Praying for light – gay marriage and the aftermath

Marriage equality?

Well, it’s official.

Marriage equality has arrived in America. It seems appropriate to mark the occasion, seeing as the issue hits so close to home.

Where to start? First, I’ll begin by saying that I am happy beyond words that gays and lesbians throughout the Nation, finally, will have the exact same civil benefits and responsibilities everyone else is afforded. It is proper and right that we should have them.

No government of a nation dedicated to treating its citizens equally under the law should be allowed to discriminate against its own citizens. Moreover, no nation that claims to pride itself on valuing property rights can dare to deny to citizens the basic right to enter into a contract. That being said, this decision, the debate leading up to it and the aftermath that has followed, is not something I feel like dancing and smiling about. You will not find my profile pic draped in a rainbow flag.

In His Footsteps – A prayer for the lost

Father & Son (Photo credit: jeroenadema)

YouTube burned in holy fire last week with debate over a phenomenal vid by Jeff Bethke that begs this intriguing question: What if Jesus came to abolish religion?

Getting nearly 22.5 million hits it looks like quite a few people were intrigued by Bethke’s idea.

The Middle East burns in religious rage, holy men like the Dalai Lama discuss mankind moving beyond religion, Pope Benedict seeks reconciliation between Christians and Muslims; all manner of philosophy/spirituality talk is coming to the fore.

God, Jesus, spirituality and religion are on our lips. However, besides the likes of folk like Jeff Bethke who have moral courage enough to ask us to seek answers about fundamentals, how many of us have questions about the Creator and the Creator’s will on our minds these days?

When was the last time we asked the big questions?

Slouching towards Gomorrah (?)

SHOOTING OFF YOUR FACE WON’T HELP FREE SPEECH – NARA – 515409 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just as the United States and the world began observing the eleventh anniversary of the attacks of 9/11, despicable cowards – domestic and foreign – set in motion actions informed by the principles so beloved by the perpetrators of 9/11.

We’ve learned over the past few days that the attacks on our embassies in Benghazi and Cairo were an orchestrated, well planned maneuver – an act of Holy War. We’ve learned that they are not simply an expression of discontent against “efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims”. How then can we escape from a mess created not in a vacuum of happenstance, historical necessity, or incompetence but rather from a well thought out move towards a bizarrely familiar ‘Armageddon’?

In HIS footsteps…politics, personal freedom, and ‘loving the sinner’ – the Chris Kluwe/Emmett Burns files

The recent Chris Kluwe/Emmett Burns (R-MD) imbroglio, ostensibly about the right of Baltimore Raven’s linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo to speak his mind regarding gay marriage, got this corespondent thinking. Hunter is intrigued today about the roles that religion and faith play. He thought not about their role in public life, such as in Mr. Burn’s responsibilities as a Maryland House delegate, but in our lives as individuals.

Your corespondent began to wonder: what kind of twisted thinking allowed Delegate Burns to believe he had either the right or responsibility to pop off in typical controlling, Ministerial fashion against Brendon Ayanbadejo? What form of twisted ethic allows Burns to believe that GOD would approve of Burns’ actions?

We are called to love the sinner whether or not we can justify his particular ‘sin’. In writing to the owner of the Ravens, Delegate Emmett Burns sought to shut up an individual with whom he disagreed with politically. If Burns were successful in either forcing ( the implicit threat of political pressure is a form of force) a muzzle on Ayanbadejo or getting him fired (as often happens during public controversies such as these) does Burns believe GOD’s will would have been done – via the noble and moral Emmett Burns?

From the horse’s mouth to HIS (and her) ears

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I feel a bizarre sense of indebtedness to Tucker Carlson Editor-In-Chief of The Daily Caller and Fox News commentator. Thanks to Tucker’s blank out on live t.v. Hunter now feels simultaneously blessed, fearful, discouraged, and – borrowing from the sense of life of the 2008 campaign of then Presidential hopeful Barack Obama – hopeful.

Today we know that the hope of President Obama’s oratory was at best disingenuous, and yet…oh, the hope.

It certainly inspired all those Statists in our midst.

Such a bag of mixed premises and ambivalence your correspondent now lives with this fine morning. Hunter must thank Tucker for his open (though hidden from himself) acknowledgement that Ayn Rand was usually right. Thanks, Tucker. With friends like these…

Tucker was discussing the 2012 election on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom this morning.

Speaking to Martha MacCallum, Tucker and Martha came around to the oft alluded to ‘gender gap’ and ‘marriage gap’ between Conservatives and Liberals. Tucker acknowledged that said gap exists: he recognized that unmarried people and women are far more likely to vote Democrat than Republican. He admitted he was a bit unnerved by it, saying he wasn’t sure why it was so.

Thank you – and, also…thanks a whole friggin’ lot, Tucker. Thank you for handing Hunter a gift few people receive – the opportunity to watch decades of failures and evasions of a philosophical movement and a political party jump out from the screen in the guise of your blank out on live television. Thanks, Tucker, for the reminder of how right Rand was about the mess that is the Republican party.