I have so many different friends, all with different views; from the hardcore Christians to the hardcore atheists, and every spot inbetween. So, here's my take and reasonings behind my support of all my fabulously flaming friends being able to get married like I did:
~1. This country was founded on religious freedom, meaning that I am free to practice my beliefs and you are free to practice your beliefs. Now, if you really want your special brand of religion to be the law of the land and make everyone follow your rules, remember this: so does ISIS. So do Muslims practicing Sharia Law.
~2. You think that they'll try to convert you? Dreamers, Comedian Nate Baimel made a very good observation: "they're not Jehovah's Witnesses. They don't spend Sunday knocking on doors asking who's read from the Book of Judy Garland.... They're not vampires, they can't convert you.... If the reason you don't want to be around gay men is because you're afraid they'll be able to talk you into being gay, then surprise! YOU'RE GAY!
~3. "But I don't want to explain to my kids why those two men/two women are holding hands/kissing/fornicating!" If they're fornicating in public, there's a bigger issue of what the fuck you're doing with your children and where the fuck are you taking them? The inability to explain things to your children when they're small will only get harder the harder the topics get, and can result in early promiscuity, 16 and pregnant, a host of sexually transmitted diseases, abusive relationships, and the need to wear Crocs and Spongebob pajama pants out to dinner.
~4. Even one of my outspoken Christian friends has posted this via Facebook:
~5. For those of you who are adamant Bible-followers, here are some discrepancies that I'm pretty sure that EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU HAVE FAILED! Unless you’ve never done any of them perhaps it’s time to lay off quoting what Leviticus in the Bible tells you shouldn't be done:
-Eating fat (3:17) (no bacon, then)-Eating blood (3:17) (medium rare steaks are out)
-Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve witnessed (5:1) (if you've ignored the man beating his child in a parking lot for dropping a soda, you failed this one)
-Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve been told about (5:1) (keeping it to yourself when someone tells you they've lied about something is a sin)
-Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7) (again, no more bacon)
-Touching the carcass of any of the above (problems here for rugby and football and basketball) (11:8)
-Going to church within 33 days after giving birth to a boy (12:4) (I know some of you have children)
-Going to church within 66 days after giving birth to a girl (12:5) (some more than one)
-Having sex with your mother (18:7), father’s wife (18:8), your sister (18:9), your granddaughter (18:10), your half-sister (18:11), your biological aunt (18:12-13), your uncle’s wife (18:14), your daughter-in-law (18:15), your sister-in-law (18:16), a woman and also having sex with her daughter or granddaughter (18:17)
-Marrying your wife’s sister while your wife still lives (18:18)
-Having sex with a woman during her period (18:19)
-Having sex with your neighbour’s wife (18:20)
-Giving your children to be sacrificed to Molek (18:21)
-Having sex with a man “as one does with a woman” (18:22) (here we go--the big one everyone is up in arms about)
-Making idols or “metal gods” (19:4)
-Stealing (19:11)
-Lying (19:11)
-Swearing falsely on God’s name (19:12)
-Cursing the deaf or abusing the blind (19:14)
-Perverting justice, showing partiality to either the poor or the rich (19:15)
-Spreading slander (19:16)
-Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18)
-Mixing fabrics in clothing (19:19) (You get a sackcloth! You get a sackcloth! Sackcloth and ashes for everyone!)
-Cross-breeding animals (19:19) (all of your designer dogs? against the Bible)
-Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23)
-Practising divination or seeking omens (tut, tut, astrology and all you horoscope readers) (19:26)
-Trimming your beard (19:27)
-Cutting your hair at the sides (19:27)
-Getting tattoos (19:28)
-Not standing in the presence of the elderly (19:32)
-Mistreating foreigners – “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born” (19:33-34)
-Cursing your father or mother (punishable by death) (20:9)
-Working on the Sabbath (23:3)
-Blasphemy (punishable by stoning to death) (24:14)
-Inflicting an injury; killing someone else’s animal; killing a person must be punished in kind (24:17-22)
-Selling land permanently (25:23)
-Selling an Israelite as a slave (foreigners are fine) (25:42) (so I can sell my niece? she's not an Israelite.)
Basically, if you're going to pick apart that it is an "abomination to lie with man as one lies with woman", might want to go through your closet and your pantry and your whole life, because you can't follow one Leviticus order and not the rest. I want you to tell me definitively how you can only follow one of these and still claim to be following the Bible and God's Word. Until you can do that, your argument is invalid.
~6. "Thou cannot remove the mote in thy neighbor's eye without first tending to the plank in thine own."
~7. I am a Libertarian. Yes, the government should protect the general welfare of her people--against outside tyranny, against outside harm; all else should be up to the states as a guideline and the individual. I have guns, I am all for legalization of marijuana, I am all for marriage equality. You don't want to wear your seatbelt? Don't. That is your right as an American to make that choice for yourself, as an adult.
Gary Johnson, my vote for President in the last election, and will be this go-round released this following statement in response to the SCOTUS ruling:
~8. Marriage is a legal contract between two people. Holy Matrimony is a religious contract between two people and God. Separation of church and state? Easy. It has nothing to do with God unless you want it to.
~~
You know what? To most of you raging Christians, nothing I've said makes a difference. You'll still thump your Bibles and tell me that I'm wrong and that I'm going to Hell. I don't do religion. I don't do churches. I do God, the Great Spirit, the Goddess, the Divine Creator. S/He and I talk...well, I talk, S/He listens. And sometimes, S/He answers with a little bit of help that I so desperately needed.
So, if I am going to Hell?
I'll be sure to save you a seat.
Cheers,
Steph
-Stealing (19:11)
-Lying (19:11)
-Swearing falsely on God’s name (19:12)
-Cursing the deaf or abusing the blind (19:14)
-Perverting justice, showing partiality to either the poor or the rich (19:15)
-Spreading slander (19:16)
-Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18)
-Mixing fabrics in clothing (19:19) (You get a sackcloth! You get a sackcloth! Sackcloth and ashes for everyone!)
-Cross-breeding animals (19:19) (all of your designer dogs? against the Bible)
-Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23)
-Practising divination or seeking omens (tut, tut, astrology and all you horoscope readers) (19:26)
-Trimming your beard (19:27)
-Cutting your hair at the sides (19:27)
-Getting tattoos (19:28)
-Not standing in the presence of the elderly (19:32)
-Mistreating foreigners – “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born” (19:33-34)
-Cursing your father or mother (punishable by death) (20:9)
-Working on the Sabbath (23:3)
-Blasphemy (punishable by stoning to death) (24:14)
-Inflicting an injury; killing someone else’s animal; killing a person must be punished in kind (24:17-22)
-Selling land permanently (25:23)
-Selling an Israelite as a slave (foreigners are fine) (25:42) (so I can sell my niece? she's not an Israelite.)
Basically, if you're going to pick apart that it is an "abomination to lie with man as one lies with woman", might want to go through your closet and your pantry and your whole life, because you can't follow one Leviticus order and not the rest. I want you to tell me definitively how you can only follow one of these and still claim to be following the Bible and God's Word. Until you can do that, your argument is invalid.
~6. "Thou cannot remove the mote in thy neighbor's eye without first tending to the plank in thine own."
~7. I am a Libertarian. Yes, the government should protect the general welfare of her people--against outside tyranny, against outside harm; all else should be up to the states as a guideline and the individual. I have guns, I am all for legalization of marijuana, I am all for marriage equality. You don't want to wear your seatbelt? Don't. That is your right as an American to make that choice for yourself, as an adult.
~8. Marriage is a legal contract between two people. Holy Matrimony is a religious contract between two people and God. Separation of church and state? Easy. It has nothing to do with God unless you want it to.
~~
You know what? To most of you raging Christians, nothing I've said makes a difference. You'll still thump your Bibles and tell me that I'm wrong and that I'm going to Hell. I don't do religion. I don't do churches. I do God, the Great Spirit, the Goddess, the Divine Creator. S/He and I talk...well, I talk, S/He listens. And sometimes, S/He answers with a little bit of help that I so desperately needed.
So, if I am going to Hell?
I'll be sure to save you a seat.
Cheers,
Steph
