Gay Marriage?

Until I see a god then I would believe my sexual orientation is wrong. I may believe it is wrong if I do see him, but it would never change my sexual attraction towards women.

When the world believes in one god then I would beleive there is a god if I never see it.

So what you are saying is that a homosexual can not possibly follow after Christ?
I thought he died so that all may live and have ever lasting life. We should all live exactly like Christ did without deviation? The last I checked, he did not have any intimate/ sexual relationships.

Some out there believe that Jesus was gay and advocating for his rights even way back then...but those are just a few crazy heads out there that have twisted it to suit their own views.

Anyway read.

Love is like a box of chocolates; if you chose wisely you won’t be disappointed and have to spit it out. ~T

Read all about it!

I wrote a blog about my evil, disgusting, vile lifestyle. You (and everyone who reads your blog) should read it. You can find it here:
http://www.progressiveu.org/211551-gay-life-our-dastardly-plan-destroy-i...

"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman

..our Constitution protects us from people who think that they can use the law to force other people to conform with their religious beliefs. I mean, it is really so hard to understand the words, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...?"

TTFN,
Blackout

-------------------------
Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.

Separation between Church and State. our nation is founded on this principile. we are not a country that is ruled by the Bible nor should we be ruled by a Bible because it is a religious belief, idea; a matter of opinion.
if the bible was the law then people wouldnt be able to engage in sexual activity unless they loved someone, perhaps there be a law that women would have to dress in traditional garb, and by law men would have to be the head of the household.
there would be a law that everyone must not pick up a hand or finger on the Sabbath or risk going to jail.
and there would be a law that wouldnt allow people to curse God in vain.

it would look as if we would lose most of our civil rights.

that's kind of a selfish thing to say, that you shouldn't have to be forced to recognize same-sex marriage, and that's why it should be banned. nobody said that everyone has to agree with it. you can call it wrong until you're blue in the face, but it doesn't make you right. it's an opinion. no specific person is right. the option should be there, if people want to take advantage of it. if you're against gay marriage, don't marry one. it's that simple. as for your religion telling you to show people the way of god, it's not that simple. if it was, we wouldn't have pedophiles and murderers. our constitution's first amendment gives us the freedom of religion, so it would be uncomstitutional to write legislation based on christian values. and as for god creating marriage, there are plenty of people that don't believe in the god you're referring to that are legally married, and one of the ten commandments tells people not to worship any other god so wouldn't that be just as much of a sin as homosexuality? gay people didn't vote against straight people's marriage rights, so why should we vote against theirs? these people are adults, and should be free to make their own decisions about who they love.

Do we really always have to take it back to the founding fathers? The fact is that the country was created to adjust to change, we don't need to take every issue back to the founding fathers we have provisions in our constitution to deal with them the way we want to now. Subsequently I would say that regardless of when we add things like "in god we trust" or "under God" it reflects what are or once were American values and we have the right to defend or change these regardless of what the founding fathers would have done. You will remember that they didn't give voting rights to most Americans either, would we over turn that now because they wouldn't endorse it?

Rather than considering a single quote, I would counter with the suggestion that you should read the body of Washington's writings, but public and private, and then consider as well the wealth of scholarship (both contemporary and current) regarding his life and beliefs. When you do, I think you will find that Mr. Washington's piety was something that he effected to further his political position by appealing to a certain constituency (not unlike what we see so often in modern politicians). In fact, "The Old Fox" as he was called by his contemporaries was quite evasive regarding his personal beliefs, though he was often known to pander to a religious constituency. Thomas Jefferson wrote with some humor about Washington's skill in avoiding any admission as to his personal beliefs about religion...

"Dr. Rush told me (he had it from Asa Green) that when the clergy addressed General Washington, on his departure from the government, it was observed in their consultation that he had never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address as to force him at length to disclose publicly whether he was a Christian or not. However, he observed, the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly, except that, which he passed over without notice." ~ Thomas Jefferson, quoted from Jefferson's Works, Vol. iv., p. 572.

Jefferson also wrote about Washington in his private journals that...

"I know that Gouverneur Morris, who claimed to be in his secrets, and believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more in that system than he did." The mentioned "system" of course, was christianity.

The famous barrister John Bell wrote in 1779 that Washington was "a total stranger to religious prejudices, which have so often excited Christians of one denomination to cut the throats of those of another."

Many of the day's prominent religious figures did not believe Washington to be devout in the least, either. Even the Rev. Dr. James Abercrombie (who was the rector of the church which Washington sometimes attended) stated that "Washington was a Deist", and The Rev. Abercrombie went futher in his comments, and stating in an 1833 letter that...

"With respect to the inquiry you make, I can only state the following facts: that as pastor of the Episcopal Church, observing that, on sacramental Sundays George Washington, immediately after the desk and pulpit services, went out with the greater part of the congregation -- always leaving Mrs. Washington with the other communicants -- she invariably being one -- I considered it my duty, in a sermon on public worship, to state the unhappy tendency of example, particularly of those in elevated stations, who uniformly turned their backs on the Lord's Supper. I acknowledge the remark was intended for the President; and as such he received it. A few days after, in conversation, I believe, with a Senator of the United States, he told me he had dined the day before with the President, who, in the course of conversation at the table, said that, on the previous Sunday, he had received a very just rebuke from the pulpit for always leaving the church before the administration of the sacrament; that he honored the preacher for his integrity and candor; that he had never sufficiently considered the influence of his example, and that he would not again give cause for the repetition of the reproof; and that, as he had never been a communicant, were he to become one then, it would be imputed to an ostentatious display of religious zeal, arising altogether from his elevated station. Accordingly, he never afterwards came on the morning of sacrament Sunday, though at other times he was a constant attendant in the morning."

The Rev. Bird Wilson (another prominent Episcopal leader) wrote this and delivered it as part of a sermon describing the religious beliefs of our early presidents.

"When Congress sat in Philadelphia, President Washington attended the Episcopal Church. The rector, Dr. Abercrombie, told me that on the days when the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was to be administered, Washington's custom was to arise just before the ceremony commenced, and walk out of the church. This became a subject of remark in the congregation, as setting a bad example. At length the Doctor undertook to speak of it, with a direct allusion to the President. Washington was heard afterwards to remark that this was the first time a clergyman had thus preached to him, and he should henceforth neither trouble the Doctor or his congregation on such occasions, and ever after that, upon communion days, 'he absented himself altogether from church.'"

The Rev. Bird was a noted scholar of Washington's life. In 1831, he said in an interview with Robert Owen that...

"I have diligently perused every line that Washington ever gave to the public, and I do not find one expression in which he pledges, himself as a believer in Christianity. I think anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion that he was a Deist and nothing more."

He went on to say in another, later letter that...

"His behavior in church was always serious and attentive, but as your letter seems to intend an inquiry on the point of kneeling during the service, I owe it to the truth to declare that I never saw him in the said attitude.... Although I was often in the company of this great man, and had the honor of often dining at his table, I never heard anything from him which could manifest his opinions on the subject of religion.... Within a few days of his leaving the Presidential chair, our vestry waited on him with an address prepared and delivered by me. In his answer he was pleased to express himself gratified by what he had heard from our pulpit; but there was nothing that committed him relatively to religious theory."

When Owens (who later became a Congressman) finally published his report on his discussions about Washington with the Rev. Bird, he said this...

"I called last evening on Dr. Wilson, as I told you I should, and I have seldom derived more pleasure from a short interview with anyone. Unless my discernment of character has been grievously at fault, I met an honest man and a sincere Christian. But you shall have the particulars. A gentleman of this city accompanied me to the Doctor's residence. We were very courteously received. I found him a tall, commanding figure, with a countenance of much benevolence, and a brow indicative of deep thought, apparently 50 years of age. I opened the interview by stating that though personally a stranger to him, I had taken the liberty of calling in consequence of having perused an interesting sermon of his, which had been reported in the Daily Advertiser of this city, and regarding which, as he probably knew, a variety of opinions prevailed. In a discussion, in which I had taken part, some of the facts as there reported had been questioned; and I wished to know from him whether the reporter had fairly given his words or not. I then read to him from a copy of the Daily Advertiser the paragraph which regards Washington, beginning, 'Washington was a man,' etc., and ending 'absented himself altogether from church.' 'I endorse,' said Dr. Wilson with emphasis, 'every word of that. Nay, I do not wish to conceal from you any part of the truth, even what I have not given to the public. Dr. Abercrombie said more than I have repeated. At the close of our conversation on the subject his emphatic expression was -- for I well remember the very words "Sir, Washington was a Deist.""

Washington was actually quite typical of the men who served as our earliest Presidents, and in the Rev. Bird's famous 1831 sermon, he had this to say about George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, respectively...

"The founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels, and that of the presidents who had thus far been elected not a one had professed a belief in Christianity...Among all our presidents from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not of more than Unitarianism."

And finally, I will respond with several quotations directly from Washington's works, and again one that deals specifically with the subject of government and religion...

"I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion, from the Magna-Charta of our country." ~ George Washington, Papers (1789), in response to the charge that the Constitution doesn't mention Jesus.

"Government being, among other purposes, instituted to protect the consciences of men from oppression, it certainly is the duty of Rulers, not only to abstain from it themselves, but according to their stations, to prevent it in others." ~ George Washington, letter to the Religious Society called the Quakers (1789)

And of course, my favorite Washington quote...

"The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support." ~ George Washington, letter to the congregation of Touro Synagogue (1790)

TTFN,
Blackout

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Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.