A Snapshot of a Conversation...

The following is a comment I left for Steve and Beth on their blog, A Worshipping Christian. I just like the way it all flowed and came together, so I thought I'd share it here so others can maybe read it and tell me what they think... If you'd like to read the entire conversation and the post that started it, you can click here: Jerusalem Jews Stand United Against Gay Pride.

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While I know you are not uncaring or hateful people, to say that you laugh at the term "gay pride" does show a certain lack of respect for the values these people have and hold dear to themselves. I might not agree with your chosen lifestyle either, but I wouldn't dare laugh at Christian pride, or black pride, or Hindu pride, or female pride, or what-have-you. Mock it a little on my blog, point out hypocrisies, yes, but to downright laugh and denigrate your beliefs... I hope I would not anyway, but I am only human... as are you... :)

And while it may be dangerous for individuals to show up at this years pride fest in Jerusalem, rights and respect have never been won by playing the doormat. Rosa Parks, MLK, Harvey Milk, even your Christ stood up for what he believed in, despite danger to his life. These are values and rights that we deeply cherish and deserve.

You say, "I dislike having the gay agenda pushed down my throat at every turn." It may seem that way to you, I suppose. Think of how it must feel to have nonChristians wandering around this country, seeing your steeples, your crosses in graveyards, your sermons dominating the television every Sunday, the giant crosses dotting the landscape all over the south, and even the recent erection of a fifteen-foot statue of liberty in Missouri holding a cross instead of a book. You are all over the media with your talk of family values, your moral obligations, and your right to legislate how everyone should live by your beliefs, your morality, your take on the great beyond.

Then you have the homosexual "agenda." I don't speak for everyone, as I know some would probably like to see your rights to religion stripped, but I, of course, do not. Most of us simply want to be able to, as all hetero's take for granted, marry the ones they love. Have our health plans available to one another. Make sure our children get a good education, and that we can take care of them in an emergency, care for each other when we're sick, be beside one another through our lives, through the laughs, tears, and joys of this life we are afforded. Gay marriage--gay rights--in no way detracts from your quality of life as a Christian. You can still go to church on Sunday and hate gay marriage, even while the gays get married. You may still send relief money to the tribes in Rwanda to pay for bibles while homosexuals make medical decisions for one another. You may still refuse to marry a gay couple. You may still believe it is wrong. You may still preach against it. That is your religious right, one that can never be taken away. It is a foundation of this country.

But so is individual liberty. The right of an individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as long as they are not infringing on the right of another. And allowing same-sex couples full and legal access to marriage, and its 482 (somewhere around there) federal benefits of our secular government, in no way infringes on your right to believe it wrong, to preach against it, to continue to spread your message of sin and salvation.

I know we disagree, and I am fine with that. I just wanted to take the time to point some things out that, from the Christians I know personally, they never really taken the time to think through. Maybe you folks have, maybe you haven't. And while I know we will probably always disagree over this point, I hope you will still take the time to think about one last thing:

No where does your Christ command you to make legislation, to control people's lives, to tell others what they can or cannot do. Your God has always given a choice, right from the beginning in the garden with the talking snake. You seek to legislate things that take away people's choices in life. Whether that be for an abortion, gay marriage, gambling, I don't know, pick something. I just wonder why you feel so strongly that you need to keep gay marriage from happening, when, in all reality, if two men get married, it in no way effects your marriage, your lives, your choices.

Please don't think I'm trying to be argumentative, although this is an "argument" per se, I am simply trying to get my point across in a civilized manner, and I hope I have not offended in such a way as to make you angry.

This is simply my two cents.

Cheers,
Jason

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