Why Gay Marriage isn't a Religious Issue

DOMA got a massive smack in the face today by the Supreme Court. Of course there are three sides to the issue...

1. People who are for DOMA
2. People who are against DOMA
3. Stark raving lunatics who aren't educated on any of the issues, they just spout out what they heard from their husband, boss, coworker, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, Rush Limbaugh...whatever.

I give those people their own special spot because of this sweetheart I ran into at Wal-Mart today. I turned to my daughter and said "DOMA died today" and of course she had no idea what I was talking about. 1. She's 13 2. She's 13. So I explained to her what it was and what the Supreme Court had to say about it. This woman in front of me turned and said "So the Supreme Court upheld DOMA?" (Hopeful look) and I said "No, they killed it". Her face fell and she said "So states have no power huh?"

Huh?

This is why I made a special category for people who are clueless and just spew whatever party line they were handed by whomever in their life gives a crap about this issue (because clearly they don't).

This leads me to my blog post for today: Why Gay Marriage isn't a Religious Issue.

1. Our country, when it was founded, attempted to separate itself from rule by the church. This is because traditionally, England was ruled by whatever rules governed the church at the time. England if it was catholic followed the rulings of the pope, and if it was Anglican followed the rulings of the head of the Anglican church which was usually the king. These puritans (God bless their witch burning souls) didn't want to be told what to believe and what church to worship at, so they said "Let us hasten awayeth and maketh unto ourselves a new country" and off they went into the wild blue yonder and our sweet little country was born (after we slaughtered a bunch of Indians and pretended we were the first to arrive here). So one of the rules that was important to this little group of religious zealots was that they not be forced to follow any religion so they instituted this idea of "separation of church and state" which, QUITE simply (because I am a simple girl) means that the church will not make laws that everyone has to follow. If one wants to follow the church, one can, and if they don't, they can be burned at the stake...(but that's another story)

2. We assign rights and privileges to married couples that allows for certain benefits, namely tax benefits, health benefits and inheritance benefits to be passed among married couples that do not exist for single people (gay or otherwise). So if you choose to say "I do", you get breaks and benefits and protections that are offered ONLY to married people.

So herein lies the problem.

1. Not everyone is Christian.
2. The church cannot govern the laws of the people.

IF marriage was ONLY a religious institution. That is, if it was only a religious ceremony performed in a church in front of your church family...such as baptism, dedications, etc. Then I would say "Sure you have the right to deny gay people the right to marry since your religious beliefs say gay is bad". Just like someone can walk into a baptist church and be denied baptism because they don't believe the tenets of that faith. Or you can walk into a catholic church and be denied communion for not being catholic. If you walk into a Christian church with a rainbow wig on, they have the right to tell you that they will not marry you.

HOWEVER

When the Federal government assigns rights to that institution, it now becomes a civil rights issue and not a religious issue. If the federal government afforded tax breaks to people who are baptized...it would become a similar issue.

Since people are allowed to get married regardless of faith (even those who have no faith at all!) then you have to allow marriage for people who are involved in a relationship you may think is sinful. Since your idea of "sin" is not necessarily their idea of "sin" and you are not allowed to enforce your personal religious beliefs on other people. I'm sorry, you're not.

This doesn't destroy the "moral fabric" of our society anymore than prostitution and porn and gambling and adultery do.

When you look two people in the face and you tell them "Because I personally believe what you're doing is a sin, you shouldn't get the same rights I do" you are being an asshole. Would you like it if someone was able to come up to you and remove your rights because you don't believe the same thing they do?? This goes directly against the whole reason why America was formed in the first place....for the right to gather practice their religion without the government taking away their rights.

Don't even get me started on the notion of "traditional marriage" anyway. Traditional according to what?