Protecting Marriage from its Defenders since February 2003!

Well, I guess, when I first decided to blog, I was going to blog about the UN support of the american resolution, how they had sold out Iraq and okay'd an american occupation... with a surprising 12-0 vote total, even. But surfing around this afternoon, I have found myself a new rant.

In a recent speech proclamating October 12-18 to be MARRIAGE PROTECTION WEEK, President Bush stated:

"To encourage marriage and promote the well-being of children, I have proposed a healthy marriage initiative to help couples develop the skills and knowledge to form and sustain healthy marriages. Research has shown that, on average, children raised in households headed by married parents fare better than children who grow up in other family structures... By supporting responsible child-rearing and strong families, my Administration is seeking to ensure that every child can grow up in a safe and loving home".

The politics of american administration(s) have always been religiously christain, right and based on such prejudices. This has been made clear, in more ways then one, for time immorial... I am not sure how a nation, that soposedly supports individuality, claims to be a bastion of freedom, and pretends to support a persons right to choices, can be so fundamentally homophobic...

I support same sex marriage.

I support lasting bonds of friendship and marriage. But more importantly, I support the right for all to people to enjoy equality, and this HAS TO mean that they share the same rights as everyone else.

I reject government sponsored exclusion. Of anyone.

I reject the notion that my rights and freedoms can be valued more highly then those of another human being's. I believe that if rights and freedoms arent supported equally and defended as such then at some future point I can expect my rights and freedoms to be removed from me as well.

I believe that individual preference should govern the make up of an intimate, marital relationship. How I choose to define my sexual friendship with my chosen and trusted partner is important to the type of relationship I want to have with him, and how I chose to share my life with him. That is significantly more important to my overall personal commitment than some state governed definition of what marriage is, or is soposed to be. Ask anyone who has been divorced what the actual institution of marriage means to them.

I can tell you. It means nothing, really. What means anything at all is how two people feel about each other, and how they express their love and need to be together and share their life in a meaningful way. Marriage has to be defined between the two people who are themselves inherently involved for it to mean anything. A slip of paper does not a marriage make.

However, for the time being, we all must submit to being licensed in marriage. Any so called democratic government should extend that right of licensure to all it's citizens. It is what is fair. It is not the start of a slippery slope.

For the fundamentalist religious right christians out there among you, who may wish to suggest that traditional marriage is a sacrament and anything else is an abomination in the eyes of your righteous god, go read your precious New Testament. It doesn't cite homosexuality as being a sin, and Jesus himself, who is not portrayed as married in the story, is recorded as certainly encouraging people NOT to get married, at all.

Maybe you should/could/would start paying attention to the suggestions of acceptance and message of unconditional love that Jesus preached and believed in (and likely died for), but somehow failed to get through the notions of human selfishness and greed.

"In my fathers house there are many rooms", said Jesus. "If it were not so, I would have told you." (JOHN 14:2). A place for everyone. The whole human family.

Jesus, please save me from your followers. They are a callous and mean people. Maybe you could send them to their rooms now.