I was watching the game the other night in the Toyota dealership waiting for my wife to make up her mind which car she wants to buy, and a car salesman with no one else to annoy joins me. All was fine and we basically ignored each other until a commercial comes on for an upcoming news story after the game on gay marriage.
He pipes up about how wrong it is and how god will “smite them” and just keeps going on about how he feels over the whole issue. Not being able to keep my own mouth shut I spoke up.
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion…. or just the freedom to live a lifestyle based on my own beliefs? Belief is a strong word that can cover a lot. Its not just the belief in a religious figure, but also in the way someone may choose to live their life. Be it gay or not. Telling someone that their being gay is wrong is just the same as telling someone their religion is wrong.
Explaining all of this to the car salesman started him quoting the Bible and saying its the word of god. I’m sorry, but you can call the bible the “word of god” but from what I remember from Sunday school was that it was written by disciples and other “men-of-god” making it the word of god interpreted by man. And man is viable to make mistakes. There is even a part of the bible that says god told Noah to take 7 of each animal on the ark (Genesis 7:2). The book of Leviticus, which so famously says not to be gay (Leviticus 18:22) also says don’t eat shellfish (Leviticus 11:10-12), don’t wear clothes woven from two different materials (Leviticus 19:19) and don’t cut your sideburns (Leviticus 19:27). It’s an old book, that was written by man, translated by man from an old language into old English, neither of which is spoken anymore. If anything I would call it a guideline at best, except these guidelines aren’t a lifestyle I want. Granted I’m not gay, but I don’t want to sport a rabbi hairstyle, I love eating shrimp and lobster, and not about to start shopping for 100% cotton or 100% whatever clothing.
But that’s my belief. I can’t force that on you, and I don’t expect you to force yours on me. Which is partly why I get violently rude when Jehovah Witness people knock on my door. I know where the church is, I just want to eat my dinner right now.
My point to the whole matter isn’t about whether its right or wrong to be gay. I really don’t care about what you do in your home. As long as you’re not killing chickens or raping children, I don’t care. You’re belief is just that.
I don’t go around pushing my beliefs on everyone around me. I just agree to disagree. But those who want to force their beliefs on me, well lets just say my wife isn’t buying a Toyota now.
Bottom line, some people knock on doors, some people crash planes into buildings, some people pass prop 8! They are all people trying to force their belief onto someone else. Prop 8 just isn’t violently killing thousands of people with an airplane, but the intended outcome is the same.
