Comments on: Shrimp and Homosexuality: What’s the Difference?

By: a dark ally

a dark ally — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:36:03 +0000

I *love* this! The animation, and your research on it. :-)

I’m here, though, because I just referenced an older post of yours in my blog:

http://www.reflexivity.us/blog.....02656.html

I wanted to let you know but that post is closed to comments now.

Thanks for sharing your thinking with us!

By: Katie Roberts

Katie Roberts — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 00:49:34 +0000

I think her point was that there are groups of people, such as Christians (not all, just a select few) that DO cherry pick those verses, for their own convenience.

By: David Evans

David Evans — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:12:29 +0000

Bobby, then they’ll need to work to reform their church/religion from within, put up with the rules, or leave. Those are the three options. Religions and churches aren’t cafeterias– you can’t pick and choose what you like or don’t like.

Some denominations are starting to change, and as a result, there are schisms developing. The Episcopalians are a good example of this.

Each to their own, but if it was me, I’m not sure I’d want to get married in a church/faith that didn’t accept me, warts and all.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 03:58:00 +0000

Not surprising. Dumb laws were made by people who either don’t have common sense or have bad experiences that led them to legislate dumb laws.

By: Michele Ketcham

Michele Ketcham — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:26:03 +0000

My point is that it’s do-able to remove religion from a wedding ceremony, and that’s what my husband and I did to the best of our ability.

But if you are concerned about religion being part of the history of a ceremony…look at Christmas, Easter, etc. Those events are loaded with religious significance/history.

After all, Christmas is essentially a celebration of Jesus’ birthday. And Easter is essentially a celebration of Jesus’ getting up from the dead.

But to hear people talk about Christmas and Easter, you’d think Christmas was just about giving & getting presents and decorating your Xmas tree and your house, and Easter was about dyeing eggs and getting a decent supply of chocolate bunnies/eggs.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:57:23 +0000

I never said wedding ceremonies weren’t joyous. Even a civil union in front of a clerk of the court or justice of the peace can be really nice. So can elopements to Vegas or wherever.

I love weddings, don’t get me wrong. The history of wedding ceremonies, however, has its roots in religion. I apologize if I didn’t make myself clear on that.

It’s the distinction between wedding ceremonies and civil unions that has so many people up in arms. People view them as one and the same. They’re not. Wedding ceremonies are a celebration of the union — it’s possible to get married/enter into a civil union without having that ceremony.

I view all marriages as civil unions and vice versa, but for the sake of wording and thinking about the religious viewpoints, I’ve had to explain them separately.

I’m Catholic and I absolutely abhor the Catholic Church’s viewpoints on “gay marriage.” I believe marriage is a sacred union between two people, and no one, not even the Church or our government, has the right to stigmatize any union between two people or say one is worthier than another of rights and privileges.

And, yes, I’m single.

By: Karen Mayes

Karen Mayes — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:45:05 +0000

I learned that shellfish, lobsters, pigs, you name it, that the Bible deemed them to be unclean… becasue they consume dead animals (therefore, they are called scavangers) as part of “janitors” of the ecology… along with bugs. So when we eat shellfish, pigs, etc., we also eat toxins of dead bodies that the scavengers consume. Eww… no wonder they are “unclean” (yeah, that makes us “unclean”, huh?)

By: Karen Mayes

Karen Mayes — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:39:11 +0000

My husband and I eloped to Hawaii. We asked for an Unitarian minister to marry us, with tourists as our witnesses. No, there was nothing “Christian” about it… just joining, loving, forgiving, being together through best and hard times, blah blah. Some people (especially Christians and Catholics) think our marriage is invalid… Whatever. It is legally binding, since we obtained and signed the marriage certificate.

By: Michele Ketcham

Michele Ketcham — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:28:12 +0000

Hilary, I’m guessing by your post about your definition of civil union and marriage, that you are NOT married.

Because only a single person would talk about getting married in that tone you did.

Getting married is still a ceremony even if it is held in a Victorian inn.

Trust me on that…my husband and I definitely felt it was a beautiful ceremony, even if it wasn’t in a church or a temple.

And for you to say otherwise is very dismissive of the beauty and joy of our wedding ceremony.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:06:26 +0000

oh man… *shaking head*

2,000 years of telephone… wish we all knew what the original words were!