This emblem really made the rounds on Facebook today. I chose to use it as my profile picture as a show of support for folks I know and about whom I care. They have been spending their day listening to arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping for a ruling that will insure gender blindness when it comes to being able to formalize and legalize relationships that, in many cases, have proved to be more stable than the last 200 or so opposite-genders celebrity marriages.
I don't use Facebook as a political platform, as a rule. And I agree that plastering this doesn't do a thing to change a thing. Unless the Justices decide to decide based on how many of these they see in social media today, it's an empty gesture. (Let me be clear here -- the Supreme Court Justices should not bow to pressure from the populace. They are the one branch of the government that never should, not even when it means we might be disappointed by its rulings.)
So, why'd I jump in when I typically don't?
1. I am tired of hearing that Conservative Christian Southerners are the problem. I am a Conservative Christian Southerner. I am not part of the problem.
2. I do support the right of people to marry the person they choose. Opening the door to this no more opens the door to abuse of the institution of marriage than letting people marry in Vegas after an evening of heavy drinking and a run at the tables. Or giving any Kardashian a legal license to do so, either.
3. I trusted my friends who disagree with me about this to respect my decision to use the emblem for a period of time, just as I have respected their decisions to post photographs in support of issues with which I fundamentally disagree. As I started the day with 353 Facebook friends and seem to still have them all, my trust was well-placed. I have chosen my friends well.
Sometime in the next day or so I will change my profile picture again to something else, maybe back to the blue ribbon that I've had up since March 1, in support of Colorectal Cancer Awareness month.
The one nobody ever asked me about.
I had to stop reading, to say this: Isn't the United State's standard supposed to be the Bill of Rights and the Constitution? I know those words and those "vows" by our electorate are super-meaningless now, as always, but, honestly!
ReplyDeleteCindy-lou
Oops, electorate was the wrong word. Well, it sounded good at the time. lol I hope you read my mind.
DeleteCorrection:
ReplyDelete*States'
If you truly believe that Eleanor, then you are not truly "Conservative Christian Southerner." However, if you and others who feel that way ARE "Conservative Christian Southerners", then there are people co-opting your label.
ReplyDeleteI know I have not changed that much in 30 years, so I doubt you have. I would not label you a "Conservative Christian Southerner." If you were, you could have never hung out with the same people I did. Kevin.
I can assure you, I consider myself Conservative. I am most assuredly a Christian, and there is no doubt whatsoever that I am a Southerner, through and through. It IS a matter of these concepts being co-opted by some, and used as invective by others. I aim to take them back, at least in my own small way here.
DeleteI am as weary of others deciding that if I believe (A) then I must be (B) as I am of others telling me that, believing (A) I MUST believe (B).
The most important thing God gave me -- gave us all -- was not my natural inclination to seek out a member of the opposite sex to fall in love with. It was a brain, and the ability to reason and think for myself. Recognizing this does not change any of the labels I claim for myself.
I would add this as well.
DeleteI believe it is fundamentally important that people from both sides of the political aisle be allowed to assert a different viewpoint from their counterparts. This is where intelligent and open discourse, and the ability to be effective, has been derailed, in my opinion.
Further, it has long been my belief as a Christian that where politics is concerned I take this to heart: If Christ had wanted to rule governments He would been Caesar, and not crucified. His interest was in ruling hearts.
Hearts are always more powerful than governments.
"I believe it is fundamentally important that people from both sides of the political aisle be allowed to assert a different viewpoint from their counterparts. This is where intelligent and open discourse, and the ability to be effective, has been derailed, in my opinion."
ReplyDeleteAmen.
Further, it has long been my belief as a Christian that where politics is concerned I take this to heart: If Christ had wanted to rule governments He would been Caesar, and not crucified. His interest was in ruling hearts.
ReplyDeleteHearts are always more powerful than governments.
The quiet work goes on, I reckon. It gets tedious sometimes, as my mother used to say.
Forgive me, but her entire quote would be more like this: *sigh* Yes, life gets tedious sometimes, don't it.
ReplyDeleteShe was from North Dakota farm country.