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Jun. 3rd, 2005 08:08 am
Vegetarianism: A Metaphor for Gay Marriage
In which the Mahdi equates Gay Marriage to Vegetarianism,
Right Wing-ers are castigated,
And work-time is wasted.
(Bear with me here, dear reader. All will become clear.)
The problem with right-wing political thought on Gay Marriage is not, if you'll forgive me, that conservatives believe that gay marriage is wrong. Everyone has the right to hold their own opinion, even stupid bigoted ones, and I can respect that.
The problem arises when these politicians/ministers/religious persons try to hold the rest of us to their worldview. So you belive homosexuality, and thus gay marriage, is wrong? Fair enough. But see that guy over there? He doesn't agree with you. Why should he be forced to live your way?
Here's where the vegetarian thing comes in. Elli is a vegetarian. I am not. She could have been unreasonable and demanded I become one to marry her, but she did not. Our only rules about meat are that she will never cook it for me, and I must always clean up after myself. That's it. It's very accomodating, and in thanks for her understanding and reasonable attitude, I try to keep the meat to a minimum. I eat it sometimes, but not every night, or even every other night. I clean up after myself as soon as I reasonably can. I never ask Elli to do any of the cooking chores. If we're going to grill both vegetable and meat stuff, I wait until hers is done before I contaminate the grill. It's an equitable and easy balance, and we've become quite good at it.
In the same way, gay marriage and conservative christians could coexist. Let gays marry, but also protect the ability of churches to not perform said marriages if the pastor/minister/priest and his congregation don't want to. Hell, I think that's a horribly bigoted stance, but I'll be the first guy to vote for a law protecting their ability to say "Not in this Church," because the legal and the religious marriage are two seperate things. In other words, let those who don't want to have the mess in their church avoid it just like Elli avoids touching meat.
Simple, no?
Let the debate begin!
Right Wing-ers are castigated,
And work-time is wasted.
(Bear with me here, dear reader. All will become clear.)
The problem with right-wing political thought on Gay Marriage is not, if you'll forgive me, that conservatives believe that gay marriage is wrong. Everyone has the right to hold their own opinion, even stupid bigoted ones, and I can respect that.
The problem arises when these politicians/ministers/religious persons try to hold the rest of us to their worldview. So you belive homosexuality, and thus gay marriage, is wrong? Fair enough. But see that guy over there? He doesn't agree with you. Why should he be forced to live your way?
Here's where the vegetarian thing comes in. Elli is a vegetarian. I am not. She could have been unreasonable and demanded I become one to marry her, but she did not. Our only rules about meat are that she will never cook it for me, and I must always clean up after myself. That's it. It's very accomodating, and in thanks for her understanding and reasonable attitude, I try to keep the meat to a minimum. I eat it sometimes, but not every night, or even every other night. I clean up after myself as soon as I reasonably can. I never ask Elli to do any of the cooking chores. If we're going to grill both vegetable and meat stuff, I wait until hers is done before I contaminate the grill. It's an equitable and easy balance, and we've become quite good at it.
In the same way, gay marriage and conservative christians could coexist. Let gays marry, but also protect the ability of churches to not perform said marriages if the pastor/minister/priest and his congregation don't want to. Hell, I think that's a horribly bigoted stance, but I'll be the first guy to vote for a law protecting their ability to say "Not in this Church," because the legal and the religious marriage are two seperate things. In other words, let those who don't want to have the mess in their church avoid it just like Elli avoids touching meat.
Simple, no?
Let the debate begin!