Wednesday, January 4, 2012

It gets better?

So I am scanning my Facebook news feed for interesting information that might be worth reading in the near future. I say near future because more than likely, I'll click on the link that brings up the page and then put it aside because I'm at work and then forget why I was reading the article. I think that comes with the family bonds; although, who's to say? My Mother and Grandmother are/were notoriously forgetful. But my fiancee (yes, Ouiser is getting married) calls it selective memory. I'm guessing it's the ugly stepsister of selective hearing.

Anyway, the title of the blog is asking, "Does it get better?". To that I say that YES! It gets better for a good number of you anyway. The more you age, the more you realize that what most people think isn't really all that important. I say most people because there are a few people that tell me things and it's important that I listen to them. They would steer me wrong if they thought there was something funny that could come out of it but wouldn't hurt me. But I digress.....

I suppose you want to know why I question if it gets better or not. The reason for that is a state like Michigan who has passed an anti-bully law which tells you that you cannot bully anyone - unless you are religious. Of course, the law doesn't specifically mention Christianity or Gay people but it only takes about 3.0125 seconds to put the two together. More or less, a person may continue to bully a person provided that he/she does it only from the deep seeded love that only Jesus provides. Strangely enough, I can't imagine this being a quality that makes you Christ-like which I believe is the one sole virtue of being a Christian.

Then there is Tennessee, which makes Michigan seem a little sad (but that doesn't give Michigan any special "See? Someone is worse than us" privileges), which here lately has just been mean for sport. Again, most everything done against gay people is for the love of Christ and again, I have yet to see the love of Christ. Tennessee has either passed or attempted to pass the following:

"Don't say Gay" bill - this bill would tie the hands of any government employee from assisting a gay student or person with information about being gay or where that person can seek help. I believe this one has failed to pass both chambers of government.

"Equal Access to Interstate Commerce Act" - this act basically looks benign but what it does is tell the local/city/county governments that they aren't permitted to offer any non-discrimination policies beyond what the state offers. Since the state offers nothing in this area then no one else may offer these policies in Tennessee. Nashville had offered these policies but the bill invalidated those. So, more or less, you can fire or choose not to hire someone because they are gay.

"HB 1153" - Like Michigan, this bill allows someone to continue bullying another person provided it's religious in nature. Never mind that federal law prohibits someone from having a "captive audience" for their religious needs. A person may talk about religion in school but no one is required to sit and listen to it.

And finally Rhea County, Tennessee - the home of the infamous Scopes trial - tried to ban homosexuals from living in their county. It was decided that, "We need to keep them out of here.". The idea being that the county could charge homosexuals with "Crimes against Nature". It was unanimously passed but oddly enough, nearly all the county commissioners who voted for that bill either decided not to seek re-election or were voted out of office.

Now, I'm no rocket scientist and I'm sure a majority of you aren't either which means it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that none of the items mentioned above are Christ like. Hell, compared to all of those items, *I'm* more "Christ-like) than some Christians. Which, if you know me personally, that's saying something. No, I'm not evil (C, stop laughing) but I'm not your rose colored glasses kinda person either.

So, will it get better? Yes, for most of you, most definitely. But then some of you will still be just evil (I wrote pure evil but I don't believe in a source of pure evil) and working that tired Christian drag for all its worth. This quote seems oddly in touch with this blog:

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things - that takes religion." ~ Steven Weinberg

More reasons I choose not to call myself a Christian. After all, I couldn't stoop to the level of some of those that call themselves "Christ-like".