Star Trek

Why does this whole Marriage vs Civil Union thing seem so familiar?

The Bible is rational.

You're kidding right? The Bible advocates misogyny, slavery, murder, and even genocide. Of course all of these things are perfectly acceptable to a mentally unbalanced fundamentalist who believes that an invisible man lives in the sky and if you don't obey is commandments, then he will send you to a place where there's fire everywhere and burning and wailing and gnashing of teeth and torment and suffering for all of time and eternity.

But he loves you!

I'd appreciate an elaboration of what rights you believe do not exist for an individual that happens to be homosexual.

-The right to marry the person of their choosing, for one. This federal right was recognized by SCOTUS in Loving v. Virginia. A right that is enjoyed only by heterosexuals but not homosexuals.

-The right to not be discriminated against based solely on their sexual orientation for the purposes of housing, education, and employment. A right that is enforced on the basis of race/color, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, and even religion but not for sexual orientation.

-Homosexuals joined under civil union constructs are denied the right to immunity from spousal testimony in court. No one can force the hetero married couple to testify against each other. But they can and do force gay commited/married couples to testify against their partner

-Gays are denied the right to transfer property ownership from one spouse to the other without paying taxes on value of the property as you would for a sale of land. Heterosexual couples can go in, sign the papers, transfer ownership and thats it. Gay committed/married couples also have to pay a tax on the full value just as you would have to do if you purchased the land from someone else.

-Automatic legal and medical next of kin. When a hetero couple signs the marriage license, they are automatically considered the legal next of kin. Commited/married gay couples have to sign/file additional living wills and power of atty papers, incurring unnecessary legal exepnses for somthing married people get for free. And even in some of these cases, hospitals have still refused to allow homosexuals to act in this capacity as well as disallowing visitation rights.

In this PDF file, there are 1,138 federal rights and privileges that are granted to married couples. Under the civil union construct, homosexuals either do not receive these rights or they must settle for a separate (hence unequal) version of those rights.

http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/og97016.pdf

You're absolutely right. But, using that logic, you believing he exists does not make him exist.

If God built it into us then we should all be straight, should we not?

By the way, Bam_Bam,

I notice you didn't respond to this post, so I will post it again.

"In a previous post, I counted the number of people that were killed by God in the Bible. I came up with 2,476,633, which, of course, greatly underestimates God's total death toll, since it only includes those killings for which specific numbers are given. No attempt was made to include the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc., with which the good book is filled. Still, 2 million is a respectable number even for world class killers."

I do wonder how many people Satan has really killed though... (and I don't mean just physically, but used his lies to keep people from believing in God.)

It's called the word of God actually, AKA the Bible. And despite what certain people may think, Chritianity is not a religion, but a truth. It's not a choice or a way of thinking, it's fact. Plain and simple. To say the bible is fiction, is to say that the middle ages are also a fictional religion. God's word is Holy and true, and is very clear that He created the human body, Male and Female. He created the two genders to be able to fit and work together. A man with another man or a woman with another woman is not God's intention, His will or his design. Gays take God's beautiful design, and degrade it and tarnish it's design and beauty.

I'm not saying gays shouldn't have rights. I believe gays should have the same American rights. I firmly believe that being gay is wrong, however in the United States, you have the right to your own personal freedom and the right to choose. God also gives you the right to choose. The problem is, people want to be able to choose what they know is wrong, but then reap the same benefits as if they had made the correct choice. Our military is not discriminating against gays, they are simply following God's word. And if the gays were also following God's word, they would find that aren't having problems with getting things done in their life.

Your argument is invalid. First off, God isn't going to allow Satan to kill his people. Plus, Satan doesn't want to kill any of us, we're no use to him dead. What he wants, is to prove to God that he is the superior being, which he is not. He wants to lead God's people astray and lead them into temptations, and I fully agree Satan loves nothing more than to hurt us, but if we're dead, he'll have no one to turn against God. If he has no one to turn against God, he has no power.

And secondly, God killed those people for being disobedient and doing evil things. The wages of sin is death. God allowed his son to die in our place so that people don't have to die for their sin any longer.

-The right to marry the person of their choosing, for one. This federal right was recognized by SCOTUS in Loving v. Virginia. A right that is enjoyed only by heterosexuals but not homosexuals.

-The right to not be discriminated against based solely on their sexual orientation for the purposes of housing, education, and employment. A right that is enforced on the basis of race/color, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, and even religion but not for sexual orientation.

-Homosexuals joined under civil union constructs are denied the right to immunity from spousal testimony in court. No one can force the hetero married couple to testify against each other. But they can and do force gay commited/married couples to testify against their partner

-Gays are denied the right to transfer property ownership from one spouse to the other without paying taxes on value of the property as you would for a sale of land. Heterosexual couples can go in, sign the papers, transfer ownership and thats it. Gay committed/married couples also have to pay a tax on the full value just as you would have to do if you purchased the land from someone else.

-Automatic legal and medical next of kin. When a hetero couple signs the marriage license, they are automatically considered the legal next of kin. Commited/married gay couples have to sign/file additional living wills and power of atty papers, incurring unnecessary legal exepnses for somthing married people get for free. And even in some of these cases, hospitals have still refused to allow homosexuals to act in this capacity as well as disallowing visitation rights.

Everything above is a consequence of government intervention. The federal government is not Constitutionally granted any authority over marriage... the only thing coming close relates to that of contracts. Individuals can make contracts between and amongst themselves and expect these contracts to hold if the government is acting Constitutionally. If, for example, homosexuals want to get married or exchange property than they can create a contract that defines the terms and definitions of their relationship just as any heterosexual couple. This does not mean, however, that others outside of the contract must abide by the terms set forth. It is always the responsibility of the citizenry to hold accountable government officials that fail with this regard. However, the lack of citizen responsibility is rampant since so many are demanding favoritism from the government, not understanding the limits placed on government by the Constutiton.

Even the vast majority of minories don't by into that lie.

Elaborate, please. I wouldn't miss this for all the tea in China. You do know that SCOTUS ruled that separate is not equal (I hope they still teach that in school...). And a growing number of Americans, nearly fifty percent and rising, understand this when it comes to the right to have a real marriage not a pseudo-marriage under Civil Union constructs.