Alright guys, it’s been awhile and this really isn’t an actual post but I wanted to share something with you that I wrote for my English 102 project. It’s suppose to be an argumentative essay on whatever topic we chose. I decided to do same-sex marriage because it’s something I passionately believe shouldn’t be an issue. We are a nation built on the ideals of freedom, no matter what race, sex, or orientation you may be. The essay turned out a bit more anti-religion than I really like, being as I’m rather religious myself, but I’ve come to terms with how I feel about God and the Bible and if you don’t agree with my perceptions on today’s Christians I do apologize but I honestly do not care. My opinions are mine and yours are yours. Let’s respect those boundaries and we’ll be good. Enjoy. 
Should Same-Sex Couples Have Rights Too?
America has seen its fair share of turmoil over the course of its history. From the Revolutionary War to the Civil Rights movement to the gay movement that is taking place in our very own backyard, America has traversed a sea created of discrimination, injustice, and enslavement. With each passing day we grow stronger, more determined to make it to the nirvana promised us; that place of freedom, the true freedom where no one is discriminated against or hated for what they cannot help. Every wave that harasses our planks and does not destroy us is another victory, another day that we have succeeded in obtaining a more defined, tangible view of the long desired coast. Same-sex marriage is the next storm we must endure. As we are built on the simple principle that every man and every woman should share equal rights no matter the color of their skin or their chosen sexual orientation, every American should be allocated the same rights as his fellow citizen.
This, however, is the exact opposite of what is occurring in America at present. Due to deep rooted religious belief and the forever damning human resolve to fear what they do not understand, our nation is facing a crisis of identity. When the rights of an individual are restricted based on a factor that does not harm or infringe on another citizen’s rights but simply because the factor does not agree with the majority’s beliefs, we are changing the façade of what America is known for. Are we not the nation that has always promised equality to all? And yet, here is another point in time when we have chosen to ignore our principles only to replace them with fear and injustice. With no reliable terms that can face the scrutiny of the well-informed, those that oppose same-sex marriage are in violation of our founding doctrine and must be truly reprimanded for their acts of intolerance.
These dispatchers of injustice are thought to have common ideals and beliefs among them that can be seen as the perpetrating reason for their narrow-sightedness. They are the elderly, the deeply devout, and those who are inexcusably bigots. It should come as no shock that the majority of those who oppose same-sex marriage the most vigorously are those that come from the middle category: the overtly religious. In a recent poll by the Pew Forum, 80% of religious members of society are against gay marriage while nearly 60% of the population overall disagrees with it (1). Divided into the different sectors of Christianity, those of the Evangelical denomination are woefully in unison with 8 out of 10 members against same-marriage, in the main Protestant denomination the odds are more at a balance with only 54% believing it is wrong for same-sex couples to wed, and the last and nearly the equal to the main Protestants, Catholics have a disfavor rating of 55% for gay marriage (1). These numbers are only important to show how great of an influence religion has on a person’s decision as to whether gay marriage is a privilege for the few or a right to the masses. This group in particular chooses to employ the means of faith and the writings of the Holy Bible to justify their clearly inconceivable notions that homosexuals should be held at a different level in society.
This, of course, is not only unethical – due to the fact that one should not presume to hold another to one’s own beliefs – but quite unconstitutional. Separation of Church and State, as our founders referred to it as, is one of our most ambitious and noteworthy attributes in our democratic government. This division between our faith, whatever it may or may not be, and that of our government is meant to provide a barrier of protection against those who dare try and enforce their own religious decries upon those of a fellow citizen. At this point in time, we have all but sealed the great abyss that was meant to keep the two parts from being one. The actions of our government and our fellow citizens speak all too clearly that the religious beliefs of one group should be held aloft to the rights of any citizen who does not have the same views as themselves.
It is not my intention to dishonor or to persuade one from his or her faith, however, it is imperative to the nature of the issue to dissect and invalidate these views of the opposing side. As there are several common arguments that are continuously dispersed by those determined to see this injustice to the end, one must be able to distinguish between those that feed the masses and those that fill not but the smallest of children. It is the arguments that feed and drive the main brunt of the opposition that must be punctured and deflated before there can be any sign of success. Unfortunately, it is not easy to wound one’s faith when they so blindly follow those who, I would argue, have misinterpreted the Holy Scriptures and who have misguided their fellow man into a world of hate and intolerance. The blind should never lead the blind for the world is nothing if not treacherous.
This world of hate and intolerance that has been created by those whose own religion is based upon love and respect for his fellow man is truly ironic. Their determination to withhold the rights of their fellow American and, most importantly, fellow brethren is based upon, along with others, weak accusations that homosexuality is a choice, an act of freewill. Given by those who gave the prior poll, the Pew Forum conducted a polling that showed 42% of Americans believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice while 30% see it as a trait some are born with (1). Those who believe it is a choiceomho do not give much thought to whether or not it is a trait predestined from birth, like that of your race or eye color. It does not seem to appear to them that it is all too plausible that homosexuality is something given to certain members of this world by God himself. I do hope someone will correct me if I am wrong, but is this not the same religion that believes that we are all created in the likeness of God? Does he not make a blind man blind and a black man black? How are some so set in their ways that they cannot even acknowledge the possibility that he made a gay man gay?
If this reasoning is ill-suited to your disposition on religion, there has also been studies done of late that show that gay men are more receptive to the scents of a testosterone derivative found in men’s sweat. This study taken from an article by Steven Pinker, a professor of cognitive science at Harvard, does not confirm that homosexuality is either biologically or genetically derived, but it does open up the field to the possibility that these uncommon homosexual attractions could be attributed to the way we are made rather than the way we were raised. In fact, the article mentions that one cause to raise an eyebrow is that homosexuality is much more common among identical twins, who share the same DNA, than fraternal twins, who only share the womb (2). This link encourages scientists that there is hope for an answer to this staggering question.
To many these new findings are enough to satisfy any disillusionment that homosexuality is a choice but for those who are still not dissuade by these scientific findings, I have a single question: when in America have we allowed ourselves to be under the impression that we can disarm a fellow American of his or her rights based on a personal choice that does not directly or indirectly affect another and his or her right to choose? Love, a running theme in the teachings of Jesus Christ, is not something that gender can put boundaries around. It is unflinching in the face of adversity and undying in the hearts of those who found the one that brings them happiness. It is unthinkable to me that not only are we relinquishing a fraction of our nation of their God given rights, but we are also stripping them of the happiness that only love can bear.
Though they are free to love whom they wish, marriage is meant to be the epitome of commitment from one human being to another. The sex of the two participants should never outweigh the love and the loyalty that marriage is a symbol of for so many heterosexual couples. How dare we believe our values and our beliefs are more important than even a single person’s love for another. Love cannot be hushed into silence and neither will the voices of the millions of same-sex couples who are demanding that their rights be fulfilled.
These arguments that I lay before you should by all means end any discussion that what is being done in our country today is ethical, moral, or constitutional. However, I have failed as of yet to put light to one of the most utilized and therefore overly used arguments by the opposition: that homosexuality is a sin against God and therefore should not be allowed within the sanctity of marriage.
They come to this belief, in my estimation, by the following passage taken from the Kings James Version of the Holy Bible:
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet . . . Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
This comes from Romans 1:26 when speaking of the “Results of Gentile Guilt” (3). The passage that I have provided is quite ruthless when it comes to these frolickers of passion and lust, speaking of men with men and the evil God has sworn to put upon them. It’s quite clear why Christians believe what they do. Here it is in black and white, saying that it is “unnatural” for a man to be with a man. However, I am curious to find one Christian who can argue with the fact that the judgments they are passing does not coincide with the following passage found just below the prior one:
“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things” (3).
To put the irony bluntly, it is odd that a religion based on compassion and being nonjudgmental can pick and choose when it wishes to fulfill this portion of God’s doctrine. This seems to be a common thread among Christians: they filter the Bible to suit their needs, keeping only the ones that prove their points, brushing the one’s that speak otherwise under the rug for later disposal. But here on the very same page God damns lust in the form of homosexuality while also damning those who hold themselves high enough to pass judgment on another.
We must reevaluate how this country conducts business. If we allow ourselves to judge one another, not on merit or capability, but on race and sexual orientation, we not only fall short of God’s words, we also fall short as Americans. No matter if you believe in the words above or not, it is clear that it should be this generation to stand against the hypocrisy that is leaking from these self-claimed Christians. How can we allow the rights of one minority be decided by a group who do not even abide by their own doctrine? Coming from a God fearing man, I think it’s about time that we take the teachings of Jesus Christ to heart and come to love and accept each other as God has come to love and accept us.
This love that I speak of is beginning to break free of its chains. Six states have already legalized same-sex marriage (including: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, Maine, and New Hampshire) with New York looking to follow suit (4). California, a state some would consider the most liberal of the fifty, had at one point legalized same-sex marriage before the hate of some overturned it with Proposition 8. These flares of freedom that we are seeing throughout the nation are the beginnings of a raging firestorm. As it is with dominoes, if you knock one over the others will soon follow. The states that have legalized same-sex marriage are harboring the hopes and wishes of millions of Americans and it will only take time before the floodgates are opened and the waves of justice come crashing in to crush the demoralizing and discriminating opponents of same-sex marriage. With the help of Massachusetts lawsuit against the United States – stating that the federal 1996 Defense of Marriage Act infringes on a state’s sovereignty over defining what constitutes a marriage is illegal – and the lawsuits by individuals that play a similar hand, America may finally see a tree top bristling in the wind on that long desired island of freedom (4).
I say here and now we must bring a halt to this dangerous journey we have embarked upon. The path we walk has only one destination and it is not one that many nations have come to face without wishing they had turned back. We must strike for balance between our own beliefs and what is justifiable under the constitution; we must hold ourselves to the same standards that we wish to portray to the world: that of equality and freedom to any man or woman who wishes it; and we must guarantee that once this battle of opposing views has been reconciled that our country will stand as one piece with no cracks of division. If we manage to emerge from this tempest unscathed but that of a few scars and bruises, we will only be that much closer to our destination, that much closer to reaching the promised land.
Works Cited
(1) The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Ed. Carroll Doherty. 18 Nov. 2003. 7 July 2009 <http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/religion-homosexuality.pdf>.
(2) Pinker, Steven. "Sniffing Out the Gay Gene." The New York Times. 17 May 2005. 7 July 2009 <http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2005_05_17_newyorktimes.html>.
(3) Holy Bible: King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2005. 937-39.
(4) Szep, Jason. Ed. John O’Callaghan. 8 July 2009. 9 July 2009 <http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090708/lf_nm_life/us_gaymarriage_massachusetts_3>.
