Freedom is freedom, and democracy is democracy. (Might I add that democracy was developed in a pagan society?) Freedom to lead your life as you choose is just that — it can’t be circumscribed by a particular philosophy or religious belief.

To argue that there’s a line between freedom and license — which, naturally, is defined by /your/ particular belief system — is to make freedom the captive of personal opinion, or unprovable metaphysics.

If homosexual orientation were a matter of free choice, then it could be rationally argued that it was a form of license. But it isn’t freely chosen — it appears to be largely biologically determined. If you believe that an all-knowing God created a physical universe, a physical man, and physical laws that govern his behavior (I don’t), then God becomes morally responsible for everything that follows — including the desire of homosexuals to engage in “degrading” sexual activities, and “attack” His order by wanting to get married.

You cannot have free will, then punish consenting adults for exercising it.

We live in a civil society. That society has the right to define marriage as it sees fit, free of interference from the church. If you don’t like that, convert to Islam.

If you do not see the “logic and common sense” of extending marriage to people who want to enter into a (hopefully!) stable and productive union, sanctioned by society — what can I say?

By the way, I recommend “Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe”. If the author is correct, the church had a much-different view of marriage and “unions” for the first 1000 years after Jesus’s ministry.

This is precisely why i refuse to be part of the cult that is Catholicism. How can anyone feel “loved and welcome” in a cult where the rules are but one – “if you’re not with us, you’re against us. do as i say, not as i do.” No thanks.

God is a fable. A story told by someone countless years ago, very very well written, and very interesting and intriguing indeed. But nonetheless, a story.

These are my beliefs. And i have the right to them.

And i’m straight. In a marriage with a man, i am a woman. As you would call it “ideal” union. And myself, and my husband feel no threat to the lesbians who live next door, or my friend and his boyfriend, and if they marry and have kids, GREAT! Playdates! Non-threatening, socially acceptable, beautiful, fun playdates.

Jesus said “do unto others as you would have done to you” correct? Well I ask you think Timothy Dolan – would you like to have your love, your life, your feelings, your spirit, your beliefs – taunted and rejected and treated like a joke?

No. The answer is nothing but a resounding NO. Because no one likes to be treated in such a way. It makes the people you’re attacking feel rejected and hated and less than worthy and that my dear Arch Bishop, is NOT a loving God.

I’m all about freedom of speech, and feeling and believing in whatever sparks your soul, but i’m NOT about any religion that tries to own the world and ram it’s rules down MY throat.

I’m going for coffee at my big gay friends house tonight, to help them plan their wedding, and will be completely comfortable, and non-threatened in doing so.

Thank You,

Marnie – Welland, Ontario, Canada.

p.s. yes – Canada. The way less uptight country to the North.

p.s.s. America’s Bishop? Really?? I hope you didn’t come up with that, and it’s just a silly nickname, very rudely chosen, by the ignorant American press.

Did you know that the founders of our American constitution were against religion having anything to do with the government? Here are some quotes:

“Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies.” – Thomas Jefferson

“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.” – Thomas Jefferson

“In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.” – James Madison

“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.” – John Adams

“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.” – Benjamin Franklin

THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION.
You can feel free to believe what you want; you do have that right. But you have no right to force your beliefs on others. Separation of church and state! This is why this is a free nation.

I mean… It just boggles the mind how people can’t realize how bigoted they are being… Blatantly judging gay people, judging on their fight to have the same rights and previleges that the majority of the country take for granted… and STILL believing you are speaking from a moral high ground. To actually victimize and STILL believe you’re the victim… Wow.

I am Christian, and I am straight. But I realized years ago that you cannot be moral and just until and unless you support other viewpoints and other people’s basic rights from an objective viewpoint, whether or not you personally share the view.

You cannot preach equality and justice while condemning viewpoints simply because you don’t understand them. A fair, balanced viewpoint is the previlege of a democracy… In a theistic country, the church would have gotten its way. But this has less to do with the church and more to do with justice.

Legalization of gay marriage is going to affect the straight people’s marriage? Seriously? The typical housewife of America is just waiting for the ruling so that she can run over to Mindy next door? Live and let live. They’re not condemning straight marriage… Straight marriage will survive. In time, it may evolve to accommodate a just viewpoint of the gay couple next door, but they’re not threatened.

It is called progressive because it DOES mean progress… positive change… Change from being shackled into a loveless, baseless, biological betrayal of a marriage, change for the surplus of orphans who now have a better chance of getting adopted (oh, kid all you want, but gay couples are just as good parents, sometimes even better), change from relegating a group of people into second class citizens. All in all, this bitter turmoil will change… People will eventually start to understand that they’re people too. Change is coming… Slowly, but surely. Gay marriage is an important step.

I applaud and thank Archbishop Dolan for his courage to speak out on this matter.
I choose grace. I choose to be obedient to those who are wiser then I because I know
they can help me get to heaven. So I thank Archbishop Dolan for sharing his wisdom with me and helping me to get to heaven. If you don’t want to avail yourself of the gifts this holy man has to offer, then live on in your filth until you are no longer recognizable as a human person, created in the image and likeness of God. If you participate in a sin driven life, whether homosexual of heterosexual, you belong to the world which belongs to Satan. Therefore you belong to Satan. If you wish to choose grace you may do so. While you wallow in your filth I will beg God to forgive, enlighten, and raise you up to become the saint you were created to be. This is only possible by the grace of God, but sin separates you from God’s grace……..
Our good shepherd, Archbishop Dolan is trying to educate us so we can find God in
this miserable world. Instead of gratitude he gets insults. Maybe those who sling these harmful darts would have spit in the face of Jesus as well.
I choose grace. You can to.

Having been involved with a Church a long time ago (thankfully, no longer), I have come across all of these sentiments before. I have always (and will always) support everyone’s right to their own opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of religious association. It seems that all humans need to hold onto some kind of hope, be it religious or not.

However, trouble starts when people begin to feel like everyone must believe the same thing as them, and that their values and ideals are the only ones with any worth. The Christian Church itself is riddled with disagreement, and each denomination believes that *it alone* knows the truth, knows what God would want given any situation (homosexual marriage, abortion, cohabitation etc) According to the Bible, all anyone needs to do is accept Jesus into their lives to be considered a Christian. I had this line thrown at me so many times, yet as time went on, i *wasn’t allowed* to be a homosexual. My mother was thrown out of the Church for being in a relationship with a non-Christian man. Now please, before I get the standard abuse, please don’t think I am saying ALL Christians are like that. I already know. I’m just saying, when a Church can’t even seem to decide for itself what is right and what is wrong, what gives it the right to actively try and stop the progress of society, when this progress is based on love and the right to express love? Surely love is at the heart of Christianity!

I do not know if I will ever marry, for me the decision rests on the same issues as for heterosexuals – if I find someone I love, and believe I will love forever, and want to start a family with, then I will marry them. However, regardless of whether I choose to use this right, I will forever support the rights of anyone to marry anyone. Heterosexual marriages are rarely perfect, and neither, I doubt, will homosexual marriages. But I believe the most noble thing we can do as human beings is to love, be loved, and accept the love other people share.

Please people. Just be reasonable about this. Think to yourself – in what way will this affect me? Next time you see a gay couple in the street, before you jump to prejudice, just try and see how happy they are, and accept their bravery to express their love publicly. And then, if you choose to go back to your prejudices, then please just keep them personal to you. There is no reason to hurt people you don’t even know, if they are causing you no harm.

“It [marriage] is the union of a man and a woman in a loving, permanent, life-giving union to pro-create children”

That is the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever read. For starters, more than half of man-woman marriages aren’t permanent, so knock that off the list. There’s also plenty of man-woman marriages that could hardly be classified as loving. And, if the purpose is to pro-create, then should the infertile and the elderly be forbidden from marriage? And, I think that it’s pretty safe to say that homosexual marriages could be every single thing you described, aside from the obvious ‘man and woman’. They can certainly be loving and permanent, and they can also be life-giving, via artificial insemintion and adoption.

And, against the argument that being gay is unnatural/the natural order of things is man and woman that I’ve seen, I’d just like to remind everyone that there are many, many examples of homosexuality occuring naturally in nature, humans just being one of them.

What does ‘rule of law’ mean?

Oh, and bonus question: What’s a ‘theocracy’? And why does America NOT have one?

(If you’re feeling REALLY smart, how about telling me what could happen if you actually succeed. Gay marriage is forbidden, we all do it in missionary position…but suddenly America’s majority is Satanist. What’s your plan then, genius?)