I decided to ask a few thousand friends that I have on The God Article's Facebook page to help me come up with a reasonable response - something to call attention to the fact that not all Christians are like Pastor Worley and something to possibly make a difference. There were plenty of suggestions, but I thought one really stood out. Michelle McBriarty suggested, “We should all make a donation in Pastor Worley's name to their local LGBT group.” That's just brilliant.
Not only will it be a wonderful opposing response to Pastor Worley, but it does several other wickedly beautiful things. One, it helps fund organizations who are actively working against this kind of exclusion and bullying. Two, it puts Pastor Worley on their mailing lists!!! And, three, it can really show Pastor Worley and others what creative, non-violent resistance looks like – and that's biblical.
So, in addition to sending in a donation to your favorite LGBT advocacy group in his honor, I'm asking you to do one more thing: download the postcard you find at the end of this post and fill it out. It is addressed to Pastor Worley and says, "A donation has been made to __________ in your name. Thank you for helping advance the fight for equal rights for our LGBT brothers and sisters." Just fill in the blank and mail it to the right Reverend. In a few days, he'll also start receiving all the wonderful educational material from each organization to whom he has “donated.”
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to photon For This Useful Post:
I commented earlier in this thread that I'm quite suprised #1 is ahead of #3 by such a large margin. I knew the mood of the forum has decidedly shifted to being pro-gay marriage in recent years, but I remember posting about this topic in 2004-05 when Harper's Conservatives opposed Paul Martin's Liberals when Parliament debated SSM legislation. At that time, I felt like one of only a very small number of posters in favour of granting full marriage rights to homosexuals. I suppose it's possible that CP has seen many new members who have more progressive views register since then (most/all of whom would have voted #1), but I'm really shocked that #3 doesn't have more votes considering the opposition to allowing SSM that once existed on this forum.
This forum has been fairly moderate for quite some time.
And only 18% of CP respondents were against it at that point. More surprisingly, compared to this threads poll, was that it had nearly 600 respondents with 108 of the votes voted against.
Here is a CP thread from nearly 8 years ago. Amusing to read, but still, the majority of the comments were in support of gay marriage even then (since I voted #3, that would've been close to the time when my mind was changed but not sure where exactly I would've come down on).
__________________
"Teach a man to reason, and he'll think for a lifetime"
I commented earlier in this thread that I'm quite suprised #1 is ahead of #3 by such a large margin. I knew the mood of the forum has decidedly shifted to being pro-gay marriage in recent years, but I remember posting about this topic in 2004-05 when Harper's Conservatives opposed Paul Martin's Liberals when Parliament debated SSM legislation. At that time, I felt like one of only a very small number of posters in favour of granting full marriage rights to homosexuals. I suppose it's possible that CP has seen many new members who have more progressive views register since then (most/all of whom would have voted #1), but I'm really shocked that #3 doesn't have more votes considering the opposition to allowing SSM that once existed on this forum.
Forum posts go back to 2004. Any chance you could find that thread?
Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
Exp:
The overwhelming majority opinion is even more surprising considering the poll reads like you want to get gay married, not that you are just in favour of making it legal.
"Why yes, I'd never considered it before, but I really do think my taste in dance music will have me fit right in."
__________________
Better educated sadness than oblivious joy.
Put me in category 3. Back in 2004 I was a 20 year old university jock who pretty much was immersed in the 'macho-jock' world where being gay was anything but acceptable. Naturally upon hearing that gay marriage was going to be legalized I was against it.
In between then and now I realize that my opinion wasn't really based on anything more than how I was socially conditioned to react and how much I hated watching dudes kiss on the nightly news when they ran a story about gay marriage. I guess now that I'm older I cannot reconcile my mostly libertarian beliefs with a belief that someone cannot marry the person they love whether man, woman, or transgendered because of what a bunch of other people in society think.
The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to Cowboy89 For This Useful Post:
If you guys are really interested in gay rights, please keep in mind that marriage is just one part of this. Discrimination in employment housing etc is a still a huge problem, especially when it comes to gender minorities.
__________________
As you can see, I'm completely ridiculous.
A nice ruling in favor of gay marriage, though obviously the end game for all this is the USSC
Quote:
A federal appeals court Thursday declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples, a groundbreaking ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In its unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the 1996 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman deprives gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples.
The court didn't rule on the law's more politically combustible provision, which said states without same-sex marriage cannot be forced to recognize gay unions performed in states where it's legal. It also wasn't asked to address whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.
