Gay Marriage? Whose Business Is It Anyway...???

A Disturbance In The Force: I'm sure many of us, over the years, have seen enough of jumped up people demeaning and condemning others, and others' choices in life, in the name of religion. From the Catholic Church persecuting and wiping out the Cathars, or decrying contraception, to the Jehovah's Witnesses prohibiting the transfusion of blood, to those that preach hate and the ultimate sacrifice, etc. One of the latest things causing a disturbance in the force, it seems, is gay marriage. Well, when it suits, the church is always spouting off about the fact that God is all things. Therefore, without wishing to point out the hypocrisy in the Church's rhetoric, if God is all things, then surely God is gay (or at least bi-sexual)! Therefore, who are they, or indeed, who is anyone, to judge?

Like Dressing Up: I often think the whole reason we do what we do on this planet is just to get an appreciation of things - a sort of comprehensive education of rights and wrongs, dos and don'ts. After all, looking at some of what goes on in this world, if you didn't come here and see it for yourself, you certainly wouldn't believe it. You wouldn't believe that people could actually be so gross to each other. We have been given a place of great beauty and abundant resource to manage and we can't even manage ourselves. Unfortunately, that which purportedly speaks in God's name and supposedly represents our higher being, is one of the biggest problems we have yet to deal with. Do the architects and purveyors of religion really think that they know best or do they just like dressing up in fancy costumes, making themselves feel important, and arguing about the colour of God's knickers, or whether she wears any?

Can They Really Teach? As they cannot even agree amongst themselves, can they really teach the rest of us right from wrong? And another thing, if there is only one God, why are there so many different religions all with so many different ideas? Humm! Even Christianity is badly segmented and divided and even though God is supposed to be multi-faceted I would hate to think He's got so many split personalities that all of these contradictory opinions are actually accurate. I think it is fair to say that mankind is very prone to making it up as he goes along and using God as an excuse to try and enforce his own, often rather screwed up ideas, to suit his own, often rather screwed up agenda. Perhaps it is time we learnt to respect the rights of others to decide for themselves as to what they think is best for them, and how they want to live, rather than pretending we know better when we so very obviously don't!

Twisted Bias: Many of the unfortunately self-righteous and sanctimonious in religion like to think that God sits in judgement and will punish those that do not somehow fit their idea of what they think people should be. Unfortunately, this, as we have seen, does not rest at the simple difference between good and evil, it starts to include everyman's twisted bias and perverted idea of what they think people should or shouldn't be. In my book, the only thing that God has a problem with is bad. Two men, or women, loving and making each other feel good, is not bad, it's good, and it's not up to anyone else to judge or interfere with! Likewise, if your child needs saving with a transfusion of blood, it is not a sin to give it! It is also not wrong to use contraception, in fact, there is a lot right about it and the Catholic Church is very wrong to have preached otherwise. Let us also bear in mind that we cannot suitably look after all the children we have in the world as it is, never mind encouraging more through unwanted pregnancy, to say nothing of the various STD's and HIV. I don't know who the heads of churches and other religious organisations talk to on the celestial telephone at times, but I have to wonder if any of them ever get through to the right department.

God As An Excuse: Of course if you want to be on a par with the Nazis, then you can say and do what you like. The Nazi SS elite wanted to try and convince the world that Jesus wasn't even Jewish, he was in fact Aryan. They setup an intellectual body of academics, called the Ahnenerbe, to try and conjure up the evidence to prove this and set about rewriting the bible to suit themselves. Of course, we know that various individuals, churches and religious organisations have twisted all sorts of things over the years in the so called name of God and we know, that as it can be a passionate subject, many have actually died fighting on the word of such men. Died fighting about that which no man really knows the answer to, or can actually prove, other than perhaps God himself. Those that follow in the footsteps of Jesus have a responsibility to get it right. At the moment, one has to conclude that in the past we have fallen greatly short in that department and are still falling short now. To put it another way, if I was up there looking down, I would not be best pleased with some of what we see and hear people do and say using God as an excuse.

Whims And Fancies: The best thing, I always think, is not to worry so much about other people's whims and fancies, but to worry more about ourselves. Look inside rather than out, because if anyone thinks the problem lies with other people in such petty personal areas, the problem actually is more within them and after all, we should all be trying to better ourselves and improve our being. It's always nice to be nicer, and nicer to be nice! When we look inside ourselves, it's not always a pretty sight and there is often much work to do. The true goal of any religion, for me, is about personal evolution. Understanding how to be and behave for the common good, it is not as many think about becoming a jumped up, sanctimonious, think you know it all, chastising and persecuting all who don't fit with your idea or who don't agree with you, and, as many religions do, ostracising them if they don't toe the party line. These are all things we still see far too much of in religion.

Not Their Life! We know the basics, thou shall not kill, steal, etc, etc, fundamentally, anything that does someone else down is wrong. However, the rest is up to the individual, and that's how it should be. When are people going to stop interfering and sitting in judgement and making a mess of it, I wonder? Let's just let people live their lives the way they feel is best for them, and stop trying to control people and make them something they are not. Unless, of course, we're talking about criminals! However, unlike some in this world, I don't think it is a crime to be gay, or to want to marry the person you love most. It may not suit some, but it's not their life!