Wednesday, November 11, 2009

State law vs God's law; aka The Case for Equal Rights

I wrote the following response to a friend of a friend's comment on Facebook, and decided to broadcast it for all the world to see.

[Dear *Name Withheld*],

Here's something for you to think about:

The reason America was founded (and taken away from the Indians, but I digress), was so that people could escape the religious persecution they experienced back in England and other parts of Europe. Our United States Constitution was written / founded on the principle that ALL (wo)men are created equal and therefore should be accorded all unalienable rights, SEPARATE from whatever we consider God's law to be.

State law -- federal, state, county, city -- is supposed to follow that premise. Equal rights is equal rights in terms of civil law. Whatever you feel God's law to be, you may practice in your own house, but you cannot use that to discriminate against people who hold different beliefs than you do, even in terms of sexuality.

Just 50 years ago, people used the Bible and God's law as an excuse for not providing equal rights to black people.

100 years ago, the same excuse was used to prevent women from having the right to vote, to work, to be equal to men (and we're still struggling to be equal).

Marriage IS a civil right. One cannot be married in the eyes of the law without obtaining a marriage certificate from a clerk of the court.

Preventing same-sex couples from obtaining marriage certificates is most certainly denying them of equal rights and is unconstitutional, based on the principles set forth back in 1774.

Furthermore, religious choice is just that - a CHOICE. We allow all people to freely practice their religious beliefs without persecution -- BUT people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, etc., are born that way. They do not have a choice. How do I know? I'm one of them. I am who I am, and I have my own beliefs about the existence of God and the place religion has in my life.

But don't tell me I have a choice in my sexuality. You don't have any more of a choice in being straight more than I have one in being attracted to both men and women.

Think about it.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

So true! Well put.

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this... I am so sick of religious bigots

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