If I have learned anything over the last 60 years, it is that we need to work more on loving one another and less on judging.
Oh there are judgments we must make: we have to choose a president this November; some States have to choose Senators, governors, all or part of legislatures, and jurists; and we all elect Congresspersons. It is actually quite a list of offices if you live in a State that elects State Constitutional officers (Governor etc.) in presidential years. Illinois changed our constitution to avoid some of the log-jam, moving our Constitutional officers to "off" years. But not all States do this.
To some degree, inevitably, when we decide to vote for A, we are saying that B has less of the ideas and perhaps character we think the office requires. That is true regardless of the office, it could be president or alderman. We judge.
But(!) there is a substantial difference between voting for or against Mr. Obama or Mr. Romney on the one hand and for or against the civil liberties of complete strangers on the other. Candidates put themselves on ballots seeking judgment. They of course seek favorable judgment. With few exceptions, candidates in American elections enter the hoping and indeed expecting to win. I understand this is not always true in some other parliamentary elections but it is here.
People who merely mind their own business on the other hand, do not submit themselves to the voters' judgment. It is I think, simply wrong that several States will be voting to deny, if their referenda pass, civil liberty to ordinary, non-candidate citizens.
By what possible authority do those who plan to vote against the simple, universal, human right to love someone intrude themselves into those people's lives? While some particularly harsh people may think they know something of how lesbians or gays live, they do not know most of the individuals and they have not been invited by those individuals to render judgments on them.
Judging those persons is simply not something the State should do. There is no compelling interest that validates the judgments required. The repeal of the simple justice found in civil union and marriage laws is appalling. Yes there are those religions that have issues here, but we are not supposed to be in the business of "establishing" any religion.
How dare the politicians permit this?
1 comment:
Some of these members of the state who dare to judge do so in the name of God. I think it is presumptuous to assume that how the Lord created people is morally wrong or defunct. I used to believe the "rules" of the Old Testament in the Bible. I choose not to believe the old rules, and look instead at the new covenant Jesus formed with his people when he was here on earth.
I do think that while religion should not be involved in a lot of things, deep down at the core certain people, it always is...
Lastly, some of the gay-haters would do well to remember that the Lord asked us to love each other and him with our whole heart.
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