RR vs GM
Religious Right Claims Same Sex Marriage Violates Their Religious Freedom 092811
News, analysis and opinion
News:
Religious organizations claim that same sex marriage laws are having a serious impact on their ability to freely practice their religion.
Complaints fall in to three major areas: civil servants who are forced to provide marriage licenses to same sex couples or lose their jobs; religious educational settings and other educational settings where families may be discussed and same sex marriages would be considered appropriate; and business situations including, for example, Catholic foster agencies. The religious groups claim they are being compared to racial bigots for their objection to same sex marriage.
The National Organization for Marriage is dedicated to stopping and reversing same sex marriage or partner rights for same sex partners. It is their position that marriage can only take place between a man and a woman; they believe God has said this. Many who oppose same sex marriage believe that only God can join people together, and He only joins males and females. Same sex people are not really married, and so are having sex out of wedlock, which is also forbidden to some. The most extreme believe that procreation is the only purpose of sex, and as two males or two females can’t normally reproduce* their sex is simply pleasure, which is forbidden.
For a person of such beliefs it is untenable to, for example, marry a gay couple in a civil ceremony, or teach that it’s OK to have two mommies and no daddy, or help two nice young men adopt a little boy. To be required to do so would violate one’s religious beliefs, and so religious freedom.
Analysis: Bollocks.
Opinion: Should a Hindu working at McDonalds be forced to either serve beef or get another job? Is America violating his civil rights by eating cows?
Before we go further, I have to comment on what a filthy-minded bunch the CF are. Can you imagine being obsessed with what’s in other people’s underwear? I think these people might not be so upset if they would just get their mind out of the gutter. Anyway…
The religious right scores big on the boo hoo meter here, whining and complaining in a way that only the myopic can do. Their religious rights are being discriminated against because someone else does something they don’t like?
In truth, same sex couples continue to be discriminated against, and Christian Fundamentalists share the opinion with their Moslem Fundamentalist brothers that it’s fine to refuse to serve or even acknowledge gay and lesbian couples. A few city clerks might lose their jobs for refusing to marry same sex people? So what? Subtext bias against gay, lesbian, bi and transgender people keep them from getting and keeping employment commonly.
No, the National Organization for Marriage isn’t for marriage at all, it’s for the restriction of marriage. Here’s a site which disagrees with NOM: NOM Exposed
The major whiners and big losers on the Christian Right are the foster service providers like Catholic Charities. They aren’t allowed to discriminate against stable lesbian and gay couples, and if they do, they lose the foster care dollar plum. They are powering some of the rhetoric on the issue. Shouldn’t their issue be with safe, functional families, whatever their configuration?
The same for teachers. The point is how people treat each other, how families should function to support their members.
And, in my view the racial bigotry analogy is perfect. Take a feature about a person and make it the basis for treating them unfairly. Skin color, weight, sexual preference or even religion, they all work fine. Should a county clerk be able to refuse to marry a Black man and a White woman because it goes against what she thinks is decent? What about ugly people, or fat people? Are there other classes of people the clerk can’t bear to imagine in intercourse she should refuse to marry?
Public servants work for the public. If the Hindu doesn’t want to serve beef, he should seek employment elsewhere; his belief is only that, it doesn’t make the rest of us sinners. Likewise, a public servant that doesn’t want to serve all the public should seek employment elsewhere, or conduct themselves professionally and keep their beliefs to themselves.
The saddest thing in this faux-discrimination complaint by the Christian Right is what it reveals about them as religious people. Religion is a personal thing, between you and your God. If you feel it’s wrong to enjoy non-procreative sex, then don’t do it. But, don’t mistake your belief for permission to conduct a jihad against people you disagree with. That’s not how it works in America.
*Cloning! Technology is coming ever closer to allowing a woman to give birth to her twin, without the help of males. It would even be possible for one lesbian partner to be a surrogate mother for her partner’s cloned egg. Wrestle with that!
