Welcome to your weekend open thread. I assume many ofmyoumare traveling this weekend. How’s the beach? What are your holiday plans?
As I studied the Scriptures more and further expanded my circle of gay friends, getting to know more parents and siblings of gays, my thinking changed.
Domestic partnerships are better than the OCA’s vile agenda, but only one step better. Having marriage for heterosexuals and domestic partnerships for homosexuals is like having “separate but equal” schools for white and black Americans during segregation. “Equal” in that situation never is truly equal.
…
The gay people I know don’t share a common “agenda,” but they do share a hungering for equal treatment and equal opportunity.
Don’t all parents hope for their kids to marry the person of the children’s dreams? Why should that joyous opportunity be denied certain Americans because of their biological makeup? And why would homosexual marriages be any threat to my wife’s and my 34-year marriage — or any marriage?
…
The Bible contains explicit admonitions against homosexuality. I don’t think that believers should pick and choose which verses they follow, heeding only the Scripture with which they agree and discarding the rest.
As they say, go read the whole thing. I think this kind of thing – people changing their minds once they come in contact with LGBT people – is what scares the same-sex marriage opponents the most. It’s hard to demonize people as other when they are your neighbor and in the PTA with you.
This is a good thing – a return of sensible GOP politicians.
I wrote a couple of items this week about the dearth of grown-ups in the Republican Party, but in fairness, I should note that GOP adults exist. They’re just not in Congress.
For example, former Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, is so frustrated with his party’s tactics on the debt ceiling, he’s created a “truth squad” with members of the H.W. Bush administration in the hopes of explaining reality to congressional Republicans.
“The debt’s coming due, and they say it isn’t coming due,” Domenici said in a recent interview. “They’re wrong.”
He expressed frustration that his party may be willing to let the debt limit be ruptured. “Who do we get?” he asked. “Bring God down, Christ” to make the case against doing so? […]
The current standoff, he added, “is absolutely beyond my comprehension.”
I hope the GOP elder statesman can talk some sense into Congress but I’m not hopeful. Domenici is no RINO, he’s a conservative in good standing. I think the only retired pol that can talk sense into them is George W. Bush. I wonder if he’s working behind the scenes or is he as useless as he’s always been.