God in America

Just over four months after California voters made inequality the law of the land by passing Prop 8 (which is currently on appeal) to ban gay marriage, President Obama reportedly will do what former President Bush had refused to do and sign a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Obama, who is a Christian, wants to send a message to the world that America does, in fact, support human rights and the ideas of equality and tolerance. These are fundamental ideals upon which our founding fathers built this nation. They are essential American laws. At least, they should be. However, while our current President has allowed his Christian teachings to instill in him a sense of fairness and acceptance of his fellow man, many so-called proud Americans have twisted these values in order to make America a country of discrimination.

Those founding fathers clearly meant for the United States to be a non-religious nation. We have freedom of religion, separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson once said, "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law." He obviously thought of religion as a personal, individual choice. And yet, there are many today who would make distinctly religious values American law. A constitutional ban on gay marriage is one example of this.

It was not all that long ago that racial minorities in this country did not have the same marriage rights as white people. We look back on that now with feelings of disgust, yet we are still allowing that sort of injustice to occur. Homosexuality as something negative is purely a religious concept. There are scientific studies that suggest that homosexuality is genetic, and homosexual behavior occurs often in nature. Regardless of how one feels about gay marriage or homosexuality in general, it is unconstituional and unamerican to deny any citizen any right that another citizen enjoys. This is especially true if a citizen is being denied a right because one religion suggests it should be so. What justification is there to perpetuate prejudice and inequality in the name of God and American values?