Imagine if the roles were reversed…

If the speaker was a gay minister, speaking gently of our responsibility to pray for our unfortunately confused brethren who don’t understand that Jesus was for gay marriage, saying that tactics of intimidation aimed at straight people are wrong, and the speaker was being shouted down by conservative bible-thumpers carrying signs saying things like “Gays hate God” or some such, you’d have seen this all over the evening news.

But the intolerant Left almost always gets a pass.

No matter your position on the subject of gay marriage today’s decision was an affirmation of the electoral process and for that I am grateful.

California mega-church pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren says he apologized to his homosexual friends for making comments in support of California’s Proposition 8, and now claims he “never once even gave an endorsement” of the marriage amendment.

Pastor Rick WarrenMonday night on CNN’s Larry King Live, Pastor Rick Warren apologized for his support of Prop. 8, California’s voter-approved marriage protection amendment, saying he has “never been and never will be” an “anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist.”

“During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going,” Warren claimed.

However, just two weeks before the November 4 Prop. 8 vote, Pastor Warren issued a clear endorsement of the marriage amendment while speaking to church members. “We support Proposition 8 — and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8,” he said.

Will the real Rick Warren please stand up?

I know this is a very hot-button issue.  But regardless of your opinion about gay marriage step back and think about this for a moment.  Is there any more precious right we have as citizens of this country than to vote?  Is liberty and freedom better expressed anywhere than in the voting booth?  Yet we seem to be perfectly fine with giving the most undemocratic, the most unaccountable and the most unrepresentative branch of government broad sweeping powers to make and change the Constitution as they see fit, taking the right away from us, the voters, We the People.

The people of California have spoken clearly twice in the last decade.  The voting majority want marriage to be defined as one man and one woman. Every vote by definition has a winner and a loser.  But if the loser can manipulate a system whereby they become the winner then does it not make the voting process a sham?

If Prop 8 is overturned the political left, the gay lobby, their sympathizers and supporters will be dancing in the streets. But if you look very closely you’ll see their dancing feet are trampling one of our most cherished and basic rights. And if that does happen then I will have one question…

Why bother to vote?

Last week in a Denver suburb, someone lit a Book of Mormon on fire and dropped it on the doorstep of a Mormon temple, presumably as a statement about the church’s support of Proposition 8 in California, an initiative that amended the state constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In a move that may make gay-rights supporters’ heads spin, the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

As I’ve mentioned before, if they had real guts, they’d drop burning Korans on the front steps of a few mosques here and there, and then stand out front with signs saying things like “Muhammed’s followers are haters” and the like. After all, Islam teaches that gays should be killed, and the teaching has never really been repudiated or revised (simply ignored when not convenient, but practiced in many Islamic cultures still). Mormon’s have not advocated any such thing, nor have Evangelicals or Catholics, anywhere in the world.

So who is the appropriate target for gay marriage angst? It’s pretty simple: they just insult the ones who they know won’t fight back.

I’m waiting for the day when they picket a mosque, and stay out there long enough to be identified by the Muslims whose beliefs they’re protesting.  That should be REALLY interesting, especially the follow up coverage.  Just for extra laughs, they could carry drawings of a gay Muhammed, as they’ve done with Jesus Christ. 

But that would take actual courage, wouldn’t it?

Congratulations, tolerance mau-mauers: Your shakedown of a Christian-targeted dating website worked. Homosexuals will no longer be denied the inalienable “right” to hook up with same-sex partners on eHarmony. What a landmark triumph for social progress, eh?

New Jersey plaintiff Eric McKinley can now crown himself the new Rosa Parks — heroically breaking down inhumane barriers to Internet matchmaking by forcing a law-abiding private company to provide services it was never created to provide. “Men seeking men” has now been enshrined with “I have a dream” as a civil rights rallying cry of the 21st century. Bully for you, Mr. McKinley. You bully.

Neil Warren, eHarmony’s founder, is a gentle, grandfatherly businessman who launched his popular dating site to support heterosexual marriage. A “Focus on the Family” author with a divinity degree, Warren encourages healthy, lasting unions between men and women of all faiths, mixed faiths or no faith at all.

…….

The company agreed not only to offer same-sex dating services on a new site, but also to offer six-month subscriptions for free to 10,000 gay users, pay McKinley $5,000 and fork over $50,000 to New Jersey’s Civil Rights division “to cover investigation-related administrative costs.” Oh, and that’s not all. Yield, yield to the grievance-mongers:

Additional terms of the settlement include:

– eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex couples in the “Diversity” section of its website as successful relationships are created using the company’s same-sex matching service. In addition, eHarmony, Inc. will include photos of same-sex couples, as well as individual same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote its same-sex matching services;

– eHarmony, Inc. will revise anti-discrimination statements placed on company websites, in company handbooks and other company publications to make plain that it does not discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation”;

– the company has committed to advertising and public relations/ marketing dedicated to its same-sex matching service, and will retain a media consultant experienced in promoting the “fair, accurate and inclusive” representation of gay and lesbian people in the media to determine the most effective way of reaching the gay and lesbian communities.

Just sort of makes you feel warm all over, doesn’t it, that these noble freedom fighters brought to heel the evil homophobic Christians who were “discriminating” against them?  It really is true that no good deed goes unpunished.  For all of you who think the agenda does not include taking away your freedom of choice to associate as you choose, and to live and encourage traditional morality, it’s time to take your head out of the sand.

Let’s be clear about this:  the person bringing the lawsuit had MANY other options.  His sole intent was to TAKE AWAY eHarmony’s options to conduct its business as it saw fit.

I assume it’s only a matter of time until eHarmony is forced to provide services to couples seeking couples, couples seeking singles, singles seeking couples, and who knows what else.

Prior to voting on this very important issue it might not be a bad idea to examine what has happened in Massachusetts since gay marriage was legalized there.

There is an article is posted on the website of a group called Mass Resistance, a self-described “pro-family action group” in Massachusetts. It is a sobering read.  Do not be naive, this issue is about MUCH more than simply being able to marry the one you love.

PLEASE take the time to read, “What same-sex marriage has done to Massachusetts”.  Then vote “yes” on Proposition 8.

click here to read the entire article