March 2nd: Making the Separation

In case being considered racist wasn’t enough, Arizona now wants to add “homophobic” to their list of adjectives.

Earlier last week, the state was discussing the possibility of passing a law that would allow business owners the opportunity to deny service to any customer on the grounds of their own religious beliefs. While not explicitly stated, this would effectively allow an Arizona business to reject gay customers because, in their eyes, a patron’s sexuality is an insult to their moral integrity.

There have, of course, been a wide variety of reactions from the American public. On one side, a few states have joined in, including Missouri and Mississippi, attempting to write their own, similar pieces of legislation. On the other side, there were rumors that the NFL would refuse to host Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona’s University of Phoenix Stadium as it had originally planned, in protest of the bill.

This ridiculous law is a thinly veiled attempt to suffocate the people of Arizona within the context of the Christian religious values that the few in power hold. This is, though, a blatant violation of the idea behind the first amendment. While it can safely hide behind the fact that it doesn’t distinguish between faiths, it is the imposition of faith upon citizens in a baseless way that is contradictory to everything this country stands for.

One question, though, that comes to mind is how a religious Christian will identify a gay when they walk into a business. Are you going to deny someone service if they are holding another man’s hand? If they are wearing jeans that are a little too tight? If your gay-dar just kinda sends you that vibe? This looks like a heinously arbitrary way of allowing for terrible action against another human being with no basis in real business or economic success.

As an active member of a religious community, it drives me crazy to see religion used as a template for hate. This is, after all, what is going on here. Christian extremists have hijacked the social advancement of this country and need to be put back in their place. Not only are they imposing their religious beliefs on the rest of the country, but they are giving all religious people of all faiths a bad rap.

There’s another piece of the puzzle, though, that the Christian right may not have fully considered: to allow this law to take effect, it would open the door to all religions and all views, not just the white majority. If this were to have happened, it would bring up the opportunity for a Muslim to refuse service to a Jews, a Jew to refuse service to a Christian, or any other form of otherwise baseless discrimination. The idea of a member of another religion using their faith to deny service would leave any soap box preacher crying.

Luckily, Governor Jan Brewer vetoed the bill. For the time being, this will not be accepted into the legislation of our country. That doesn’t mean, though, that we’re in the clear.

This all really comes down to power, and the fear of losing it. As society changes and move progressively forward, there is a small group of Christians (not all Christians by any means) that is afraid of growing impotent at the hands of the gays and the blasphemers.

Using religion as a basis for discrimination and hatred is a fundamental error in the understanding of faith. Anyone who uses the Bible in a way that causes another person harm or emotional distress is bastardizing the real meaning behind faith. Religion is a way that an individual can wake up in the morning and live a meaningful life. Religion is a way to do what is best for one’s own self. There is no way to read the Bible and come away with hate.

If there is a debate that the Christian right would like to have, let’s have it. We can talk, we can learn, we can move forward together. But using legislation to write discrimination and hate into our laws will not be accepted. If an individual wants to use his or her faith to make life more meaningful, by all means. I, of all people, understand. Religion as a means to ruin the life of someone else, though, will not be tolerated.

Pushing it around

The topic of bullying has taken the country by storm in the past few months. Almost every school, youth group, club, and social organization has discussed the numerous deaths this year due to bullying related incidents, many because of homosexuality.
This past weekend, I participated in a program through my youth group discussing bullying and what forms it takes, along with many ideas about how it happens, why it happens, and how best to stop it. These experiences inspired me to write down my thoughts from the conversation in a post.

First of all, bullying has evolved as I have gotten older. It used to be a physical thing, making one kid actually feel physically intimidated by another. One kid was bigger, thus better at football, thus the kid who could exert influence over anyone else. Now, bullying isn't even seen through the term "bullying". Instead, teasing, harassment, hazing, and a plethora of other synonyms pepper society. All in all, the terms may change but the feelings are the same: the horrible feeling of not being loved, not being accepted, and not being good enough.

Whether or not it was recent or more in the past, everyone has been on either the giving end or receiving end of bullying at some point in their lives. The fact that it is so common should, in theory, lead to its demise. It is not, however, so easy to buck the trend and to get over the social tendency to make other feel bad in favor of a more positive environment. Unfortunately, all too often people see these types of acts as needing vengeance, and therefore pay it forward in a negative way, rather than doing the right thing and braking the chain.

The easiest type of bullying to do and the hardest to break is the act of doing nothing. When we sit back and let other people get bullied or harassed, we are just as guilty of the pain that that person suffers as the person actually doing the bullying. It isn't easy to stand up to someone who is tormenting someone else. There is a fear sometimes that the person will turn their attack on you, instead of the original target. Despite this, we need to be the bigger person in these situations and take a stand against those who attempt to break down the community that we try so hard to build up.

It is each of our jobs to stop this behavior in its tracks. No longer is it acceptable to stand idly by and watch others be put down, hurt, and emotionally beaten for any reason at all, whether it be because of race, sexual orientation, religious view, or simply who they are and what they enjoy doing. We are the generation that will stop this sort of behavior and instead build communities that encourage everyone to become better, to live together happily and to be truly happy. This might sound idealistic, but if we don't try to make ideal situations realities, the only one who we are beating is ourselves.

Part 1: Picking Fix

This is the first in a four part series of posts that deal with some of my most significant feels about change in the current world.

Over the past several weeks, I have had several conversations with my father, as well as a wide variety of other people about a topic that has always fascinated me as well as haunted me. This idea is that of social change: How do we bring it about, what do we want to bring, and how long will it take are just a few of the questions. With all of the time that I spend in youth group and other similar organizations, the idea of social action is incredibly common to discuss and execute. What interests me is the difference between social action and social justice.

Whenever anyone asks me, I always say that I am much less interested in social action and much more interested in social justice. The primary difference is that social action works to try to ease an issue, whereas social justice works more to completely end an issue in society.

I am constantly thinking of things that bother me about society. My biggest issue deals with our selection of passions. Why is it that so many people are arguing about gay and lesbian rights? Why can’t we just let the homosexuals alone and let them live freely? At the VERY LEAST it doesn’t affect anyone else. It isn’t bothering some snooty heterosexual who before was taking an active stance against gay rights. There are so many more pressing issues: starvation, poverty, disease, and a thousand more life threatening problems. I’m not saying gays shouldn’t have rights. Quite the opposite. I think we should stop questioning and debating their rights and simply give them to them and move on to more pressing issues.

I think it is of vital importance to find the things that are most important to our society that we need to change and to start as soon as possible. The days of being able to sit back and let others fix the world are over. We, each and every one of us, needs to start the work to repair those things that are plaguing our society and make sure that we are going about our lives the right way.