Subject:
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A letter to the Editor
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 4 Sep 2003 23:32:06 GMT
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Viewed:
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127 times
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The Backround: For the past 3 weeks the local paper I get, has been printing
letters from people who were very dismayed over the strides toward legalizeing
Gay marriages and other "sexually deviant" behavior. They were calling it
"UnAmerican" and all sorts of miscellaneous rethoric was flying about. So I sent
in a letter to the Editor and much to my surprise they actually printed it. I
just thought I'd share to see what everyone thinks.
The Letter:
Americans Don't Have Right to Force Beliefs on Others
I am very disturbed by the fact that so many people can not discern the
difference between a conflict of religious beliefs and legally correct "moral"
behavior.
Now so the reader understands, I must be very clear about my personally
beliefs. I firmly believe that anyone that has more that one heterosexual
partner during their lifetime will suffer eternal damnation. That said, I also
believe that so long as those involved are able to legally consent, what people
do in the privacy of their own homes is no one else's business.
Here in the United States we have something called freedom. It applies to
ourselves as well as those with opposing religious views. Any law that makes
something illegal based on religious beliefs is unconstitutional. Blame the
Government for taking the sacred religious vow of marriage and turning it into a
legal institution of privileges that persons outside the religion have every
right to participate in. Perhaps people forget the First Amendment: "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof,..."
I know people forget the all important Ninth Amendment: "The enumeration in
the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage
others retained by the people." and the Tenth Amendment: "The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
I have slowly come to the realization that the vast majority of people
simply lack the necessary historical knowledge to understand the importance of
the principles (let alone the principles themselves) upon which our country was
founded. There are thousands of pages of documents and letters written by Thomas
Jefferson that strongly suggest he was an Atheist, and at the very least
despised the obvious hypocrisy of organized religion. He made it quite clear
that the Constitution and the protected freedoms were intended to be above any
religiously based "morals."
Also I would like to point out that the phrase "under God" was added to the
pledge of allegiance by pressure form the Eisenhower administration. The
Minister that originally wrote the pledge of allegiance intentionally left out
any mention of God so that all Americans, regardless of Religious beliefs, could
recite the pledge with pride instead of feeling like an outcast. The phrase "In
God we Trust" was similarly added to currency in the 20th century.
The bottom line in all of this; we do not have the right to force our
beliefs on others, just as they do not have the right to force their beliefs on
us. Despite the best efforts of the Government to the contrary, we live in
freedom. Deal with it.
-Mike Petrucelli
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