Freedom is a wonderful thing. And with our freedom comes the ability to govern ourselves under a time honored system of laws. But isn’t it funny how our laws are there to protect the guilty more than the innocent?
When arrested for a crime the alleged perpetrator has so many rights that it is not prudent typing them all in here however the victim is left out in the cold. In fact many trials are conducted by a prosecutor and a defendant with the victim not even involved! The case goes before the court as “The people against so and so.” And in many cases, such as suspected rape the victim is ‘cross-examined’ to such an extent as to make her or him seem the guilty party!
We have gun laws protecting the rights of the individual to own a fire arm because the Second Amendment to the Constitution is often misread as giving the individual that right. And the gun lobby is famous for their totally inane argument that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. Of course without a gun the people would have to point their fingers and shout "bang" real loud to cause any harm.
We have laws about freedom of religion and that is a nice one until one religion gets too full of itself and in its strength attempts to change other laws.
Laws are the most important part of any civilization. They set us apart from the animal world.
Our laws are generally just and uphold the majority rule with an eye toward fairness for all. But what if we just used the majority rule and outlawed any minority for the heck of it and because we can? We might herd all the minorities into interment camps. We've seen how well that works! We might also outlaw all religions other than the most prevalent one. But that might not be such a good idea for most of us in
Luckily we are not that stupid.
Or are we?
We are imposing our views, and by ‘our’ I must leave myself out on this one, on same sex marriage. The nation as a whole is against it and the Church (just about all churches) will fight it to the death.
But individual states are finally succumbing to the idea that it is wrong to deny the rights of this minority based on religious views because if we do start to govern solely by majority rule we are doomed. That is just not a path we can afford to go down.
We must add another freedom to our constitution if not by official amendment then at least as an unwritten understanding. And that freedom is the freedom to love and to marry that person with whom we wish to love, honor and cherish for all time till death do we part.
Amen.
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