Your Religion Is Turning Me Off Religion

Normally, I respect people's right to an opinion that is different from my own. We all view the world differently, and without differing views, life surely would be mundane. But an opinion which is in opposition to basic human rights and the freedom to be oneself and to be treated as equals, is an opinion that quite frankly, sucks. And when that opinion has come about purely because of religion, it makes me question my own beliefs and whether I believe in a God that could warrant such hateful followers. My religious beliefs are a little wishy-washy to be honest. I wasn't raised in a particularly religious household. My dad is agnostic and my mother identifies as Christian, though she doesn't regularly attend church. She did however, impart Christian values on me, but encouraged me to make up my own mind faith-wise. During my teens, I definitely identified as Christian, I went to youth group occassionally and Church even less. Looking back, I really only did this because I had friends that were Christians, because there were quite a few cute boys that went to the same youth group and because I hadn't yet discovered the joy that can come from a $5 bottle of passion pop. As I've matured, my religious beliefs have not. I'm a logical, rational person. And while I belive in the concept of 'faith' and that I don't need to see something to necessarily believe in it, I also just don't know if I can believe in something that sounds more like a fairytale intended to provide guidelines for harmonious living and to give us the hope that there is something after death....that it's just not....nothing. Another reason I can't commit to the Church is because I live my life based purely on the foundation of being a good person, and showing my goodness through my words and actions. It's what my parents taught me. Fully commiting to religion (in my case, Christianity) would be in direct violation of my personal code of ethics, because I would have to adhere to the Church's prescribed ideologies on what is right and what is wrong. And if I adhered to those ideologies, I'd be jeopardizing my own beliefs of what is good. For instance - I can't get behind the idea that being gay is a sin. I'm not one hundred percent sure what the Church's official stance on this is nowadays, but I know what a lot of devoutly religious friends and family think on this matter, because they always see fit to rain on the gay parade with their vitriol. They think it's an abomination, an unnatural sin and that homosexuality is a choice that can be 'cured'. During my teens, pretty much all of my friends who were boys were gay. I didn't choose to have loads of gay friends, it just seemed to happen that way. Maybe it's that these friends gravitated towards me because I didn't judge and because my mind has never known a closed day in it's 27 years of existence. Once you've spent every day for several years with a group of gay friends, there isn't a doubt in your mind that they were born this way. They never had a choice in the matter. If they did, I feel pretty strongly that they would have chosen to be straight. You have no idea the ridicule, the judgement, the downright hate that my friends had to endure throughout high school. Nobody who had a choice, would choose that for themselves. They regularly received taunts from strangers when they were minding their own business....I remember one time we were sitting down at lunch together and some wise ass little shit decides to just randomly scream out 'Go suck a dick you Faggot!' as he walked by with his group of friends. My own Aunt (very religious) wouldn't even speak to my mother for months because she "let" me go to my Year 12 Formal with a gay boy as my date. I say "let" in quotation marks because although my mother had absolutely no qualms with me going with my friend (who she adored), she also had absolutely no say in who I went with, and had she opposed, it wouldn't have stopped me anyway. But can you believe that? My mums own God fearing sister, wouldn't speak to her for months because her daughter associated with a heartbreakingly good natured boy, who just happened to find himself attracted to other boys. Would anybody who actually had a choice choose any of that? To be so harshly judged and viewed so awfully by people they don't even know? Just like I never chose to be straight, these friends never chose to be gay.

Yet if I was religious, and to follow the Church's teachings properly, I would have to believe that my Mariah Carey loving friend could be cured of his love for men. I'd have to believe that he was sinful. I'd have to believe that my friend was going to hell for being attracted to who he's attracted to and for loving who he loves. I would have to stand in opposition to his right to marry his soulmate, purely because that soulmate turned out to be another man. How is that right? How does that make you a good person to have and stand by those beliefs? Who are you to judge? And what is your right to? And here's where we get to the crux of my irritation today. 3 days ago, the US Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage, resulting in marriage now being legal for everyone in all 50 US states. It was a huge milestone in a civil rights movement that has been ongoing since the stonewall riots in 1969. Nineteen fucking sixy nine!!! It was a long awaited win, and one that I celebrated by going to city hall to witness Mayor Bill de Blasio wed two female couples. What could be more right and good in the world then love winning? But it wasn't long before the religious folk got out their pitchforks and started decrying the ruling and spewing their hateful speech all over my newsfeed.

And to those people - this is for you...

Back the fuck off.

Marriage is not yours. Your religion didn't invent it, and your religion does not own it or have any right to a say in what it is or isn't in the eyes of the law. One of the benefits of living in the United States or Australia (who, embarassingly have not yet legalized same-sex marriage, by the way), is that we live in a secular democratic society...to put that straight...my Government should not bow to your religion.

Marriage is, first and foremost, a legally binding contract. And exactly what marriage entails and who can be married, is to be determined by public morality and logic of the times - not whatever religion, ancient fairytale or old wives tale you subscribe to. If your conscience is clean in being so judgemental and hateful to someone based not on who they are, but who they love, and you see fit to ban their marriages from taking place in a Church or by a minister of the faith, then so be it. While I still think that's disgustingly discriminatory and I don't think that's what wholesome good people would do, it is your perogative to do so. But you can not and will not stand in the way of a persons human right to the same legal rights and protections that I enjoy as a straight woman. So please, stop with your hate. Same-sex marriage is coming to a state near you VERY soon, if it hasn't already. Your religious moralities may be offended by this, but get used to it, because your religious convictions do not dictate the law of the land, and currently my personal moralities are offended at the fact we've treated so many people so unfairly for so long. We are all equal, and who we love is who we love, and we should all have the right to have that love recognized by law. As for my religious beliefs...they're still up in the air. I'd like to believe in a higher being, and to some extent, I always have. But I will not put my faith in the same God these people believe in, because that God, by my own sound judgement, doesn't sound like a good God. That God is only loving and accepting of some people. That God causes you to marginalize a sector of society and persecute them based, of all things, on who they love. The God I want to believe in accepts us all, loves us all, wants us all just to be good people and good to each other, no matter what. And above all, my God doesn't want anybody to be marginalized based on things He may or may not have said a few millenia ago. My God realises that times are changing, but one truth will always reign supreme - and that is, Love Is Love.

#Equality #Marriage #LoveIsLove #Religion