All Should be Welcomed

Portal of the Church of Pilgrims, in Washington, DC, with a LGBT banner. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Right wing Christians believe that they are not hateful- they just know homosexuality is wrong. By all means, preach it on the street corner. Let Jesus go and find them. But do not let it interfere with the core beliefs this country is founded on. Is it the Bible? No. The founders were Christians. In the same way that football players are Americans. They are influenced by their American values, but the rules are set up so that anyone can play.

That is what we should be asking of America. For the rules to be fairly applied. Fundamentalists want to keep this from happening to the LGBT community. They pretend it is out of love. They don’t want their tax money spent on homosexual weddings or some such nonsense. Yet I suspect they know that under the guise of protecting their religion, they get to be hateful. 

Right wing Christians believe that they are not hateful- they just know homosexuality is wrong. By all means, preach it on the street corner. Let Jesus go and find them. But do not let it interfere with the core beliefs this country is founded on. Is it the Bible? No. The founders were Christians. In the same way that football players are Americans. They are influenced by their American values, but the rules are set up so that anyone can play.

That is what we should be asking of America. For the rules to be fairly applied. Fundamentalists want to keep this from happening to the LGBT community. They pretend it is out of love. They don’t want their tax money spent on homosexual weddings or some such nonsense. Yet I suspect they know that under the guise of protecting their religion, they get to be hateful. 

Most people are hypocrites

Freedom of Speech from the Four Freedoms series by Norman Rockwell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They complain when their side is protested against  then when their side protests, they complain that someone wants to limit their freedom of speech.

They complain that their president is being disrespected and then disrespect the president of the other party.

They gripe about a president being dishonest but ignore that their president did the same thing.

They give label to other people's actions and hate it when their actions are labeled.

The Bible is not a Road map

Closeup of bumper sticker with famous Sinclair Lewis line "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross" Uploaded by Outsider80 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Government is a system of rules.  Are you with me so far?  You know what else has rules that govern us.  The rules of the road.  We have a system of laws so that we can go from one place to another.  We are able to create and follow these rules without mentioning religion. It works great.  It works better than our federal and state governments.

Not one mention of God.  They are not based on the Bible.  Yet people are free to be religious.  You can listen to a religious station and listen to the BIBLE on tape.  You can even be a pastor and rehearse or even preach your sermon to anyone you want in your car.

You can let your christian faith influence how you drive. Please do.  Give to others, love one another, turn the other cheek.  But also atheists can not and only follow the rules of the road and you still go about your day.

Religious people can have a Jeus is my copilot bumper sticker. We have laws that protect your right to have it.  You can be at a stop light and ask the driver next to you if they have accepted Jesus.  Perfectly acceptable. But you cannot have laws that force people to pray while driving. You are okay with that.

Now the laws of the road have some things that go against your religion.  Trucks can have chrome outlines of naked women.  Some bumper stickers have swear words on it. The meak shall inherit the earth, but suck at merging.

The Bible tells you adulterous and gay people should be stoned.  You see a Miatta with a rainbow sticker on it or a Outback being driven by a woman in a flannel shirt and you are not happy. You make a comment to the people in your car, but you do not stone them.  You let them go on their merry way and you are actually okay that you let them be on their way.

We can do that with the laws of our nation. No one will stop your religious rights and yet everyone can be on their merry way.

Freedom from Religion

U.S Postage Stamp, 1957 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I believe the intent of freedom of religion was to protect people's right to practice their faith.  Just as important was the intent to prevent a theocracy.  The founding fathers did not want a government telling people when and what to pray.

Did they?   Did they want to the us government to tell you what religion to believe in. if they did, would it be the flavor Christianity you are worshipping?

Unions Fairshare

A rally of the trade union UNISON in Oxford during a strike on March 28, 2006, with members carrying picket signs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Unions

I took a job that was unionized.  I had the choice to not be in the union, but pay some money towards it.  It is called fairshare.  That term meant that you had to pay for them bargaining on your behalf and making better money, because you go to the boss as a collective.  Now people can not be in a union, but if other people are in the union and paying the dues.  The nonunion person will reap the benefits without doing their fairshare.

It is simply unfairs to frame things as the person is no longer forced to be in a union.  They were never forced.  They did not have to work for that company.  They could have went elsewhere.  The right to work is simply trying to capitalize on people that want to get out of paying dues.  To weaken the unions. 

Good companies may not need unions.  They see the value in a properly compensated workforce.  And I think the auto workers may have hurt their own industry by not allowing the companies to do what they needed.  However, most unions function as agents.  Like the agent for an actor.  Take for example, Bryan Cranston.  Cranston does not negotiate how much he gets paid.  The agent does and that agent gets compensated for it.  That agent is not the one acting.  But he is the one negotiating wages, protecting the actor from bad contracts, and using the power of his reputation and his company to get the best deal for the actor.  The 10 % he pays to the agent results in more than a 10% increase in his compensation.

Movies studios benefit from the agents, but I think they would love for their not to be agents.  For them to go back to paying people what they want.  They would hold the power.  Maybe the Bryan Cranston could get by without an agent, but most could not.

Let see what happens without unions.  Let me rephrase that.  We are going to find out what happens without unions.  Let me rephrase that again.  We know what will happen.  We will go back to the time of the Rockefellers and the Carnegies.