Today, North Carolinians are going to the polls to vote on their fellow citizens' ability to enjoy the civil rights guaranteed in our Constitution. And it appears, from what I've seen reported on the polling data, that the majority of the citizens of that state will vote to permanently imbed in their state's constitution a discriminatory law against a segment of their population.
It still amazes me that people, who otherwise are rational, would commit such an egregious act. But this is the result of allowing people to pass Biblical judgement, rather than apply civil law, on other people's private lives. And make no mistake, the opposition to gay marriage is based on religious texts that people, fired up by blind religious zeal, choose to apply, while ignoring other prohibitions. I've yet to see any Bible Belt state propose a ban on working on the Sabbath, which not only is prohibited in their texts, but their god even allows the murder of one's neighbor, should one find him or her breaking this particular Biblical law.
Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 - Holiness Codes - "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination" and "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them"
"The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death." (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT)
The reason for this encoding of discrimination in North Carolina's state constitution? To protect the institution of marriage and the family! This is nonsense, since the way to "protect" marriage is not to limit it, but to allow more of it. If these monocratic intolerants were serious about their concern for the American family, they'd be passing state laws prohibiting divorce, not marriage between consenting adults. But that will never happen, since the divorce rate is among the highest in the Bible Belt, and these hypocrites wouldn't want to take away that civil right. What threatens family life is divorce, not marriages between people who love one another.
This nonsense of forcing people to live by a standard that religious zealots pick and choose from their Bible will, in some distant future, be considered ignorant, barbaric, and wholly anti-American. But it is what our fellow gay and lesbian Americans, who want only the same rights enjoyed by all citizens, must suffer under--for now.
For make no mistake, these dehumanizing and descriminatory laws will be overturned.
Shame on the states and the ignorant people in them who propose and pass such tyrannical religious acts.
Shaw - don't count out NC yet. I read somewhere that new voter registrants are running 2 to 1 for Dems. While we are considered a mostly red state, we did vote Obama in last election and I think we may do it again in 2012.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a huge campaign in the state touting that the amendment is just a definition of marriage so those of us who know better have had to educate others on the implications of the rest of the amendment that reads,"will be the ONLY legal and recognized domestic civil union." If this abomination passes I predict that our already cash strapped state will waste hundreds of thousands of dollars defending it in court.
I hope you're right rockync. You've just brightened my day.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Leviticus was only worried about men and I can only imagine what would happen if Walmart was closed on Sunday. One thing I have wondered is what the hell is the "homosexual agenda"?
ReplyDeleteJono, I have no idea what a "homosexual agenda" is, and I doubt the anti-gay evangelicals do either. It just sounds meancing enough to get the low-information voters out.
ReplyDeleteI ecided to wear black today. I'm in mourning for the death of common sense and basic human decency in my home state of North Carolina. I ahve no idea why I expected anything more from a state that repeatedly elected Jesse Helms and sent him off to the U.S. Senate. Funny how at any gathering there wa never anyne who would admit to voting for Jesse yet he kept wining. I think the 2008 vote for Obama was an aberration unlikely to be repeated in my lifetime.
ReplyDeleteShaw, I am also fascinated with the pick and choose approach exercised by the Christian right in determining which bible verses to avidly follow. Th4y skip right over one of my favorites:
And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.--Leviticus 20:10
Then there is perhaps one of the more disturbing set up rules in the Bible. They prohibit those with any type of imperfection or blemish from approaching the altar or offering the sacrifice to God. I was raised in the Catholic Church and I cannot fathom how anyone can still put any faith into a literal iterpretation of the Bible. This stuff is cruel and ludicrous.
from Leviticus:
16: And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
17: Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
18: For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
19: Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,
20: Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
21: No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.
22: He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy.
23: Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.