"Gay Marriage" and other Red Herrings.

Okay, before you think this is going to be someone irrationally bashing someone's choice of a homosexual lifestyle, please stop. I'm not about that and neither is the article.

I don't want there to be any misunderstandings. I don't agree with a homosexual lifestyle. It's not for me. Besides, since I was raised in a home that followed a Christian faith (put the stone down) I believe it's a moral sin to practice homosexuality. Why? Well, there's a passage in the Bible specifically mentioning it in pretty black and white terms (no, this will also not be a sermon, I'm just laying out a foundation for this article). However, since God's greatest gift is free will it is up to each of us individually to decide what belief system (if any) we wish to follow. And, since there is also multiple passages in the same Bible condemning the practice of casting judgment on others (that's God's job, not ours) along with admonishments to be caring and protective of each other then I find it hard to believe someone who is spewing bile and hate out of one side of their mouths while also claiming to be a Christian out of the other.

Hate the sin, NOT the sinner (particularly useful advice since we are ALL sinners and that God judges sin equally. There is no "this sin is worse than that one" scale).

I don't agree with homosexuality but I also don't hold it against anyone for choosing it either. I have just as many faults as the next person and I try very hard not to be a hypocrite. I've arrested many people for doing terrible things and some of them were a lot nicer than some of the so-called "normal" people walking around with a veil of civility about them.

Okay, enough of that. If you are still reading this you are about to be told that this article ifs actually about our beloved politicians using hot-button issues as a distraction to keep our attention away from things we should be concentrating on.

Gay Marriage is just one of them that has been getting sporadic media attention of late. Hence, it's topical. See what I did there?

The concept of what is being called "Gay Marriage" by the popular media is actually extremely easy to figure out. If it weren't for most people's ignorance and inability to separate their emotional knee-jerk reaction from an attempt at knowledgeable debate this wouldn't even be a discussion. Of course, neither would have slavery, civil rights and the women's equal rights movement... I digress.

The easiest way to look at this particular issue is to separate the two types of "marriage". The civil contract and the religious ceremony. They are two distinct things. The more important from a Constitutional standpoint is the civil contract. The religious ceremony, as  important as it is to some, is technically irrelevant.

The problem is, we haven't been doing this. When people hear a word they tend to grasp the meaning that is based on their own personal concepts of it. When a person with a faith centered life thinks of "marriage" they are considering the act of faith involved. According to my belief system, a Christian marriage involves a public ceremony where you profess to others the covenant that you and your spouse has entered into with God. It is important to me and it was important to my wife.

However, when a secular person speaks of marriage it involves the civil contract entered into by both parties, joining each other's private and public lives to include all of the fiscal and civil responsibilities (particularly as a way to guarantee equal parental rights to the party of the agreement that doesn't actually give birth). Any of the guys out there who has sired a child with a woman "out of wedlock" and has then found themselves at odds with that woman probably know of the pain of trying to assert some parental rights. Basically, you have none that aren't granted by a court of law.

In some states, you can get a marriage license through the religious organization that is performing the ceremony. Some, not so much. When my wife and I got married we lived in Texas. We had to obtain a civil contract, a "marriage license", from the State before the Baptist church we attended could legally perform the ceremony.

So, my question is, how can a government agency prevent two consenting and competent adults from entering into a contract, marital or otherwise? As far as I can tell, there is no Constitutional restriction based on race, creed, religious affiliation or sexual preference.

Just in case the reader may not be aware. In our legal system, based on Constitutional principals, if it isn't specifically prohibited it is LEGAL. A perfect example are laws governing narcotics, both pharmaceutical and illicit. In order for a drug to be considered a regulated substance it has to specifically listed in a "schedule", a listing of varying substances. No blanket terms like "hallucinogen" can be used except for referring to a class of narcotics listed in the schedule.

That's why some States have either enacted or are trying to pass into law specific laws prohibiting marriage of same sex partners. However, considering what is is they are basing these statutes, very few of them can pass Constitutional muster. Trying to make something illegal has to be based on more than "we don't like it" it has to establish that there is a victim being created by the act.

So far, the only arguments against "Gay Marriage" are purely philosophical and not based on any acceptable proof that someone is being victimized. How is society being victimized? Their feelings getting hurt? Too bad. 

And the argument that a same sex couple would be any better or worse than a different sex couple at raising a child is also a load of crap. As long as the adults involved are both decent and stable people they are quite capable of producing a decent and stable child into a productive adult. In fact, if people are trying to argue to me that the State has a right to establish a particular class as being unable to properly raise a child, THAT is a dangerous precedent to set.

They could just as easily (hell, probably more easily) prove that certain classes of lower economic status are incapable of properly raising a child. Plenty of anecdotal evidence to support that. Ever been to a trailer park? Yeah, it's still unfair and highly subjective, but no more than the same argument being levied against people just because they happen to be homosexual.

Now that I've established that I think this issue is being overcomplicated because of emotion I can now go to the original intent if this article.

We are being distracted.

The "Gay Marriage" issue was basically dead. It's already been proven in multiple studies that your average American could give a rat's ass about it and are actually more supportive than not. So why dredge it up again? Simple, there is something they DON'T want us thinking about too heavily going into the upcoming election cycle.

I have a feeling it's the healthcare issue but that's just me. It could also be a distraction from the ongoing (and increasingly useless) war being waged overseas. It's crippled our economy, it's killed off an entire generation of decent and talented men and women severely crippling our gene pool among other things. The only reason they haven't called an end to it already is because they haven't formulated an answer to the "how to keep them from killing us over here" question.

Whatever it is they are trying to distract us from, they are certainly working hard at keeping us distracted. Considering that the system has produced increasingly more ignorant and selfish people over the past few decades, it's easy to see WHY the proverbial "they" may have done it.

We are an increasingly larger herd of sheep being led around by the nose. We are being given one diversion after another so that we don't notice the fleecing we are constantly  subjected to.

I have no answers for that. I can only recommend that we need to be paying a LOT closer attention to what these people are doing in our name and we need to STAY involved throughout the year. Simply coming out to vote and then turning a blind eye to the activities of those that govern us is not enough.

We are a nation divided among very insignificant lines created and exaggerated as a distraction.

A nation divided cannot stand and will soon fall. Unfortunately, I think it may have already happened.