Yesterday, the sixth of September, 2005 was a historic day in California. The California Legislature passed, if by only one vote, a bill granting equality in Civil marriage to same sex couples! (read the New York Times front page story by clicking the title of this blog). This is a milestone for our community, a group of legislatures, most of them heterosexual saw the genuine need for the equal treatment of ALL California citizens under the laws of our state. It is a right and just decision which sends a loud and clear message to the homophobic Bush Administration, the Neo-Conservatives ravaging our countries great secular political institutions with religious rhetoric, and those many groups and individuals who simply hate, whether through fear or misunderstanding or both. My faith in America is renewed in that the politically vulnerable and socially marginalized of our great country still find a voice in the halls of our law makers. This is how our system was intended to work all along, that the legislature and the courts prevent bias and discrimination , however popular among the voting public, towards the minority voice.
I understand that many people reject the civil rights of the GLBT communities based upon what their Churches have taught them. I will not argue with them concerning their beliefs. As Americans they have the right to believe as their Faith dictates, but they must also except and be glad that our country is not based on the interaction of Church and State, but its separation. Why? Well, just because there is a majority of fundamentalist Christians in the USA today does not promise that such will be the case tomorrow or in fifty years. No Christian would choose to be burdened with the religious beliefs of the the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan or Scientologist point of view. Yet, that is the risk every time we fight to combine the powers of Church and State. We, none of us, know when the principal religious belief may shift in this country. Perhaps, you say it's far-fetched. I think not. I see a day when Christians may well be a minority in America and should that happen our establishing laws now which respect and treat all faiths with respect in the civil arena we promote the respect of Christianity in the civic realm as well.
If you cannot accept that two loving people of the same sex may live in the eyes of God as a just and holy couple, so be it. That is your right to believe the dictates of your faith. But please, don't confuse your faith with civil justice and equality. There will always be a new Gestapo or Ku Klux Klan, there will always be a new fascist or totalitarian state, there will always be a new Hitler or Mussolini. Please don't help bring them about in America with your religious belief being the tool of a new inquisition against a new heretic. Haven't there been enough witch hunts to last us all?
It is up to Governor Schwartzenegger to sign this bill and make it law. This is a man whose weaknesses are many. His family has ties to the Nazi and Neo-Nazi parties, he has posed nude in both gay and straight erotic publications, and we have given him the ability to hold many lives in his hands. Let us hope he will act with the same blind justice towards the GLBT community which has been granted him by the people of California.
I understand that many people reject the civil rights of the GLBT communities based upon what their Churches have taught them. I will not argue with them concerning their beliefs. As Americans they have the right to believe as their Faith dictates, but they must also except and be glad that our country is not based on the interaction of Church and State, but its separation. Why? Well, just because there is a majority of fundamentalist Christians in the USA today does not promise that such will be the case tomorrow or in fifty years. No Christian would choose to be burdened with the religious beliefs of the the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan or Scientologist point of view. Yet, that is the risk every time we fight to combine the powers of Church and State. We, none of us, know when the principal religious belief may shift in this country. Perhaps, you say it's far-fetched. I think not. I see a day when Christians may well be a minority in America and should that happen our establishing laws now which respect and treat all faiths with respect in the civil arena we promote the respect of Christianity in the civic realm as well.
If you cannot accept that two loving people of the same sex may live in the eyes of God as a just and holy couple, so be it. That is your right to believe the dictates of your faith. But please, don't confuse your faith with civil justice and equality. There will always be a new Gestapo or Ku Klux Klan, there will always be a new fascist or totalitarian state, there will always be a new Hitler or Mussolini. Please don't help bring them about in America with your religious belief being the tool of a new inquisition against a new heretic. Haven't there been enough witch hunts to last us all?
It is up to Governor Schwartzenegger to sign this bill and make it law. This is a man whose weaknesses are many. His family has ties to the Nazi and Neo-Nazi parties, he has posed nude in both gay and straight erotic publications, and we have given him the ability to hold many lives in his hands. Let us hope he will act with the same blind justice towards the GLBT community which has been granted him by the people of California.
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