Kansas now allows religious discrimination of gays

This is a letter written by a good friend of mine to the editor of her local newspaper:

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The Kansas House just passed a bill that allows religious people to discriminate against homosexuals. That’s right!  It is now absolutely legal for one group of individuals to exert “legal” power over another group of individuals and deny them access to shelter, employment, health care, and other basic necessities.

When State Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, was asked by House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, if -- under Kinzer’s bill -- an apartment owner could cite his religious beliefs to fight a complaint if he refused to rent to a same-sex couple, Kinzer replied, “That is generally correct.”  Kinzer defends his bill as a means to prevent government from infringing on individual religious beliefs, stating that: “Free exercise of religion is at the core of who we are as a people.” 

Mr. Kinzer:  please define “we” and “people”; and while you’re at it, let us know which “religion” we are free to exercise as an expression of our (supposedly) shared “core”.

There are many in America who fear the growth of the Muslim faith in the U.S., and the possible rise of “Sharia Law”. According to Sharia Law, it is a father’s moral duty to kill a disobedient daughter, or to execute a homosexual son.  Several Sharia-based executions have occurred on American soil, and the fathers and sons involved in these murders have been arrested.  But wait!  Is this not their “free exercise of religion”, which is the “core” of who “we” are as a people?  What?  We do not ALL share the same religion and the same core?

NO, WE DO NOT.  But as Americans, we (as a people, as voters, as a society) have established a precedent that “we” as “people” deserve equal representation in our government, and equal treatment. That is why we, the people, have established laws that prevent bigots and religious fanatics (whether Christian, Muslim, or other faiths), from trampling the rights of our diverse citizenry.  If we did not have these laws, then people who are handicapped, or who are a specific race (Irish, Mexican, Black, Chinese, Middle Eastern – whatever is the prejudice du jour!), or religion (Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.), or perceived sexual orientation can be denied access to housing, to restaurants, to social and medical services, and to jobs because of a specific individual’s arbitrary “expression of religion.”

I’ve heard elderly people state that “God didn’t intend the races to mix.” Okay, Mr. Kinzer, let’s bring back segregation!  The government has no right to infringe on these individuals' expression of religious belief. Also, there are Christians who believe that mentally and physically disabled people are blighted by God because of some transgression within their families (sins of the fathers, and all that).  Better get some funding, Mr. Kinzer, and reopen all those institutions closed in the 1970s where we used to warehouse all those imperfect people whom God wanted punished!

It is my BELIEF that every reasonable and coherent person living in Kansas should be ashamed that this law was allowed to pass. When will we get over such hatred and ugliness?

How Dangerous Religious Belief Really Is

The Fall of Foolish Faith, by Victor Stenger:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victor-stenger/the-fall-of-foolish-faith_b_1333412.html

The Forgotten History of Gay Marriage

The Forgotten History of Gay Marriage


* by Paul Canning 
* March 14, 2012

The Forgotten History of Gay Marriage

 

Republicans and other opponents of gay marriage often speak of marriage as being 
a 2,000 year old tradition (or even older). Quite apart from the fact that the 
definition of marriage has changed from when it was a business transaction, 
usually between men, there is ample evidence that within just Christian 
tradition, it has changed from the point where same-sex relationships were not 
just tolerated but celebrated.

In the famous St. Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai, there is an icon 
http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/icons/Icons-Bacchus.htm  which shows two 
robed Christian saints getting married. Their 'pronubus' (official witness, or 
"best man") is none other than Jesus Christ.

The happy couple are 4th Century Christian martyrs, Saint Serge and Saint 
Bacchus - both men.

Severus of Antioch in the sixth century explained http://www.gaychristian101.com/Gay-Marriages.html
that "we should not separate in speech [Serge and Bacchus] who were joined in 
life." More bluntly, in the definitive 10th century Greek account of their 
lives, Saint Serge is described as the "sweet companion and lover (erastai)" of 
St. Bacchus.

Legend says that Bacchus appeared to the dying Sergius as an angel, telling him 
to be brave because they would soon be reunited in heaven.

Yale historian John Richard Boswell discovered this early Christian history and 
wrote about it nearly 20 years ago in "Same Sex Unions In Pre-Modern Europe" 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Same-Sex-Unions-Premodern-Europe-Boswell/dp/0679432280 
(1994).

In ancient church liturgical documents, he found the existence of an "Office of 
Same Sex Union" http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/2rites.html (10th and 
11th century Greek) and the "Order for Uniting Two Men" (11th and 12th century 
Slavonic).

He found many examples of:

·  A community gathered in a church 

·  A blessing of the couple before the altar 

·  Their right hands joined as at heterosexual marriages 

·  The participation of a priest 

·  The taking of the Eucharist 

·  A wedding banquet afterwards 

A 14th century Serbian Slavonic "Office of the Same Sex Union," uniting two men 
or two women, had the couple having their right hands laid on the Gospel while 
having a cross placed in their left hands. Having kissed the Gospel, the couple 
were then required to kiss each other, after which the priest, having raised up 
the Eucharist, would give them both communion.

Boswell documented such sanctified unions up until the 18th century.

In late medieval France http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/uocp-acu082307.php,

a contract of "enbrotherment" (affrèrement) existed for men who pledged to 
live together sharing 'un pain, un vin, et une bourse' - one bread, one wine, 
and one purse.

Other religions, such as Hinduism and some native American religions, have 
respect for same-sex couples weaved into their history.

When right-wing evangelical Christians talk about "traditional marriage," there 
is no such thing.

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