LGBT

I woke this morning to the sun shining and the birds singing. I was surprised to wake up at all. After the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that same sex couples could have the same right to marry as heterosexual couples all I heard from the religious right was that it was the end of times. God was going to inflict his wrath on the evil Americans for doing such an abomination. Well, maybe the rapture did come and I just don’t know it. After all, anyone that knows me knows that there is a good chance that I would be left behind. But I started seeing Facebook posts from my Christian friends so I figured that meant one of two things. Either the rapture didn’t come or maybe they weren’t as God fearing as they thought. Obviously it was the first option and there was no rapture and my friends are good God fearing Christians.

So, why no rapture? Could it be that God is not as upset as they think? After all the U.S. is the 21^st country to make it legal. If the first 20 didn’t piss off God why does anyone think that the 21^st would? Could it be that a lot of people think the world and the afterlife revolve around America? America, a country residing on a continent that the people who wrote the Bible didn’t even know existed. Yep, that America.

That being said people still think that homosexuality is the ultimate sin and will bring an end to this world. Maybe not today but soon. I’ve even seen people calling for Jesus to come soon and remove them from this hell that we call earth. Yes, I know, those are the same people praying like crazy any time they are faced with a tough time or life threating issue and thanking God that they or any loved ones were not killed. I guess they want the end of times but just on their time schedule.

This leads me to the big question. Why do Christians think that Homosexuality will bring about the end of times while so many other horrific things that have happened on this planet have not brought about the end?

Mao Zedong had a reign of terror from 1949 to 1976 which led to between 49-78 million deaths.

Jozef Stalin’s reign last from 1922 to 1953 and he systematically killed 23 million people.

Adolf Hitler in the pursuit of the master race killed 17 million people between 1934 and 1945. Nearly 6 million of those were Jewish people, Gods people. Which made up 67% of the Jewish population. 67% of the population wiped out.

On August 1945 the United States dropped two nuclear bombs. The first on Hiroshima, Japan killing 140,000 people and three days later dropped another one on Nagasaki, Japan killing 80,000 people.

None of these horrific events brought on God’s wrath. And these are just events from the 20^th century. The world has a long history of horror and terror going back as far as any history book can depict.

Then you have Senator Ted Cruz, a Conservative Christian, who called the last 24 hours the worst 24 hours in United States history. Think about that for a moment. In the last 24 hours millions of Americans were allowed to keep their health insurance and also two people who love each other of the same sex can get married. Please tell me how that could possibly be worse then 9/11 or Pearl Harbor? How?

If all of those acts of terror didn’t bring the end but letting two people love each other does? How does that even make sense?

Then it occurred to me. It’s not the actual world coming to an end that the Christians are talking about. It’s their world coming to an end. A world of privilege and prestige. A world where all that they believe is the law of the land. A world where they can look down on anyone that is different from them and put them back in their place. A world where you must believe the exact same way as they do. The thought that someone different than them is now, by law, treated equal to them spells the end. The Supreme Court which for years and years ruled in their favor has now ruled against them and they can’t believe it. They now dispute the Supreme Courts authority.

Now keep in mind this is by no way directed at all Christians. In fact it is directed at a very small but very vocal segment. Yesterday I saw a lot of churches and Christians acknowledge the event for what it was. Progress and hope that maybe we are going in the right direction and recognizing that giving equal rights to all isn’t a bad thing at all.

So yes, the world has come to an end. But what a better place it is going to be going forward.

Love wins.

Oh those pesky facts.

I am amazed every day by how many people don’t know what discrimination is. Oh, they think they know but they really have no clue. As time goes on our nation seems to be sliding down a slope of ignorance that seems to have no bottom and its getting steeper every day. Now, admittedly, I’m drawing this conclusion from politicians, reporters, and friends on Facebook so that may not be the best pool to choose from, but it is what it is.

One of the most headed issues is the war against the LBGT segment of our populous. From gay marriages to bakers not wanting to bake a “gay” cake. This, for some reason, is a very polarizing issue. On one side you have the people who want equal rights for everyone and on the other you have people wanting everyone to follow what they perceive to be their own Christian rights. Christians point towards the Bible as to why gays should have no rights. They point to a fact that being gay is a sin and they should not have to associate with anyone that sins. Now they are correct that the Bible talks about homosexuality, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman” Leviticus 18:22. But what they fail to realize through there selective reading of the text is that good ole Leviticus is full of sins that they have no trouble seeing past. I’ve yet to hear a story about a baker refusing, because of religious beliefs, to make a cake for a tattooed person, or a person wearing clothing woven of two kinds of material, or a man that had cut the hair at the sides of his head or clipped off the edges of his beard. I’ve also yet to see to many bakers refusing to work on the Sabbath.

Now a baker refuses to make a wedding cake for a “gay” wedding by claiming it was against their religious beliefs and doesn’t feel that they are discriminating at all. This is where I think everyone should take that time to learn what discrimination really is. Let’s look at a couple of examples: A bakery has four different customers wanting to purchase a wedding cake. The customers are: a heterosexual couple, a bi-racial couple, a homosexual couple, and a lady wanting to get a wedding cake so her daughter could have a wedding for two of her stuffed animals. The baker decides that three of the four would get cakes because they all fall within his religious beliefs (the stuffed animal one is a little strange but his preacher has never mentioned that being a sin so he figured it was ok) but the homosexual wouldn’t get a cake because homosexuality is against his religion. The baker feels he is within his rights to deny service to anyone he chooses so he feels he has not discriminated against anyone.

Meanwhile at another bakery a baker receives a call to make a cake with the cartoon character of Mohamed on the cake. The baker refuses and states I don’t make those kinds of cakes. The baker feels that they have not discriminated against anyone.

So which one is discrimination and which one is not? If you said the second or both are discrimination you are in need of more education on the subject. The first one is the only one that is discrimination. Discrimination is defined as a treatment or consideration based on class or category, such as race or gender, rather than individual merit. So when you refuse to do something because of the group that the person belongs to that is discrimination. If someone comes into your bakery without a shirt on you can tell them to leave. Also, if you are asked to make something you normally wouldn’t make and you refuse that is not discrimination.

It also needs to be said that forcing a baker to make a wedding cake for a “gay” marriage would not lead to a slippery slope of forcing business to do things against their will. I have a friend that is a website developer tell me that if his religious rights aren’t protected then someone could force him to make a website. I tried explaining to him that the government will not force a business to do something it would not normally do. If you don’t build porn websites you will not be required to build one. If you do build porn websites but refuse to build one for someone because of a class or group that they are in then you will have discriminated. I’m still not sure if he gets it or not.

So to sum it up. If the only people you will not make a wedding dress for is a gay couple then you are discriminating. If you are a Christian and can’t get everyone to believe what you believe and can’t have group led prayer at school you have not been discriminated against. That would only be discrimination if Christian prayer was the only prayer not allowed.

I hope this clarifies the situation. If not then more education is needed. Please seek it out if you need it.

Those pesky facts.

Robins Pesky Facts

The world has come to an end. But it’s not the one you were thinking of.

What Is Discrimination?