All too often, the debate concerning homosexuality (homosexual orientation, homosexual behavior, gay marriage, etc) is seen as that of being religion vs homosexuality. This is in fact a false dichotomy. Yes, there are several major religions who have waged war on homosexuality for some time now. However, in many cases this is a one-way battle: there are gay people who are not only unwilling to fight against religion, but in fact are very religious themselves. There are many churches now that are "gay-friendly" churches, who openly accept gay people. (And I don't mean in the way the LDS church "accepts" gay people, which is that they accept them but tell them they need to refrain from homosexual conduct. I mean, they allow gay people to be themselves--to have relationships and express love.) There are also churches which market to gay people, that have gay clergy and preach gay sermons.
Why is this significant? There are altogether too many people who believe that homosexual people have no morals, are unrepentant sinners, and don't feel any desire to be close to God. This is simply not true. While some gay people do feel that way, not all gay people do. Just like straight people, there are gays who like religion and there are gays that are also atheists.
Another reason this is significant is because one of the arguments used to fight against civil rights for gay people is that of religious freedom. Churches, such as the LDS church, claim that their religious freedoms are being violated when society accepts homosexuals and homosexuality. They also make the extremely false claim that if gay marriage was legalized then all churches would be required to perform them. At any rate, the point is that these churches do not speak for all churches in America. While there are several large churches who oppose gay marriage, there are also churches that wish to be able to perform gay marriages in their church. Therefore, banning gay marriage infringes on the religious rights of these churches. So, the people who are claiming to fight for religious freedom are in fact merely oppressing it.
I do not wish to belong to any particular religion, since I do not believe any of them are correct. However, I have no ire toward religion. I have no motive to call for a nation-wide ban on religion (as some churches have called for in regards to gay marriage). I do not feel as though I am at odds with religion in general or with any particular religion. I feel perfectly comfortable co-existing with religious people. And the main point is that there are religions who fully embrace homosexuality and there are homosexuals that fully embrace religion. So, I don't think the debate on gay rights should be about "religion vs homosexuality". Let's get down to the real issue at hand.
Why is this significant? There are altogether too many people who believe that homosexual people have no morals, are unrepentant sinners, and don't feel any desire to be close to God. This is simply not true. While some gay people do feel that way, not all gay people do. Just like straight people, there are gays who like religion and there are gays that are also atheists.
Another reason this is significant is because one of the arguments used to fight against civil rights for gay people is that of religious freedom. Churches, such as the LDS church, claim that their religious freedoms are being violated when society accepts homosexuals and homosexuality. They also make the extremely false claim that if gay marriage was legalized then all churches would be required to perform them. At any rate, the point is that these churches do not speak for all churches in America. While there are several large churches who oppose gay marriage, there are also churches that wish to be able to perform gay marriages in their church. Therefore, banning gay marriage infringes on the religious rights of these churches. So, the people who are claiming to fight for religious freedom are in fact merely oppressing it.
I do not wish to belong to any particular religion, since I do not believe any of them are correct. However, I have no ire toward religion. I have no motive to call for a nation-wide ban on religion (as some churches have called for in regards to gay marriage). I do not feel as though I am at odds with religion in general or with any particular religion. I feel perfectly comfortable co-existing with religious people. And the main point is that there are religions who fully embrace homosexuality and there are homosexuals that fully embrace religion. So, I don't think the debate on gay rights should be about "religion vs homosexuality". Let's get down to the real issue at hand.
Keith,
ReplyDeleteThere are many times when you post when you take deliberate jabs at LDS people or such, even in this post you did it. I think you may want to take another look and realize that there are LDS or religious people that don't want to get caught up in a holy war about being gay or not being gay, but certainly don't like their religion or more importantly beliefs criticized by someone claiming they are not criticizing.
It's really very simple, you be gay and you fight for whatever rights you feel you don't have that I do. I will be straight and I won't preach about what is or isn't wrong. We will both believe in god in our own way according to the dictates of our own conscience. We will both love our significant others and we will both in all hopes be happy. What we will not do, to make this happen, is take jabs at each other and try to bully our ways into proving one right and one wrong since we disagree on what you present is only one topic.
I honestly wholeheartedly agree with you that we should stop making this about religion vs homosexuality. But don't think for a second that the religious people are the only ones at fault. Just watch this weekend when people go to conference in salt lake and have to have gay vs religion shoved in their faces when they clearly are only there to worship. It may not be easy to be gay, but if you want to stop being bullied you need to realize that there are those in the gay community bullying.
I'm getting ranty, sorry. Keith, I love your blog. I continue reading because I love hearing your straightforward thinking in your writing and I'm glad you're so willing to share your thoughts, please keep it up.
I read through my post again and I am not sure what particular parts of it you think are "deliberate jabs at LDS people". I can assure you that if there are any "jabs" at all, they are entirely unintentional and I do apologize for giving that impression. I speak quite plainly about the LDS church, since its policy is expressed clearly and forcefully and I feel that I have represented it well in this post. But I never said one single thing about LDS people in this particular post, nor did I mean to make any statements that universally included all LDS people. In fact, if you read many of the other posts I have made about the LDS church you will find that I speak very highly of LDS people and that is because my opinion of LDS people is very high.
ReplyDeleteI was very careful in my wording to indicate that there are only some gay people who are/want to be religious, since it is obviously not the case for all. I suppose I did not explicitly state that there are also gay people who oppose religion, but I do not refute this claim either. Obviously there are antagonistic people on both sides of the issue. Since you weren't specific in your comment, I must assume that you allude to people that you believe will be at temple square this weekend protesting against the church. If there are protesters there protesting the church's policy on homosexuality, then I must say that I disapprove of such behavior just as much as I disapprove of the political bullying exemplified by the LDS church on the issue of gay marriage.
If you would like to point out any specific ways you think that I am bullying anyone or taking jabs at any people, I would like to know so that I can redact my posts. The intent is only to raise awareness, not to misinform.
Also, I would expect, since you seem to give the impression that you are a friend, that you would include your name with your comment rather than commenting anonymously. Obviously you have the option to post anonymously, but I would expect my friends at least to include their identity.