I’m the type of person that gets pretty worked up about the state of affairs in the world these days. Global warming, AIDS, poverty, discrimination, war, all of these issues concern me on a day to day basis. I tend to believe that each one of us has an obligation to try to make the world a safer, more tolerant place. Now, as many of you know, I do not believe in the father, the son or the holy ghost for that matter and I am constantly surprised when reminded of the fact that I am in the minority in this country. It never ceases to amaze me that the vast majority of Americans believe in "God". Good, honest, educated, intelligent folks believe in a supernatural being. It’s astounding, especially given the fact that if you polled these same "believers" on whether they believed in ghosts, they would answer "no", but that’s a separate post entirely. What my focus is here is that while I’m amazed and disheartened by the foolhardy nature of my fellow citizens, I do not spend a great number of hours in my day seeking to have the term "God" removed from government oaths, nor do I throw rotten tomatoes at the "In God We Trust" sign above the judge’s head each time I walk into the courtroom, believe me you have no idea how tempting an idea that is! What I mean to say is that while I’m appalled by the reality of religious manipulation in this country, I recognize that there are much greater causes in the world, which is why I am perplexed by my counterparts’ priorities.
At the top of the agenda for most religious folks is the need to restrict same-sex marriage. Yet for some religious people even though sentencing a person to death is a sin, you don’t see "anti-death penalty" provisions on state ballots nationwide … why is that? It seems to me that protecting living beings would be at the top of a holy person’s agenda. Wait a minute I seem to remember something about religious people caring about living beings … oh right now I remember, it’s the unborn they care about.
To recap:
- Killing the unborn: Mortal sin.
- Marrying another dude: Sin City.
- Killing another person that’s actually walking around in the flesh: Look the other way and pretend it is not happening.
I hear from the Christian movement ad nauseam, "We must protect the tradition of family to stay alive. Family is the bedrock of society!" Tell me, what effect does the state’s murder of someone’s son, father, brother, or husband have on your traditional notions of family? What amount of human suffering and tragedy is put upon the family of an individual executed by his government? Is this damage to the family core perhaps greater than the damage done to "traditional family values" when two people of the same gender pledge themselves to each other for the rest of their lives?
It seems to me that if your "God" did exist the way you claim he does then he would rather see you all take up causes greater than invading other people’s privacy.
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