Thumper Thinks Out Loud

Heterosexual sanctity of marriage is a myth.

When a man and a woman who met 15 minutes ago can fly to Las Vegas, get married, then get annulled two days later, there is no sanctity of marriage.

When one spouse can spend years verbally beating the other down, destroying their soul, making them feel worthless, there is no sanctity of marriage.

When a 90 year old former playboy can marry a hot 21 year old bleach blonde with ginormous boobs...yeah. No sanctity.

So when people are screaming and shouting and turning red in the face over the mere idea that allowing gays to marry destroys the sanctity of marriage...well, guess what. Straight people destroyed that a very long time ago.

Here's the thing: I don't have a problem with people being opposed to gay marriage based on their religious beliefs. That's the beauty of Freedom of Religion. You believe what you believe and you practice your faith as best you can. Your church has every right to deny membership to anyone for any reason. If you honestly believe that only blond haired, blue eyed people over the height of 5'6" but under 6'5" and 250 pounds will make it into heaven, by all means, practice your faith.

But don't inflict in on anyone else.

Inflicting it on others would also include trying to block a civil matter because it offends your religious sensibilities. If your church teaches that the union of two homosexuals is a sin, then your church should never (and will never) be forced into performing ceremonies which would unite those two people. Your religious rights should never be violated, unless you're causing harm to other people or living things.

But marriage outside of a church is a civil matter.

The California Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of allowing gay marriage; now the religious right-wing is campaigning to have the CA Constitution changed to block any laws that allow this to happen. Because, apparently, this offends them.

Separation of church and state, anyone?

Do you really want the government to be able to decide with whom you can spend the rest of your life?

This past Sunday members of the LDS Church were read a letter from Church Officials urging them to support a November vote that would pave the way to change the constitution. I imagine it stopped just short of telling the members how to vote, because that would be illegal. But I have no doubt it was worded in a way that made it quite clear what the President and Apostles want the membership in CA to do.

What bothers me most about this is that this request violates one of the fundamental things the LDS church teaches: that each person is born with Free Agency, and each person has the right to decide for themselves what is fundamentally right and righteous. The church can certainly take a stand on the issue--it always has--and never allow gay marriage to occur within their membership (excommunicating those who do it) but to step into the political arena to accomplish their agenda smacks of hypocrisy.

You'd think a church that has faced such huge amounts of political persecution in the past would avoid doing the same to anyone, regardless of whether or not it conflicted with their credo.

You'd think.

But still...I have not yet heard a person argue against gay marriage that has not based their belief on a religious principle.

"It offends God." (Did He tell you this personally?)

"The Bible says it's wrong." (The Bible says a lot of things are wrong and you're doing them anyway.)

"It's a sin." (So is half of everything else you do. I'm not going to stop you from doing it, though.)

"Gay people can't breed, so they can't get married." (So...straight people who don't want kids should not be allowed to marry.)

Guess what? We're all sinners. Very few people actually live according to every tenet in the Bible. Take a look at what you're wearing. I'm willing to bet you're mixing a few fibers there. And really, when was the last time you stoned an adulterer? If you're going to base your arguments against something on Biblical principles, then you better get out there and start chucking rocks at the neighborhood slut.

Go ahead. I'll sit here and wait. I won't post bail, but I'll wait.

Keep your religion. Honor your religion. But keep it out of civil matters. Gay marriage is definitely a civil matter, and if the two guys down the street want to make legal the cohabitation they've engaged in for the last 20 years, let them. It doesn't harm you. It doesn't defile your marriage. It has nothing to do with you, other than it "offends" you and you're pretty sure the Bible says it's wrong.

And if you can actually explain how the sanctity of my 26+ year marriage is ruined by my gay friends tying the knot, I'll certainly listen. Just don't use religion as a basis for your argument. Don't throw the Bible at me. Because in the end, it's not a matter of religion, but of persecution, and I'd really like to understand how anyone can consider denying a basic human right to someone else can be a perfectly fine thing to do.