RadioMatthew.com Endorses No On Prop 8 Campaign
I believe that marriage is a term that describes a sanction of love recognized under religion between a heterosexual male and a heterosexual female. However, with that said, I have decided as author of RadioMatthew.com to endorse the No On Proposition 8 campaign.
Since 2004, the people of California have engaged in a long and stressful battle regarding the definition of “marriage” and to whom the rights and responsibilities of “marriage” should belong to. Proponents of Proposition 8 will argue that our country was founded on religious principle, and they would be correct. However, it was also founded on the principle of a separation between religious institutions and a people’s government.
Over time, however, that separation has narrowed. The words “In God We Trust” grace the paper currency we freely trade back and forth when resolving debts and making purchases. The words “Under God” are said daily by schoolchildren who pledge their allegiance to our country.
And the word “marriage” has undergone significant change since the year 1776.
We have marriage licenses and marriage certificates, both issued by the government. We have marriage counselors, and marriage retreats, none of which have any religious requirement attached to them (you don’t need to be a member of the clergy to be a marriage therapist). Over 200 years, we have lost touch with the “sanctity” of marriage, a value I hope we one day regain. I look forward to the day when the number of marriages is not closely tied with the number of divorces.
Since the announcement of Proposition 8 on the California ballot, I have struggled with the idea of which side was correct. True, marriage should be a sanctified religious ceremony between a man and a woman. True, homosexual couples should be allowed to enjoy the same happiness as any other couple. And true, the approval of gay marriage in our society has the potential to open a door to people marrying animals, trees, aircraft carriers and children—the line could become very blurry.
So why speak out against Proposition 8?
Proposition 8 is not about redefining the term “marriage,” and Proposition 8 is not about the State of California. Proposition 8 is about fundamental human rights. It would be more dangerous to allow Proposition 8 to pass this election than to allow a few promiscuous homosexual couples the right to marry.
If Proposition 8 passes, we would be giving fundamentalist extremists (and make no mistakes, the talking heads you see in the Protect Marriage commercials are extremists) the power to tell Americans how to live their lives and conduct themselves on a day-to-day basis. We would erase decades of protests and struggles for human dignity—from the emancipation of the slaves in the 1800s to the rights of migrant farm workers in the 1960s.
Proposition 8 wants to open a Pandora’s Box of erasing human rights. Ask yourself when you vote in November—is Proposition 8 patriotic?
In my past life, I was a tree or something. If not a tree, something that grew old and didn't move very much. I'm pretty convinced of this.