This weekend was the Fourth of July, a day all Americans reflect on the wealth of opportunities and liberties that this nation affords us. As always, the weekend came complete with more than our fair share of tongue-in- cheek jokes about 'Merica, and an overuse of the word "freedom," always shouted with a bit of southern twang. Though it did get me thinking about that word: Freedom. What exactly do we include in this term nowadays? I grew up taught that the word freedom had positive connotations, and that we were all "blessed" to live in a country with so many. But recently, I've seen the word 'freedom' tossed around to veil all sorts of bigotry, and it really got me thinking about my beliefs on the word all together..
This Independence Day was particularly momentous in that we could celebrate the passage of legislation, which finally granted "liberty and justice for ALL", hundreds of years after those words originally stamped our nation into being. We've all seen the news, the social media posts, and the reactionary politics that are swinging wildly back in forth within a nation coming to grips with it's momentum towards progressive ideals. But some of the arguments I've seen opposing same sex marriage have gotten particularly lacking in logic, and those are what I'd like to explore.
First is the argument of Conservatives that the Supreme Court has overstepped a boundary, or become a vehicle for imposing their will on the people. The very basis of Conservative ideals rests upon the notion of small government. It's a "keep you hands out of my pockets and your ideals out of my lifestyle", sort of belief. In the case of the same sex marriage ruling, that is actually exactly what the court is doing- letting people live, free of government imposition. So I find it interesting that in this case, Conservatives are up in arms about a loss of what had essentially been government-sanctioned protectionism of a lifestyle ideal (albeit in this case, their ideals).
Next of course is the argument that extending marriage rights, hinders the religious freedom of those who don't believe in it (as though extending a freedom to commit an act, somehow equates to mandated participation in the act). Its an hard reality that any time a freedom or right is extended to more, some will feel their power deflating. That's unfortunate for them, but it's never been a strong enough force to stop the progression of freedoms within this country. The same rhetoric was seen in women's suffrage, and Civil Rights- those who currently hold a right feel threatened by an elimination of their exclusive access to it. They will fight as though this right is something they earned, while others have not. They will concoct doomsday prophecies of terrors to come, in an effort to make valid their claim to why a certain right has, and should remain, rationed. They will cloak their arguments in manipulated divinity, ascribing them to a higher power so as to avoid taking credit for their own lacking logic and fearful bigotry.
Now, I'm not here to change any one's mind. People are very set in their ways on this one, and I'm not naive enough to think I've said anything that hasn't already been said before. I also know I can probably count on two hands the number of people who read my blog, and so I'm not terribly worried about starting an uproar! Yet for some reason, I couldn't watch silently as people toss around bigotry and veil their ignorance with words like "freedom" and religious "right." The flagrant misapplication of those terms at a time when billions in this world are truly still fighting for them, should make us all ashamed of ourselves.
I support gay marriage. Whole heartily. I was brought up as a good Catholic, and not once did all my priests, nuns, and Bible study teachers teach me that judgment was anything but God's to dole out. But I am not Catholic now. Now I depend on logic, and so my perspective on gay marriage comes from that. And so to close, I'd ask Conservative America to just consider this: In reality, if any one group is in fact maintaining their "freedom" by denying it to another, then is that not the exact tyranny we should fear? Is not THAT the true example of a government imposed will?
God Bless America.
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