I saw a posting on Buzzfeed.com today that got my attention. There is a photograph of a sign at St. Francis Xavier church that says, “Two men are friends not spouses.” Next to the sign is a handwritten sign tacked to a wooden fence that says, “You may not be welcome in this church, but ALL people are welcome in this community! Spread LOVE, not hate!!!!.”
Here is the question as I see these two signs: “Which sign is actually advocating hate and people not being welcome?”
A clue may come from the comments of Vanessa Raymond, who is the one who posted the sign. She says, “I posted this sign and balloon today…I HAD to! I will not tolerate this behavior in my community, no matter who or where it comes from. I had NO IDEA this would gain nationwide press, but I am glad that my small action prompted this uproar…I am planning a peaceful “protest” Sunday morning…check my FB page for further info! THanks for all the support! (Love a Straight-spiritual-yet-not-religious-believer-in-what-is-right!)”
So here is something really interesting. The sign is about love and tolerance and EVERYONE being welcome in her community. But her explanation of the sign is about intolerance, causing an uproar, and Christians not being welcome in her community.
You see, it’s exactly as I called it when I posted a few days ago, saying that legalizing gay marriage will unleash a torrent of intolerance. The push to re-define marriage as including homosexual relationships is not about rights and tolerance, it’s about shutting people up because what they say makes certain people uncomfortable. The tolerance rhetoric is a mask.
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HI David. I can respect your position, especially when considering marriage within a religious context rather than civil. However, I would pose a thought to you in reference to your comment about “forcing me to call things marriage…” No one is forcing you to call gay “union” anything you don’t want to. Nor are they requiring religious institutions to recognize gay marriage. You could never force a particular religious body to recognize gay marriage and, therefore, no one is forcing Christianity as an institution or Christians to recognize gay marriage. This discussion is primarily based around equal preference being given to gay couples in a variety of different areas (tax filing, estate treatment, healthcare and insurance, etc.) The fact is: We took a religious union and gave it government benefits, which raises some issues in the first place, but we’ll set that aside for now. What needs to be resolved is the fact that gay couples who wish to remain in committed long-term and legally binding relationships cannot access the same benefits that married couples enjoy.
Response by David Hall:
Zach,
There you go again, pretending to be tolerant. You say no one is requiring religious institutions to recognize gay marriage, but this case plainly illustrates that is not true. This church posted a sign saying that they do not want to call the union of two males to be spouses, they want to call that “friends.” And Vanessa says, “I will not tolerate this behavior in my community, no matter who or where it comes from.” The sign uses the language of tolerance, but the cat is out of the bag – she admits that the emotion behind it is intolerance. You and your people are NOT leaving this church alone. Vanessa gets in there and causes an uproar.
What is the “Wipe out Homophobia Facebook Group” that Vanessa is from? It’s precisely what it says it is. Believing in traditional marriage is, in the eyes of its members, homophobia, and the group intends to wipe that out. That’s pretty plain. No, the tolerance is all pretense and rhetoric, while the force of your actions and the emotion behind them is plainly intolerance.
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Dave,
You are on one end of the spectrum and are only looking at the extreme opposite. A quick Google search for negative anti-gay marriage behavior yields frightening results. Luckily people aren’t basing their whole opinion off of the few whackjobs out there. Most pro-gay marriage people I know wouldn’t label everybody else as a homophobe.
I get it, you believe it’s more than civil rights. You believe the gays want to control what you say. I’m sorry but since when did Christians have a monopoly on the word marriage? Do other religions not believe in marriage? Dave, your religion recognizes only one marriage that is capable getting to the highest heaven so why are you so concerned about civil marriage? Gays aren’t protesting to get into the temples.
How would the government recognizing the union between two members of the same gender have any impact on your life?
Response by David Hall:
Sam,
I am fascinated analyzing the comments of people and figuring out why they choose to believe what they do, and how so many people go through so many gyrations of logic to justify that. Here I point out a clear example of the intolerance of pro-gay-marriage activists their intolerance of the views of this church, and their stated intentions of “wiping out” opposing views, and you want to switch the conversation to a discussion of whether or not this represents a majority opinion of gays. Why do you have such trouble coming to grips with what is going on here? It’s fascinating. I don’t suppose most gays are gay activists, but what does that have to do with this?
And then you counter the plain evidence that gay activists want to push this definition of marriage on all of us with this feeble statement about Christians not having a monopoly on the word marriage. In my previous post, I mentioned that gays, if they want to call their homosexual unions “marriage,” are welcome to do so. This isn’t about letting people alone to call things what they want – this is about giving a definition the force of law, and then following it up with continued pressure to “wipe out” any contrary beliefs. But you just refuse to acknowledge any of this that is going on.
And then this gay rights mantra, how will this have any impact on your life? Again, that’s what this post and my previous post are all about, but you cannot give so much as a word of acknowledgement of any of these examples. That is so fascinating to me. For those actually interested in the answer to that question, let me help you. Do a Google search on Prop 8 violence. You’ll find examples of stealing, vandalism, blacklisting, boycotts, and physical violence. And then, a little bitty example of vandalism that’s somewhat personal for me, this picture of a sign from a building of my church, the LDS church, spray painted with “No On 8.”
And your response is that this isn’t a majority of gays who are doing the vandalism. How comforting. I have been around for long enough to recognize that you’ve decided what you want to believe here, and your willful blindness is an indication of how firm that decision is. I understand. It’s uncomfortable standing up to this. These people are intimidating.