I would like to address what Nighthawk stated on page 10. The numbers correspond to Nighthawk's points.
1) Are you really blaming the downfall of the Greek Empire on homosexuality? Maybe if you had ONE fact that would show this, I would spend more time on this. You claim that a porr society leads to homosexuality, which is also an opinion of yourself.
2) This has already been stated why the homosexual community will not be satisfied with civil unions. Are you married? How would you feel if you were not allowed to marry, truly marry, the one you loved. There is a difference. Maybe not a legal difference, but there is definetely a difference in the way you feel.
3) I would really like to see the sources for this information. Well, I grew up on a street with 3 gay couples (1 male couple, and 2 female) and the male couple are like uncles to me. I can say that I am an exceelent student, with a superb relationship with my family, I don't do drugs, alchohol, etc. They assisted in my raising. They tought me to drive. When my family went on vacation, I was sick and could not go--they took care of me. I don't see how any of this is anti-family...now, granted I am but one example, but...
Yes, no homosexual relationships can procreate, but, they can adopt. Many couples I know have adopted children from foreign countries, in poor conditions. Now, are you telling me that these people are worse than an over-crowded, poor orphan home in China? Even in the U.S., there will always be children in orphan homes that would have a better life in a real home. This HELPS America and other countries. Besides, we don't need more babies--we are already on a rate to overpopulate the world way too fast.
I would also like to know where you recieved the information that homosexual relationships are 10x as likely to end in violence or divorce. I have not found suitable information to back this up. I would also like to note that it is not like the divorce rate of heterosexual couples is good or anything...and it only gets worse every year.
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I would also like to know where you recieved the information that homosexual relationships are 10x as likely to end in violence or divorce. |
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Few "gay" relationships last longer than two years, with many homosexual men reporting hundreds of lifetime partners.Source: Pollack, M. " Male Homosexuality," in Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Times, ed. P. Aries and A.Bejin, pp. 40-61, cited by Joseph Nicolosi in Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality (Northvale, N.J., Jason Aronsons Inc., 1991), pp.124-25. Between 17% to 54% of "gay" men continue to practice high-risk sex post-AIDS, suggesting an addictive drive. Source: Whitehead, NE., Whitehead, Bk., Submission to the Justice and Law Reform Select Committee on the Human rights Commission Amendment Bill 1992 ( Lower Hutt, New Zealand: Lion of Judah Ministries, 1993 ). |
Ok, so what I am hearing is that as long as everyone thinks that gay people lead a more destructive life, we should deny the right of marriage. Alright. Let follow this line of thinking. We should screen and ban certain people from drinking, smoking, driving, using a computer, owning a gun(not convicted criminals), and using a cell phone. Why not ban some people from christianity? Why? Because some people are just plain pre disposed to being crazy and might take their faith so seriously and to an extreme that they may go bomb an abortion clinic.
The point I am making is that an argument that they are likely to get a divorce is not an argument to forbid it. Again, they are only hurting themselves, no one else gets hurt. When was the last time one of you passed a gay couple and harm came to you? If there is a basis for your argument, then surely you can ban other things simply based on the idea that the people doing it are more prone to hurt them selves. People get hurt in cars everyday, the emmissionss from cars slowly poison our planet, the poisons from cars poison people and are the single biggest killer of people in America. But do we want to ban cars? No. We want to ban smoking and gay marriage because that is something that we don't want around. Cars do more harm to children, adults, plants, animals, the atmosphere, and the planet in general than gay marriage. But the difference is we like cars. We don't like the idea of two men naked together in bed. We don'tt like the idea of two women kissing in front of us. So we want to do everything we can to make them pay for our being uncomfortable. In the name of God, we are willing to deny their free will to do what they wish.
If gay men live together, sleep together and other wise live as a couple, what would be the difference if they are married? Outside of taxes, nothing. Your life wont change, nothing will change. If gay marriage is banned, gay people will still sleep together and live together. What you consider moral filth with still survive and thrive and continue to "bring the culture down"
Some one mentioned that the down fall of both the greek and roman cultures was homosexuality. Please go back and study history. Well before Caligula, homosexuality was never even an issue. It was accepted from the rise to the fall of the Roman empire, which lasted longer then any reigning empire in existence today. It would appear through study that the Romans both excelled and thrived while homosexuality was rampant. The Greeks also always excepted homosexuality from the beginning to the end of the Greek rule.
Further, if our country will go down hill because of the sin of homosexuality, then why has it thrived in the face of other horrible sins? This country was built on the backs of African slaves. Slaves that where miss treated, raped, and often abused. If not making a slave argument, simply stating that our country thrived during this time. Even after the Civil War, slaves stayed around for nearly ten years until all where released.
It has been established that nations have thrived allowing homosexuality openly. We have established that our country has thrived in time of sin. We have established that allowing freedom such as gay marriage is not deadly as opposed to other things we allow. You don't have to like homosexuality or accept it, but denying freedom to someone is wrong. There is something very wrong when people focus so hard on preventing something that hurts no one and is a right for everyone else thats not like them. While we are at taking freedom, just add the ban of gay marriage to the freedom stealing communist document the government calls the Patriot Act.
My points weren't that homosexual men lead a more dangerous life, and that should affect their entry into marriage, it is that the fact that they are far, FAR less likely to be faithful in a marriage relationship does more damage to the institution of marriage. The fact that 25% of all first time marriages will end in divorce is an extremely worrisome statistic to most people, in that it exposes weakness in the structure of family life. We all have heard and read reports of the damage done to children who are brought up in broken homes. Now we are going to encourage even more of it, right?
As for Greek and Roman civilizations, I was pointing out that as homosexual culture rose, the family culture declined. There were a lot of other factors at work, but they don't obscure the correlation. I am not saying that homosexuality destroyed the civilizations. But the people did not fight the growth of homosexuality in the cultures, and that might have exposed weaknesses.
Finally, I certainly haven't raised any sort of discussion of sin. I have only tried to point out the effects on the family structure. Slavery didn't directly, on a culture-wide basis, attack the family as an institution. Recent activities within the US and Europe (in particular) have done so. These activities include the promotion of gay marriage.
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The point I am making is that an argument that they are likely to get a divorce is not an argument to forbid it. |
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People get hurt in cars everyday, the emmissionss from cars slowly poison our planet, the poisons from cars poison people and are the single biggest killer of people in America. But do we want to ban cars? No. We want to ban smoking and gay marriage because that is something that we don't want around. |
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When was the last time one of you passed a gay couple and harm came to you? |
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If gay men live together, sleep together and other wise live as a couple, what would be the difference if they are married? |
QUOTE (tenaheff @ 4-Feb 05, 12:41 PM) |
This isn't really accurate, in my opinion. We don't ban cars because they do more good than harm to society. Also, though, we don't just let them continue to destroy the environment without any care. We do things to improve them. Cars need emmissions testing, etc. Again, the big difference is the acceptance by society. If homosexual's are allowed to marry, the State in effect is saying there is no differnce between your union or relationship and that of any heterosexual couple. From a moral stand, many disagree. Therein lies the rub... |
QUOTE (konquererz @ 8-Feb 05, 12:17 AM) |
I hope in the future, everyone who votes against gay marriage can live with the degradation of our freedoms that are occurring in our country, and they are. |
In schools, we don't teach that regular marriage is right or wrong or healthy. In fact, we don't teach marriage at all. We teach sex education, but not marriage vows. That might be one reason that divorce rate is so high. So following that, we wont start teaching gay marriage in school either. They will continue to not mention it as they have for years.
You mention that freedoms have been increasing at an alarming rate? It is truly sad when we consider it alarming when personal freedoms increase. But your assessment is wrong. Freedoms have decreased as a whole. Kids are no longer allowed to pray in school, often times, kids have been not allowed to carry bibles because it offends. Many basic religious freedoms have been broken in the name of being fair and non offensive. This is the same, take away someone freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness because it offends someones morals. They have morals too, just not the same as you, and they are just as adamant about what they believe also. What banning gay marriage does is impose someones set of morals on someone else.
Not everyone thinks that being ok with gay people is bad. Homosexuality has been picked as the immoral act to pick on. Yet so many other things are allowed and yet to protested against nearly as much. According to a recent gallop poll, there are more people speaking out against gay marriage and find it a bigger issue than abortion. Since when did gay marriage take precedence over murder? Since we can see it, taste it, touch it, that makes it more offensive and thus the center of attack.
It is never your right, or the governments right to decide what I can and cant do with my person as long as I am not harming you. This country wasn't founded on religious principles, it was founded on religious freedom. If anything, we have gotten away from that. This country was started to stop the government from imposing religion and morality on us because people believed in mans free will. Even God allows complete free will when it comes to something as major as your eternal soul. When you forbid something because of morality, you take away that free will and decide what moral rules people will follow.