Deja Nicole Greenlaw
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist—
Ted Cruz is currently championing a bill that will allow the state of Texas to regulate marriage to not include same gender marriage. Groups in California are pushing a referendum to stop AB1266, the transgender student rights bill, which guarantees the student’s right to attend school as to be consistent with their gender identity. Mathew Staver, founder of the conservative law group Liberty Counsel, is quoted saying “I believe the greatest threat to religious liberty is the clash between religious liberty and LGBT rights.” Rick Santorum warns that there is a clash between “man’s laws and God’s laws.” These are some of the beliefs that politicians and religious leaders have on their agenda today. Many folks who back these beliefs say that there is a war on religion and religious liberties.
I am a member of the LGBT community. I follow the news and I can safely say that there is no war on religion and religious liberties. I believe that this “war” concept was dreamed up by someone within the religious extremist element designed to appeal to the emotions of the American people. After all, a war on religion is akin to a war on God, and how can anyone in their right mind wage a war on God? Like many causes, these leaders use emotion rather than logic to appeal to the mainstream. [pullquote]These are some of the beliefs that politicians and religious leaders have on their agenda today. Many folks who back these beliefs say that there is a war on religion and religious liberties.[/pullquote]
From what I gather, what these “war” people really want is for everyone to obey the laws of their religion. Many of them think that these laws are God’s laws and there really is no other way to look at them, so we all need to respect and follow them. After all, we are not above God’s laws, are we?
Yes, they can point to laws in the Bible and other religious documents, but they cannot prove that these are actually God’s laws. The simple fact is that God did not write any of these laws, not a one. These laws were written by men and were made to look like God’s laws. If I’m wrong about this please correct me, but I have perused the Bible and other religious documents and I have seen entries written by the Romans, the Corinthians, Leviticus, and others, but I have yet to see one entry written by God. I’ve also never seen an entry written by a woman. They’ve all been written by men.
So what exactly is this war on religion, and why are some religious folks so up in arms about it? What these religious folks really want is to continue to have their right to discriminate against LGBT folks. For one, they don’t want to let any same gender couples have the right to marry, a ludicrous line of thought. Can you image singling out a group of people and telling them that they cannot marry? It’s utterly amazing to me that some people think this type of discriminatory thought is correct. [pullquote]Once in a while, we might hear one of these people say that the same gender couple’s right to marry should be put to a vote. Again, this is ludicrous. You simply cannot vote on the rights of the American people. [/pullquote]
Once in a while, we might hear one of these people say that the same gender couple’s right to marry should be put to a vote. Again, this is ludicrous. You simply cannot vote on the rights of the American people. Furthermore, how would these people feel if a vote was held to determine whether or not they can marry? I’m sure they would raise holy Hell if that ever happened. What I would like these people to do is put themselves in LGBT people’s shoes, just for a minute. I would also like to remind them that this is the United States of America.
There is no war on religion. It’s all just hype dreamed up to sway people through their emotions. What the extremist religious people really want is plain and simple: they want the right to discriminate against their fellow Americans. This is a travesty, and they should be ashamed of themselves for even thinking it, let alone pushing such ludicrous beliefs and demanding them to be laws. These are not true American people with true American beliefs. These are not true Americans. These are religious extremists.
I believe that religion is designed to control the masses and to give the masses guidance in times of trouble. Personally, I wish that these religious extremists would back off from the controls a bit and not seek to persecute people. Instead, they could put their energies into guiding people in times of trouble. I think that would be the right thing to do. After all, what would Jesus do?
*Deja Nicole Greenlaw is a local transwoman who has three grown children and works at 3M. She can be contacted at dejavudeja@sbcglobal.net.
