Speak Up

Apr 7th, 09 / 2 Comments

It’s time for believers to speak up. So I’m stepping forward now. I believe in God. I also think it’s everyone else’s right to choose what they believe. Whether they believe in a single god, many gods, or no gods at all. Or if they don’t know what to believe and decide it’s best not to take a stance. Until we have proof one way or the other (something I find unlikely to happen), it’s up to us to choose our beliefs, and search for the truth in whatever way we think best.

There is a caveat to this though. We must do so in a way that harms no one else, and we must be respectful of everyone else’s beliefs. It’s hard to come up with hard and fast rules, because people can be really touchy about religion. I think the best we can do is accept that some people will be offended by religious discussion, and do our best not to offend anyone while still speaking up and making ourselves heard. I think as long as we make the effort, most people will be willing to meet us half way. Yes, the heathen atheists and crazy people with friends in the sky can all get along if we just try to see things from the other point of view… and do so in a way where we give them the benefit of the doubt in assuming that they are rational and moral people, regardless of their religious beliefs, or lack thereof. Atheists aren’t amoral heathens, and those who believe in God aren’t crazy. Sure, both groups have people that fit those descriptions, but those are symptoms of being human, not the choice of religion they made.

Atheists, when you see people bashing religion, speak up. Religious people, when you see people giving atheists a hard time, speak up. Defend each other, not because you agree, but because you recognize their right to disagree, just as they’ll be recognizing your right to disagree. You don’t have to agree with a group to defend their rights. Just recognize they have a legitimate position.

Naturally, this isn’t intended to say you can’t state opposition to a belief system. Just do so respectfully, and call people out when they aren’t respectful about it. Maybe if we could all do this, we wouldn’t be stuck in a huge culture war between the different religious groups in our country.

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Religion

Some Thoughts On Gay Rights and Gay Marriage

Apr 7th, 09 / 0 Comments

While I’m a supporter of gay rights, I can’t say I’ve been particularly involved in the community. That is to say, while I’ve always defended their rights in conversation with others, I’ve never been involved in any organized effort. But, I feel the need to share a few views here that I hope might help, though it’s entirely possible that this has been thought of already.

First, regarding civil unions and marriage, this whole deal with using separate terminology isn’t going to work. Separate terms lead to separate classes of citizenry. Certainly, having civil unions could be called progress, but it also sets a double standard. None of this is anything new to the movement. I saw an idea on a piece on the Huffington Post that I really liked though: for all couples, heterosexual, homosexual, or any other lifestyle, make civil unions the legal form of marriage, the contract that two people enter into, and have it accessible to any two people. The term marriage will then be reserved purely for religious and spiritual purposes, and will be unregulated by the state. There are plenty of churches and religious groups who would perform a marriage ceremony for homosexual couples. And the marriage would be all about spiritual laws, while the civil union would be what is used to insure all legal rights that are currently reserved for marriage.

Of course, this won’t happen overnight, though I hope to see it happen someday. In the meantime, I have a suggestion for homosexual couples who are up for it. Get married anyway. Then, whenever it’s not a legal issue (for instance, don’t claim you’re married on your taxes, it won’t go well), tell everyone that you’re married to your partner. If they talk about the legality of it, simply explain that while it’s not a legal marriage, you are spiritually married and that marriage is recognized by your religious group, even if not by the state. Make it a point to use the term marriage, because as more people do so, it will undermine groups who want to define marriage as between a man and a woman. If everyone else uses the term marriage for all couples, it will come to be seen that way. Then, it will be easier to claim your right to marry legally as well as spiritually. If this were successful enough, it might not even be necessary to separate marriage and civil unions the way I described above, though I still think it would be a good idea, simply to have the secular issues dealt with secularly and the religious issues dealt with religiously.

I’m certainly aware that some couples wouldn’t want to do this. For some, they don’t like their relationship being in the open due to societal pressure. For others, they want to enjoy their relationship instead of spending their life pushing and pushing for equal rights. And there are certainly other valid reasons people might have for not doing this. The point is, for those who are in the right kind of committed relationship, and don’t have issues about being vocal about it, proclaiming their spiritual marriage will hopefully help make people see marriage as valid for all couples as time goes on.

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