Sometimes I just want to smack someone up alongside their
head when they say things like two people shouldn’t get married because religion
says so. Of course, that impulse is not
keeping with do no harm right? It’d be
giving in to violent urges that really won’t help me make my case even if it
would feel so good sometimes. If you
haven’t heard, North Carolina became the latest state to enact a law banning
same sex humans from getting married because after all, that is something a law
should decide right? We should have a
law that eliminates the hope of humans to pursue their happiness. We should have a law that places one group
higher and more worthy of privilege than another group right? If someone says their religion defines
marriage as one man and one woman than the opposition just needs to shut up and
back off. Invoking religion as an excuse
to limit someone else’s pursuit of happiness is exactly what we should do.
Except we shouldn’t.
Ever.
A friend of mine pointed out that the last time North
Carolina amended their state constitution was to ban interracial marriage. Apparently they learned nothing from that
experience. They have forgotten the
lessons taught about races and how that minuscule difference on our DNA that
makes us one race and not another has absolutely no effect on intelligence or
ability or competence. It’s so tiny that
in discussing the differences between humans it is largely irrelevant when
considering humans as a species.
Consequently, we finally got it through some people’s thick noggins that
skin color is really a stupid reason to keep people from pursuing their
happiness with another person or from fulfilling their fullest potential. When considering the biology of humans, I am
willing to wager that differences between a homosexual human and a heterosexual
human are even less noticeable. Is this
really the best Americans can do as humans—say I’m better than you because my
religion says I am? Preposterous!
I have no problem with people who aren’t comfortable around
homosexuals. I have no problem with
people who believe in a religion. I do
have a lot of friends who fall into one or both categories. They are entitled to their own right to
privacy and religion yada yada yada.
However, when it comes to establishing laws based on religious doctrine that restrict the basic
human rights of others such as the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness I
get pissed. Those human rights include
equality before the law. Therefore, if
your church doesn’t want to perform a marriage for a homosexual couple,
fine. They don’t have to. However when it comes to living in a secular
society as we do, we should never vote on a basic human right like freedom of
liberty to marry whoever the hell you want. Period!
Now I heard an interesting counter to this idea of marriage
as a human right. Someone suggested that marriage may not really be a human right. Could it be a man made institution instead? I actually shook my head in an attempt to
understand exactly what this point was. Somehow
shaking my head vigorously would rattle my marbles into alignment to understand
this notion. Where is this
distinction? Huh? Human rights are those items that humans
agree upon as basic entitlements to everyone because they are human beings. Marriage is not an expression of freedom of
pursuing life and liberty and happiness and expression and thought? WHAT?
Everything around us in society is a man made construct for cryin’ out
loud and that includes human rights since humans are involved. Le Duh!
After the horrors of World War II the world agreed that human beings
needed to band together to protect the lives of all people who are oppressed
because of gender, religion, race, and sexuality. Do we need a homosexual holocaust to make it
plain to everyone or can we agree that isn’t necessary? There are simply some violations that
humanity cannot allow to persist especially under the guise of religious
freedom. Religion is after all, a
man made construct too. I honestly do not
see how one can be divorced from the other and used as a defense for legislated
bigotry. Freedom of speech protects even
the most horrible statements. People are
free to practice whatever religion they want.
However when those beliefs are used to target a specific group and limit
their rights to equality under the law, humans need to speak up and call
bullshit.
Religion can be beautiful.
Religions can provide a sound basis for living a good and a just
life. However when religion is used to
justify oppression then it becomes a bastardization of its core belief. When it comes to writing laws for America,
religion should not enter into the discussion.
Boiling the religion out of the rules and focusing on the core ethics of
the belief system reveals something remarkable; something that I have believed
for years as I have been studying and pondering religions and
spirituality. All major world religions
believe in some form of the Golden Rule.
Do unto others as you would have done to you. If the tables were turned, would
heterosexuals be ok being told they can’t marry? Would they quietly accept “civil union” as an
appropriate compromise? They shouldn’t
even have to consider it because we are all humans with the right to life and
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If
two women want to get married how does that harm anyone? If two men want to say, “I do” before a crowd
of their loved ones who is harmed? No
one! You don’t have to like it. Your religion doesn’t have to perform
it. But your laws damned well better
protect their right to marry because it’s the only just course of action.
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