Marriage and Religion and Marriage

Yesterday President Obama came out and openly supported marriage and all the rights that that entails for same sex couples.  This was a pretty historic event as he is the first Politician to support it either in office or running for the Presidency.  But, today, I want to talk about the backlash and give a brief response to those who oppose equal rights for gay citizens and as it usually is, it focuses around Church and State separation.  The most common argument I hear is that the Christian God says that homosexuality is an abomination.  Okay, fine, your god says that, but the government is supposed to stay out of religion right?  What if the government decided that everyone had to stop what they were doing five times a day, kneel on the floor facing Mecca and pray. I don't think many of these Christian Fundamentalists would like that.  It is the same thing.  I will respect your belief that your religion tells you an act is wrong, but I'll be damned (har har) if I will stand by and let you force your religious beliefs into government and onto everybody else.  Your argument that "God says _____ so therefore the government should do _______" is invalid and has no basis in a serious discussion.  Now say you want to get into arguments like calling it unnatural or counter to propagation of the species.  In those cases, they could be considered valid in the sense that they have nothing to do with religion.  I vehemently disagree with you and could cite many reasons why those points are wrong, but they are still valid to a discussion on government involvement in peoples lives.

In the end, what is more important to you and your religion?  Two members of the same sex performing a consensual act in the privacy of their own home or following many of the other teachings of Christianity like "turn the other cheek," "Judge not lest ye be Judged."  and/or "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone."  I think that is where the real crux of the issue should be for you.


Addendum:  I saw a fantastic article today about how divorce rates are highest amongst conservative Christian denominations compared to others and atheist/agnostic/non-affiliated are dramatically lower.  I lawled.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/927753/hey_fox,_what_about_this_%22war_on_marriage%22_divorce_rates_are_highest_among_evangelicals/