I am so happy! Why? Because the sexual orientation equality debate is out in the open and people are fighting about it. The local media and everyone on social networks are thriving on it. Don’t you just love a good scrap to let loose and get it all out? Long overdue!
We all know what has been said by certain DUP politicians so there’s no point in saying it all again. The bottom line is that their bible tells them that homosexuality is an ‘abomination’ and that is what many of them truly believe and have said in different ways.
I am an atheist/humanist so I don’t base my life, thoughts, ethics/morals and how I live on texts of the bible written a long time ago by people who just didn’t know what we know now. They tried to make sense of the world with the limited knowledge they had at the time. They created rules for every aspect of their lives in their attempt to worship their god and keep order and control. With the advancement of science and knowledge, based on tested evidence, we are much more educated in the world in which we live. And, we understand that humans have basic human rights, whilst abiding by civil laws for the good of all society.
But, some Christians like those in the DUP and other institutions do base their moral code on the texts of the bible and they are opposed to equality for LGBT people. It is a basic human right that they believe in whatever god they want and follow texts and rules of whatever religious institution to which they belong. However, I would like to ask the following questions of them. In the past, Christians used the bible to support the system of slavery. Christians used the bible to deny women the right to vote. Christians used the bible to condemn interracial marriage. As these discriminatory practices do not occur now in Northern Ireland and we have equality laws to prevent them, what happened with following biblical texts? Do the members of the DUP and others support slavery, do they support disallowing women to vote, do they condemn interracial marriage? The biblical texts could not have changed. After all they were written thousands of years ago and they are allegedly the ‘word of god’.
If Christians were able to ignore or re-interpret the biblical texts supporting the examples of inequalities above, surely they can do the same to support full LGBT equality, including marriage. Why don’t they listen to the fact that we all have a right to love, whatever our sexual orientation?
The people in the Republic of Ireland will vote on Equal Marriage on 22 May 2015 and, judging by the enormous public support, I believe and hope they will get it. And, when that happens it will shine the light on this issue in Northern Ireland even more. We will be the only region of the British Isles to have inequality in this area of life. We will be isolated. We will be a region where the equal rights of all do not exist.
But I believe that change will happen because equality will override inequality in the end.
‘Diversity & Inclusion – Love Has No Labels’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnDgZuGIhHs
CHATTER 