Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Banners for Websites: No on 8




Here are two no on prop 8 banners for your free use. Please feel free to include them on your blog.

Thomas Jefferson would not Approve




Californians are being asked by the Mormon and Catholic Churches to amend the constitution so as to eliminate same-sex marriages from California law. This disturbs me greatly on at least three fronts: (1) any law going out of its way to remove the rights of a law-abiding sub-group of the population is inherently wrong, (2) any out of state entities trying to influence the rights of Californians better have a damn good reason for doing so, and "it offends my bible" is not one of them, and (3) it is mean spirited, it is evil, and I'm pretty sure it's something Jesus wouldn't do.

The forces of religious conservatism are bound and determined to re-create the US as a "christian nation". As a long time Thomas Jefferson fan, this appalls me. Follow that link. You'll quickly realize that the founding fathers were shooting for a religion neutral government. Many of the founding fathers were Deists, closely aligned with today's Unitarian-Universalism. They assiduously avoided creating the U.S. government with a religious orientation because they'ld seen how poorly it had worked in the governments of Europe. Thomas Jefferson felt his greatest work was the creation of the first amendment to the constitution -- creating a separation of church and state. Prop 8 -- removing the rights of gay people to marry for religious reasons -- will undoubtedly cause him to roll in his grave.

If you have any respect for the rights of others, vote NO on prop 8.