CA Prop 8: It's God's Fault -- Blame the Church

[Corkey Mineola]

Mark Morford, queer SF writer, sums it up beautifully:

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But I don't think it stops there. Because when you peel back all those surface factors, when you trace the line of quasi-reasoning back to its source, to the "real" reason many people voted for Prop. 8, I think the real blame lies with, well, the Almighty himself.

That's right, I blame God.

Wait, check that. Let me say it with the proper intonation and slant: Imagine my voice trembling, the very earth beneath my feet rumbling, the very letters you are about to read appearing in enormous gothic capitals, dripping with fire and smoke and Budweiser logos, all surrounded by scowling cherubim armed with poorly printed pamphlets and a severe dislike of throbbing techno: GOD.

What, too much? I don't think so.

Who stabbed marriage equality to death, again? The Mormon Church. Catholic groups. Evangelicals. Militant fundamentalists. Reclusive, sickly, notoriously right-wing billionaires like Howard Ahmanson, a guy who also funded a radical Christian theologian madman who himself endorses stoning gay people to death. The mother of Eric Prince, CEO of the notorious Blackwater thugs-for-hire company.

Behind it all, it's God. No, not the god you and I understand as a universal, non-gendered, asexual, love-drunk energy coursing through all things at all times everywhere without the slightest wisp of prejudice or geographical preference, but that famously small, myopic version, the one that encourages a literalist interpretation of very carefully selected Bible verse (to the complete disregard of myriad others) -- a version that, in short, has been drilled into the consciousness of far too many voters for far too long.

Is it not true? Once again this election, in pulpits across America, the call rang out: We must stop the gays. We cannot allow them entry into the sanctuary of Eternal Hetero Love. After all, marriage is (these people believe) the last upstanding Christian stronghold, the final barrier preventing America from becoming some sort of Sodom-iffic nipple-pierced polyamorous rave party where anyone can marry anything and pets are running scared and people stick parts of their bodies into other people's parts for sexual pleasure. The horror.

And yes, it must be said: Sad indeed to imagine many of those black pastors up there, cheering Obama's win and deeming this a new dawn for blacks after so many years of struggle for basic civil rights, while in the next breath talking up the wrath of God that will strike parishioners should they allow homosexuals to register for stemware at Crate & Barrel. Talk about disingenuous.

Let me suggest it outright: The vast majority of Yes on 8 voters seem to have been motivated, at least in part, by this sad misunderstanding of God, this harsh spiritual slant that supports a discriminatory, micromanager Almighty who fully endorses marital bliss, but only for some.

(Interestingly, I believe this is the same God who, until recently, didn't allow whites to marry blacks. Or women to vote. Or slaves to be free. Or people to get divorced. Or women to become priests. Or humans to wear condoms. Hmm.)

Then again, when you put it that way, the ugly fight for Prop. 8 makes perfect sense. After all, hetero marriage is all organized religion really has left, their last vestige of power and control. Everything else they fought so hard to inject into the national agenda -- intelligent design, God's war against Muslims, the end of reproductive choice, more prayer in schools, abstinence education, et al -- not only failed, but failed spectacularly. No wonder they're clinging to this old, failed idea of marriage so violently.

So let me correct myself. I don't blame God. I certainly don't blame the kind of fluid, open-throated spiritual awareness that promotes, rather than denigrates, all forms of consensual love, that understands the human soul is ever in flux and must, like the society that forms around it, be allowed to grow and evolve lest it stumble and atrophy and vote Republican.

I do not blame God. I blame a very gloomy, revisionist version of the divine, a sour and demeaning mindset that believes in restriction, constriction, dread.

The good news is, I think Prop. 8's desperate, last-gasp victory merely reveals that this hollow, homophobic version of God is waning, sliding, fighting for its last taste of relevance, soon to be replaced by something just a bit more dynamic and open-hearted and, well, truly divine.

The bad news is, it's just going to take a bit longer than we'd hoped.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/11/07/notes110708.DTL

[enki23]

1. eh. i'd go further and blame god in the broadest possible sense

superstition breeds superstition, and make no mistake, this is a battle against superstition.

[LynzM]

2. I'm with ya, enki...

I'd like one person to explain to me the actual 'threat' in allowing anybody to marry anybody they so choose, of consenting adult status. /sigh :banghead:

[Gwendolyn]

3. I blame a lack of socializing alternatives, selfishness/consumerism, and Reader's Digest.

I think that about covers it. Not being sarcastic either. People who have universal healthcare are not dependent on their neighbors/Church for help in time of need so they aren't as likely to be drawn Sunday after Sunday into the propaganda meeting machine. It's liberating. People who have somewhere else to go on the weekend to meet like-minded others for non-Church sponsored activities will do so and be exposed to a myriad of experiences unlike their own. People who are less exposed to the mind-numbing message of "it's your right to be happy" might actually find happiness. Reader's Digest infiltrated every rural home for the last 75 years with this message of, "only God and the individual matters, and you can beat that cancer if only you really, really try.'

Other countries are populated with people just like us. However, they make films and write books that mirror reality. That's independence. They've actually been through wars on their own soil, and they also understand you don't have to eat that entire pie to feel good inside. Make lovey with thine other, have an affair, or just fracking go outside. Those other countries all have same sex marriage, or at least, some facsimile way better than ours. It's not exactly god per se, It's our culture that keeps us running to Church for every single need. Even those who don't believe, depending on where you live, are stuck with Church as a social tool and safety net. Get rid of that... as all other countries have... and we'll be free. For real.