Theodore R. Griffiths
Assoc. Opinion Editor

There is a new trend forming on the side of the religious right in America: shock and anger that Christians who support “traditional marriage” are being painted as bigots.
Just to clear this up before I move on, especially for those of you who are Christians, bigot is defined as, “a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.”
Then one of the books that you follow (it is not your book) states that, “you shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination,” with a penalty of being “surely put to death; their blood is upon them.”
If you believe and promote the words in Leviticus (even though I still see you wearing garments of different colors), then you should be painted as a bigot. These thoughts on homosexuality are opinions, and a Christian cannot state them as fact just because they appear in a book. If that was the case, then I should be able to read “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” and use it as my code of morality.religion

Sure, some of the ideas presented in the Bible are necessary for civil society. We shouldn’t murder or steal (whether it is your neighbor’s TV or his wife), but ancient Greece had laws about that hundreds of years prior, so the rebuttal from someone about how, “the Bible is a necessary book of morality” sounds quite ridiculous.
These supporters of “traditional marriage” are tearing apart the civil society that we should have had by now in America. They complain about how they are portrayed in the media, but if anyone today applied this kind of unabashed hate to African Americans or women, two groups with a past of American discrimination, they would be ignored because of their ignorance.
If that is the case, then why do we accept this hate speech directed towards homosexuals?
You would think that it would be easy to ignore the religious by now, especially when we hear the statements made by Christian extremists on gay marriage. For instance, Erick Erickson, a Fox News contributor (obviously), suggested that gay marriage would pave the way for incest. He explains this by stating, “If love and commitment are the justification for marriage, why exempt this?”
I didn’t realize that humans lacked complete self-control and would immediately petition for incestuous marriage after gay marriage is made legal. Do you see how ridiculous it sounds? It shares a boundary with the insane, and almost reaches the “big man in the sky watching us” level of crazy.
Then we have Catholic Bishops who are offended by the title of “bigot.” I thought it was much more civil than “child molester,” but we can’t satisfy everyone. This Roman Catholic Archbishop and part-time Godfather extra, Salvatore Cordileone, stated, “Those who believe what every human society since the beginning of the human race has believed about marriage, and is clearly the case from nature itself, will be regarded, and treated, as the next class of bigots.”
I’m not convinced that most people view marriage as a system of rules to handle the granting of property rights and protection of bloodlines, but I have been wrong before. With his logic, we all also agree on the Hebrew law that required a man to become the husband of a deceased brother’s widow. Wasn’t that one of the major conflicts in “All My Sons”?
I can’t forget to point out my favorite Christian extremist, Tony Perkins. This great American patriot is the president of the Family Research Council, a non-partisan, non-profit, education group that just so happens to funnel money and support to conservative anti-LGBT Republican candidates.
Perkins, the president of what is described as an “education” group, also left this brave tweet late last year: “American liberals are upset that Ugandan Pres is leading his nation in repentance–afraid of a modern example of a nation prospered by God?”
That post is real. He is actually supporting Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill. You may not believe me, so here is his twitter handle: @tperkins. Leave him a lot of love.
I’ll end this discussion with a question for my fellow Americans: Will you truly allow the beliefs of a group of people who follow the twisted teachings of a fiction novel to create pain and suffering for people in our non-fiction world?