Not My Happy Place

First Posted 04-Jul-2015

This week, the Supreme Court passed down decisions on ObamaCare and Gay Marriage. A lot of people are celebrating both. I am not. I’ve been waiting to hear from Eugene Lefkowitz, figuring he’d gloat. He did. The e-mail came today: “I”m SOOOO happy right now you just don’t know. I was at the White Horse until it closed and then finished the night at the Steamworks. I’m not the marrying kind, feel me. But for those that want a ball & chain, this is great news. Me? I had a room at the Steamworks and relaxed with a couple friends until sunrise.
Predictably, once I hinted that I oppose same sex marriages, the pushback arrived. I said on my Facebook page that I was afraid of what will happen now that the Supreme Court has made same sex marriages legal in all 50 states. My biggest fear was an attack on our First Amendment right to speak out against popular opinion. We are not free if the majority can impose its opinions on the minority. For those that are nodding their heads as they read this, I don’t mean that we Christians can force our opinions and way of life on those who don’t live by our Orthodoxy. I mean we are not free if the majority who believe that same sex relationships should be legal can use that sanction to marginalize those of us who disagree.

This is what I said on Facebook: “SCOTUS care and gay marriage. We are so screwed. Please, no more trying to tell me that this is about being fair, about being free. It’s still true—if you are an African American lesbian woman, you are golden. Everybody else is a hater. And I, WASP, middle aged, born of white privilege, should just gather my last meal of earthworms and start digging my own grave. Land of the free? Right.”

My aunt read my post on Facebook and replied (paraphrasing): “Sure, you’re free to believe that same sex marriage is wrong. Don’t do it. But we’re not free to impose our beliefs on others. I believe that the NRA has perpetrated wrongs on us by encouraging gun ownership. More people in the US have been killed by guns than by being gay, unless they’ve been shot by a gay hater. . . Whatever you’re thinking, I’ve most likely heard it before, age wise. The most enlightening exercise I subjected myself to was a deliberate examination of my own beliefs in relation to those of biologists and Neo-Darwinian theories. Have an argument with God. You’ll be wiser and happier.”

I am not free, as a white, middle-aged man, to have my opinion that same sex relationships are wrong, without incurring the wrath of those who believe these relationships are acceptable. I am accused of using my white-privilege to abuse the oppressed LBGT simply because I oppose their choice of partner. We are not free as a nation if there is only one legal orthodoxy accepted as proper. It does us no good to bless those who say same-sex relationships are acceptable and punish those who disagree. We have become, then, a kingdom where free speech isn’t truly possible.

Our constitution has become worthless. The law becomes what our leadership says it is. Without some sort of moral, spiritual guide to help us sort out in and out-of-bounds behaviors & choices, everything is in-bounds. You can’t arrest anyone for a crime because the law has become a farce. You can’t have a trial because the rule of law has become impotent. A horse can be a senator. We have then instead of anarchy, allowed ourselves to be seduced by liars who claim to want more freedom while simultaneously making into law a set of morals far stricter than what these morals replaced accompanied by punishments far worse.

I said this in another post and repeat it here, “Instead of a martyred Nazarene carpenter born out of wedlock we have a magic brown man from the South-side of Chicago. This is a too oft narrative of so many revolutions. The rebels win, take control, and end up being worse than those they overthrew. That’s one premise. Here is another, within every anarchist is a control freak. It’s not that they don’t want any rules. They want their rules instead of the existing rules. Those that lay claim to openness and freedom are just annoyed at the existing rules and want the game changed so they can have their rules instead.”

This is what I mean when I say the only free people will be African-American lesbians. Everybody else is in trouble. Over 400 years ago my ancestors left Europe seeking to escape persecution by the kings of the day. They came here and slowly built a new home, a new nation where the right to free speech and the freedom to practice one’s religion were established in the constitution. It took 189 years to make this happen. Now, in less than 8 years, all of that has been deemed to be stupid. It’s so yesterday, so not cool anymore. In its place is a President who does not care about the rule of law, an Executive Branch so large it is in effect, a fourth branch of the government, and a Congress and Supreme Court unwilling to defy his will in any substantial way. It is the 16th century again and being Christian is once again a reason to be worried about ones safety. This is progress.