Judgement Day
One of the problems you have when you do not have TV, is you can get a little behind on the old current events. I do a lot of RSS News Feed reading in the morning when I get up, but sometimes it gets interrupted so I miss different things happening.
The worst example of this seems to be a story that erupted a while back concerning TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. I am not a big fan of the Reverend Swaggart. Not just because he is a TV evangelist, a breed I feel does nothing more than manipulate peoples faith and bleed them of money, but also because he has the nerve to launch attacks on people he deems to be “abomb-nations”, even though he is infamous for his motel room trysts with prostitutes and his infidelity. It is difficult to take moral guidance from such a man. Yet many do so.
But his statements in this video are truly disgusting.
My favorite aspect of the video is how he goes so far as to say he would kill another man for looking at him in a romantic way, then proceeds to backpedal later saying that he is not condemning the poor homosexual, because they need saving too.
Only from you and your kind Rev. Swaggart.
The topic of gay marriage has taken a back seat to more important topics in our nation’s consciousness at the moment, like the war in Iraqi, but I am sure it will become a subject of hot debate again.
I consider myself a moderate when it comes to my political views. On some topics my stance would be deemed very conservative, while on other topics I would be deemed as a liberal. Overall, I feel I am a liberal on ALL topics, since the true dictionary definition of the word liberal means “open-minded”. The world of politics has developed this alternative meaning to the word suggesting that it is negative or evil to be liberal. You are deemed “wishy-washy” and a “flip-flopper” if you are liberal or open-minded. I wear my badge of being open-minded with pride. I am liberal, because the only thing I TRULY know is, I do not know everything. I make decisions in life as best as I can. I try to research and expand my knowledge as much as possible, so I can make the best judgement calls on things in life. But, I admit that there are some topics I know better than others and there always seems to be information out there I am not familiar with, so there are times where a stance I may have on something may change, but it is only when new information comes to light.
Others feel you have to take a stance on things and you cannot change. The dates may go by, the world may change, new ages may be born, but our attitudes and decisions on things should never wavier. I cannot agree with such a philosophy. Not all new information may change my ultimate decision about something, but I like to look at a situation individually, as opposed to lumping everything into one bucket and forcing everything to be black and white in a very grey world.
Gay marriage is one of those issues for me. My initial response to such a proposition was, “the gay community is not ready for this benefit”. Why did I feel this way? Well mainly because it seemed that the gay community’s focus was on sex being the defining principle of the community. I really do not feel sex should be or is what defines ones sexuality. I think anyone can have sex with just about anyone else. I think our defining aspect in ones sexuality has to do with the emotional aspect. Put simply, with love. Who you love, combined with who attracts you, defines your sexuality. It seemed that so many in the gay culture were so obsessed with sticking out, throwing sex in the faces of everyone else. I feel this really is a poor representation of who we are as gay people in a society. Gay Pride Parades are all fine and dandy, but how does men parading about in ass-less chaps really help people see, we are not too very different from them. It has been my experience in the gay world that the focus and obsession was bedding everyone, not dating and seeking long term relationships. But I, unfortunately, had been deciding this from a vacuum.
It is true, there is a lot of promiscuity in the gay culture. Most likely born out of the decades of hiding ones true sexuality. But, there are many gay and lesbian couples, who do not give into that part of the culture and truly seek and keep long term relationships with someone they love. In my eyes, denying them of marriage is wrong.
This idea upsets many though. Constantly on their lips is the term, “protecting the sanctity of marriage”.
It strikes me as funny, that some how, some way, gay or lesbian people getting married in some manner rips away the sacred nature of someone else’s marriage. Funny that. Is the sanctity of ones marriage really what counts? If one spouse cheats on the other, then the sanctity of their marriage is compromised. But is it compromised if your neighbor cheats on his or her spouse?
See, sanctity is dealing with a holy or religious aspect of marriage. But there are really two aspects to marriage. The religious aspect and the legal aspect. Many people have been married in non-religious weddings. The underlying issue here is one of religion. People feeling the holiness of marriage is corrupted by allowing same sex couples to marry which would be an abomination. I think what these same people need to do is look at how the sanctity of marriage is being corrupted by forced marriages, marriages of convenience, divorce, infidelity, etc.
Many issues plague, and one could argue, have destroyed this idea of sanctity in marriage. I feel people marry too easily and for all the wrong reasons in today’s day and age. This divide will probably never change though, since religion is playing such a deep role in this debate.
Time will tell.
