I want to clear some things up

Over the last couple of weeks, I've engaged in a pretty heated debate on Facebook responding to the statement from Chick-Fil-a regarding "traditional biblical marriage" and gay rights.  Then, a college friend posted a very poignant picture of a 12-week old fetus as an abortion deterrent. In the past I've been involved in heated debates about abortion rights.

    Look, I do not support, endorse or ever intend to have an abortion.  I feel terribly sorry for those who do.  I think it's wrong, I think it's murder.

    But it's protected under the Constitution.

    And regardless of mine or any other person's personal feelings about whether or not abortion is ethical, evil, reprehensible or even reliable birth control (?!), the fact remains that when the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, it made it legal. 

    Same thing with gay rights.  Although I don't harbor any anti-gay sentiments myself, I recognize that there are people who have been taught that the Bible is clear cut on the issue: Jesus hates Gays and That's That.  While there are a million reasons why this is just not good Biblical scholarship, not representative of an understanding of Christianity, and just plain wrong, my arguments with people have hinged on just a few important points.

    Gay marriage is protected under the Constitution.

  No really.  The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

   All persons.  Not all straight persons.  Not all Christians. Not all any-one-group-to-the-exclusion-of-another.

   So why does this debate even exist?  Mainly, I think, because it is the Pet Issue of certain groups of Christians.  Generally the same people who want the government out of their healthcare but want the government to require a woman to have an ultrasound before an abortion.

   I have often been told (in all caps) that all morality derives from religion, therefore it is impossible to make laws that aren't influenced by religion.  Although I will allow that many people derive their moral compass from their faith, I'd argue that Christianity doesn't have the lock-up on morals.  I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of the Ten Commandments were things generally frowned upon by societies that flourished long before the emergence of monotheistic religion.  I don't think that in Ancient Sumer it was considered cool to murder, steal, etc...... Actually, if I'm not mistaken, the Code of Hammurabi pretty much laid that out.  And what scares the jeepers out of me is the idea that a large segment of Americans seem to want this country to operate as a theocracy instead of a democracy.  A theocracy- a government based on religious laws.  If you're interested in how that would turn out, I'd invite you to take a look at Afghanistan and the Middle East.  Swell, no?
 
      Theocracies scare me.   They scare me because I think our founding fathers were really intelligent when they put in the Constitution that:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...."  The Founders seemed to understand that for a nation to be free, for the Bill of Rights to matter, the government had to be secular.  Otherwise, why bother with a Constitution at all?  Just follow the Levitical laws as they appear in the Bible and have a nice, Biblical society.  Except the laws laid out in the Bible sometimes directly contradict what Americans have come to think of as moral.....

    So why is it so hard for Christians to separate the idea of democracy with the idea of theocracy?  I totally understand that mainstream and evangelical Christianity thinks it has the monopoly on determining right and wrong; but that's not how our country was founded.  We were founded as the place where people could go when no other place on Earth accepted them. Granted, those people were some pretty hardcore religious fundamentalists, but their purpose in coming here remains the same. 

     So whether or not your faith allows you to agree or disagree with the sinfulness of abortion, gay marriage, eating pork, cutting your hair, or anything that your particular faith holds out as a non-negotiable sin, the tenants of one faith have no place in being the basis for legislation in this country. So I invite people to make their own decisions regarding whether or not they would like to participate in gay marriage and/or have an abortion based on their own faith.  However, to use religion to justify oppressing or denying rights to a citizen of this country is flatly against the laws of this nation.

   And on a parting note, I am particularly disgusted by the reaction I've gotten from so. many. conservative. Christians- that the only reason I would have these heretical thoughts and words is because I haven't read or don't understand the Bible. (Someone actually argued that Jesus taught against homosexuality.... in reality Jesus never even mentioned the subject in scripture.) I've had the First Amendment tossed at me, the "I have a right to my opinion," all of it.... but it changes nothing.  I'm not arguing that people can't be anti-abortion and homophobic or homodisliking. I'm arguing that morality that you have derived from your own religion has no place forcing laws on others.  And I'm calling it hypocritical to say that some biblical laws matter and some don't.  If you're condemning gays based on the Bible, then please show me that you're living by every other law.  And if your shirt is a cotton/poly blend, you've already struck out.