When Religion Gets In The Way

On 15 December, 1791, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With respect to religion, here is the exact wording:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

What ever court cases, legal decisions, state and/or federal laws have been made since 1791, they really do nothing that allows the federal or state legislatures establish, limit or regulate the practice of a faith. Except for marriage.

Marriage is rooted in religion and, conveniently, was adopted by state governments as a way to track who's shacking up with who. However, since there is a separation of church and state, the religious criteria of marriage pairing a man and woman exclusively should go out the window. I'm not sure if marriage is a right or freedom ... probably a right because governments are great at taking freedoms and limiting rights. As a right, it should be equally available to all, not limited because the word of a higher power interpreted by men seeking to control others says it should.

Another issue where religion is getting in the way is health care: specifically health care plans required to offer birth control to workers at religious institutions. Ok, I get it. Religion wants people to have kids so they can grow up and be the next generation of followers. What religion is really saying is that they don't want fairness and equality and they don't want people to have the freedom to choose. Time to roll the dice, Religion. If you taught your people well, what are you worried about? True followers won't choose birth control even if it is available to them for free. So you either trust your followers or you don't.

Religion is getting in the way of active political and national policy. Just recently, the House passed their defense budget with additional tack on amendments. Besides breaking the budget agreement Congress made last summer with the Obama administration by beefing up military spending billions beyond the agreed-upon limit instead of cutting military spending, the amendments add prohibitions to same sex marriage. Rep. Todd Akin, a Republican from  Missouri had this to say in a statement:

"Liberals ... should not be allowed to force members of our military to give up their religious beliefs. That is simply unacceptable and unconstitutional."

The writer of this blog, me, had this to say in a response statement:

"Religious conservatives should not be allowed to force their beliefs on the military or civilian sector. That is simply unacceptable and unconstitutional."

By enacting same sex marriage prohibitions, religion is imposing its standards on us de jure (that's "by law" or "concerning the law") which, last time I checked the First Amendment, was illegal to do. In the dark ages, religion helped unite the stupid masses. Today, we are all, more or less, intelligent people. Let's start acting like it and finally use the First Amendment to get religion out of the government

Finally, a note to my fellow Christians. If the male progenitor of you is your father and if God is the Father ("Our father, who art in Heaven ...") then you have two Dads and I'm pretty sure you turned out fine. Lighten up a little!

Gay Marriage - A Middle Class View

Through out the history of this country, nearly every group of people that does not encompass white lander owners has had to fight for equal rights. Women fought for the right to vote and then to be treated/paid as well as men. African Americans were freed and, not until 100 years later, were given equal rights. Today's group is the LGBT community.

We live in interesting times and one of the hot topics of today is gay marriage. Unless you have been living under a rock, everyone from President Obama to the Pope to Raul Castro, the leader of Cuba, has come out with their stance on gay marriage. In simple terms, the gay community is fighting for equal rights parallel to the heterosexual community i.e. the right to be married and all other tax/financial/civil benefits that go along with it.

I am decidedly middle class. Not sure what that means anymore, but for me, I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I'm all about equal rights and I'm all about fair treatment but I'm also all about not spending our next three generations into debt. In fact, I too support gay marriage, straight marriage, transexual marriage, and any other marriage you can think of. Just as words change meaning over time, so to does the word "marriage." The word "marriage" has religious roots but seeing as we are a non-theocratic country, I believe it should apply to any two people who want to be together for life. This means work-provided health insurance, death benefits, tax benefits and financial obligations should all be available to them. However, I also believe, indeed having served in the military to defend it, the right of majority rule. If a majority of people vote to not have gay marriage, then that's it: no gay marriage in that state.

Recently in North Carolina, the people of that good state voted to keep marriage a heterosexual institution. They voted their conscience to not allow gay marriage. But people who are masters of manipulating the media and masses have started a movement that essentially belittles and makes fun of the people of North Carolina for voting their conscience. Sure North Carolina allows straight people to marry their 1st cousin, but that's beside the point: they used the same democratic/republic machinations that elects our leaders and adopts/denies civil and social initiatives as everyone else.

Certain elements of the LGBT and social communities didn't get their way and, instead of redoubling their efforts, chose to use childish antics. And shame on them. You (the childish antics users) shot yourself in the foot when you did that and I no longer care to hear anything you have to say. Step aside to let someone else do the talking for a while.

These kind of antics and tactics are best reserved for running for president. Your community getting equal rights is much more important than electing an elephant or jackass.