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Oregon Senate Approves Civil Unions Today
I received a call, just moments ago, from my close friend, the Chaplin at the Oregon State Capital, telling me that the State Senate had just approved SB1000 with a vote of 19 to 10. This bill allows for civil unions in the State of Oregon.
Civil Unions is simply gay marriage by another name. After the people of Oregon approved a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, the State Senate has now taken a step to circumvent the intent of the people.
Some, who should be taking leadership on this issue, are not.
We will.
I am contacting the Speaker of the House as this email is being sent out and urging her to give leadership and not allow this bill to pass the House.
I need your help.
We are not nearly as well funded as some other organizations, so I ask for your help at this moment.
We need two things:
First, when you step into something like this you need some funding. I need your help, today, as we move forward. You may make a donation online or you may send a check to:
Faith and Freedom Network
PO Box 461
Lake Oswego, OR 97034
Or you may use our new address:
Faith and Freedom Network
16300 112th Avenue NE
Bothell, WA 98011
In either case, your donation will go to help this urgent effort.
Secondly, if your live in Oregon, please contact your State Representatives immediately and tell them you do not favor Civil Unions, which is gay marriage by a different name.
I will keep you updated.
Click here to DONATE NOW.
____________________
Gary Randall
President & Executive Director
Faith and Freedom Network
3 Comments:
I find ourselves to be at different ends of the political spectrum and we seem to both have two separate definitions of the word freedom and how it applies to those on the left and the right.
My view of freedom is the liberty to live my life with certain rights guaranteed to me under the United States Constitution. I was raised to believe that every single citizen had equal rights under the law of the land We were also taught that as U.S. citizens, we each have a right to live our own lives as we see fit as long as our rights do not hinder the rights of others. I was always taught that each of us could could practice any religious faith, or lack of religious faith that we so choose.
I also realize that we live in a Democratic/Republic, where the laws are made in favor of the majority. All seems fine and well so far to me, except that our Democracy has certain limitations built into it. The majority can not make any law that would deny those rights guaranteed under our Bill of Rights and the other amendments to the constitution. They were made to protect not only the rights of the majority, but also the rights of the minorities in this country .
In the past, our country has allowed some people to be more free than others. In the early part of out history Blacks were the minority and had their liberty taken away by the rule of the majority. Women were also not considered equal to men under the law. Just because the majority makes the rules, doesn’t necessarily make the laws right.
I believe that the courts did the right thing by over riding the majority’s desire to deny blacks and women the right to be full citizens. It is the responsibility of the courts to make sure the the laws made by the majority do not deny or restrict the rights and privileges guaranteed to the minorities in this country.
Gary, I have read that you talk a lot about freedom. Yes the majority have a right to freedom, but so do the minorities. Tolerance of the freedoms of others is the way that a blended country is supposed to coexist. You don’t have to agree with the views of those that you think are wrong, but you are supposed to let them live their lives the way they see fit.
As a gay man, I have no choice but to be a liberal. The conservative right has labeled me and condemned me because of who and what I am. I grew up in a Christian family and soon realized that my religion and the God that I prayed to, viewed homosexuality as a sin and an abomination. It was a hard time as a young man, but like a lot of us, one day you have to stand defiant against any God or religion that would reject someone for who they were. whether they were born that way or not. My sexuality is something I can not change, nor would want to change. It is no different than a straight man who is attracted to certain types of women. You just can’t make yourself like something just because you think you should. You either do or you don’t.
The argument is not whether homosexuality is right or wrong or whether I care if Christians can accept me or not. That doesn’t matter. I am a citizen guaranteed certain rights under our constitution and as a citizen who has broken no laws, I have the right to the same privileges that any other citizen enjoys in this country enjoys.
Some would say that I do have the right to marry a woman. Yes I could , but a woman is not someone that I could have a meaningful relationship with. Just as you could not ask a non Christian to marry a Christian. They wouldn’t be equally yoked. A some men or women could not be expected to marry outside of their race. It is all about who is attracted to who. You can’t change that no matter how hard you might want to try.
I have a right to live my life the way I see fit. Just as everyone else in this country does. I would never make a law telling someone that they could never marry the person that they love. If somehow being a heterosexual were considered wrong and that marriage were denied to them, they would do all they could to break the law or change it in order to live a happy life.
You can not claim that homosexuality is not normal either. Anything that occurs in nature is normal and natural. Superman is unnatural. Cartoons are not natural. They are make believe and lie within the realm of fiction. Homosexuality is real and normal. It occurs throughout the animal kingdom. Not every animal was born to procreate. Worker bees were never meant to procreate, yet they are very important to the function of the hive. Maybe homosexuality had some genetic reason for existing in nature. Who knows, but homosexuality exists and it is just a part of God’s world as heterosexuality .
I know that a lot of people believe that I made some conscious choice to be gay. I can speak from deep within my heart and say that I know that not to be true. The only choice I made was to stop pretending that maybe I might be straight. I have never had a desire for heterosexual sex ever. I spent the first 30 years of my life as a virgin. Not having sex with men or women. But I have always been a homosexual. I have always been attracted to men. The only choice I ever made was to express my sexual desire. I could have pretended and married a woman. I had plenty of chances, but I couldn’t do something so cruel to a woman as to marry her without feeling any desire for her. I knew lots of men who did just that and most live unhappy lives and or the man cheats on his wife with another man. And if Christianity is wrong, and it is discovered that homosexuality is genetic, just imagine all those closeted men putting their homosexual genes further into the gene pool. I guess that would just make more homosexual babies. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
I can tell you this. I don’t plan to give up. I will fight for my right as a United States citizen to live my life to its fullest potential and I won’t let a non tolerant majority stop me from pursuing my constitutional rights.
Thank you for sharing your insights. I really appreciate hearing your perspective. I work with about ten homosexuals in my organization. However, we never discuss these issues because we don’t have a forum to do so.
I am also a Christian. That is I have accepted Christ’s work on the cross alone for my salvation. As a believer, I know that we are born degenerate and continue to be sinners before and after salvation. I have sin tendencies, that I must fight everyday, as all of us do. I don't determine what is wrong or right, God does. It's pretty clear in the bible that sex between two men or two women is behavior that is a sin and unacceptable to God. It’s highly probable that all of us are born with genetic tendencies toward certain sins. The pedophile, the thief, the adulterer, the polygamist, chronic liar, and many more are all examples of people who have chosen to sin who may have been born with tendancies to do so. Because they may have a genetic tendency or inborn temptation, does this make their act acceptable to God? The answer is clearly no, in the bible.
The Constitution declares certain rights to the people of the United States. These rights are few and specific and apply to all people in the U.S. Homosexuals and lesbians share these same rights. They have the right to marry as we all do. However, they want us to change the definition of marriage. However, they go a step further with and want to force me to accept a behavior as normal and something that should be encouraged and integrated into society. It is a behavior that, even though I do not agree with it, I tolerate as I do many behaviors with which I disagree such as adultery and fornication.
What other behavior that is currently unacceptable should we also encourage as a norm in our society? Perhaps we should also encourage multiple marriages, civil unions with pets or marriage between an adult and a child? Our society must have norms and standards to function optimally. If the bible is our country’s moral guide, which I would argue has been since our nation was founded, civil unions between two men and two women is not normal and should not be encouraged by our government.
Sir, on a personal note, I am sorry what you are going through. It’s sounds like you have struggled with this for years. I am not going to pretend I understand the pain and turmoil you have been through in your lifetime and the reasons for your choice. However, I am clear that the bible indicates your behavior is wrong and the bible is my guide through life. What is yours?
Respectfully,
A believer in Christ
Hello:
Marriage should be one man and one woman. The will of the American people have spoken and here in Oregon the "majority" won a ballot measure to get measure 36 a vote. And we won keeping Marriage one man and one woman with a fair interpretation of the law. It is not tolerance of others to change what has already taken place!!!
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