Freedom of Religion?

I just wish these other religions would stop pushing their stuff on the rest of us.  Civil marriage isn’t about religious marriage!  Religious marriage is between the church and their followers, no one else.  The church can tell their followers who or who they may not marry, and they should not be allowed to tell other people who don’t even participate in their faith, what they can or can not do.

Religious marriage and Civil marriage are two different things.  Civil marriage is about civil law, and doesn’t belong to the church it belongs the citizens of the state for the purpose of proving property rights and heirs, and many other legal aspect of life in the state.

Marriage is not a church invention, and the church adopted the practice, much like it adopted Easter from Ostera or Christmas from the Winter Solstice celebrations and many other adopted practices of the Pagan people.

We are suppose to have freedom of religion, but I’m find that the church is interfering with my freedom of my religion.

I see BIG Change coming our way in favor of Same Sex Civil Marriage in a WAVE ACROSS AMERICA!  Thanks to what Prop 8 is showing me, and many others across the country and the world!

We will be Free!

Proposition 8: What Happened to Change?

While Prop 8 is the catalyst to our actions and the stimulus to a meta-dialogue on marriage, I would go further to say Prop. 8 is harmful legislation that is being used as a tool to further moral issues of many who feel that same-sex relationships are immoral and an “abomination to God.” The clear message is that there really isn’t a question of marriage for same-sex partnerships simply because the California Supreme Court has upheld 18,000 (!) same-sex marriages. The court could have easily denied the right to marriage to those 18,000 people.

Meanwhile, many Americans in this Obama era advocate for change on a national level and have celebrated change. Many have celebrated difference this year with the victory of a different kind of President. When it was announced that the California Supreme Court had decided to affirm Prop. 8, what I saw and experienced as a Zen priest that lives in a same-sex relationship, is the unbelievable shock of not being part of the change America claims in this 21st Century.

What happens when we must deal with change (and may I say inevitable change) that is meant to transform hatred among us? Despite, Obama’s win there is still racial hatred. What if the change we were to embrace included the end of oppression of one group over another? Letting go of a superior or inferior being is what Shayamuni Buddha taught in his lessons on “no-self” or interrelationships with all living beings. We are nothing without each other. So, the denial of freedom to one is to deny freedom to all. [read more]