should be a social contract that two people who love each other, and want to join there lives together before the state can enter into; and this should be open to all. There should also be a religious ceremony people can enter into, and each individual church could decide who can and can't be joined in a ceremony at their church. Okay, now that you all think I'm crazy, I'm going to get a little crazier and risk diving into the homosexual issue a bit farther.
I grew up in a very conservative family, and homosexuality was a big no-no. I was taught, as most conservative Christian churches in the 70's taught (and many still teach) that homosexuality was a terrible sin. I would call myself, for at last the first half of my life, a homophobe. When I was in college I had no thought that there might be homosexual people at my nice Christian college. But now, I look at my facebook friends list and many of my friends from college, as it turns out, are gay (I was involved in Theatre...go figure). And I realize that most of them were gay even in college. I admit that if I had been smart enough in college to figure that out, it would have creeped me out. But now, as I have come to realize, these friends are the same wonderful caring people I had become friends with. Their sexual orientation did not turn them into the evil nasty creatures that so many Christian leaders and churches like to tell us all gay people are. I have many gay friends at both of my work places, and they also are not the monsters that are portrayed from so many pulpits.
I am not sure how the homosexual lifestyle has become the #1 unforgivable sin in so many churches. The thing I hear over and over from church leaders is that the Bible says its a sin, and the Bible doesn't change. So I have been looking at my Bible and yes, there in Leviticus 18 it does say that it is wrong for a man to lay with a man as he lays with a woman. But I continue to look through Leviticus, and in the very next chapter it says that you are not to have tattoos or to trim the sides of the hair on your head or the edges of your beard. Yet I don"t hear many church groups condemning the tattooed. And out side of strict Jewish denominations, I don't see a lot of full beards and side curls on men. And in I Corinthians it list homosexuality as a sin, but it is right there along with the greedy, the thieves and drunkards. Yet very few churches today still speak out of the great evils of greed and drunkeness. And churches certainly have not declared a battle on the greedy or the drunks the way the have on the homosexual
What I think I am trying to say is that whether you think homosexuality is a sin or not, the response a Christian should have is that of love, not fear and hatred. God calls us to love all people, He made them all after all. In the end it is up to each person to stand before God for all their actions, and when I stand before God, I don't want God to see me as someone who hated or mistreated someone because of their sexual orientation. I want to be someone who showed God's love to everyone. Now let me issue a challenge to all my Christian friends out there. If you are one who feels that homosexuality is wrong, I just want to challenge you to reach out to a person you may know who is a homosexual, get to know them. Be their friend. Get to know them as a person, putting aside your own bias. I think you may be surprised to find that they are wonderful people. And to those of you who already have gay friends, be sure to let them know they are loved, amid all the hate floating around.
Okay, for any I've offended, feel free to drop me as a friend if you want...I still love you.
In the state of California, there is probably no hotter topic in recent years as that of Gay marriage. It is a political hot spot, and this makes me very sad. Marriage was designed as a symbol of love, but now the topic of marriage has become a topic surrounded by hate. There is even a NOH8 campaign, where the supporters of gay marriage are calling out to end the hatred of gay people, as they perceive the writers of Prop 8 as hating all gay people. And I can"t say they are wrong, because I don't know the hearts of the writers. I do see that many so called Christian groups tend to cringe at the mere mention of the word "gay" or "homosexual", at the same time many gay people, especially those who end up on the news, tend to cringe at the term "Christian" or "Republican". On both sides of this issue hate seems to be flowing. People have long ago forgotten that marriage is supposed to be about love. Gay marriage supporters, at least the most outspoken ones, seem to just be demanding the right to have a ceremony performed, and the opposition just seem to want to stop them because they are gay.
In my opinion (and now you all can direct your hate at me if you want to) we should throw out the term marriage all together. It has long ago lost the meanings it was intended for, and become a tool of political, and social manipulation. There should be a social contract that two people who love each other, and want to join there lives together before the state can enter into; and this should be open to all. There should also be a religious ceremony people can enter into, and each individual church could decide who can and can't be joined in a ceremony at their church. Okay, now that you all think I'm crazy, I'm going to get a little crazier and risk diving into the homosexual issue a bit farther.
I grew up in a very conservative family, and homosexuality was a big no-no. I was taught, as most conservative Christian churches in the 70's taught (and many still teach) that homosexuality was a terrible sin. I would call myself, for at last the first half of my life, a homophobe. When I was in college I had no thought that there might be homosexual people at my nice Christian college. But now, I look at my facebook friends list and many of my friends from college, as it turns out, are gay (I was involved in Theatre...go figure). And I realize that most of them were gay even in college. I admit that if I had been smart enough in college to figure that out, it would have creeped me out. But now, as I have come to realize, these friends are the same wonderful caring people I had become friends with. Their sexual orientation did not turn them into the evil nasty creatures that so many Christian leaders and churches like to tell us all gay people are. I have many gay friends at both of my work places, and they also are not the monsters that are portrayed from so many pulpits.
I am not sure how the homosexual lifestyle has become the #1 unforgivable sin in so many churches. The thing I hear over and over from church leaders is that the Bible says its a sin, and the Bible doesn't change. So I have been looking at my Bible and yes, there in Leviticus 18 it does say that it is wrong for a man to lay with a man as he lays with a woman. But I continue to look through Leviticus, and in the very next chapter it says that you are not to have tattoos or to trim the sides of the hair on your head or the edges of your beard. Yet I don"t hear many church groups condemning the tattooed. And out side of strict Jewish denominations, I don't see a lot of full beards and side curls on men. And in I Corinthians it list homosexuality as a sin, but it is right there along with the greedy, the thieves and drunkards. Yet very few churches today still speak out of the great evils of greed and drunkeness. And churches certainly have not declared a battle on the greedy or the drunks the way the have on the homosexual
What I think I am trying to say is that whether you think homosexuality is a sin or not, the response a Christian should have is that of love, not fear and hatred. God calls us to love all people, He made them all after all. In the end it is up to each person to stand before God for all their actions, and when I stand before God, I don't want God to see me as someone who hated or mistreated someone because of their sexual orientation. I want to be someone who showed God's love to everyone. Now let me issue a challenge to all my Christian friends out there. If you are one who feels that homosexuality is wrong, I just want to challenge you to reach out to a person you may know who is a homosexual, get to know them. Be their friend. Get to know them as a person, putting aside your own bias. I think you may be surprised to find that they are wonderful people. And to those of you who already have gay friends, be sure to let them know they are loved, amid all the hate floating around.
Okay, for any I've offended, feel free to drop me as a friend if you want...I still love you.
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