Weird. I grew up in an ultra-lutheran household too. 5 years in private school. Have since lost any interest in organized "religion". Small world.
So if i called W today and said do you know bigtexxx (using your real name), he would say yes? If not, then he doesn't "know you", as thadeus mentioned. Telling us that a politician answered your question (I'm sure he would answer ours as well if we got a chance to ask), or that you know people in his circle (i.e. not HIM) really OWNED what now??
I don't think parents should stay together for their children if they are unhappy. You don't have to be married to be a good parent and be there for your kids. What are you teaching your kid by staying under the same roof and not getting along (arguing all the time, etc)? How is that showing them how to have a healthy relationship? I know it's different strokes for different folks. Sometimes a divorce can really affect a child, but that's not always the case. My parents got divorced when I was five. It didn't affect me that much (or my two older sisters) because they were both still around and pretty cival towards one another. That would not have been the case if they remained married even though they were both unhappy.
bigot - a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices In order for me to be considered a bigot you would have to assume that homosexual marriage was acceptable. And it is not. rhad - I assume you are not down with peolpe having sex with eleven year old girls. You might even go so far as to support legislation banning people from having sex with eleven year old girls. Does that make you a bigot against people that want to have sex with kids? I am not addressing my views on homosexual sex. I am expressing my views on homosexual marriage. And I am against the state recognizing homosexual mariage. My religion already does not recognize it. No, I am not a bigot. And you can keep your "I feel sorry for you". I'm fine.
Your comments about bigotry don't make sense. A bigot would say that for him to be a bigot he has to be against something that is "ok", and interracial marriage isn't ok so he isn't a bigot. People having sex with 12 year old girls is damaging to the girl. She doesn't have the ability to make an informed consent. Two adults do have the ability and neither of them is hurt by it. There is a difference between wanting laws to protect something that hurts people like sex with 12 year olds, and wanting them to make laws to protect certain people from feeling uncomfortable.
Answer the question, Chance. If marriage is between yourself, your wife and God, why do you need to bring Caesar into the equation and have the government ban gay marriages? Making them legal certainly doesn't force your church of choice to marry gay people. Also, the pedophilia argument is ****ing terrible and I have no clue why anti-gay marriage people keep bringing it up. Pedophilia isn't an act between two consenting adults; gay marriage is. I'm quite surprised that you also didn't attempt to compare homosexuality to bestiality, to be honest
Also, no hard feelings towards droxford here. If anything, I've learned that raising children is a hell of a challenge, and one that I'm certainly not suited for at this time
My point still stands, or at least, this response doesn't address the point. The 'new deal' you speak of allows massive flexibility in interpreting the bible (like there wasn't plenty already). I call it playing cafeteria style. Like it or not, the New Deal allows people to pick and chose those elements of OT scripture they want to ignore. Don't get me wrong, I think the new deal thing is great in general- the Old Testament has so much silly crap in it, we're blessed to have had this guy Jesus come along and tell us it's crap, otherwise we may have remained mired in crap like the Taliban. So, which crap can we ignore from the OT? Christianity is not of one voice on this.
This is as weak as Svpernaut using the dictionary definition of "persecution" to say that Christians in America are persecuted. Note to self: use the dictionary definition of a disputed word to broaden it's meaning enough to fit me in or narrow it enough to leave me out. Yes it is. This is so weak. Others have already shot this down, but I at least need to add that this is so totally weak. You're equating gays with pedophiles and rapists here. This solidifies your demonstrated ignorance on the subject.
Chance, The above replies say all that needs to be said. Pathetic. EDIT: Am I the only one who found that disturbingly funny? I mean - how much more obvious can you get?
It's funny how the religious right recognizes the time-honored Constitutional principle of the separation of chuch and state only when it is convenient for them.
Hey man! We're all just learning to how to live with each other on this big blue marble. I respect you guys for delivering the "no hard feelings" posts, and I feel the same way. If we can speak strongly back and forth with different views, and come out of it with amicable mutual resepect, then we better ourselves and each other in the process. And if we all didn't have valid and important points, this discussion wouldn't be nearly as nourishing or enlightening. My posts frequently sound so much more angry than I mean them to, and I hope that my views come across without being clouded by the bbs' inability to convey context. If you guys feel strongly in an opposing view, speak out! If my views are skewed, there's zero chance of me changing them if nobody says anything to me about 'em.
No, the real question is what do God, the Bible, and Jesus have anything to do with the Constitution and the United States legislative system. You have failed to address this.
Yes, so far everyone who appears to support this amendment has failed to address this. The closest thing I've seen to a justification for legislating the issue in this thread is the protection of children, but I've seen no convincing argument that this endangers children in any way. BTW, I haven't been participating in this discussion but I've been following it closely since it started. Keep up the civil discourse -- it's very interesting.
