Tuesday, March 4, 2014

From Every Mountainside

comments about events in arizona and texas have been abundant in the blogosphere.  i don't know that i have anything to say that hasn't already been said by many others, but i'll say my say anyway.  the reasoning of the arizona legislature in passing a bill that clearly discriminates against folks just because they are born gay and, with a straight (pun intended) face, call that bill a "religious freedom" statute is mind boggling.    the same bill would allow discrimination against jews, people of color, blood donors, anyone who has been divorced, and many other groups; there are certainly those whose "sincerely held religious" beliefs condemn jews as "christ killers," hold that people of color are "mud people," disallow blood transfusions, or pervert the gospel teachings concerning marriage and divorce.  under this law vetoed by governor brewer, bigots could select the group(s) they want to discriminate against and invent a religion that condemns the members of that group or groups so that their acts of discrimination could be protected in the name of "religious" freedom.  it is unfathomable that similar laws have been proposed in several other states.

now in the lone star state in which i live, the state constitution's ban on same-sex marriage has been ruled invalid.  one can only hope that similar bans in other states will soon be voided and that the supreme court of the usa will rule definitively on this matter, affirming the lower courts' decisions.  right-wing zealots will lambast the courts and rail against the administration of president obama for sending the country to hell in a hand basket, and in our part of the country, talk of secession will grow louder.  our southern politicians will scream about how our "state's rights" are being violated, just as they did at the beginning of the civil war and when the voting rights act was enacted, and the south will become even more a pariah to the rest of the country.

may those who have compassion for all--gay or straight, white or non-white, rich or poor, male or female, young or old--prevail.  may the forces of hatred and bigotry be converted to the cause of love and compassion.  shalom.

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