The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

More prestidigitation

Am I the only one who doesn't entirely trust the Mormon Church?

Yesterday the Salt Lake City Council passed a GLBT rights ordinance immediately after some guy from the RLDS showed up and told them it was ok. Seriously, that's whathappened.

This guy stands up and makes a statement saying that the RLDS Church is not against gay rights just gay maraiage, and the ordinance gets a unanimous vote.

Is that not THE most effective support of my argument that religion runs this country?

It has to stop. We're headed for witch hunts and burnings at the stake. Justice Scalia would approve them if asked I'm sure.

I know there are radical gay groups extant that exist solely for the purpose of directly challenging these ridiculous narrow-minded interpretations of the Constitution, but as with all our leadership it's ineffectual.

There seems no way to release these rights from the clutches of those who'd rather see us dead than to diretly and physically challenge.

However there is! Non-violence is perhaps one of the smartest ways of making a point and making the opposition the bad guy. Let them drag you off to jail a few times to make your point and I bet the tide starts to turn. It'll be slow going, but it'll work.

With all the focus on violence and acts of force this past decade it's easy for Americans to forget the tactics of some of the most effective protests in history.

Thoreau, Gandhi, King. All advocates of non-violent resistance. And very successfully I might add. Thoreau said it's our duty. He was right.

I'm using the widely discredited Wikipedia here, but it does address Thoreau's essay's on non-violence and in paraphrasing one of them- "It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice."

Tell me honestly that anyone with a conscience wouldn't readily admit that allowing religion to run the government and therefore to rule the country is not wrong, and that theocracy is systematically denying Constitutional rights to our gay citizens.

Just a few days ago I published a quote from Jon Stewart of the Daily Show: -”Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have for religion — we protect religion. And talk about a lifestyle choice — that is absolutely a choice… It’s a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case that they deserve the same basic rights as someone else…”

It is a travesty, and we must take action to reverse this destructive course. The question is; Will we get smart and take the non-violent course of action, or will we repeat the mistakes of the last decade and continue to be the most violent nation on earth?

And so it goes:

Love