reply to post by Anesthesia
People fear what they don't understand, and people fear change.
How often have we heard the elderly (or even the not so elderly) talking about the good 'ol days, and how they were oh so respectful, and how
children never respect their elders these days. I was always told that, even though I was extremely respectful, until my psychotic birth mother really
went off the deep end. I believe this was either Babylonian or Assyrian, but this ancient writing said that effectively "the end of the world is at
hand, children disrespect their elders, and women are learning to read..."
No different! This mentality has persisted since the beginning of time. It is always easier to close one's mind, then scream at the top of one's
lungs at those who disagree, than it is to look at the real implications as to what one is speaking and see if indeed one's beliefs are actually
productive or are actually destructive.
My father is a typical middle American conservative racist. N** this, and N** that, and he tries to blame my college education for corrupting me,
because I reject his blind abject hatred of a particular skin color (an all around good guy, but man accepting that part of his personality is all I
can do to keep from knocking him out every time he says something racist which isn't all that often, thank the gods).
Why do I have to put up with racism? Because I love him. Because I know that I can be the bigger, more intelligent and patient individual in that
respect, and tearing up my home over his foolishness is WRONG. He knows I disagree with him, and sometimes we will get into it, but then we let it go.
Discrimination to more than a few conservatives is only wrong when they are being discriminated against. Anyone who truly understands the horrors of
discrimination are loathe to ever accept that witches should not be tolerated to live (which was mistranslated from poisoner), or that loving your
neighbor as yourself only pertains to those who follow your beliefs.
The book of John addresses this with the conflicts between two groups of Christians who were fighting over whether it was ok to eat meat blessed
before an idol. He stated quite clearly that if they are not forcing one another to forsake their beliefs, then how they choose to live is far less
important than living in peace and not killing one another over meat.
See, the biggest problem with people who have problems with homosexuality is that they fear that somehow another person's personal choices reflects
on them. God will reject our neighborhood if we have a fag living here (or once upon a time a black person). Or our country. It is not possible to
live and let live, if you insist on creating broad reaching laws affecting a minority because their non harmful habits bother you (they will say they
are harmful, just like Americans did to the Native Americans trying to brand tribalism, their way of life as communism) you cannot get rid of
something unless you convince enough people the act is harmful, contaminating, or evil. That is what this type of agenda tries to push.
With enough people who prefer to live their OWN lives rather than insist that everyone conform to their ideals and beliefs, these people will
eventually learn to keep their hatred mostly to themselves. Look at racism, I have seen old footage of full daylight processions of supposed 'good'
Christians, business men, and other affluent members of society supporting the Klu Klux Klan. Anyone can use practically any belief system to breed
hatred, and they did so rather convincingly. What is the difference between saying Jews are a defect, and saying homosexuals are a defect? NOTHING. By
the way, the scientific notion of racism was Eugenics. The perfection of race through selective breeding.
The Nazis said many of the same things about Jews that conservatives say about homosexuals. They just try to word it slightly differently, because
they are not drawing the comparison or conclusion that I am speaking of. Also in the same way if you give in at all, it just won't be about keeping
homosexuals from marriage, then others will try to separate them from society, or try to 'convert' them, much like the Native Americans had
conversion forced upon them. Be like white people, be like us, give up your beliefs and we will give you ours, or we will force you to. It does not
end until they lose their pulpit, and more open minded people are allowed to help moderate society in a more balanced way (including allowing closed
minded people to keep their opinions).
[edit on 16-5-2008 by GideonHM]
I just wanted to understand the extent on what your views were with the PDA stuff. Thanks for the elaboration too.
