No, the title does not refer to how old we are getting. A friend of mine has turned a bit angry about the gay rights movement and keeps posting everywhere his (fiery) comments and beliefs about the subject. Some things he mentioned are:
- Churches that are saying “separate but equal” is just like women's suffrage and civil rights
- The church isn't true to it's history and has changed the definition of marriage
- Gays are genetically engineered that way
He mentions other things, but they are
not important. Most of them are just other rants about how everyone
who doesn't believe in gay marriage is a bigot.
Here are some of my thoughts on
subjects that go contrary to his arguments and the argument in general. As per my usual blog post--they aren't super organized.
- Race and gender are one thing, but sexual orientation is another. It has not been specifically proven anywhere that homosexuality is genetically pre-determined. The head of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis S. Collins came out and said it is not hard-wired into an individual. While there may be heritability and influence of environment, choice still plays a significant role. Predispositions, not pre-determinations. Homosexuality is not Hard-wired
- Many say homosexuals cannot change their sexual orientation. AT ALL. However, if there are people who say they have changed, then it must be possible. Here is an interesting article about misinformation that mentions that topic. Misinformation Rampant
- If we are saying that genetic predispositions determine behavior, then how will this bode for the future legal system? Professionals across the globe are finding predispositions to anger, possibly addictions, sensitivity, agreeableness, extroversion, introversion, etc. If one has a predisposition for aggression or anger does that mean they can get away with murder? Where would it end? Once again, the case comes down to predisposition and not predetermination. Individual agency is still in play.
- From an LDS standpoint, if people say “This is the way I am and that's it,” they are giving up on their agency (and taking a step closer to the animal kingdom in my opinion). Agency is what makes God God. He chose to behave a certain way, a righteous way, and became exalted because of it. To give up agency is to give up a whole lot of freedom and future potential.
- The word “rights” comes into play everyday. It's a free country, right? A friend of mine pointed out that what people don't understand is that this is legislating a type of behavior. Can we make laws about behavior? Yes, we do it all the time. Laws against murder, theft, etc. There are laws about decency, lewdness and a host of other things. But doesn't this violate someone's individual rights? Well, I don't know if there is a legal term for it, but it is for the common good, the betterment of society. Now this will provoke a huge argument that homosexuality doesn't harm anyone. This is where we have to establish that the traditional family is the best unit for society. Here is an interesting blog article: Marriage In Thailand homosexuality, sex changes and other things are overwhelmingly abundant. Makes San Francisco look very tame I would say. After my time there I would say that the breakdown of the family has contributed to a ton of this. Children grow up with chaotic families or being assaulted by them (all to common).
- My friend feels the church isn't true to itself historically, has changed their own definition of marriage and should stop persecuting homosexuals. However, there's a reason plural marriage is called plural. Two women aren't married to one man in one marriage. It is more than one marriage, with. Not that this is a huge deal, but just to point out that my friend doesn't know what he's talking about.
- I have other thoughts regarding children, doctrinal things on marriage and such, but they don't have a lot to do with the above thoughts.
What are your thoughts? Anything else
that I might add to such a discussion?
