November 13, 2006

I Double-Dog Dare You

Ammendment 1 passed in VA. This is really the same thing as "I'm going to double-dog dare/tell you that those gays can't get married." Apparently, the existing law in VA banning same sex marriage wasn't enough. Apparently, the voters and lawmakers of the Commonwealth really wanted to be sure that 'those gays' can't get married. Nevermind that Ammendment 1 is a poorly written piece of law that is going to have some very interesting consequences -- and by interesting I mean negative.

I truly wonder what the logic was behind this. What motivated people to vote for the Ammendment even though it was completely unnecessary? Unless you wanted to say "not only can gays not get married, we're also not going to let them have civil unions or any other form of legal contract that recongizes that 2 gay partners are anything but legal strangers." News flash, just because gay marriage in all of its forms has been "outlawed" in Virginia, doesn't mean that those pesky gays aren't going to be meeting, falling in love, committing to spend their lives with each other and having lots of hot steamy buttsex. Gays and lesbians aren't suddenly going to stop existing; they're not going to go *poof* and evaporate in a cloud of fabulous pink smoke.

The only defense I've heard so far in support of the Ammendment is "It's in the Bible that homosexuality is a sin." Well, to be patently glib about that argument, killing people is a sin -- yet we let murderers on death row get married (provided that someone is willing to marry an inmate on death row.) Politicians get married all the time, and I can't think of a group of people that commit more sin than these people. So sinning doesn't appear to preclude one from getting married, unless, of course, you're sinning the gay way.

That last point might have seemed a bit trite, irrelevant and mocking. I suppose it was meant to be, but it was leading to this: About 50 years ago, a married couple from Tennessee moved to Virginia, and were thrown in jail -- because they were an interracial couple, and that was most definately not cool in the great state of Virginia. Bigots far and wide didn't think these 2 should be married, and unless I'm seriously mistaken people were talking about "preserving the sanctity of marriage." And some of the seriously deluded out there were quoting scripture about how this was bad. Eventually, the Supreme Court stepped in and in Loving vs. Virginia declared that Virginia's law against interracial marriage was unconstitutional.

My point being, the Bible and religion in general have been used for centuries to marginalize people and justify the prevailing social trends of the era. We've seen it used to say that Blacks deserve to be slaves, and that women are the lesser sex -- both statements that no modern Christian would ever support. I say it's high time that people start using the Bible and religion to support one another, love one another, and respect one another. In other words, Christians would do well to stop acting like Christians and start acting like Christ.

1 comment:

Dave said...

Richard and Mildred Loving were never thrown in jail. They were sentenced to one year in jail, suspended for 25 years on condition that they leave Virginia and not return together for 25 years. The Supreme Court, obviously, voided this verdict.

Sorry, nitpicky, nitpicky, pick pick pick!

As far as acting Christian goes, many people read the story of the centurion's slave such that the slave was actually the "body slave" of the centurion, and was expected to be sexually available for the centurion.

So here we have a Roman, pagan, possibly gay man showing more faith and trust in Christ than anyone in Israel, and Jesus not batting an eye.