To the President of the United States, indeed to the Supreme Court and to Congress:
I wish to speak my mind on the issue of gay marriage. In your mind it is opinion to hold fast to your belief in the Bible and to the teachings that are held within that volume. I, as a citizen of the United States would never stop you from believing what you deem important to your faith and religion. However I must express my frustration with the way you push the values of the Bible on those who do not see the same supreme law that you do. In this country we have many different principles and beliefs that have survived over two hundred years of history. I urge you and your constituents to remember only one such principle: the separation of church and state. I think it is quite clear that the union of two people can be dictated by the state but should never be dictated by a politician’s personal beliefs.
If you were to follow the Bible as strictly as you claim then you should follow the other terms and rules that are laid out in Deuteronomy chapter 22: women may not wear the clothes of men (no more pants); an engaged woman who has an affair would be stoned to death along with her lover, and if a woman is raped the rapist must pay the father in gold and silver then marry the daughter. Why must you abide by one rule and not the others? Even though, most societies and cultures inherently follow the laws and rules of Leviticus chapter 18, which condemn bestiality and incest, you deem it appropriate to break the laws of chapter 19: using two types of material to make clothing, growing plants close together, eating from a tree before three years have expired, not to mention eating meat rare.
The point I wish to make isn’t merely the fact that you choose to pay attention to just a few religious dictums but also that as President it is not your duty or your place to tell the citizens of this country what is ethical or immoral in the sight of God. You are welcome to become a bishop or a member of the clergy this is your desire. To be even more frank, I believe it is up to the church to decide if they should allow two men or two women to marry. The state should be allowed to give civil marriages to any two people who express love for one another. The minister, who acts as an agent of the state during marriage, can choose not to perform the ceremony if it conflicts with the minister’s religious affiliation. The government, on any level, has no right to view marriage in the narrow confines of the Bible or any religious text. In fact, if the United States government did follow the Bible’s laws and decrees, then most criminals would be put to death from the lowest to the highest crimes.
I am positive that at some point I have offended you as well as your religious convictions. I wish to assure you that beyond trying to simply prove a point I am looking out in the interest of the common United States citizen–not just homosexuals. I am sure you are familiar with the phrase “a house divided cannot stand,” and it is true that this nation is divided down the middle on this issue as well as others. But what do you think would hurt the nation more? A nation where love is able to manifest itself through openly showing a lasting partnership or a nation where people are unable to express their love for one another? I plead with you to realize that in the pursuit of happiness, you must allow gay marriage to be legal across this nation.
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