I have been working on Twitter. I tweeted so many times that I got a message that I had to wait an hour before tweeting again. I have been emailing the US Senators and the US House of Representatives. I have been mentioning to those for whom I have voted, that I did indeed vote for them. I have gotten a total of zero replies as to when anyone will bring up the Uniting American Families Act. I am frustrated and becoming saddened by the lack of interest in this bill. Some form of the bill has been introduced into Congress for the last 10 years. It has yet to come to a vote. It usually gets tabled or stuck in some Committee.
Does not Congress realize that this is not something like congratulating a football team member, people's lives are on hold. People are separated from their loved ones. People are being forced to choose between their country and their loved one. Why is this OK with some people? Just because a person does not agree with my lifestyle or my choices, do they have the right to tell me who or who not I can love?
In the last couple of weeks, I have been told that same sex relationships are the following:
an abomination, a sin, un-natural, and just plain sick
When I ask them what they base it on I get different replies. That God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of it. The Bible teaches against it. Society condemns it. I would like to address each of these replies one by one.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: For this I wish to borrow a quote from the book, The Children are Free by Rev. Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connoley:
Since the Middle Ages, many Christian theologians have view this story as a blanket condemnation of homosexuality. ...
The text of the story tells us that 'the men of Sodom, both young and old, all of the people to the last man" gathered at Lot's door and demanded that his guests be brought out to them. This language is important because it makes clear that the group at Lot's door was comprised of either all of the people of the city (men and women) or, at a minimum, all the males of the city, both boys and men. This is a telling fact.
Today, San Francisco has the reputation for being the "gayest" city in the world. Yet even in San Francisco, gay men constitute far less than half the the total male population. If the Scripture text had told us that "certain men of Sodom" or even "many men of Sodom" gathered at the door, we might then surmise that the men at the door could have been motivated by homosexual desire. But the text says "both young and old, all the people to the last man" gathered at the door. To suggest that every man and boy in Sodom was homosexual is simply not credible. Any reasonable interpretation of the story must account for the fact that all the males of Sodom (both homosexual and heterosexual), and perhaps even the women, participated in this attack. Something other than homosexual desire seems to have been at work here.
This point is reinforced by another fact recounted in the story. We are told that Lot, in a last-ditch effort to save his guests, offered his virgin daughters to the men at the door. Although Lot's offer is reprehensible, it does yield another important clue... Would it make any sense to offer them a beautiful woman? Of course not! If the men were motivated by homosexual desire, offering them heterosexual sex instead would be nonsensical. Lot knew the mew of Sodom much better than any of today's fundamentalist preachers do and it is obvious he believed the crowd outside was predominantly heterosexual. Why else would he offer his daughters?
...
From archeological records, we know it was also a common practice in the Near East during ancient times for soldiers to use homosexual rape as humiliating their enemies....The practice was not driven by sexual desire, but by brutality and hatred toward the enemy.
There are about twenty references to the story of Sodom in the Bible, and none of them says homosexuality was the sin of Sodom. One of the most extensive references to Sodom is found in Ezekiel, which says, "This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominable thing before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it," Ezekiel 16:49-50
[To purchase this book please go to the following link: http://www.jesusmcc.org/resource/free.html]
A lot of people have told me that having a homosexual relationship is a sin. Is that why we can get the Uniting American Families Act passed? It is a sin???!!!?? Let's just go with that. For arguments sake, we will say that. I do not believe that, but for right now, we will pretend that they are a sin. Why is this sin so special? Why don't we forbid entry into our country those who have broken the 10 commandments? Why don't we throw out those who have lied. That is one of the 10 commandments. Oh now here is a big one.. coveting. If you have ever said that you wanted someone else stuff, that is a sin. It breaks the law of Moses and the prophets. Why do we allow them to sponsor their opposite sex partners when they are lying people who take the name of the Lord in vain? If we are going to make it an issue for one "sin" we must make it a law for each and every sin.
As for the arguments that it is unnatural and just plain sick, well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I think that smoking is just plain sick, but I do not tell people that they cannot enter the country because of my opinion. I think that WWF wrestling is unnatural, but that doesn't change the mind of the millions of fans that they have and I do not try to change their minds.
Keeping couples apart just because we can, is cruel. Keeping couples apart because they have a belief system that we think is wrong, is cruel. Keeping couples apart because the same people who picketed Elizabeth Edwards' funeral, think that it is an abomination, well that is just plain not nice.
We are people who are in love with someone who lives in another country. Because of an old society belief, we are forbidden to be with that loved one. Because of prejudice, hate, fears, and false beliefs, I cannot have Christmas with the one I love. How is that Christian? How is that protecting my rights as an American citizen?
Pass the Uniting American Families Act. Do it now. Since 2010 the bill has been before Congress, it is time to pass it. Write, call, email and tweet your Representatives and Senators. Tell them we can wait no longer for this bill to pass.
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