I would like to thank the American people

[rnatalli]

It has been shown the gays have biological differences; in other words, you don't become gay through environmental causes. I can't understand how God would instill a gay soul on someone and then forbid that behavior. It also baffles me that humans will soon be able to perfect genetic code through engineering which God has not been able to do. I see three conclusions; God does not exist; God is no longer watching and moved on a long time ago; or God isn't benevolent which makes me question his/her's true motives.

 

[Exit]

I don’t know if I can answer your questions, because I am not a student of the bible or active in an organized religion. You know how Jehovah’s Witnesses come to your house and give you bible literature to read. Well, it’s not my religion, but I sat down and read it. It was a good read and I got an understanding from it, so what I say may not be right out of the bible, but a particular flavor of their religion or I might have got it all wrong.

God exists, he is still watching, and he is benevolent, but in the past he has dealt out some severe punishments, such as flooding the world/ Noah’s ark. In the end there will be judgment day.

My understanding from the literature is that the Angel Lucifer challenged God over who could better rule heaven. God cast him down to earth and is letting him rule earth as a test case to see if he can do better than God. We are supposed to be in this time period. God is not causing bad things in your life, Lucifer is doing that or it is randomly happening. If you pray to God, he might intervene unseen and help you though. This test period concludes in the end of days out of the bible. After that God will remake the earth. The rest you will have to look in the bible.

But under this oversimplified scenario, it is possible to understand what is going on and why bad things happen and why it may look like God is not here. I don’t think God is responsible for Gays because he finds them detestable. Why would he create something he detests? If man can alter (or perfect) genetic codes, then surely God and Lucifer could also.

I apologize to more knowledgeable bible people in advance if I got this idea wrong. Feel free to step in and correct as you see fit.

 

[Audioholics]

I think it's awesome that a black man was elected president. I just hope this means that Jesse Jackson is out of business. Blacks can do anythiing (without his help) - and this proves it.

Rock on!

 

[MidnightSensi]

Gay people lost rights in Florida too this election.

Florida passed Amendment 2 defining marriage = 1 man 1 woman. What the amendment would do is not only define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, but it would it also prohibit the recognition of any union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent to marriage. This means that not only same-sex couples are affected by this; all unmarried couples will lose their benefits and will not have their relationships recognized in the state. Sadly, it passed with over 60% for...


On the brighter side, Michigan voted to legalize medicinal marijuana and Massachusetts voted to institute decriminalization for the possession of marijuana for under an ounce.

These are connected because anyone who doesn't support that gay people should have the same rights that I have, should really chill out and smoke a joint and quit getting in other peoples business that isn't hurting anyone.

Voting to take rights away, that's ****in pathetic.

 

[mike c]

For instance, what would a half black, half Chinese person be called?

Tiger Woods?

i kid, i kid.

 

[TLS Guy]

Congratulations to President Elect Obama for winning, and running a masterful campaign!

I have one question:
Why does a half white Hawaiian multi-millionaire, passing himself off as a black man from Chicago, always get called African-American, or black?

Is this just another flavor of racism?

I think it has to do with dominance of genes, and the resulting appearance, nothing more sinister than that.

 

[mike c]

Its funny how during the campaign his race was rarely ever mentioned but after he is elected its the first thing people say. But rightly so, It wasnt that long ago that a so called black man being the president of the united states of america was simply ludicrous.

i'm actually guilty of joking about tv series' with a black president in the story (when i was watching '24'), i said, i can believe that Jack Bauer can stop bullets, but a black President? nooooo.

I guess i was half-wrong.

isn't Obama's mother from Kansas? or is it really Hawaii

 

[jostenmeat]

I don’t think God is responsible for Gays because he finds them detestable. Why would he create something he detests?

If God detested some of the greatest writers, composers, actors, explorers, politicians, artists, etc that the world has seen, I wonder how he feels about stupid me and you.

Seeing as most of my studies were in music, I already knew that Tchaikovsky and Bernstein were known to be gay. The first has the honor of having Russia's most prestigious conservatory named after him. The latter probably has done more that any other American, period, to educate young people in art music, ever.

I have also enjoyed literary works by gays, including Oscar Wilde and James Baldwin. I didn't even know Baldwin was gay, until my dad saw me reading it, and was disappointed as he is pretty Catholic. I was thinking, who gives a &##$*! Of course I told him about Tchaikovsky, whose Violin Concerto he happens to love. *no comment* . . .

So I just googled famous gay people. Just among musicians only, it appears Sir Michael Tippett, Samuel Barber (Pulitzer Prize winner, btw, and do ya know the theme song from Platoon?), Benjamin Britten, Clay Aiken (!American Idol, lol), and John Cage. And I was only glancing.

I've performed works by nearly all the composers listed, and at the very least own recordings by them all (with the singular exception of Aiken!).

 

[rnatalli]

I don't recall the exact source, but I believe it's from a version of the bible. God gave Satan permission to torment a mere human to test and see if that person would turn to the devil. I can't see the benevolence. You religious folks chime in as I'm sure I'm missing an angle.

 

[darien87]

Let me try to answer Exit and Rickster in one post.


Exit:

Living here in the Bay Area, there is no shortage of gay people around. I've worked with quite a few. And EVERY single one of them I asked, men and women, told me that they knew they were gay from the day they were born. One beautiful black girl I knew, that had a child, said that she fought being gay for as long as she could. She went so far as to get married and have a child, in the hopes of being able to force herself to be "normal". But she just couldn't deny that she was different.

Does something happen to them during gestation that makes them gay? Who knows. So it sure seems to me that people are born gay. If that is true, then why would God create gay people just to persecute them?

I am not a religious person, and I actually think gay men is a pretty gross thought. (Gay women is awesome though!! ) But I am not going to be so presumptuous as to tell someone else what they can and can't do with their life. Religious people are free to be as religious as they want. Just don't bring your bible-banging ways around me.


Rickster:

I am half black and half white and I consider myself black. I can't really give you a good explanation why. It's just the way I feel. My brown skin sure makes me look different from white people. And I will tell you that with the racism I have experienced in this country, having a DROP of black in you, makes you black. And what do you mean by, "passing himself off as a black man from Chicago"? He's a black man and he's from Chicago. Seems pretty cut and dry to me. Sounds like you're just bitter.

 

[Spkr_Bldr]

I love it when people try to rationalize the Bible to fit with whatever their belief system is. Like it'll matter when you're standing at the Pearly Gates ...

Banning gay marriage isn't telling them what they can or can't do. Legal Unions are still legal for the most part, and that's fine. But it should be a different institution, and what rights they're afforded under that separate title is where the debate should be. Marriage has too many religious ties and implications to be allowed to gays, plain and simple ... and even the far most liberal state in the Union overwhelmingly agrees.

 

[Exit]

“But I am not going to be so presumptuous as to tell someone else what they can and can't do with their life. Religious people are free to be as religious as they want. Just don't bring your bible-banging ways around me.”

I am also not so presumptuous to tell someone else what they can and can’t do with their life. Just relaying a law from God. It’s a sign of the times that more and more people are failing to believe in God or the Bible. More or less foretold to happen.

 

[Nomo]

Its funny how during the campaign his race was rarely ever mentioned but after he is elected its the first thing people say. But rightly so, It wasnt that long ago that a so called black man being the president of the united states of america was simply ludicrous. As Obama stated in his speech about the 106 year old woman, Look how far we have come in her lifetime. Not just with racial issues but technology and so on. Just think what we can do in another 100 (if we dont blow the entire world up with nuclear weapons first)

I'm proud to say that I voted for Obama. But the color of his skin was never a factor either way. He is what I feel to be the best man for the job. I won't say that I was ignoring the fact that he is black man. It just didn't matter.

I'm happy and proud to see a black man elected to the presidency, glad I played a part in it. But there are more serious issues at stake.

I certainly don't wish to rain on any ones parade for celebrating the first "Black President". But hopefully, soon. we can move past that fact and get our country on the right track. I just don't want the media to dwell on it for too long, it's counter productive and frankly, after a while, pretty boring.

The last thing I wish to see is the "hmm, what if he were white?..." game played out on the news at every turn.

Let's celebrate the little victories, or in this case, depending on your slant, the big ones, and move forward.

On a some what related note; I found McCain's speech last night to be extremely classy.

 

[jinjuku]

I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. But I am ecstatic to be proven wrong. As a person that has been a victim of racism, I didn't think that I would live to see the day that a black man would be elected President. Regardless of anyone's political affiliation, it warms my heart to see that prejudice appears to be on the decline in this country.

Unfortunately, Proposition 8, (ban on gay marriage), seems to have passed in California. So we obviously still have a ways to go to reach true equality. I find it interesting that Prop 2, (Animal rights), passed but so did Prop 8. Apparently we would rather give rights to chickens and cows than people.

This is not a Democrat/Republican thing. I am truly just glad that I lived to see this historic day.

Thank you to the American people.

I never understood the moral policing of peoples that don't need/should be morally policed.

Proposition 8 wasted California taxpayer time and $$.

Isn't it the Mormon church that backed this initiative?

 

[jinjuku]

Sometimes people get confused about what is right and what is wrong and then it is time to look in the bible. I am not against gays and I wish them well, but I do not believe in legalizing gay marriage as a right. Our Pledge of Allegiance says we our one nation under god. If so we should as a nation follow god’s laws.

I spent my entire grade/middle school in private christian schools. As I look back I didn't really care for the indoctrination and culture of fear that is used to drive conversion. Lets say church on Sunday and school the other five didn't take hold.

The bible is simply a book written by man. No one could possibly prove otherwise.

First off there is a ton of heinous crap in the bible (if you really want to go there let me know, I will oblige).

Second the biblical scholars didn't have the benefit of modern science.

In particular male homosexuality is a biological function. Not a choice. The medulla oblongata on homosexual males is on average 1/3 the size of hetero males for starters.

Common believe is this happens during first trimester of pregnancy when the mother is under extreme amounts of stress.

 

[OttoMatic]

Name calling isn't very nice.

Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.

All I meant was that with such a patently ridiculous post (what does Hawaiian have to do with it? He has no Hawaiian racial content; he was born there. The term "passing himself off" implies some type of fraud or misrepresentation, and I don't think that's really going on, etc.) you have either ignored the facts and news reports in general, or you're intending to stir the pot in the fashion of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the like by using.

So, which is it?

Now, a much better response than mine is just a few posts up. Darien87 deftly responds about both issues, and explains one from a first hand point of view -- something I presume you have no experience with vis a vis racism.

 

[Spkr_Bldr]

I'm proud to say that I voted for Obama. But the color of his skin was never a factor either way. He is what I feel to be the best man for the job.

This is a serious question. Are you, or any other Obama voter here familiar with the full text of the Global Poverty Act and the United Nations Millenium Goals? And would you rather see the 2nd Ammendment removed from the Constitution?

I'm not going to come back with a gotcha here, I'm seriously just curious.

 

[MidnightSensi]

No, your seriously a wanker.

I was watching an interview the other night with Obama and some kid asked him about his gun policies and he said something along the lines of "I want to get guns off our streets, the guns that cause violence, but I'm not against the 2nd amendment and I don't want to ban handguns nor do I think I could accomplish that if I tried in office"... that wasn't word for word, but, basically the jist.

We are not going to agree with our president on all the issues. It's just not going to happen. I like guns too and support the 2nd amendment, but unfortunetly if I keep voting only on that we'll be in more countries blowing a load of "freedom"

 

[Nomo]

This is a serious question. Are you, or any other Obama voter here familiar with the full text of the Global Poverty Act and the United Nations Millenium Goals? And would you rather see the 2nd Ammendment removed from the Constitution?

I'm not going to come back with a gotcha here, I'm seriously just curious.

Global Poverty Act? I'll show my ignorance. Nope, You got me.

The 2nd amendment? I'm not sure how you feel that's relevant. If your suggesting that any President, with or without a friendly congress, would have the power, the will, or the desire to have an amendment that has been misinterpreted, misquoted, and watered down over the past couple hundred years stricken from the books; I'd say your in for a long argument.

I'm not a gun owner or a hunter. So my feeling the matter would be biased and irrelavent.

 

[soundhound]

Sometimes people get confused about what is right and what is wrong and then it is time to look in the bible. I am not against gays and I wish them well, but I do not believe in legalizing gay marriage as a right. Our Pledge of Allegiance says we our one nation under god. If so we should as a nation follow god’s laws. God passed down through Mosses the laws regarding sex. In the bible it says, “Do not lie down with a man as you would with a woman, for it is despicable,” If we as a nation recognize gay marriage, we would be putting man’s law above god’s law and we could be putting ourselves in a very bad position, and render the Pledge of Allegiance invalid. This is not an opinion, it is God’s law written true and clear.

However individuals are responsible for following or not following god’s laws. There are other religions and atheists and we as a nation should not restrict their right to their own beliefs. We should not however legalize gay marriage and lead people, and especially our youth, to believe that being gay is alright. God says no gay behavior and it is not a personal opinion. I am not a real church person, but I can read the Bible and believe in it particularly when it is so clear on this point. Our country still has to have morals and the “anything you do is ok attitude” needs to be turned around in this case.

Lol -- I've seen my fair share of ignorant, stupid and hateful posts on the internet, but this is definitely one of the classics. It's hard to believe there are such backward people still out there.