More Christianity and Constitutional Law

In discussions with various people on the recent passing of Proposition 8 in California, I've seen numerous opinions, most very strong. Proposition 8, as a reminder, overturned a Judicial move to allow gay marriage in California. Prop 8 was a popular vote issue, bent on taking the judicial decision back down. And it did.

I've heard some people say, "Well, it's the majority, and the majority wins." These are usually the religious folks who are okay with the fact that the Mormon church funded most of the scare ads that fueled voter turnout to support Proposition 8.

I've heard other people say, "We need to do anything with love. Be nice. Spoon feed the ignorant. Learn their bible and talk to them about it.

But honestly, has that done much up until now?

The issue here is that, when people are stuck in a certain mindset, as is the case with the people who oppose the civil rights of the gay community, we don't have time to "feed them with a spoon and a fork" any more than being nicey nice to the slaveowners made them want to give up slavery. They justified it by the Bible. Jesus Himself said that slaves were to obey their masters.

In the same way, while we can point out people's errors in interpreting their own scriptures, and while it does actually help to KNOW said scriptures, the focus needs to be on the LAW. Abolitionists didn't help end slavery by saying, "Oh dear Mr. Slaveowner, please, in all human kindness, let those people go." No, they did it by being activists. By shouting down the dissenters and by appealing to constitutional law.

The law is not always upheld by Popular Vote. Hence the reason we HAVE a judicial branch of government. That is why what was done in California is so reprehensible. It allowed popular vote to overturn the very consitution that is supposed to protect the rights of individual citizens.

Civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King, believed in peaceful protest. But they believed in PROTEST. And violence sometimes came of those protests. They did not say, "Please white majority, won't you out of the kindness of your hearts, allow us equal rights?" No, they sat at lunch counters they weren't allowed to sit at, and rode busses they weren't supposed to ride in the front of, and marched in protest.

There comes a time when we need to "speak softly and carry a big stick." I rarely see a point anymore in trying to appeal to extreme fundamentalists through scripture reading. They're just going to have to be mad when we appeal to the LAW, which states in effect that they are not allowed to enforce their religious beliefs on people through government. If they don't like it, well tough freakin cookies. Sometimes we need to stop pandering and just tell it like it is. sometimes we need to STOP speaking softly and start shouting. Growing enough numbers to finally be able to shout down the bigots can actually work better than kind discourse.