Prop 8

Prop 8 was overturned today.

I was happy.

I cannot tell my family this. Because they wouldn't be happy. They think it's the crumbling of our society, a complete 180 degrees from the truth of God's word.

I think about my ancestor, a man named Increase Mather. Increase was a prominent minister in New England during the Salem Witch trials. Many of his good friends made the decisions to put the Salem witches to death.

I think about what the Bible says about witchcraft. It says witches are abominations and should be killed. In society today, Christians oppose witches and think their religious practices are wrong, but we would never kill or harm a witch just for being a witch. The secular government set up by our founding fathers ("in God we trust" and "one nation under God," yes, but the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Bill of Rights pretty much clinched the fact that we would never be a wholly "Christian" nation), has even begun to recognize paganism and witchcraft as a religion. Even though the Bible says witches are evil and deserve to die, they are recognized as human beings with rights (a right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the freedom to believe as they wish) by the US Constitution.

I can't help but compare witches to the GLBTQ community. The Bible calls for the destruction of homosexual men and women as well, a mandate we ignore (except for some countries, like Uganda, that are enacting the Old Testament treatments of homosexuals... to ugly and horrifying effect). But our government is not a Christian government. I stress that again: it never really was a wholly Christian government. At one point the majority of its leaders were Christians, which led to a decisively Christian slant in much of the wording of our founding documents, in the legislation, court rulings, etc. But instead, our government was set up on the principle of equality--"that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." Over time we came to recognize that all men AND women are created equal. That people are equal regardless of race. And it snowballs from there: equal regardless of religion, age, education, social class.... so why not sexual preference?

Within the context of my religion, homosexuality is wrong. But within the context of my government, a lot of things that Christianity says are wrong are perfectly legal. I think that within the context of our nation's law, homosexual marriage should be legal... in ALL states.

So I was happy with today's result.

Shh... it's a secret.