Social conservatives say gay marriage threatens religious freedom

[Hepburn]

Social conservatives say gay marriage threatens religious freedom

BOSTON --Gov. Mitt Romney displayed the enthusiasm of a preacher Sunday at a Baptist church as he addressed an anti-gay marriage rally of conservative religious leaders who argue that their rights to religious expression are being threatened.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/10/15/social_conservatives_say_gay_marriage_threatens_religious_freedom/

I am NOT getting this. Apparently there are very few, in no, Constitutional scholars in this group. Frankly, as I see it, these groups consist solely of complete idiots who have NEVER had a Con Law class in their sorry lives. And, at this point in time, they BADLY need to understand some basics of Con Law.

The Bill of Rights consists of TWO types of freedoms: Freedoms FROM and Freedoms TO. In pertinent part, the First Amendment reads as follows:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

This is a FREEDOM FROM right ~~ and in this case, a FREEDOM FROM religion. What these assholes wish to do is impose their religious beliefs on other groups. Freedom FROM religion does NOT consist of imposing religous beliefs on others and that is EXACTLY what the anti-gay marriage laws are specifically designed to do. They can talk about their religious beliefs all the want ~~ that is an EXPRESSION. Imposing their beliefs on others, IMO, is totally un-Constitutional.

Marriage is a civil contract ~~ if it were ONLY a religious matter, then ONLY churches and licensed clergy could be licensed to perform the legal rituals which result in a marriage. If these asshats carry their "logic" to its ultimate conclusion, then any couple who wished to get married ~~ be they gay or straight ~~ would be required to have the ceremony done in a church by a licensed clergyman. And, again, carrying this "logic" even further, only churches would then be licensed to dissolve marriages~~ divorce courts would disappear and religious grounds would then be substituted for any "no fault" grounds.

Where do these idiots come up with these stupid ideas?!?!?!?! Can't they understand that what they want is NOT something which is Constitutionally permissible. Isn't there at least ONE person amongst them who has a clue about the US Constitution?

[mnhtnbb]

1. They don't give a rat's ass about the Constitution. They want God's law

as interpreted by them, of course, to dictate.

[Avalux]

2. Yeah, they're idiots and that church should lose it's tax exemption.

:eyes:

[Warpy]

3. You've misunderstood what religious freedom means

to these lunatics. It doesn't mean the freedom to go to the church of their choice, to believe what they've been taught, and to follow the dictates of their consciences without the interference of the state.

No, to them it means the freedom of never being offended by anyone, anywhere who disagrees with their interpretation of religion, of social mores, of externally imposed morality. That's why they don't want to extend civil marriage, why they want to ban children's books, why they want to censor TV and film.

They want the freedom to go about their business as though none of the rest of us live here.

[Ian David]

4. Anti-gay fundie bigots blame Der Mittenfuhrer for legalizing gay marriage

See:

Anti-gay bigots blame Der Mittenfuhrer for legalizing gay marriage
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=158x10248

[liberal N proud]

5. Are there any know cases where the gays have prevented people

from worshiping GOD?

These people are just trying to build support on the basis of their own homophobic fears.
The gay community should show up at local churches each Sunday and sing praise just as any other visitor. Then when the religious homophobes kicked them out of the service, they could counter with claims of threatening the gay communities religious freedoms.

[jokerman93]

6. religious freedom???

:rofl:

Another mind-blowing oxymoron from the same people who brought us "military intelligence" and "jumbo shrimp"! I swear, only amerikans are so intellectually vacuous that they're capable of consuming this predatory rhetoric with a straight face. We've become a nation of greedy, tweak-heads - high on gawd, managed by big pharma, numbed by reality tv and pacified by the profit-driven corporate "divine revelation" industry. The fact that these people aren't being laughed back into the 13th century where they belong is downright mind-blowing.

If Amerikans ever got a glimpse of real freedom they'd crap their diapers.

[MrModerate]

7. Actually, they *are* being laughed back into the 13th century . . .

Well, the 16th anyway . . . as witnessed by these (and other) postings and responses from the community at large.

As for scum-sucking politicians trying to extract electoral oxygen from their excreta . . . well I haven't seen leopards changing their spots so much recently.

[jokerman93]

8. I'm laughing, you're laughing, we're laughing but...

These snake-handling brick-heads are still getting air time and the scum-sucking politicians are still taking their money pretending what they have to say is relevant.

And they're still getting re-elected...

So maybe we're not laughing loud enough.

[MrModerate]

9. Maybe . . . but let's see how that . . .

re-election thing works out.

[Tyo]

10. They're just trying to cheer themselves up

It's been a real downer for the Fundies lately. It's coming out that the Rethugs think that they are loser loonies and have just been using them for their votes and that's gotta sting.

On top of that the theocracy that they thought that they'd finally be able to impose on us is looking less and less likely to happen, not to mention it seems that the Rapture has been postponed again. I mean it kinda blows being a Christian fundamentalist bigot right now.

[mnhtnbb]

11. kinda blows being a Christian fundamentalist bigot right now. LOL