Friday, November 7, 2008

Prop 8

So many thoughts have been running riot in my mind since wed morning. Even though I don’t live in California, I feel like the vote was a personal attack. I keep asking myself how can people hate me so much? It’s a collective “me” they hate. It doesn’t matter what words they want to use, discrimination is hatred.

Various churches spoke out, donated moneys, sent key representatives and extorted their congregations to vote to remove a basic civil right from a single group of people. According to quotes from people in authority in these churches:

"It is disturbing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election," the church said in a statement Friday.

This statement confuses me. People have rights, not institutions. Churches do not pay taxes, vote, serve on a jury, defend our country in times of war, or in any other way participate in the day to day existence of our country. A church’s people may do any or all of these things, but that does not transfer their rights and responsibilities to the church. Personally, I think if a church wants to give up its tax-exempt status, then it, as an entity, has all the right in the world to speak up about political and legal issues. Until then, they need to keep their moneys and their sermons to the subject of their god.

If all marriages in the United States are under the umbrella of the church, then perhaps they should be speaking out against all the civil ceremonies performed by judge, justice of the peace, and Elvis in Las Vegas.

Theoretically, we have in this country a separation of church and state. Unless churches want their sermons taught by lawyers, maybe they should stay out of the arena of politics. Then again, if churches feel they have a right to have a say in the laws of people who do not follow their beliefs, maybe those people should have a say in what is taught in those sermons. Perhaps one could sue the church when one’s prayers are not answered. I wonder how the various doctrines would hold up under The Burden of Proof.


Jerry said...

Well put. My wife and I were married by Elvis in Las Vegas and it was as far from a church as you could get. The only down side was we wanted him the sing Suspicious Minds but they didn't have the rights to sing that. I know not a wedding song but it is our favorite Elvis song, I prefer Dwight Yoakam's version better but still.

I think their should be a proposition that makes it illegal for tax exempt organizations to fund or contribute to political campaigns. By them contributing they are in violation of the separation of church and state. Let them feed the poor and give help to all as the bible says instead of spreading hate and bigotry. Mike Moore should make a movie about the hypocrisy of the largest richest companies of the world. The Vatican, the Mormon Church, etc. Most of the worlds art belongs to the Vatican and was stolen during the crusades.

Kcbrat said...

Its a matter of semantics, all marriages are civil contracts. Legally binding and all that should not and does not have anything to do with morals, religion, or whatever else. I agree with you though, its just sad, but it won't be the end of this battle.

Girl Meets Needle said...

I read your plurk with Melissa Etheridge's blog on it, and I have to say that I agree with her.

They don't want to give rights to gays, then gays shouldn't have to pay taxes and be treated like second class citizens. After all, we're not really people, right? At least not according to CA...

Oh and nice blog! Looking foreward to reading more. I'm off to add it to my blogroll!