Interesting Facebook conversation...

[Blue]

Yep, it's all in thew way you present something. Same with being gay itself. If you are open but not pushy or flamboyant about it, most people don't have a problem with you because you don't come across as if you are trying to force your ways on them. You simply have chosen a live and let live stance and, are being honestly yourself in a mature, respectful way.

Same with SSM, the very word MARRIAGE is the problem. To the traditionalist, it feels like we are trying to usurp, take over something that they feel is uniquely theirs. Change the wording a little and, now it's equal but different and, that's fine. Yes I know that raise the "separate but equal" segregation red flags, but that's the only way we will get mainstream fundamentalists to accept the concept and not see it as a threat to something they hold sacred.

[dfiant]

Marriage was originally a RELIGIOUS ceremony,

I would have taken him to task on that point, it is simply not true, it is not a fact. It is a tradition that has been adopted by religion, the actually tradition of marriage preceedes relgion.

[Rainbowmum]

Awesome share thank you.

I wonder if Adam and Eve were married?

[monk]

I wonder if Adam and Eve were married?

And if so, who performed the ceremony?

[princealbertofb]

I still think that people who confuse effect and affect can't all be speaking their own minds properly.... Sorry about that rant.

[princealbertofb]

Where does that notion that marriage is a religious thing come from? I believe while the USSR banned all forms of religion some years ago, people would still get married in the eyes of society... (Of course, we won't ask the Russians to agree to same sex marriage just now, given what's going on there for same sex couples at the moment, but let's hope they get to their senses?)

Marriage is a contract, and was long operated without any notion of love (a relatively new concept, romantic love being the basis for marriage - 19th century), and in many cases without the idea of consent. Forced marriages are still a common practice in many parts of the world. It's a way of pairing people off to make their futures relatively ''safe'' (I use those words loosely, naturally).

[Pix]

Why is it that it's okay bash gays, pagans, and anyone else but then turn around and cry foul if anyone from these groups tries to politely (or not so politely) correct them?

Don't forget that plenty of denominations bash other denominations, too. For example, many denominations bash Catholics as pagan idol worshipers and Jehovah Witnesses as unpatriotic scum that refuse to serve in the military or pledge allegiance. But they tend to be so arrogant that they think only they can have special rights and that anyone else who tries to get equal rights are themselves trying to get special rights (psychological projection is a big thing with them).

[fr0sty]

It still bugs me when someone says things along the lines of "people WANT to be gay" or "CHOOSE to be gay"....

in fact, i'm just beginning to accept those feelings that I have...growing up I felt kinda like I had an illness. I remember, even for a brief period, despising straight couples because they never had to feel like there was something wrong with their feelings. they never had to fall for someone and know that no matter WHAT they did (cut their hair, lose/gain weight, change their style of clothing, adjust their personality) that person who they had feelings for could not EVER have feelings for them because it was not physically possible for them.

How could someone even begin to think that kind of suffering is something that a person would WANT or CHOOSE??? How ignorant do you have to be to believe that someone would purposely do inflict so much emotional and sometimes physical pain on themselves...and continue to do so throughout the course of a lifetime?

No disrespect to your friend, I just don't understand people saying that. To his other words, however, I'm glad to see a mature response to the situation. I'm sure a lot of people really are hung up on that word.

[princealbertofb]

For me, a rose by any other name is still a rose, and I'm much more concerned about equality and the practical points far more than a label (especially in our age of spin where words are regularly twisted to mean things other than what's being communicated about).

That said, it's so sad and pathetic that they just can't get over the word "marriage" as if Christians had it copyrighted and it just "bothers" them that someone else uses it (I hear there are also Christians upset that non-Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter, too, even the pagans who actually have more cause to celebrate it than the Christians ). You know, I think if religion were a product that you snorted or shot up instead of a belief you held to (even when it made no sense) that it would be illegal like many other drugs that make people stupid and belligerent. Not that I'm advocating the prohibition of either drugs or religion (and lots of decent people manage to function on one or both), just saying...

Wasn't it Karl Marx who said that ''Religion is the opium of the people / masses''? Your analogy is not far-fetched at all.

[Blue]

Just as an example of how ridiculous it can be, I'll give you a run down of the load of crap I was raised with.

1. Sex period was evil if you were not married to the person you were having sex with.
2. Being homosexual was evil because God said "and if a mam lay with a man as with a woman, he should be stoned unto death." Which, of course meant that it was a deadly sin, and you should repent and sin no more.
3. Thinking about a sin is the same as doing a sin, if you think it, you have done it in God's eyes.
4. Most religious people were in fact doomed to damnation, no matter what they did.
a. Jews because they rejected the New Testament.
b. All others because they were all repeatedly breaking the fourth commandment by going to church on Sunday rather than Saturday.
4. Only 144,000 people in all the world were ever going to go to Heaven, so if you were not perfect, you would not be going anyway. Ways not to be good enough included:
a. being anything but heterosexual.
b. having money beyond what you needed to survive and pay tithe.
c. even once, being proud of anything about yourself.
d. taking a job that required you to work anytime after sunset Friday through sunset Saturday.
e. failing to properly discipline your children, using a rod or paddle of some kind.
f. listening to, viewing or reading any media or entertainment that did not come form the church library or, was no specifically approve by the church.
g. disregarding any of Ellen G. White's commands, and that included admonition against eating meat, eating cheese, eating fish, eating poultry, wearing any clothing that might even reveal a hint of having a decent body, wearing make up or fragrances and a lot more.

We had to have 7 years of supplies stored because any day the Mark of the beast was coming and, we would not be able to buy anything or even leave our home.

Insane I know, but that's what at least one religion does to people. You'd think anyone with any sense would see that isn't right, but no, they honestly think they are the only ones in the entire wold that are right.

That's the kind of brainwashing we are fighting when we ask for SSM, or even the right to be openly LGBT.