Quote(s) of the Day – Gay Marriage Edition

“The gay movement, whether we acknowledge it or not, is not a civil rights movement, not even a sexual liberation movement, but a moral revolution aimed at changing people’s view of homosexuality.”

Paul Varnell.

Yes, but many of us already knew that.

“Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex and family, and in the process, transforming the very fabric of society. … We must keep our eyes on the goal … of radically reordering society’s views of reality.”

Paula Ettelbridge

See I thought that being “queer” meant that you attracted to members of the same-sex.  Silly me.

“… fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there—because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don’t think it should exist.”

Masha Gessen

Ding, ding, ding.  I fully understand that there are honest people who want nothing more than the same rights afforded under our tax codes and legal protections for themselves that heterosexual married people get.  But that doesn’t change the fact that is not the goal here.  If it were, this problem would be long since solved.  I know very few that would be against giving those benefits to committed couples that live together, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.  Most agree on that.  This is about forcing your views that my beliefs are bad, outdated, and somehow harmful to society.

H/T to Iain’s Wife

Quote of the Day – Erick Erickson Edition

“Already Christians are being harassed by fellow American citizens for not wanting to participate in a gay marriage. The time will come, more quickly than you can imagine, when you will be made to care. … Evil peddles tolerance until it is dominant, then seeks to silence good. That’s why Christians fight on this issue. It is not to force themselves on others, but to protect themselves from others being forced on them.”

Erick Erickson on why the faithful fight to preserve traditional marriage and his answer to young evangelicals that say they don’t care about this issue.

The radicals on the left don’t want you to know this, but it won’t end with gay marriage.  If this was only about giving tax breaks and rights to hospital visits and will rights, it would have been settled by now.  Most people can agree on those things.  This goes far deeper than that.

Photo of the Day – Starbucks Edition

For those that have not heard, Starbucks CEO has decided that if you believe in traditional marriage you can just sell your shares.  Not that he has said it exactly, but I guess you don’t need to buy their products either.  Perfectly fine with me.  I don’t need your overpriced drinks and sandwiches anyway.

Apparently in the name of tolerance and diversity, your views aren’t welcome.

Chick Fil A – My Take

Since people keep coming back to my blogs, I have to assume that you care about what I think.  So here it goes.

Personally I find this whole thing ridiculous, and I mean that from both sides.  The Cathy Family are Christian conservatives, they have never hid that fact since they franchised the Chick Fil A restaurants.   They are not allowed to be open on Sundays, that is part of the franchise agreement.  Chick Fil A has a very slow growth plan that has helped them grow into the second largest chicken fast food restaurant in the country.  It has worked for them.  They don’t normally allow a franchise owner to own more than one, and they are looking for owners who are going to be hands on.  They are not looking for people to turn the place over in a short period of time.  They approve about 80 applications per year.

Now, it is a fact that not all owners agree with the Cathy’s stance on marriage.  At least one Chick Fil A is going to participate in a gay pride parade sometime this summer.  I don’t know the exact date.  That is one of the reasons that I find this so silly.  These are individually owned, how does anyone know what the owner actually thinks?  I am sure that they are just like the country as a whole; some will agree, some will disagree.

The left for some reason has chosen this restaurant as the poster child of hate.  Hate is a very strong word.  A word that the left doesn’t fully define.  Because I am against gay marriage and I have friends who are gay. They are my friends, so obviously I don’t hate them.  I was asked once by a former boss about my friendship with two men who happen to be gay, Ken and Norman.  Both great guys who I love dearly.  Norman and I hung out outside of work as well.  We have been to each other homes.  He is a very good man who happens to be gay.  I don’t want him tied up, gassed or anything else for that matter.  He can work where he wants, he can live where he wants, the only two things that I don’t think he can do is get married or adopt children.  I know gay people who don’t think that gay people raising children is a good idea.  His opinion is that childhood is hard enough without having that added pressure of being the odd kid out with gay parents.  He takes a great deal of ridicule, and yes outright hate from other gays for his belief.  He has been in a long-term relationship, something like 20 years.  Both families are very accepting of them, and they have nieces and nephews that they love dearly.   I don’t think a gay person is a danger to a child in any way, I just think that it just makes their lives harder than they need to be and question is placing an adopted child in that environment the best thing for them.  I don’t think that it is.  Am I a bigot or a hater?  According to many I am.

This is what Christians see.  They see a society that has consistently told them that what they believe makes them haters and bigots.  They see a society that tells them that their rights as an American citizen to worship freely is really just a hate crime.  Put a Christmas tree in a town square and you are forcing your beliefs unto someone else, yet forcing them to accept gay marriage is tolerance.  It was only about 50 years ago that Christian conservatives started having a voice in politics.  For the most part before then they went about their lives, but the sexual and cultural revolutions forced them to find their voice.

You hear from more moderate people in the republican party that they are going to be the ruin of it.  They are ridiculed in pop culture as ignorant hicks.  It never occurs to the people doing the ridiculing that all they are doing is standing by what they deeply believe in.

Every Christian in the end gets called a hypocrite.  Somehow a Christian has to be perfect or they are one.  They are not allowed to make the same mistakes that others are allowed to make.  No Christian will ever tell they are perfect.  They will flat-out say that they fall short each and every day.  But, they try to live the best that they can in the eyes of God and what the bible tells them that they are to strive for.

The fact remains if you are ready to redefine marriage then you need to be all in.  If you are not, it is the same intolerance that you are accusing Christians of.  There are approximately 6 million Muslims in the United States.  Plural marriage is widely accepted in the faith of Islam.  There are still Mormons who practice that as well.  If you are going to redefine marriage for homosexuals, then you must redefine for all.  Using the logic that is used if you don’t approve of gay marriage, you are a hater and bigot if you don’t agree.

Christians feel that they and their belief system is under constant attack in this country.  You can disagree with that premise, but that doesn’t make it less so.  Now, if the issue truly is about the issues of benefits that can be done without redefining marriage.  But the problem is that isn’t what this is truly about.  It is truly about forcing the Christian belief system out of this country.

There are conservative churches that are being sued for being unwilling to perform marriage ceremonies for gay people in states where gay marriage is legal.  That is about forcing their will on an organization that doesn’t want it.  My church would close its doors before it performed a marriage ceremony for people of the same-sex.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.  Those are my beliefs, beliefs that I am entitled to under our constitution.  You see, you don’t get to have it both ways.   The radical agenda that is being pushed by some in this fight are trying to force their will upon me, and using the tactic that it is the other way around.  Do I believe that everyone in this movement feels that way?  No.  Many just refuse to see what is really happening.  A push has been going on this country to eliminate all that is Christian for about 100 years.  They are getting closer and closer to getting it done.  They have accomplished this in part by redefining many things in our culture.  They have made the killing of an unborn baby just another lifestyle choice of getting rid of some cells.  They have made sex on the first date commonplace.  This is regardless to the bad effects that it has on society.  If it feels good, do it.  The consequences of your actions be left for another day, or better yet just leave them for someone else to clean up.

I don’t hate gay people.  I could care less what consenting adults do in their bedrooms.  What I do care about is the society that we are leaving for the next generation.  I care about God having a place in the lives for the believers.  You don’t want to believe in God, don’t.  That is your choice, it is your soul.  But stop trying to take away my choices and the life that I want to live and to leave to the next generation.  The next time someone wants to call me a hater, just think about this; how much tolerance do you have for Christians?  Probably not very much.   Eating or not eating at Chick Fil A will change none of this.  So I didn’t waste my money or time today.

Liberal Logic – Rahm Emanuel Edition

Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor, has put his liberal logic on full display for all the world to see. You see, the mayor decided to weigh in on the Chik Fil A non-controversy by announcing Chik Fil A doesn’t share “Chicago Values”. Really? It wasn’t all that long ago that the mayor admitted that some in his city have the wrong values.

Now this same man has decided that the city needs the help of The Nation of Islam to patrol the streets to help cut down on the unending violence in the city now being dubbed “MurderTown”.

So this idiot liberal would like to keep Chik Fil A from expanding in the City of Chicago, which of course violates our laws, because they believe in traditional marriage. This belief, held by millions around the country, is simply that marriage is between one woman and one man. It in no way wants to see discrimination against homosexuals. Gay people can do what ever they want to do with that one exception. That is it. We don’t call for violence against people, we don’t call for the death of anyone. We are simply stating that the institution of marriage is something that is held sacred and by redefining marriage we are being asked to accept beliefs that violate our religious views and conscience.

Islam, however, is a very different story:

The Sunan Abu Dawud, named after its editor, is another reliable collection of hadith. Ibn Abbas reports the following about early Islam and Muhammad’s punishment of homosexuals: . . . “If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done” (vol. 3, p. 145, no. 4447).

The next one from the same collection says that an unmarried man who commits sodomy should be stoned to death: “Ibn Abbas said: if a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death” (vol. 3, p. 1245, no. 4448).

Thus, these two passages in Sunan Abu Dawud go further than merely rejecting and banishing homosexuals or sexual sinners, as we saw in Bukhari’s collection. Rather, Ibn Abbas says that Muhammad and the early Muslim community commanded their execution.

The hadith editor Timidhi repeats Ibn Abbas’ narration: “Ikrima reported on the authority of Ibn Abbas that God’s messenger [Muhammad] said: ‘If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.’” (Recorded in Mishkat al-Masabih, trans. James Robson, vol. 2, p. 763, Prescribed Punishments). In the same hadith collection, the Mishkhat al-Masabih, a compendium that brings together other hadith collections, are found the punishments of being burned to death and having heavy objects thrown on the guilty homosexuals:

The Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan also have such a good record when it comes to your faith, Mr. Mayor:

“[T]he Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He wasn’t a great man for me as a black person, but he was a great German. Now, I’m not proud of Hitler’s evils against Jewish people, but that’s a matter of record. He raised Germany up from nothing. Well, in a sense you could say there’s a similarity in that we are raising our people up from nothing.” — Louis Farrakhan, radio interview, March 11, 1984

“Jews have been conclusively linked to the greatest criminal endeavor ever undertaken against an entire race of people … the black African Holocaust. … The effects of this unspeakable tragedy are still being felt among the peoples of the world at this very hour.” — The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews (NOI book), 1991

“Who are the slumlords in the Black community? The so-called Jews. … Who is it sucking our blood in the Black community? A white imposter Arab and a white imposter Jew.” — Speech by NOI national official Khalid Muhammad, Nov. 29, 1993

“These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength. … It’s the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It’s the wicked Jews, false Jews, that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!” — Louis Farrakhan, Saviours’ Day speech, Feb. 26, 2006

So these are Chicago Values. Good to know. With values like these, it is no wonder the murder rate is so high.

I’ll Eat Where I Want to Eat – Video

Gay marriage is a losing issue with the black community.  While it may be more accepting of it, they are still largely against it.  I don’t understand why the democrats are bringing this so much to the forefront this close to the election.  It isn’t going to help Obama.

As long as Chik Fil A is not refusing to serve or hire people based upon their sexual orientation, they are doing nothing wrong.  The owner has the right to his opinion.  For now anyway.

Quote of the Day – Nancy Pelosi Edition Part 4

 ”My religion has, compels me–and I love it for it–to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider this a form of discrimination. I think it’s unconstitutional on top of that. “

Nanny Pelosi on being asked how she can be for gay marriage and Catholic.

Fundraising on Gays for $500, Alex

This didn’t take long.  Not that I thought that it would.  But I was asked by a commenter not too long ago how I felt that my religious views were being used like a tool by the GOP.

I wonder how gay people feel like when their private sexuality is being used as one?

No one in their right mind believes that President Obama ever was against gay marriage.  This is nothing but pandering to a group of people who were upset that he wasn’t delivering on his campaign promises and were withholding those precious checks.  This is blackmail (from both sides of this equation in fact) plain and simple.

It is also cheap political theater.  He is trying to use this issue to distract conservatives and get SoCons worked up into a tizzy over an issue that the President has virtually no power to do anything about.  Marriage is a state issue.  Even the likes of President Obama seems to recognize that.

I also it think it is noteworthy that he even decided to bring his daughters into this.  What happened to family being off-limits?  You either keep your children out of the campaign, or they become fair game.  You don’t get to have it both ways.

Do not be fooled by this folks.  This is a way to try and distract people off his failure of an administration, the poor economy, and all the factors that are working against him as he runs for re-election.  Don’t fall for it.  Stay on message.

Friend –

Today, I was asked a direct question and gave a direct answer:

I believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

I hope you’ll take a moment to watch the conversation, consider it, and weigh in yourself on behalf of marriage equality:

http://my.barackobama.com/Marriage

I’ve always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally. I was reluctant to use the term marriage because of the very powerful traditions it evokes. And I thought civil union laws that conferred legal rights upon gay and lesbian couples were a solution.

But over the course of several years I’ve talked to friends and family about this. I’ve thought about members of my staff in long-term, committed, same-sex relationships who are raising kids together. Through our efforts to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, I’ve gotten to know some of the gay and lesbian troops who are serving our country with honor and distinction.

What I’ve come to realize is that for loving, same-sex couples, the denial of marriage equality means that, in their eyes and the eyes of their children, they are still considered less than full citizens.

Even at my own dinner table, when I look at Sasha and Malia, who have friends whose parents are same-sex couples, I know it wouldn’t dawn on them that their friends’ parents should be treated differently.

So I decided it was time to affirm my personal belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

I respect the beliefs of others, and the right of religious institutions to act in accordance with their own doctrines. But I believe that in the eyes of the law, all Americans should be treated equally. And where states enact same-sex marriage, no federal act should invalidate them.

If you agree, you can stand up with me here.

Thank you,

Barack