mind of matthew dot net

i post on quite a few message boards around the internet from time to time, and many of them have political forums. if you’ve read any of my political posts here, then you know i’m fairly opinionated on some fairly sensitive topics. i was posting in a thread dealing with the current rash of states that have legalized gay marriage the other day, and was (rightfully so) accused of asking loaded questions. i responded with the truth that yes i was asking loaded questions, because i wanted to get a confirmation of what i believe is going on with conservatives on topics like this one…

the question i asked had to do with whether any of my forum-posting brethren wanted to bet as to whether or not oklahoma would be the last state in the union to legalize gay marriage. actually, the way i put it was something to the effect of “when will oklahoma get this issue right?” right, in my mind being allowing these human beings to marry their person of choice. invariably i get answers dealing with “traditional marriage,” undermining the definition of marriage, or even answers that try and explain that it devalues a straight person’s marriage when homosexuals are allowed to marry. i get those arguments. i understand what they are talking about…but i don’t think that these folks are being truthful about where these arguments come from…at least not where i think they are coming from anyway

here’s what i think. i’m fairly certain that they have formulated these opinions based on a flawed value system that’s based on religious bias. they believe that homosexuality itself is wrong, and they see allowing same sex marriage as endorsement of sin…many of them even believe that homosexuals should be punished in some way, or at least not accepted for the way they were born. these people seem to believe that the united states in a theocracy, a christian theocracy. other than something like that, i just can’t see why anyone would give two craps if two people of the same sex want to get married.

lets all take moment and remember this:

there was a time when slavery was a common practice

there was a time when jim crow laws were accepted by the mainstream

the was a time when interracial marriage was unacceptable

there was a time when women hid in fear of their abusive husband because it wasn’t socially acceptable to get a divorce

there was a time when women were not allowed to vote

all of the above examples we common thought. beliefs held true by the majority of americans during the time of their relevance. still thomas jefferson was on to something when he penned these famous words:

“we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

notice that this passage from the united states declaration of independence does not name a specific creator. it doesn’t say that all men are given the right to pursue happiness by the christian god. you can interpret that as the christian god if you choose, but lets not force your own personal interpretation on those that might not agree. in my opinion what it isreally saying it this: we (human beings) are all born with the right to try and be happy.

all i’m advocating is tolerance.