“Hate the sin, not the sinner.” An essay.

I was thinking about gay marriage tonight, and what makes it right or wrong, and what it means to me, and I’d like to write how I feel.

America, it seems, is based on morals. Why is murder illegal? Because it’s morally wrong, because you’re taking someone’s life away from them and their family. That’s not your right, just because it’s a free country. Even freedom must have it’s rules to last.

And 200 some odd years is not that long. But we’re here for now. So we must deal with this.

I asked tonight, “why are drugs illegal?” My father said that if they were, it’d be a country of underachievers, a country of hallucinations and bad trips. I think that maybe it wouldn’t be, because if you are drunk on the street it’s public lewdness, which you can be arrested for. Maybe people would just be doing acid and coke at home, watching a movie and taking care of the kids.

Then, maybe they see a demon eating their child’s forehead, so they jump on it!, they claw it away and throw it down on the floor!, bam bam BAM!, like a rag doll. They realize, only later, that they just killed their 2-year old.

Worst-case scenario, I know, but all drugs are abused. I think a lot of people would die from overdoses, and other side-effects, and I think there is a reason that drugs are illegal.

I also believe that it’s a moral issue. Imagine an America where pot is sold at a Walmart, where you can buy LSD and smack at your local Rx store.

(I do not think pot and alcohol are that different. I don’t understand why one should be legal and the other not. In this case, one is illegal because it would take away from tobacco sales.)

So the reason (hard) drugs are illegal is because, morally, it is disgusting. America would be a Sodom and Gomorrah, haven for those with a desire which nothing can quench.

I think most of the moralists, be they Christian, Jewish, or Satanist, believe if they let the reigns loose at all the horse will run wild. Absolute freedom is actually a synonym for anarchy, I believe.

Of course, this is all worst-case scenario — but it leads to my discussion on gay marriage.

In the bible (which, it seems, most of the “moral majority” base their morals upon) it states that homosexuality is a sin in itself. That has led many (many many) to be hateful towards homosexuals, as the Nazi’s were to Jews. Many of these profess to be Christians themselves, yelling toward these sexual sinners, “God hates gays!” I would say that God hates hate, and ask you what the difference is between a sexual sinner and a general sinner.

We’re all sinners, according to this faith, so what gives you the right to pick at someone for it? I propose that when people hold rallies against homosexuals (poster boards in hand, of course), homosexuals (or anyone for that matter; all sinners unite!) stand in front of them with poster boards, and on them will be written “Hate is such a strong word.” Because, I’ve gotta tell you, I believe (if homosexuality is in fact a sin) God loves gays. I believe God loves people who have sex with pigs. I believe God even loves people who lie. Who cheat.Who hate.

People’s hatred for homosexuality stems from their own prejudices, not morals, and God in this case is just a simple rationalization of their feelings. (“It’s okay, because God is good, and they are bad.”) I would say that’s one of the biggest dangers of any religion.

Now I come to it: why is homosexuality viewed as something different than adultery? — but if I were to ask that, I’d also have to ask why it’s viewed differently than murder. I’ll tell you why: because morals are based on more than just us. Morals are based on a God that many people do not believe in. To God, sin is sin, and us humans are just a sea of it. If one side is hotter or colder than the other, does that make it not sin? So, morals are seen from God’s eyes, not ours (and, really, who doesn’t wanna look good in those omnipotent and omnipresent peepers?).

To legalize gay marriage would be to recognize homosexuality as an acceptable thing, a loosening of the reigns (if you’ll recall an earlier analogy) when we don’t want the length of the reigns to change whatsoever.

You could bring up slavery, or women’s and African American’s rights to vote, or even abortion as examples of loosening the reigns; in those examples the people holding the reigns (the government) didn’t want to let go, but they did, and it was right to do. The difference with this, though, is that marriage is not an implicit right. Freedom is, as is voting, as is having dominion and rule over yourself and your own decisions, but in a way you could consider marriage a luxury.

In a society based on freedom, isn’t everyone allowed a chance at that luxury?

The main problem here, again, is morals. Where do morals end and rights begin? Is something wrong only because it’s stated as so in the bible, or is everything relative to who Paris Hilton had sex with this week? (I think, after this, I’ll stand outside her hotel room holding a poster board, yelling, “God hates pre-marital sexers!”)

I don’t have an answer. We’re all so scared of the future. So scared that our decisions now will effect the future in a bad way, should I play it safe, should I do the right thing…

And who can say, “listen to your feelings!”? Feelings betray us more than any human ever could. So we rely on morals, on God’s beautiful eyes (which, by the way, are every color you could ever imagine) to lead us through safely, to not let us be hurt.

Any decision you make will inevitably lead you to pain, because that’s life. But, life is beautiful. Life hurts, but you can really feel it, can’t you? That’s beautiful.

Marriage is a bond, marriage is a certificate, marriage is one way to get tax breaks. Marriage legitimizes a love, no matter how perverse or rotten, or real. Do I think marriage should be given to homosexuals? Yes, I think I do. Because I believe that a real love can exist between two homosexuals, I believe a real love can exist between anyone. And whether they are good sinners or bad sinners, who am I to say where they rank on Santa’s very naughty list? That’s not my job; that’s God’s.

If there is one, of course.

I also have great respect for those who disagree, who stand for not letting go of the reigns, because I do believe it is the harder of two positions. But they’re main problem is that they’re scared, afraid that people will “turn gay” because they can.

Which, yes, Might Just Happen, and probably will, who knows, worst-case scenario the human race dies out for lack of new bodies. (Another reason I support heterosexuality, it just fits!) But change is the only constant, as they say, and this is a free country.

To people who think that legalizing gay marriage will tarnish the meaning of marriage, I say to you: marriage means nothing to a lot of people. There’s a 50% divorce rate, correct? But what’s important is not what it means to them, but what it means to you. It’s the difference between a quickie and becoming one flesh together. Does seeing a hooker on a corner make you feel less in love with your partner? I would say, in fact, you would just appreciate what you have more.

In conclusion, I watched a video once of a chicken getting it’s head cut off to see how long it ran around.I was disgusted by how happy all these kids were at watching it. I think it ran around for about a minute, maybe a little more. I tell you this because everything is meaningless. My thoughts, your thoughts, but really, that’s all that matters. Life is strange because bad things can be good and good things can be bad.

And The Truth Is You Never Know.

I’d like to close now with a quote from the immortally moral words of the holy Christian bible: “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.”

Thank you for listening, and may all your marriages truly be gay.