Scenes from Cyberspace

Following is part of an exchange from an ongoing debate on the discussion board at The Golf Channel.com on same-sex marriage. The statements in quotes are from one of the cadre of the faithful of the religious right. The replies are not.

"Throughout the ages homosexuals have been shunned in just about every decent society. Many were put to death for this act of shame. "

It used to be that left-handed people were shunned. Some were put to death for being under the influence of the devil.

That bigotry remains in our langugage today -- "gauche" and "sinister" both have deeply negative connotations, and both mean "left." As recently as the last century, teachers would tie a child's left hand in a vain attempt to make them right-handed. (A left-handed person CAN force himself to write right-handed, just as a gay person can force himself to live a heterosexual lifestyle -- doesn't make the leftie a rightie or the gay man straight.)

I think we should be proud of ourselves that we are leaving behind discrimination based in ignorance.

"where the name "God" is now shunned in many areas of our daily life."

In most aspects of civil life, I think it's right to keep God out of it. I mean, really, don't you think it demeans Him that His name adorns our currency? God -- at least the one I read about in the Bible -- is SO not about money. I think the power of God in people's lives would be INCREASED if kept more in sacred places and less in public places.

But you're free to buy space on a billboard if you like and shout your testimony or raise your hosannas in letters eight feet high, if you like. And many do. As well as filling multiple television networks with 24 hours a day of Christian content, and publishing thousands of books and populating millions of web pages (and discussion boards like this one) with messages about faith. Not to mention all the invocations of His name during cold and flu season.

So this idea you have that the name of God is "shunned in many areas of our daily life" is patently ridiculous.

If you're saying that God doesn't get the respect He used to, that may be true. When the track record of Your professed advocates here on Earth is what it is (let's start with Copernicus, move to the Inquisition and end on Swaggart and Haggard - you can fill in the centuries between), you're going to have to expect these sorts of things. When you say "God says the sun revolves around the Earth" - and then stick to that position in the face of pretty overwhelming evidence to the contrary, You'd be an idiot not to expect that people might then wonder whether the position many of your churches take -- that homosexuality is an evil choice some people make and not one of the many variants of human behavior that is inborn -- is correct or not.

That doesn't mean we have to be any less ethical, nor should we stop teaching our children the Golden Rule just because we've realized no Lake of Fire exists. We can create our own hell right here on Earth -- and one quick way to do that is to judge individuals based on the stereotypes (often true, that's how they get to BE stereotypes) associated with a group to which they belong, and to treat those groups as second-class citizens because of something that is fixed at birth.

If you want to preach against homosexuality and call it "sin" or even remove yourself from the company of homosexuals when their presence is made known to you, fine. Knock yourself out.

But when it comes to matters of civil liberty and equal rights, I hope we can all behave like Americans and truly stand for liberty and justice for ALL.