This is anti-discrimination? Why do I need to be informed of a person's sexual orientation before I can get a chance to practice being unprejudiced? What business is it of mine, to know what a person's behavior is in his or her intimate moments?
Do I introduce myself as a monogamous, heterosexual male? Why are we being so narrow minded as to identify a person with a partial assessment of their being? Isn't it true that in an effort to bring about equality for everyone, that we are actually heightening the inequality? When we divide people according to their sub-traits, we form classes of people which we can then stereotype or see in tiny little compartments.
Why is this news? Who decides that we should pit one class of society against another in the first place? I don't care if a man considered for a post at the Pentagon is gay. It's none of my business, and I don't appreciate making the focus what he does in bed. That obscures the real issue which is his qualification for the job. When we focus on sub-modalities, we miss the big picture, the important picture. We are not our gender. We are not our race. We are not our behavior. We are not our sex, nor are we our sexual taste. We are not our religion. We shouldn't subdivide into separate classes and then deal with each other as if we were stereotypes. We're individuals, unique, one-of-a-kind, individuals. I feel a scripture coming on:
17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in aone, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God. 4 Nephi 1:17
And while I am on that note, should not all Christians have respect one to another? Why do we dispute with one another about the doctrines of Christ? Why do we allow ourselves to be subdivided into contentious factions?
And as Americans, why is that secularism has been allowed to monopolize the public square? Did not Thomas Jefferson and other prudent men distinguish for us that no one ought to have their public capacity diminished as a result of their religion? And yet we have those among us who believe that to do so is justified. This is not historically accurate. What part of "shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion" do you not understand?
When I was in grade school I was free to discuss religion with my friends, which I did. I knew who was Baptist, who was Presbyterian, Methodist, and Catholic. We didn't hate each other. We didn't hate those who had no religion. But we were allowed to discuss it freely. And so we should. No person should have to fear to mention his religion. No person should fear to mention their atheism. That's what freedom means.
I have a friend here in Carthage on the board of the historical society. He mentioned to me that someone suggested adding some words to a display indicating the religion of one of the jurors during a historic court case was Mormon. His reaction was to be perplexed, why we should mention the religion of one juror, didn't the others have religion too? And the result was, that he felt it was better to mention no religion than to mention one.
Now, with all due respect to my friend, I think that's a little overboard. Why do we automatically feel that religion is not pertinent to history? Here in Carthage, religion is pertinent. It permeates the town, and it figures hugely in its history. There are more churches here than grocery stores and restaurants combined. And a large number of the people that come here are motivated to come precisely because of religion. Shall we pretend that it is irrelevant?
Of course, you don't HAVE to cater to someone else's religion. This is a free nation. I don't think that we should walk on eggshells or feel that we have to worship the fact that we each have our own religions or non-religions as the case may be. But then, on the other hand, why squelch the free expression thereof? Isn't that what we fled from over 200 years ago? The suppression of religious freedom?
So we are Americans, and we each have sub-traits, our heritage, our behavior, our culture, our religion, our race, and so on. We come in many sizes, shapes, colors, and backgrounds. Let's relate to each other that way, not like we are in separate categories which are islands unto ourselves. OK ?
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Sigh. Gotta love hot button issues.