[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

"War" on Christmas and gay marriage bans are two issues that are motivated heavily by religious beliefs. Now I'll be the first to admit that the War on Christmas is petty and a pointless cause for those that believe heavily in separation of church and state. Maybe it's to distract the far right from pushing creationism in public schools. I don't know. Personally I don't care for it either way. To me Christmas is purely a commercial holiday.

Gay marriage on the other hand is simply motivated by mass-hysteria promoted by religion and virtually every argument for the ban is motivated either by religious beliefs and/or pure homophobia. Neither of which provides just cause to produce such a ban. Scientific, peer reviewed studies on the other hand fail time and time again to produce any factual evidence for the myth's about gay marriage produced by the far right.



The constitution states, plain as day, that religion is not to have a place in determining policy. That means that if the Far Right can't provide anything beyond the Leviticus passage they can't seek legal means to invoke a ban on civil unions and gay marriage.

And even if the majority of Americans were opposed to gay marriage there are controls in government designed to protect the interests of the minority. Provided those interests aren't based in religious beliefs and/or hate unless said issue is explicit religious persecution, which is a violation of the first amendment.

The only legitimate arguments I've seen against gay marriage cite potential exploitation regarding spousal privilege in criminal cases and green card marriages. And even then we have to admit that spousal privilege is a huge exploit in our legal system. Not to mention an outdated concept that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

Anyway bottom line is this. Anyone with a far in front of their name should encourage you to run like hell.

I dont think you hear me. These stances cant be considered far right, left or far anything else in our country. When nearly half of the people believe in them you cant consider them extreme or "far" type issues from the norm.

So while these issues may make people very divided, both sides express mainstream views no matter how rational or irrational those opposing views are. There are plenty of times i dont like it either, but that doesnt mean someone that who disagrees with me is an extremist, its statistically implausible.