Posted on 08/03/2012 4:19:35 PM PDT by agooga
Being a hardcore constitutionalist, conservative, agnostic AND supporter of gay-marriage is not always easy. I usually take a lot of heat from both sides, and I'm used to that.
With the Chick-Fil-A situation, I see both sides of the issue. I support CFA and I support the idea of gay marriage. What I don't support are the tactics used by the left to bully, intimidate, mock, deride and create false narratives to achieve their goal.
I'm angry at the left for creating hatred. I see and hear a lot of it because I have so many gay and liberal friends, and I hate to see them so angry and hateful, and I hate to see them putting out all of that negativity into the world. I feel like it's pollution, seeping out of their mouths and fingertips, spreading and touching us all. I feel like it's hurting us all. I know it's hurting me.
Sometimes I try to explain this to them. I have many Christian friends who are for traditional marriage, and I RESPECT their point of view. I acknowledge the fact that thousands of years of customs and tradition, millions of years of evolution, and various types of traditional upbringing and church doctrine has deeply encoded the idea of man/woman relationships and man/woman marriage on almost all of us. Some of us have been able and willing to make the leap to their side and accept the gay lifestyle as valid, but many of us have not.
My pro-gay friends equate the gay rights struggle with the cvil rights struggle, and there are SOME parallels, but not as many as they would think. Slavery, segregation and other forms of racial discrimination were actually encoded in the laws of the time. There are no laws that currently discriminate against gay people-- the issue is simply that there are no laws that specifically countenance gay people, and the right to gay marriage.
Is there prejudice from some in the hetero community? Yes. Is this prejudice based on a belief in one's intellectual or physical superiority? No. It's based on an IDEA, essentially. It's often based on the principle of morality. Traditionalists think that gay people are "doing something wrong" or "doing something that is unnatural." Some heteros think that gay people choose this lifestyle and believe they can change themselves-- but choose not to as an act of rebellion. This is not true.
Gayness is imprinted, in my opinion, just as anti-gayness is imprinted. Neither are clear, conscious choices that we make-- they are largely made for us by our genetics, upbringing, culture or some combination.
I ask that you not hate gay people for this reason.
But I also directly ask gay people and their supporters not to hate you and TRY to understand why traditionalists feel uncomfortable, threatened and even repulsed by the gay lifestyle. And rather than trying to push traditionalists off the edge of the cliff, I ask my pro-gay friends to try to lead these skeptics away from the cliff with respect, tolerance and compassion. So far, this plea has fallen mostly on deaf ears.
I operate under no illusions that we can wave a magic wand and heal the wounds of our nation, largely inflicted by anarcho-radical leftwing 60's retread tactics. But is it just me, or does no one understand that the more you push with brute force, the more the other side digs in it's heels to resist?
Gay marriage will likely be reality in America soon. That issue will be settled in the SCOTUS and it will be all over in a soundbite released on a Friday night before the justices go on summer vacation. I am sure of that. But we still have to live with each other.
So my question is this: Have these words meant anything to you? And is it worth trying to help other people understand one another a little more? Or is it none of my (or anyone's) business?
Free Republic is the exclusive Conservative forum because of its unwavering stand for God, Life and Liberty. I don't come here to have the perversion of homosexuality advocated in any form (even by those claiming to be Conservative) and I'm glad that you performed this cleanup operation, Jim.
Who was that masked maniac?
I’d converse with you, but I can’t even get over your use of the word “gay.” Gay means to be happy, and is ingrained into our culture through tens of thousands of songs, stories, movies, plays, books, magazines, newspapers, and all other manner of western societal communication.
For a group of people who are obviously mentally deranged to glom onto a word like that is like calling a turd a rose.
I don’t hate homosexuals any more than I hate alcoholics. I hate the disease and the behavior, and I pity the person. But for them to do this to society.... to rape society and the nuclear family, and the natural family, and the Holy relationship between man and woman..... this is only forgivable by God himself... and I’m pretty sure He’s got other plans.
Ouch...tell it like it is my FRiend!
Read the Tenth Amendment.
Government should have nothing to do with marriage.
Read Federalist 84.
There’s no such thing as a right to marry; Hamilton warned us of this.
But as far as this issue goes, I believe that it should not be put in front of the children - - the homosexuals want it to be. They are disgusting in that regard.
I agree with you on one point...I think some people are born gay. It is not a choice for them.
Having said that, some people are born with schizophrenia. Mental health doctors recognize this condition as damaging to a normal, healthy life; and, they attempt to treat it. Until the 1980’s, they took the same approach with homosexuality (no kidding - it was classified as a mental disorder).
So, while I agree with the notion that some people born gay, I do not agree that it is a condition that is laudable...and quite frankly it is usually very damaging to an individual.
On to gay marriage. Matrimony is one of the Sacraments of the Catholic church. Frankly, I get a little offended when somebody who acts in a manner so contrary to the church makes a DEMAND that his lifestyle be ‘approved’ by others.
I have had this discussion several times with gay marriage supporters: Go ahead, call it a ‘Civil Union’. And, with the legal status of ‘civil union’, you will get all the rights you pretend to want - ability to make end of life decisions in the hospital, shared health insurance if offered by the employer...whatever. You can have EVERYTHING you want, with one exception - don’t call it marriage.
Its a no go. They won’t agree to it. The demand is that it must be ‘marriage’. They desperately want to force the majority to offer an approval of their lifestyle, and will accept nothing less than the moniker of ‘marriage’.
Suddenly, it has nothing to do with end of life decisions, etc...and everything to do with forcing the majority change the definition of a very well defined and understood word.
That’s the non-starter for me. They don’t want to be ‘married’ to have ‘rights’....they want it, to force others to accept them.
you don’t sound much like a conservative. the first thing a conservative does when he asks a question is to define his terms. then he/she proceeds to reason from facts and declared pre-suppositions to a conclusion founded on the God’s Laws of logic.
so the first thing you should do for yourself is define “gay marriage.” once you do that, maybe i can answer your question.
for example, i’ll give a simple defintion of what you call “traditional marriage” (God simply defines marriage for us as Christians, which we have to accept or deny God): it is simply the exclusive, voluntary relationship between a man and woman, Lawfully established by God for the purpose of raising a family and multiplying mankind (again a requirement of God).
so again. what is “gay marriage?” who defines it? what is is its history> what is its purpose?
No.
Because you're trying to generalize the hate, and in doing that, you're lying.
The hate is coming from the gays. Only.
The conservative Christians have obeyed the Constitution's protections of people's right to sexuality. They DO "tolerate" gays, and amazingly well, compared to ALL of the other religions and countries on the planet who do not accept homosexuality.
Gays, alone, keep pushing for more. They scream for tolerance, but refuse to acknowledge it. They mock, attack, revile, lie, scheme and openly loathe Christians, who tolerate them, while demanding acceptance and now praise and special rights and financial support using tax money.
Yet none of these cowards let out a peep against the Muslims, who not only don't tolerate them, but openly hate them, and hunt them down and kill them wherever and whenever they can.
Politically, in America, gays are hate-filled, self-loathing suicidal fools. And what you are doing is trying to use reasonable sounding words to hide the extremity of their self-destructive hypocrisy, to enable the political acceptance of their tyrannical agenda against the very people who have shown the most tolerance in the world for them, given that they completely disagree with them.
I hope you understand that what I mean, is that what you wrote, and your purpose, in trying to generalize and hide this gay hatred and Christian tolerance and Muslim murder, is evil.
If you think I mean anything less, you misunderstand me.
Have a nice day.
You are neither conservative nor pro-gay.
But you most certainly are confused.
You are neither conservative nor pro-gay.
But you most certainly are confused.
If you are agnostic, who did the encoding?
It prevents me from having to censor myself. Profanity is usually frowned upon in polite company, and on forums, and when I talk about (or to) liberals, I want to be very profane.
Instead, I replace it with “interesting phraseology.”
I guess it depends on which agnostic you speak to. A woman from work is one and she says "she's believes in something bigger out there, just not God". Now she is a "Jew", who celebrates ALL the Jewish holidays. I asked her if she didn't believe in God, why does she do it. She said "it's tradition".
I told her, in a nice way, that she was just an atheist without b@!!s.
A man and a woman were created to love each other and multiply. We all know that men poking men and women trying to poke women has nothing to do with what God nor nature has laid out for mankind. Homosexuality is wrong, therefor homos marrying is not even on the table.
I didn’t want to go there. I really didn’t. But the past few days have made me as fed up as a person can get. I believe it’s time to lay it on the line about what these people do, and for a lady, it might not be the easiest thing. But no more sugarcoating.
The most concise and apt response to the subject of homosexuality I have ever read.
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
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