Re: The New Culture War
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/the_new_culture_war.htmlThe very last lines of Mr. Lowry's trashy prose say it all:
Ah, yes, "gracefully step aside." That's essentially what the cultural left has been asking traditionalists to do for 30 years now, to politely shut up while it goes about redefining the country's mores. The answer must now be, as it has always been, "No way, no how."This is how a bigot rationalizes hate. Read it again. See how it's done.
While Mr. Lowry clearly thinks his sarcastic wit is oh-so-charming, let's unveil it for what it really is: discrimination, bigotry, hate, and an elementary-level understanding of the world.
As far as I'm concerned, the cultural left has put up with way more shit than it should have to for the past 30 years while hate mongers hide behind their bibles, pounding away at scripture, hoping it will make their fallacies true. It won't.
Someone, PLEASE, PLEASE explain to me how allowing gay couples to marry and raise their families under recognition of law impairs any straight person's marriage? I have yet to hear a response to that question, and I've heard it posed a hundred ways. Never is a straight answer returned. Because there isn't one.
Why are people so unbelievably determined to not question the validity or applicability of their Holy Books? These books, whether the Bible, the Q'uran, etc, have multiple versions, translations, and misconstruable meanings, yet so many are so willing to take every word at face value. I'll never understand that. The Bible, for instance, was translated before you or I were even a part of the earth, by men who were primitive in their thinking compared to now, if only for lack of education (i.e., no one other than clergy could really read, and any clergyman's reading abilities even then were questionable), and complete lack of mass communication. This was not anyone's fault, it was just how things were at that point in time. The Bible was a useful tool for controlling wanton masses, and I'm sure that in that age, desperate times called for such desperate measures. But let us not forget that the words of the Bible still came through the interpretation of man, with all of his faults, fears, and ill-education.
So how can we now, all of these years later, still follow it word for word? If that were true we'd still be selling our daughters into slavery, and stoning people for working on Sundays. That's insane. Yet when it comes to so-called "moral" issues, cling tightly to that Bible, because it's going to "SAVE" you and your children from "THE GAYS!"
Sure, I'm biased. My best friend is gay, and he and his partner rent a room from myself and my husband in our house. And I love them both like family. When they get married, I'll be the one leading them through their vows, whether a government or a church recognizes it or not. I didn't always feel this way. I grew up believing in the Bible, that "man lying with man" was wrong. But then comes exposure. The more you're around it, the more comfortable you become over time. And then you start researching. And you find out there have been gay men and women in public life forever--it was just never mentioned or was hush-hush. And you put yourself in their shoes. When you do that, and I mean REALLY do that, you think "why would anyone want to subject themselves to such persecution and misery if they really could choose?" If you look deep inside yourself I think you know the answer to that. There is no choice. The choice is yours and mine, as heterosexuals, to stop being so goddamn afraid of everything we don't understand, and try to understand it.
I feel truly sorry for these people who continually say 'oh I don't have anything against the gays, but I don't think they should be able to get married.' That is such BS. Who says that with a straight face? If you can, you are kidding yourself. Another word for this would be DELUSION.
You cannot say you have nothing against someone and in the same breath deem it unacceptable to legally spend their lives with the person they love and have decided to become a family with. None of this bullshit about equating homosexuality with incest or polygamy or pedophilia either--everyone knows that's not what this is about. Stop lying. No one believes it but the liars themselves.
I love my husband. Marrying him, to me, meant marrying my best friend and having some small possiblity of living out the remainder of my life with the one person I'd give my own life for. If someone stood in front of me with a Bible or any other Holy Book and said their beliefs can't allow me to do that, I'd say "look the other way then." But this is all just conjecture, I know. Regardless, it still makes me SICK to watch people rationalize what is, to me, irrational if you look at it outside of emotion and tradition, without the lenses of fear, misplaced self-righteousness and hypocrisy.
what right do these people have to play the VICTIM? oh waaaaa, they're villified for publicly coming out as homophobes--good! I'm so glad. They deserve it. Do not expect pity from those who've been villified EONS longer than you, poor little Rick Warren.
Also, how is it that those who would legalize gay marriage are telling conservatives to shut up while we "redefine the country's mores"? Hasn't it been the other way around for...oh I don't know...FOREVER?
You actually think there weren't homosexuals in Jesus' time? And that it didn't seem convenient and productive to the clergy's cause to insert a few choice lines to make the homosexual lifestyle seem "wrong"? Why is that so hard to believe? Because these people were perfect? Yeah, they were perfect enough to string Jesus up on the cross. Maybe they were just confused and thought Jesus was homosexual. Hmmm.
-Gary Kiser
AUS Retired
www.trea.org