Prop 8, Religion, & Facebook

Over the past few days I've felt alternately incensed and hopeful in the wake of the Prop 8 Supreme Court case.  The ubiquitous media coverage has presented impassioned arguments by both opponents & proponents of lifting the ban on same-sex marriage in California.  I've heard religious leaders touting traditional values & claiming that same-sex marriage threatens to completely unravel the fabric of our society.  I've heard gay couples speak about having been given a right & then having it taken away, about having a legitimate union rendered illegitmate in the blink of an eye.  And I cannot dare to venture into the dark waters of the litany of benefits denied same-sex partners unless I clear my schedule and commit to weeping for the rest of the day. 

In the midst of the sadness & injustice, I was buoyed by the countless straight allies in my Facebook feed yesterday.  By and large, I find the entreaties to change your profile picture or repost an image or quote kind of ridiculous.  They are either no-brainers (Share if you have the best mom in the world!  Change your profile picture to a brown ribbon if you think colon cancer is the worst! Repost if you are against child abuse!), or they present a false dichotomy & attempt to scare or guilt you into making a choice ('Like" if you love jesus! Keep scrolling if you want to burn in hell for eternity! Share this picture of a limbless veteran if you support our troops! Don't share if you don't care about human suffering and are unpatriotic!)  But this one was different.  It didn't accost or needle you.  It simpy asked you to identify yourself as an advocate for equality for one day.  It was a small token of support, & a simple reminder that there are more allies out there than you might think.
     
Although I know we are headed in the right direction, I am frustrating with the slow-going nature of progress.  And frankly, I cannot believe that gay rights and marriage equality is even up for debate.  The combination of free speech and freedom of religion cannot justify a campaign to limit another person's rights.  You have the right to expound upon how horrible you believe gay marriage is & your church has the right to condemn it, but that does not give you the authority to make same-sex marraige illegal.  This isn't a measure that should be on a ballot.  It is ludicrous to vote on who another person is allowed to love and to marry.  Many of the people who oppose same-sex marriage are desperately parsing The Constitution & using semantical gymnastics to try to make their case. This is the epitome of obeying the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law.  Our forefathers did not anticipate every single goddamn issue that might arise.  And we've made corrections & adjustments along the way (Amendment 15: Black Suffrage; Amendment 19: Women's Suffrage).  Clearly, the spirit of the law has deep roots in equality and social justice. 

Obeying the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law is precisely why this non-issue has been ballooned into a cartoonish mega-issue.  People who interpret The Bible literally--to the letter--are the people who so vehemently oppose same-sex marriage, & homosexuality in general.  If you look at the vast majority of Christ's teachings, the over-arching theme is love, compassion, forgiveness, & genorosity.  None of those tenets are upheld when you actively seek to limit another person's freedom to love and marry.  If you adhere to the spirit of The Bible, you will be far more Christ-like than if you attempt to adhere to every single ambiguous & sometimes outright contradictory passage written. 

And why are Christians so selective with regards to the Bible passages they trumpet?  There is a lurid fixation on one tiny verse in Leviticus about homosexuality.  Meanwhile, another verse in the very same book clearly & harshly condemns the act of adultery.  "And the man that committeth adultery with (another) man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 20:10).  Yet Christian organized religion has not collectively expressed outrage over this "sin" & used its resources to limit the freedoms of adulterers. 
  
I've heard people who oppose same-sex marriage say that their stance does not mean that they fear or hate gay people.  In fact, many protest that they actually love their gay neighbor; they simply do not agree with who their gay neighbor loves.  My response to this is simple: you do not understand the definition of love.  Love is big and welcoming and warm and inclusive.  Love is unconditional and strives to learn and to understand and to accept, and then to love even bigger and better as a result.  Love does not impugn another person's freedoms.  Love does not pass judgment.  Love is not preoccupied with what consenting adults choose to do with their genitals.

Perhaps we should be less concerned with how we define marriage & more concerned with how we define love.  Because the patronizing christian version of loving thy gay neighbor (while simultaneously holding a firm belief that their "lifestyle" is sinful, AND while actively working to disallow a full & equal union with the person they love) isn't love at all.  It's not even tolerance.  It is bigotry masqueraging as faith, & I highly doubt that God is enjoying humans marginalizing other humans in his name.