It was rather exciting to see so many people of VERY different views mingling in front of the state house yesterday. The youngsters on both sides were shouting themselves hoarse but there were just as many people talking quietly and being considerate of feelings on both sides of this fundamentally irreconcilable topic. When it comes to gay rights there is no gray area with our born again / Mel Gibson-conservative Catholic foes. I was a little disheartened by the inability of the black churches to see the bigger picture, but what did I really expect of them. The conversations I had showed that most of the was coming from the pastors, ministers and priests; and they were just toeing the line of the right wing agenda. They are being told that the coming apocalypse will be heralded by the lack of good moral - as found in the bible. "And God so hates the world that he will rain fire down on you if you do not take a stern and unforgiving look on... love?"
My two favorite things came from the same family, the first was a sign which said MARRY THEM ALL AND LET GOD DECIDE! Which is a particularly pointed and witty rephrasing of the infamous answer to the question the first crusaders received about how to proceed with war on a population where you couldn't tell who the heretics were and who the good were. The head of the crusade said - KILL THEM ALL AND LET GOD DECIDE.! Oh my!
The second was the above woman's husband, who was handing out buttons that said GOD HATES SHRIMP. Another witty about the fact that the same biblical source the right uses to condemn homosexuality also condemns the eating of shell-fish - proscribing the same penalty: DEATH. So... if God hates fags and , he hates lobsters and shrimp - JUST AS MUCH. Enjoy that next shrimp fra diavolo you order!
The only thing about these two wonderful slogans that was kind of sad for me, was that the vast majority of didn't understand them.
