This piece was written on Friday; maybe it was written a few days before its time. That was before the California legislature passed a new law that would allow homosexual marriages. Of course there is one obstacle that could prevent this from becoming law – Arnold "the Governator" Schwarzenegger. When he ran for election, he told the voters that he was a fiscal conservative. He downplayed any support for the social reforms of the radical right. This is the only way that a Republican can get elected in California. But, the fear of the religious right can put political pressure on the man who said that he would not bow down to special interests.
So, Arnold has three options:
- He can bow down to the "special interest" of the Religious Right and veto the legislation.
- He can be a man and stand up for civil rights and sign the bill into law.
- He can be a wimp and do nothing allowing the bill to become law after 30 days.
So, here is my piece on why the fundamentalists of the religious right are fueled by fear and rage. It may give us some insight into what Arnold might do, and why. After all, these fundamentalists now control the Republican party.
We have often heard that fundamentalists are a major problem. Fundamentalist Muslims have gone to the extreme of sending suicide bombers out to attack their enemies. Fundamentalist Jews are unbending on their in their belief in the expansion of Israel and are willing to kill for that land. Americans often cite these groups when discussing Christian fundamentalists, saying that these folks aren’t so bad, because they aren’t killing anyone.
Actually there are Christian fundamentalists that have resorted to murder, but they are less common that the Muslim or Jewish groups. So, why is this the case? Should we be so concerned about Christian fundamentalists if they aren’t so bad?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Steve S
well said. Their religion has been reduced to nothing but fear lately.
If we can't put 10 commandments on federal courthouse walls, then it is stifling their faith. If we can't pray in school, then their religion is being attacked. If we say happy holidays, then Christmas is being slammed.
Any attempt to pull OURselves away from THEIR faith is seen as a personal attack. It's all portrayed as attacks for political purposes, to get Christians to vote certain ways. The amendment for gay marriage, it is widely known, was used by Rove to motivate 4 million Christians to the polls.
It's bad enough to have your orientation subject to political manipulation beyond your control, but to knowingly tolerate your faith in God in being used as a manipulative political attack tool against your own self, must be the ultimate sin.
2 - Anthony Grande
O.K
1) Gay Marriage is not part of Civil Rights, because gays already have every right we have (the blacks and women in the early 20th century didn't).
2) Stop calling us the "Religious Right", I am Right wing and against killing babies and gay marriage but I don't even belong to a church.
3) Arnold was a man and stood up for what he believed and what the majority believed, he didn't bow down to any liberal legislasure.
4) You guys are sore losers, the election didn't go your way so you guys tried to go around it.
5)Fundamental fear is bullshit. I am against gay marriage and I have no fear, because I know it will never happen. And I am no fundamentalist, see 2.
3 - Dave Nalle
>>1) Gay Marriage is not part of Civil Rights, because gays already have every right we have (the blacks and women in the early 20th century didn't).<<
I have the right to marry the person of my choice. Does someone who is gay have the same right?
>>2) Stop calling us the "Religious Right", I am Right wing and against killing babies and gay marriage but I don't even belong to a church.<<
Got that everyone? From now on AG is a 'Moralistic Fascist'.
>>5)Fundamental fear is bullshit. I am against gay marriage and I have no fear, because I know it will never happen. And I am no fundamentalist, see 2.<<
It will happen, count on it. Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually it will become impossible to deny this right to people.
Dave
4 - Scott
I gotta agree with Mr Nalle on this one...Gay marriage is going to happen at some point in the near future.
5 - Anthony Grande
"I have the right to marry the person of my choice. Does someone who is gay have the same right?"
Well some people like me can't marry our first cousins. I can't marry my dog. My dog can't even marry his girlfreind. And a man cannot marry another man. Someone who is gay needs help, not special rights.
Gays have ALL the rights I have. I cannot marry another man, I can only marry a woman who is not related to me.
"It will happen, count on it. Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually it will become impossible to deny this right to people."
At this pace you are right Dave, but not if AIDS and the other diseases that will most likely come gets to them first.
"Got that everyone? From now on AG is a 'Moralistic Fascist'."
I am assuming that you are calling me a fascist because you think I am denying rights to people. But you are wrong I am talking no rights away, exept the right to kill your baby. A fascist would be someone who forbids us to say UNDER GOD.
6 - Anthony Grande
Oh yeah,
And telling someone that they can't put the ten commandments on there wall would also be Fascism.
And just because I am arguing for the Ten Commandments doesn't mean I am a Fundalmentalist. It just means EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL.
7 - Scott
"Someone who is gay needs help, not special rights"
How is marrying your partner "special rights" Anthony?
Marrying your partner if you're straight is a right but if you're gay it's a "special right?"
8 - Dave Nalle
No, it means you want to enshrine God in the halls of government. The first commandment specifically dictates worship of God. There's no way that should ever be posted on government property. Maybe READ the 10 Commandments sometime.
Dave
9 - Anthony Grande
It also says thow shall not KILL.
But you don't argue against that one.
And I know you know what I am talking about.
10 - Dave Nalle
>>I am assuming that you are calling me a fascist because you think I am denying rights to people. But you are wrong I am talking no rights away, exept the right to kill your baby. A fascist would be someone who forbids us to say UNDER GOD.<<
No one is forbidding you to say 'under god'. All people want to do is stop teachers from forcing kids to say 'under god'. There's a huge difference. Forbidding or requiring an oath to god are equally undesirable.
As for your obsession with so-called babies, it's incredibly naive. If it can't live outside the womb without extreme medical support - as in not being able to breathe or process food on its own - it's not a baby. It's something much less. But by all means let's ban abortion and return to the time-honored tradition of abandonning babies on hillsides to be eaten by wild animals. It worked for Moses and Romulus and Remus, it's good enough for us!
Dave
11 - Anthony Grande
'Marrying your partner if you're straight is a right but if you're gay it's a "special right?" '
Me and my GIRL cousin are in love, but we can't get married. There is just sometimes that partners cannot get married.
1) If gays get married they will be allowed to adopt kids, which means they aren't just hurting themeselves they are also hurting the kids.
2) Gays are not born, society or someone that happened in their life made them gay, which means they need help and motivation from their peers to get them back on track, not help and encouragement to keep going the way they are.
If we pass laws saying that only ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN ONLY can adopt then I will overlook 2 and openly support Gay Marriage.
12 - Scott
Anthorny, Do you actually believe the bullshit the spews forth from your mouth?
Those are ventriloquist puppet, knee-jerk responses - neither of which are true in the real world.
13 - Anthony Grande
I am sorry Scott that you couldn't answer it.
If I was actually and idiot, ventriloquist puppet then my arguments would be easy to dismiss. But they aren't, are they???
14 - Scott
Actually, they're very easy to dismiss because they're lies and exaggerations.
It must be very hard to live a life so bereft of joy and meaning.
15 - Dave Nalle
Anthony is apparently ill informed and unable to accept certain basic facts. This makes it difficult to discuss some issues with him in any sensible way.
He's absolutely convinced that being gay is a lifestyle choice and essentially evil, and that gay people destroy childrens lives in some nebulous way.
He's not interested in rights, or facts or reality, so don't try to present him with those.
Dave
16 - Warren
I'd argue that fundamentalist religion was based on a conviction concerning the Bible more than concerns about social issues. Social issues only became the focus after fundamentalists separated from denominations that were influenced by liberal theology. They ran out of people to fight, so they found something else.
But I agree that Arnold is pandering. He's got no more use for Christian conservatives than Ted Kennedy does -- Teddy;s just more honest about his opinion of us.
17 - kittygogo
Anthony,
I would be interested in knowing, in which reputable journal or article do you get the proof that children adopted by gay parents are "hurt" and how exactly are they hurt? The reason I ask is that my gay friends, their children have never appeared to me to be "hurt". Do you have gay friends as evidence of the "hurt" they have caused. (excuse my sarcasm by asking if you have gay friends.)
Also where do you get evidence that gay people have a choice in the matter. It seems that all of the scientific evidence points to an entirely different conclusion.
I would think people would be unable to marry their cousins because of the real threat of their children being "hurt" by being born as mutants.
Perhaps your parents are cousins? At least this would be a good excuse for you being such an idiot.
18 - Warren
Science so far has been inconclusive concerning the alleged "gay gene." (And many gay activists don't want there to be one.) The sociology and psychology of "gayness" is similarly disputed -- for every "authority" who comes down on one side of the issue, I can show you another one who is just as educated and respected who is on the other side of the issue.
19 - kittygogo
anthony seems very sure of his two points that all children of gays are "hurt" and that being gay is a choice. I'm just curious as to why this is an absolute and there can be no other way to look at the matter.
He seems to demand that we all think exactly the way he does, that there is only one christian, euro-centric god that we should all believe in. Or that the bible is something more than a bunch of made-up stories by a bunch of men. Or that the commandements are something relevant in the courtroom. It seems that by advocating that his view is the correct one, we run the risk of allowing for absolutely no differences in opinion - kind of the american way, it seems to me, but obviously not to Anthony's "evolved" thought processes.
I would like some proof before I completely abandon my compassion and common sense to follow in the footsteps of Anthony's "wisdom".
20 - Steve S
Excellent post about rage being caused by fear, by Bring It On. And excellent point by Anthony Grande that it isn't exclusive to fundamentalists, while providing excellent examples of it in action. Thank you both.
Perhaps a Part 2 can include covering ignorance, as I feel it is an essential component of fear. (example, attacking science and the school and judicial systems to help perpetuate ignorance, to therefore help perpetuate fear, etc.)
21 - Anthony Grande
This is why I know gayism is a choice or lifestyle and is not something that happened at conception or birth.
PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN NATURE:
* Males are born with certain parts and females are born with certain parts and these parts fit together like a puzzle so we can reproduce. No Accident.
* Fifty-One percent of humans are Female, Forty-Nine percent of humans are Male. If you take in consideration that Females tend live a little longer than Males than it would be 50-50. Hence, one woman for every man. No Accident
* Five percent of Americans go against the first two priciples, Fify-Seven percent of Americans with AIDS or HIV got AIDS or HIV by going against the first two principles. No Accident.
* Anyone that goes against the first two principles need help and support from their peers, not special rights.
* Genes are inheretied from parents, so since gays don't reproduce how would a "gay gene" exist??? It doesn't.
* Humans aren't special, we are just animals. So why don't we see gays among lions or zebras or geese??? Because they don't exist.
* The only way a child can be born is by a male and a female. This is no accident, because it was intended that these same two male and female bring up this child.
______________________________________
Steve S, there you are, why did you run away??? I am not done talking with you.
You called as SORE losers because we use the Veto.
This is a staight out uneducated, uniformed, and biassed lie. We voted against gay marriage and you guys used your liberal legislasure to over turn it. It sounds like YOU guys are the sore losers.
Dave Nalle, about that Ten Commandments thing we were discussing, I have a question:
When you walk past a walkway towards a courthouse and see the Ten Commandments, do you get hurt in any way, shape or form???
22 - Bennett
All this from a boy who claims that there are NO gay Italians...
Don't bother responding to AG, he's not worth the effort.
23 - kittygogo
anthony,
I'm sure in a perfect(!?) world we would all look exactly alike and talk exactly alike, but the fact is that we are all different in any variety of ways. You have said nothing in your post that is of any fact. You spout off about what the world would be like in your ideal world, but thank god that is not reality.
Take it from me, there are gay people in the world and coming out is painful for them because of people like you. Why would someone want to subject themselves to being hated? I guess you could answer that question as well as anyone though.
What difference does it make to you whether people you will never know or meet get married. What difference does it make to you? How will it effect your everyday life? I'm very certain that you have MANY prejuidices against people, yet you still seem to be surviving. What do you care?
Personally, I think you are scared of your own secret thoughts, most of you obsessive fag haters are really just scared, self fag-haters.
Maybe you should worry less about things that will have absolutely no effect on your life whatsoever except for a gripe or two (or more) on a blog and drinking beer with your homophobic buddies and concentrate on elevating yourself out of your ignorance. Go to a gay club and let loose, you know you wanna. And no, this is not an insult cause I am a total fruit fly, I love the fags. Join us, it's (condoms boys) fun!
24 - Anthony Grande
"What difference does it make to you whether people you will never know or meet get married."
It doesn't bother me if two people choose to get married. It only affects THEM. No one else would be harmed right??? WRONG, if gays are able to get married then they can adopt children.
I will openly support gay marriage if we amend the costitution saying only a man and woman together can adopt. Simple as that.
Now kittygoo, you ignored the priciples I listed. The priciple are proof that gays aren't born they are made.
Please answer the following questions:
Why are there no gay animals??? Why is there an equal number of men and women in the world (taking in consideration that women tend to live longer than men)??? How come only male and female can reproduce??? and, Why is it only that the female has a single part that is for reproduction purposes???
25 - kittygogo
there are "gay" animals and if you aren't going to prove any of your ridiculous theories, I will not be bothered to search for the evidence, but same-sex apes def. get it on (dim the lights for Marvin Gaye now).
What dif. does it make to you if gay people adopt children? Do you know traumatized children of gay parents? What difference would it make in your life? Why the obsession? Of course, I already have you pegged, so I know the reason for the hate.
Bennett is right. You are sad and clueless and not worth my time. Let us know when you get happy and embrace your inner fag, til then. Bye.