Monday, November 17, 2008

Miracles happen when faiths stand together


This amazing video brought tears to my eyes! It's from Singing in the Reign, a blog written by a couple of theology professors, and the video expresses gratitude by the Catholics for the Mormons on their shared Prop. 8 efforts.

I've appreciated and been amazed at the great interfaith relations that have come out of Prop. 8. We may all have differences in terms of theology, but when you drill down to it, all of us have a common foundation of a love of God - and a love of our faiths, which we feel we should be able to practice without being labeled "bigots" or "intolerant."

Again, Prop. 8 was about the government creeping into religion - not the other way around.

I really liked this comment left by an anonymous poster on Singing in the Reign:

I have to admit that I doubted the idea that there was anti-religious bigotry behind the No on 8 crowd. I just thought separation of church and state should be followed. Prop 8 seemed to violate that.

But then I saw the ad this video highlights. I was shocked by the bigotry. What an eye-opener!

And then in the interviews after the election the truth really came out--the curtain was lifted and the real hatred came spewing forth. One gay rights supporter told a reporter they were going to go after "all the churches."

Now--and having read more on this--I have no doubt that legalizing same-sex marriage is really just a way to shut down religious groups and force them to violate their beliefs.

I am now relieved that it passed.


It's saddened me to see the hate and vitriol targeted at religion by the No on 8 crowd. They have to do what they feel they have to do, I guess, and I can respect that - but it makes me sad to think of people turning against God so fully, and how that must make Him feel. It gives me all the more incentive to treat them with nothing but love, respect and kindness, since they are God's children, even if they ignore Him.

*********************

As a sidenote, a friend just emailed me this anecdote that shows this same thought:

So I was talking to my mom the other day and there was a group of men from the stake that was down at the temple when all the protesting broke out. (It was our stake's temple day, so a lot of them got there before they knew what was going on.) They helped out with everything going on there.

The next day one of them saw that a restaurant was being boycotted because the owner had donated $100 to the Yes on 8 Campaign...can you believe that! $100. So the men that were at the temple decided that they'd go and eat lunch at the restaurant and thank the owner.

While they were there, they saw one of the big Catholic priests in Southern California...I can't remember his name...come in with a bunch of other Catholic priests, thank the owner, and they all ate lunch. I thought that was just awesome. It totally warmed my heart. I hope it warms yours too.

It definitely warms my heart! :)

For more information go to http://whatisprop8.com

2 comments:

Dee said...

It's interesting that a lot of people have commented all over the web that marriage doesn't belong to Christianity or any religion when that is exactly where marriage came from in the first place. I'm not saying everyone who gets married has to be a Christian or a Jew or whatever, just wanted to point out the fallacy in the argument.

Secondly, it's interesting that everyone is calling marriage a right, when it isn't. Comparatively, that's like saying owning a house is a right. While the government should provide the environment in which one could purchase a home, owning the home itself is not a right. If marriage is a right, I could sue the government for still being single since I haven't found someone to marry because technically I'm being denied that "right."

I know, it's a silly way of looking at it, but the whole argument is silly. Gay couples in California enjoy all the same rights as straight couples under civil unions. The difference in marriage is really that marriage is not and should not be solely based on sexual fulfillment, nor should it be the ultimate expression of love. It's about creating families. If a marriage is changed to be defined as two people who love each other, tell me honestly, what's to stop brothers marrying sisters, etc. And if it's only about people who love each other, how can one really deny that same "right" to polygamous relationships?

Dee said...

BTW, I thought you might be interested in an article titles "Secular Arguments Against Gay Marriage" which basically outlines arguments without religion attached to it. Good reading: http://tech.mit.edu/V124/N5/kolasinski.5c.html