You know, Jesus said this "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other." I can't find anywhere where he commands you to hate or detest others for their beliefs or lifestyles, yet you've managed to make that the singular representation of your character and faith on this board.

 

Some people are going to be surprised when they meet their maker.

Sad, sad day in America

Don't worry. No one is going to force you into a same sex marriage.

"Congrats gay folk we have the right to be miserable like straight married people!!!! Lol Yaaaay!!!"

 

A friend on Facebook haha!

I'm mainly surprised that some people are apparently surprised by this ruling. Maybe all of those law classes as an undergrad made me more apt to see what was going to happen, but I really just assumed everyone knew this was going to happen a few months ago.

 

I stopped trying to anticipate Kennedy long ago.

BBFAN, congratulations! If you find a husband, some people on here would love to come to a wedding

Great day to be an American! I'm Catholic so what? I don't care when other people sin, so why should I care about this sin? People can now live there lives how they choose and I think that is pretty cool.

I'm changing my profession to a wedding planner, PM for rates...

This is a sensitive issue on the basis of many people's personal beliefs and varying faiths. We are all obviously here for discussion and debate here on BGP, but it has to be done so in a civil and respectful manner. If we see any more users calling other people's personal beliefs into question here, the thread is going to be closed.

Scalia had plenty of his usual colorfulness:

 

"But the Court ends this debate, in an opinion lacking even a thin veneer of law. Buried beneath the mummeries and straining-to-be-memorable passages of the opinion is a candid and startling assertion: No matter what it was the People ratified, the Fourteenth Amendment protects those rights that the Judiciary, in its “reasoned judgment,” thinks the Fourteenth Amendment ought to protect."

 

Not surprisingly then, the Federal Judiciary is hardly a cross-section of America. Take, for example, this Court, which consists of only nine men and women, all of them successful lawyers who studied at Harvard or Yale Law School. Four of the nine are natives of New York City. Eight of them grew up in east- and west-coast States. Only one hails from the vast expanse in-between. Not a single Southwesterner or even, to tell the truth, a genuine Westerner (California does not count). Not a single evangelical Christian (a group that comprises about one quarter of Americans), or even a Protestant of any denomination. The strikingly unrepresentative character of the body voting on today’s social upheaval would be irrelevant if they were functioning as judges, answering the legal question whether the American people had ever ratified a constitutional provision that was understood to proscribe the traditional definition of marriage. But of course the Justices in today’s majority are not voting on that basis; they say they are not. And to allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation."

 

"'The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality.' (Really? Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie. Expression, sure enough, is a freedom, but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that that happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say.)"

 

I read Scalia's dissent before I even read the court's ruling. It's become a habit.

 

While his dissent had some of the usual snark, it wasn't as loaded with precedent, historical references, and other miscellany as I expected. I think he really feels like he's been forced to wave the white flag and it really shows in his style here.

and the Home of the Brave.

 

It appears that all we have left are cowards with regards to standing up for moral and ethical behavior in this country.

 

I can understand when one doesn't completely understand gay people or why they are gay, especially if one hasn't had much exposure to a gay person, and has allowed them to express their experience with growing up this way without any choice in the matter.

 

What is gravely disturbing is when one who doesn't completely understand, but will still approach the topic from an authoritative standpoint to deem gay people immoral and unethical.

 

Not understanding is one thing, but a crazy terrible leap to extrapolate from ones terribly misguided understanding to purport the same old same old trite backward commentary that does nothing but aim to take understanding back to the dark ages.

 

If you're willing to take a stab at a better understanding, I'd be willing to help enlighten you with my own personal experience with growing up gay, which is not very much different to many other gay people who have shared with me their experiences.

 

We were not bad immoral people choosing to be sexual deviants as some might see us to be. Our sexuality developed without choice just like any heterosexual did. You didn't decide to be straight, we didn't decide to be gay. I can't pinpoint that exact reasons, but all the same it is what it is.

 

Out of a sense of social and religious pressure when I was younger I tried to force myself to be straight but it just wouldn't happen. On the other hand following my gay inclinations felt as natural as can be for me.

 

I kept all of this bottled up my entire childhood because I feared the reaction I would undoubtedly get from kids beating me up (hopefully you don't find gay bashing to be an acceptable reaction), to family and friends possibly shunning me or casting me out through their lack of understanding.

 

I eventually came out to family and friends at about 20 and thankfully, although very confused, I received a ton of understanding, love, and respect from at least most of them.

 

Most of the gay people that I've ever known have been pretty peaceful passive people, and during their childhood if some of them weren't able to hide themselves as I did, and were possibly by no choice of their own on the effeminate side, they tended to suffer from physical bullying. From where I sit peaceful and passive is far more admirable than straight kids resorting to bringing physical violence upon someone merely because they do not understand them. That there might stir some questions regarding morals and ethics. Growing up it killed me that gays were always being condemned, but I never heard of anyone condemning straight gay bashing type people, who in my mind were the true problem.

 

Without going much further, I hope that in some small way I've helped you to see things from a different perspective. Some have a very hard time letting go of how they've seen things their entire lives. Condemnation, judging, and compulsive misunderstanding is a form of hate, but if you truly have love in your heart, I would fail to see where you can continue to cling to those views of your past. I don't expect to snap my fingers and see you do an immediate about face, but you now perhaps have new data to ponder than possibly you once did.

 

I'd have no reason to lie, but please believe me when I say that I, and so many others did not choose to be gay. Somewhere along the way you have to accept yourself for who you are, or you stand to live a complete lie, and a maladjusted life.

 

In the long run I see it as a blessing because it helped to challenge me at a very early time in my development to analyze myself, society, and religion, which I think has been incredibly beneficial.

You might as well continue praying for me because I am thrilled by this ruling! I have many gay friends and I am so happy for them right now! This is a great day in America!

 

 

:dancingpa

I read Scalia's dissent before I even read the court's ruling. It's become a habit.

 

While his dissent had some of the usual snark, it wasn't as loaded with precedent, historical references, and other miscellany as I expected. I think he really feels like he's been forced to wave the white flag and it really shows in his style here.

 

Good point. His intro is telling in that regard, with his diminutiveness about how "The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me." Anyone who has paid attention to Scalia knows he has strong personal beliefs on the subject. He had a polemical in his Lawrence v. Texas dissent about the "homosexual agenda."

BBFAN, congratulations! If you find a husband, some people on here would love to come to a wedding

 

Thanks SportsGuy41017 :thumb:... I'm not certain that it will ever happen for me, but at least now I'm happy to know if I ever did want to marry, that I legally now can.

What? The Lord, in my humble opinion, has nothing to do with this. I believe in Evolution. Homosexuality is an inherited trait. (Yes, I know, we haven't found the gay gene.) I would say that a gay couple raising a child with love, respect, and compassion is closer to Christ's message than the hillbillies I see yelling at their kids at Target.

 

Your statement about evolution brings up an interesting topic. I'm going to start a related thread so as not to take this one in the wrong direction.

Good point. His intro is telling in that regard, with his diminutiveness about how "The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me." Anyone who has paid attention to Scalia knows he has strong personal beliefs on the subject. He had a polemical in his Lawrence v. Texas dissent about the "homosexual agenda."

 

It seriously smacks of a defeated feeling that makes me believe he'd be thinking about resigning if he wasn't mortally terrified of who his replacement might be under an Obama appointment.