GOP sure doesn't stand for Gay Old Party
Ask most people, and they'll tell you that everyone in our communities, our state and our country deserve to be treated with equality. So you might think it would be a slam-dunk when some of our state lawmakers put forward legislation to make a form of discrimination unlawful. You'd be wrong. You forgot about the Republicans in our Legislature. The State Government Committee of the Pennsylvania House approved a measure Wednesday that would extend anti-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation, particularly in the areas of housing, employment, credit and public accommodations. The shame of this is that the bill passed on only a 12-11 vote. All 12 Democrats on the panel voted in favor of treating people equally. All 11 Republican members voted to continue casting a blind eye toward discrimination. Supporters of the legislation say it has widespread support across the state, but the opponents fear it will infringe on the religious beliefs of others. Of course, we wouldn't want to infringe on anyone's right to treat someone else as a second-class citizen, based solely on the sexual orientation they were born with. But what kind of religion would favor discrimination against people who are different from what they perceive as the norm? Oh, I forgot. That would be most of them. It's sad that we're still living in a country where a significant segment of the population holds such feelings. In my book (not the Bible, thankfully), churches that preach this kind of hatred and discrimination are no better than the Ku Klux Klan. The good news is that among the younger generations, those feelings are much less prevalent. The old haters will eventually die off. Good riddance.
Labels: Complaints
posted by Brant at
5:08 PM
21 Comments:
Brant PLEASE stop the anti-religious rants. If you don't follow a faith, don't tell others how to follow it. It is getting so so old. Get back to the local community and what you do well.
I'm never going to stop pointing out the hypocrisy of people who are supposed to be about love and caring and the principles of Christ tossing that aside in order to preach discrimination against a group of people. I've never told anyone how to practice their faith. Ask my wife. But no one should be told that they can't criticize the teachings of a particular religion, whether it be the hatemongering of radical Islam or the homophobia of Southern Baptists. I guess, from your comment, that you're in favor of allowing discrimination against gays. Perhaps next you can try to roll back the gains made by women and black folks.
Faith has nothing to do with anti-gay sentiment in religion. It's flat-out, human induced bigotry. I'm tired of this crap about honmosexuality being a "choice." It's no more a matter of choice than is your height. You want to talk about faith? I have faith that my view that gays should be treated equally is correct.
If you want to live in a society that discriminates, that's fine. But discriminate equally -- against blacks, gays, women who have had an abortion, fat people, blondes, bald men, Jews, Catholics, people born at night ... Why limit it to certain groups based on your intepretation of writings that, for the most part, we don't even know who authored and which contain contradictions that quite often cannot be reconciled. The Bible has been edited, reworked and shaped into a reflection of the authors' and editors' own agendas and prejudices. No one knows for sure what Christ said. But I can damn sure tell you that if I hate someone simply because that person thinks and acts differently than I do, God is gonna be PO'd.
See Brant as usual you go too far in your attacks. Because someone's faith states that homosexuality is wrong does NOT mean they are racist or even for legal discrimination against homosexuals. They just believe in their faith.
I believe in loving and helping all people including homosexuals. I believe they should be treated fairly. I don't believe that legislation is needed and I believe there is too much of it already.
I also believe that faiths have a right to freedom of religion and that Christianity says that homosexuality is a sin like many others including adultery and even thinking of sex with a woman that I am not married to. Hence we all sin daily and fall short of his glory.
I believe and live the principles of Christ to the best of my ability and have friends that I personally love and care for that are homosexual.
But that does not change whether the government should force changes on the church nor my stance that this would be wrong. Nor does it change the antireligious tone of your writing.
You are btw telling people how to practice their faith by these statements. You are stating that the church, biblical teaching and more must change because you deem it. It takes a great deal of ego to state that..
Quit putting words in people's mouth..
Now watch for the antireligious choir of your blog to back you up...
You are actually driving some loyal readers away from you.
Someone that respects you a great deal for your straight forward approach
This just in -- Bible not accurate. Details around for centuries.
Anonymous says:
"Christianity says that homosexuality is a sin like many others including adultery and even thinking of sex with a woman that I am not married to. Hence we all sin daily and fall short of his glory."
Man, when I was in high school, I was sinning at the rate of about once every five seconds if we classify even thinking of having sex with a woman outside marriage as being sinful. Heck, it's just part of the territory of being a hormone-fueled teenage boy.
And to say that "Christianity says that homosexuality is a sin" seems a little broad-brush. Some denominations are taking a more liberal view, and more inevitably will as time passes. As Brant pointed out, discrimination against gays is rapidly fading into the sunset.
--Brad Hundt
Oh, by the way, I suppose GOP doesn't stand for "Gay Old Party" unless you're Larry "Wide Stance" Craig and a few other wingnuts who are heavily rumored to be gay, like Matt Drudge.
--Brad Hundt
Mr. Hundt, the churches that have done so are the ones that are LOSING members rapidly. The churches that are not are staying steady.
The mainline Protestants are dying on a vine as they ignore the gospel for a modern vision of the gospel.
I am sure that you have noticed the recent study in the decline of those that declare a faith and which denominations lost out.
Anonymous...
Not quite... Catholicism is losing it's followers at a pace that should be alarming to church leaders.
Actually, religion in general is losing its grip on society...
Mr. "Anonymous," I very seriously doubt that the mainline denominations that are losing members are doing so because they aren't pounding the pulpit about the evils of homosexuality with sufficient vigor.
Some of their members are gravitating to mega-churches, which offer a more "entertaining" experience (hey, you can buy a coffee before the service! And a rock band plays!) and demand little in the way of involvement from members. And some are probably drifting away from churches and consider themselves "spiritual" rather than adherents to one particular faith.
--Brad Hundt
Maybe the people in those mainline Protestant organizations are just thinking for themselves a little more, and perhaps some people are abandoning them because they're sick of the wrangling over the gay issue when there are so many more important things the churches should be concentrating on. Last year, according to the National Council of Churches, most of the 25 largest church bodies in the United States lost members or stayed steady. The most conservative - the Catholics, Southern Baptists and Assemblies of God - reported membership gains of less than 1 percent, so they're not exactly booming enterprises. Also, there was a 2004 study that found, of people who described themselves as not identifying with a religious denomination, the largest numbers of them came from Catholic and conservative Protestant backgrounds. Probably the only thing that keeps those demoninations steady or gaining slightly in membership is that those folks tend to have more children.
Also, if the people leaving these religions were leaving because of a soft stance on homosexuality, it would go to figure that those leaving the church are in fact the most devout...
So, the holiest of the rollers are saying "screw you, I'm outta here" while the "part-time" christians are hanging around?
That doesn't jive.
It is amazing how those that are openly hostile to religion then profess to understand the decisions of those that are faithful. You guys are all knowing.. It's amazing.
Just educated, observational opinions, same as yours.
I can certainly go along with discrimination against gay men, a lifestyle I’ll never understand. However, I’m OK with the lesbians. I understand where they’re coming from because I like women too.
I'm having a hard time understanding why people seem to need the government to endorse their religious beliefs by legislating values. I'm comfortable enough with my beliefs that I don't need the reassurance of an elected official. I would say that if you need that, you should spend more time examining your beliefs and less time demanding that the government acknowledges the existence of God.
Homosexuality is a choice? What sane person would select a lifestyle that ostracizes you from family and friends, leave you open for discrimination in nearly every part of your life, and make you a target for random violence? Who would say, "Yep, that's for me."
Only incredibly dumb people still believe that homosexuality is a "lifestyle choice." Hey, at least that kind of thinking helps us identify the numbskulls among us.
Why is it that the supposedly faithful refuse to recognize that people, studying the same evidence, can come to different conclusions? I'm not openly hostile to religion. I just want everyone -- atheists, deists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, satanists and pagans and whoever I've left off the list -- to admit that everyone is entitled to their opinion.
The law is redundant. We already have have rights granted to everyone including gays. Your rant ignores this fact.
If everyone already has equal rights, then why aren't gay people allowed to get married in this state, and why do politicians actually pass laws to prohibit it? Why can't gay people make end-of-life decisions for their partners. Why don't they get the same tax benefits as opposite-sex couples? What law are you citing that grants all-encompassing rights to all people? Clearly, it isn't working.
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