An Essay: Dichotomy Of A Historic Election

“Oh, my goodness,” were the cries at 11:00 p.m. last Tuesday, “what a country we live in.”

Indeed! What a country we live in. Only in this country could we on the same day repudiate the bigotry and the racial divide that is so much a part of our history by electing the first black President and, on the very same day, in one state vote to rescind rights granted to a minority group, and, simultaneously, in two other states voters elect to deny a minority group of a previously granted right.

Sandip Roy, writing in NewAmericanMedia [dot] Org article which was reprinted in Salon [dot]Com, describes election night.

This is the image I’ll always remember from Election Night 2008

A gay man standing outside the grand ballroom of the St. Francis Westin Hotel
in San Francisco. He had one finger to his ear to block out the hubbub inside, and an iPhone clamped to the other. “Honey,” he was yelling into the phone, “I cried --
when Obama spoke, I cried.”

Inside the ballroom it was bittersweet. Barack Obama was the president-elect. But
same-sex marriage was being overturned by California voters. Proposition 8 was
winning by a slim margin, but winning. In Arkansas, an adoption ban was passed. In Arizona and Florida bans on same-sex marriage passed easily.

 

The night was a night of contrasts. I celebrated the election of Barack Obama, and that celebration transcended whether or not I voted for Obama. The very fact a black man was on the ticket of the party was a cause for celebration for this old liberal activist. I confess I didn’t really notice the irony of the night until the next day. Joy for the racial hurdle over which this nation had soared was tempered by disappointment in the success of the anti-gay referendums.

This writing is not about these issues, but your allowance a few comments in passing is appreciated.

First, In Arkansas a ban on adoption of children by gay couples was passed. My question for those citizens of Arkansas is simply how many of you have an adopted child in your home, a foster child in your home? Do you have enough foster homes in Arkansas? And if you would not adopt a child where did you get the nerve to vote against someone else doing so?

What to say about Florida and Arizona is complex. There are a considerable number of people who while not opposing gays and lesbians being in relationship have a sincere problem with their use of the term marriage for the legalization of that relationship. Nevertheless, the vote in these states was based on a fear that was brought to a boil by conservative groups, many of them religious.

In California, the consequences of the vote to rescind the right of gay and lesbian couples to enter into a legally recognized same-sex union, marriage, if you will, has horrific consequence. In California each voter that exercises his right to cast that vote in opposition to another’s rights brings this country dangerously close to a fatal precipice. A narrow majority voted to take away a legal right of a minority. It does not matter what the voter’s feeling about homosexuality or same-sex marriage is. The end result of the vote was a majority removing a legal right of a minority. And when that is done to one group I get nervous for all the members of other minorities I know. When that is done the majority is expressing the attitude that “I am better than are you.”

But, as I said above, this writing is not about these matters. The subject of this writing is the motivation that spawns the denial of rights and equality of one group by another.

The shocking thing about the successful Proposition 8 vote in California is the amount of money spent by supposedly Christian organizations to deny these rights to others.

I am on the mailing list of Don Wildmon’s American Family Association. I’m on it as I feel the need to keep up with what those of a different belief system than mine are saying. Don Wildmon apparently spends all his waking hours in anti-gay activities or keeping Christ in Christmas. Over the last few months he’s taken credit for Ford Motor Company’s declining sales because his supporters boycotted Ford as Ford had a homosexual agenda. He went to war with McDonald’s because they identified themselves with the Gay Chamber of Commerce. He’s asked his supporters to send emails, which he conveniently allows them to do through his site, to the CEO of Home Depot because they were not giving Christmas a prominent place in their promotions. And recently I received a communication from the AFA stating that their organization was contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Proposition 8 in California.

The Salt Lake Tribune in an October 26, 2008 article titled, “Prop 8: California gay marriage fight divides LDS faithful, written by Peggy Fletcher Stack, points to the tremendous effort put forth by the Church of Latter Day Saints to assure the passage of Proposition 8. The article states:

The LDS First Presidency announced its support for Proposition 8 in a letter read in
every Mormon congregation. Since then, California LDS leaders have prompted
members to sign up volunteers, raise money, pass our brochures produced by out-
siders and distribute lawn signs and bumper stickers. Bishops have devoted whole
Sunday school classes and weekly Relief Society and priesthood meetings to
outlining arguments against same-sex marriage. Some have pointedly asked members
for hefty financial donations, based on tithing. Others have even asked members to
stand or raise their hands to publicly indicate their support.

Additionally, the religious right mega churches contributed untold amounts of fun ds in support of Proposition 8.

I’m having problem with the priorities of Christians today. There are so many sins that are endangering the world today: poverty, genocide, war, global warming. And yet so many Christians seem to be hell bent on making an issue of the unimportant.

Steven Waldman, Editor-in-Chief of Beliefnet, in a Slate article, “A Common Missed Conception: Why religious people are against gay marriage,” back in November 19, 2003, related the position of conservative theologian Ben Witherington by saying that Witherington … “goes on to point out that all sorts of sins involve the implicit rejection o God or His commandments and that homosexuality is on par with covetousness, malice, envy, murder, slander, insolence, rebellion against parents, ruthlessness, deceit, pride, and the like – not one destined to destroy society.”

Waldman then observes:

In other words, many of the world’s faiths do argue against homosexuality, but
they don’t raise it to the level of moral calamity: It’s bad but not that bad. Privately,
religious conservatives are appalled and grossed out by homosexuality but realize
that the more common American view is modulated. So, they choose to focus on
the idea that marriage in general is under threat. Read their public statements, and
you’ll see a surprising shortage about outrage about homosexuality itself. Perhaps
they’ve been reading their Bibles more carefully. More likely, they’ve figured out
that the most effective argument for religious conservatives is not, in fact, a
religious one.

Good for Reverend Wildmon. He and his “religious” buddies have prevented two individuals in a committed relationship for decades from legally being able to inherit one from the other. The poverty level of one of the counties in the state where his Association is headquarter is 41.1%. And one “Christian” ministry will not be able to provide adequate assistance to the poor since the funds were spent to stop “perversions” half a continent away.

I was hungry and you stopped homosexuals from polluting the population. I was thirsty and you prohibited a child from being adopted. I was sick and your distracting campaign kept a loving partner from visiting his or her lover in a hospital.

Don Wildmon is not alone in this. I’m just picking on him because I’m still pissed off about his phone call fifteen years ago threatening to picket my church because we embraced homosexual ministries. But I’m really up to my neck with this perversion of the gospel. And it is a perversion of the gospel whenever Jesus calls us  to love our neighbor, to bring in the outcast, to bring peace to the world and the decision is made to take a detour through someone’s bedroom.

So, here I sit on this evening two days removed from the election of the first black President of the United States, reflecting on the dichotomy of that historic event and the despicable action to dehumanize others, wondering when we will ever get it right.

 

Comments

[Pia]

The hate filled things I've read over the past few weeks have left me feeling emptied out, Parson. Too little love out there. Very little of what I've seen is a demonstration of our capacity to love. Let's face it: Obama won mainly because of our empty wallets- Ultimately it boils down to selfishness...maybe a little bit of nostalgia for an ideal, but not enough I think.

[Larry]

This effort to restrict some citizen's rights is simply the continuing efforts of some to place blame for problems on a few and to perpetuate the "it's us against them" mentality. Jesus said that it is God that does the "joining together". Discrimination against anyone brings all of society down.