a portrait - Ellen DeGeneres (link fix)

"David Ruether" wrote in message
...

"Savageduck" wrote in message
news:2010042008420946517-savageduck1@REMOVESPAMmecom...
On 2010-04-20 05:19:00 -0700, "Pete Stavrakoglou"
said:

Your beliefs are your beliefs, religious or otherwise. By your measure
you
have no right to impose your beliefs on anyone else. You believe that
gay
marriage is OK, you have no right to impose that on anyone who believes
otherwise.

Not "impose", but legally "provide for"...

However the reverse should also be true.
A religious lobby should not be able to impose dogmatic law and rules on
an entire population which might not follow that religion, in a supposed
secular nation.

A change in Federal Code recognizing same sex marriage, does not mean
religious groups would be forced to sanction such marriages. As such you
would be able to maintain your status quo without anything being imposed
on you.

The sad thing is those homosexual catholics (yes there are quite a few)
who have their loving relationships denied by their faith. They more than
any others have been abandoned by their church.

This country is not a theocracy, and we should be able to accommodate
those who have chosen not to follow faiths they do not believe in. As far
as those homosexual Catholics and other Christians, Jews and Muslims, who
are in same sex marriages, civil unions, or domestic partnerships, I am
sure they would love to have a degree of acceptance from their religion,
not be forced to deny their faith. Especially from a religion which is
supposed to be tolerant and charitable.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

I observed a difficult instance about 30 years ago in which a
Pentecostal kid was in the process of "coming out" as gay (he
was fully aware of who he was, and of how little his religion
accepted that integral and important part of his being), and
the struggle between his nature and his religion was obviously
painful for him. In the short run, his religion "won", and soon
after that, I lost contact. I do hope this choice didn't do too
much damage, or worse (teen suicides in this situation are not
uncommon...).
--DR

Some of these cases go, "back in the closet" and then their religion points
to them as examples of gays who were able to change and become
straight....:^)