Gay Marriage

I've talked about this issues many times before, but it was that is very personal to me. No, I'm not a closeted gay, but I know a lot of people that are gay - many who are close to my heart. And this post isn't just about gay marriage, but just being accepting of people who are gay. But let's start with the gay marriage thing.

I ran across this picture the other day. It takes a shot at explaining gay marriage. And I think it does a pretty darn good job. It's simple to understand. And it's completely true. I would like to try and see someone argue against this. Here it is.

How simple is this to understand? The church isn't involved in anyway when it comes to being recognized by the government and being allowed those benefits as a married couple. I don't care if your personal beliefs think that gay marriage is wrong. That's not really for any of us to decide anyway - it's God who is the ultimate judge. (I personally belief that God doesn't judge gays and that He created everyone just the way they are - gay or straight) But again - you can believe whatever you want. And I think it's up to each church to determine what they believe and churches are doing that. But when it comes to the government, there should be NO question. Gay couples are being denied rights they deserve. And that is unconstitutional. And sad. How is it, in a great country like America, not everyone has the same rights? Can you argue against that? I didn't think so.

Not only do gays not get to marry the person they love and be denied rights and benefits they deserve, they are very much persecuted against. I recently read a very powerful message online. The title of the article is "I'm Christian, unless you're gay". It really is one of the best articles I've read when it comes to the issue of being a Christian but not being okay with gay people. You can - and should! - read the full article here. To sum it up, it talks about Christians and what Christians believe. And what one of the main things that Christians believe is that you should love everyone. But many Christians don't. They look down on people if they're not like them. They judge people. They won't admit it, but they do. And I'll admit here that I know I'm just as guilty about this as the next person. It mentions that many people think it's okay to judge other people because their "actions were somehow justified because of my beliefs at the time". But the author takes a look at not only Christianity, but other religions as well. And do you know what the main theme was in all of these religions? Love.

According to Christians, Jesus taught a couple of interesting things. First, “love one another.” Second, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (“Her” being a woman who cheated on her man.)
According to Buddhists, Buddha taught a couple of thought-provoking things. First, “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.” Second, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
According to Hindus, a couple of fascinating teachings come to mind. First, “Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all.” (Krishna) Second, “Love means giving selflessly, excluding none and including all.” (Rama)
According to Muslims, Muhammad taught a couple interesting things as well. First, “A true Muslim is the one who does not defame or abuse others; but the truly righteous becomes a refuge for humankind, their lives and their properties.” Second, “Do you love your creator? Love  your fellow-beings first.”
According to Judaism, their scriptures teach a couple remarkable things. First, “Love your neighbor like yourself.” Second, “Examine the contents, not the bottle.”

Love. That's the theme here. Love above all else. But do we do that? Sadly, no. The author does mention, and I agree here, that not all Christians don't put love first - many do. But we all should be doing this, there should be no exceptions.
The article goes on to say that it doesn't matter what your religion is or if you have no religion at all. We should all just be good people. We don't have to accept or enable anyone. But we should care that they are a human being above all else, just like you. 

In truth, having a religion doesn’t make a person love or not love others. It doesn’t make a person accept or not accept others. It doesn’t make a person befriend or not befriend others.
Being without a religion doesn’t make somebody do or be any of that either.
No, what makes somebody love, accept, and befriend their fellow man is letting go of a need to be better than others.
Nothing else.
I know there are many here who believe that living a homosexual life is a sin. Okay.
But, what does that have to do with love?
Come on. Don’t we understand? Don’t we get it? To put our arm around someone who is gay, someone who has an addiction, somebody who lives a different lifestyle, someone who is not what we think they should be… doing that has nothing to do with enabling them or accepting what they do as okay by us. It has nothing to do with encouraging them in their practice of what you or I might feel or believe is wrong vs right.
It has everything to do with being a good human being. A good person. A good friend.
That’s all.

How powerful is that? Why can't we just strive to be a good human being? A good person? A good friend? Everyone deserves to have a good friend in life. Let the rest go. Don't let your thoughts or beliefs stop you from caring for another person who is different from you? Everyone needs love. Because here's the thing: nobody is perfect.

So read the article. It's worth your time. Think about what is says. Think about the next time you meet or see someone who is different from you. What will you do? Are you going to judge them? Or will you open your arms and love them? After all, the greatest thing is love.

Faith and Politics

I read an article a while ago called "What it means to be a Liberal Person of Faith". While this might seem like an oxymoron to some people, we are out there. If you haven't read the article, I encourage you to do so. It is well written and brings up many good points. You can find the article here.

I've been meaning to write about this article since I read it, but I figured after the Iowa Caucuses and the speeches from candidates that followed after, now would be a good time to discuss this. If you listen to the speeches that candidates gave after the votes were in on Tuesday, almost all of them mentioned God and thanked God. Now, don't get me wrong, I am a Christian and I have no problem if you want to mention God or even thanks Him. After all, He does great things. The problem with most of the speeches after Tuesday is that they felt almost like a sermon. This is where politicians need to be careful not to cross a line. They need to remember that there are other people of different faiths out there.

Going back to the article, it talks about what it means to be a "liberal person of faith". The quote from the article is this:

"It means to believe in God... It means to draw on religious teachings and beliefs when making judgments about matters of public policy. But at the same time, it means to know that when we, as people of faith, make a public argument, we must ground our statements in reason and a language of morality that is accessible to everyone -- to people of different religions, for example, or of no religion. It means to understand that "person of faith" does not only mean the Religious Right... It means being concerned about the poor and the needy, and giving a fair shake to all... It means that we share many of the concerns of conservative people of faith... It means that we welcome dialogue with our fellow citizens who have a more conservative religious viewpoint..."

These are some of the things it means to be a liberal person of faith. Not that our faith is the right way or the only way for that matter. Not that we don't take our faith into consideration, but that we also take everyone else into consideration as well. 

Christians are not the only people here in America. America was in fact founded on religious freedom - not Christianity. So if you're a politician and a Christian - great! I have no doubt that their faith makes them who they are as a person. But they have to be willing to open the doors for conversations with people of other faiths. They have to be willing to understand that their personal belief in something might not be the best action for the entire country. They have to understand that there is a separation of church and state and it is there for a reason. Don't forget, there are many different types of people of faith out there. They deserve a voice too. 


Another reason why I decided to write this post today was because of another article I read, although this one was rather more frightening. Rick Santorum placed a very close second in the Iowa Caucus on Tuesday. But even so, not much is known about him and he really hasn't gotten much media attention before now. I didn't know much about him either so I'm not claiming that I did. One thing I did know however were his extremely conservative beliefs. Now, as a liberal, that's already not going to make me like someone very much, but after reading this article and hearing some of the things Santorum believes, I really don't like him. In fact, I'm scared to think of what would happen if he were to get into the Presidency. Read the article here.

To understand this article plainly, here is a quote that sums it up: 

"Plainly put, Rick Santorum wants to convert our current legal system into one that requires our laws to be in agreement with religious law, not unlike what the Taliban want to do in Afghanistan."

Of course, his religious law would be the Christian law. The ironic thing, of course, is that Santorum has also been telling everyone that "Muslims want to impose Islamic law -- called Sharia law -- upon non-Muslims in America." Exactly what he wants to do, but it's okay if he does it because he's a Christian. What?! No. That's not how things work, buddy. America is not a Christian nation and how anyone can think it would be okay to make our laws in agreement with a specific religious law is beyond me. I mean really, how is this okay? That is not what America stands for - at least not the one I believe in. Yes, I'm a Christian and I have faith, but I acknowledge that not everyone shares my same faith.

The article states that Santorum has not shied away from these thoughts either. And he has stated that his policies would be based on "biblical truth". Some of the possibilities if Santorum was in office?

• Rape victims would be forced to give birth to the rapist's child. Life begins at conception you know.
• Gay marriages would be annulled. He also supports a federal constitutional amendment that would ban them - which is totally unconstitutional and would totally destroy all current gay marriages and their families.
• Santorum would also ban all federal funding for birth control and would be okay with making it illegal if states wanted to. 
  

That is not the type of place I would like to live. All of Santorum's beliefs are a direct danger to the separation of church and state. Although I know this is an ironic choice of words for me to use, but I pray to God (my God) that there are not enough people in America that also support these ideas.

Finally, one thing that I personally find ironic... most conservatives want less government. Less government control in our lives. But they have no problem pushing their faith and beliefs on all of America.




 

Iowa Caucus 2012: Follow Up

Morning is here and so are the final numbers. I tried to stay up last night but it just got too late. 1:30 in the morning is way past my bedtime on a work night, and frankly, most nights! But let's get the results.

First place went to Mitt Romney by a mere 8 votes. Eight. 
Romney: 30,015          Santorum: 30,007

This is by far the closest a vote has ever been in a caucus or primary. And I'm betting it's probably going to stay in first place for along time with such a slim number like eight.

Overall, it was a very exciting night. A couple things that we learned by last night was that every vote does indeed count. And also that this race could still be anyone's race. Iowa was only the first stop. Every other state is going to get their chance to vote as well. It's really up in the air at this point.

It's also been in the news this morning that Michele Bachmann is going to be holding a press conference later today and it's rumored that she's canceled her trip to South Carolina, who has their primary on Jan. 21st. It wouldn't surprise me if she dropped out of the race at her conference today.
As soon as I finished typing that, I went back to CNN and the Breaking News banner along the top read: "Source says Bachmenn is suspending her campaign for President" And you know what? I'm very okay with this.

On to New Hampshire!

Iowa Caucus 2012

January 3rd, 2012 - Iowa Caucus Night

You know, I love politics. I really do. And I think that if you have a privilege/opportunity/responsibility like voting in a caucus, that you should make sure you do that. Especially if you have an opinion about anything. Which I tend to have. (Hence a political blog...) With all of that being said, I wasn't going to go to my caucus precinct tonight.
The way I figured was that since Obama is our incumbent candidate, there wasn't a reason to go because there wouldn't be any voting last four years ago. And frankly, I didn't want to sit through all the business that would take place instead. The one thing that kept me from saying no completely was the opportunity to become a county delegate. But I have also been bugging my husband about the fact that he needed to go caucus tonight as he had never experienced it before. He was also a little undecided on whether he would go caucus as a Democrat or a Republican. In the end, he decided to go to the Republican Caucus and he guilt-ed me into going to mine.

Now let me just point out here that this caucus night is so much different than four years ago. For one, it was a lot colder four years ago and we actually had snow! :) But more importantly than that, it was a very special and unique election process four years ago. There was no incumbent four years ago on either party and that's something that doesn't happen very often. And Iowans turned out in record numbers last time and in overwhelming support of Obama.

So tonight, we headed to our separate caucus locations to do our duty as Iowans. AJ told me that there were 66 people that showed up to caucus for the Republicans. In his precinct, Mitt Romney came in first and Ron Paul came in second within six votes. 
When I showed up at my location, it was a much smaller turnout. We had just under 30 people there and we had about five precincts that were combined at our one location. So in my specific precinct, there were only seven of us. At first, I was some-what surprised at the small turn-out, but then I thought, well people probably didn't show up just as I wasn't going to - Obama has it. After some people did some introductions, we had a live broadcast with President Obama. That was pretty cool! His first words were, "Hello Iowa! I miss you!" Always good to know that we've been missed... :) There are some quotes of his that I took down I'll mention later, but first he took some questions from a couple of precincts elsewhere. One was in Coralville and the other in Cedar Rapids. When they showed those precincts I was shocked at the number of people that were there! One was at a performing arts center and the other at a gym at a school - and they were packed!! It was then that I realized probably the true reason why there was such a small turn-out at my caucus tonight. I now live in Western Iowa. It is largely a Republican area. There are just far fewer Democrats on this side of the state compared to Eastern Iowa, which was where I caucused four years ago.
Here were some of the quotes I liked from Obama's speech tonight: 

"Change is not easy. It never is."
"You guys inspire me every single day."
"There is nothing we can't accomplish when determined citizens come together."
"We've done a lot, but we have much more to do." 

After Obama spoke, it was time to break up into our precinct and pick our delegates for the county convention that takes place in March. As I said earlier, there were only seven us in my precinct (which is determined on where you live) and we needed to elect three delegates. My chances were looking good! However, I didn't want to step on anyone's toes but after a while (and some chit-chat) no one was really speaking up. So I spoke up and said I would like to be a delegate. And that was that! I'm now going to be a delegate at the county convention in March! And I'm very excited!! It should be a great experience and hopefully I'll learn even more about how the party works. Plus it'll give me more things to blog about! :) 
I also have to mention here another quote from tonight that I really enjoyed. There was an older woman at the caucus who said she had been volunteering with the Democratic Party since she was 15 - so for some time now! And she had a really great quote that really makes you think:

"A democracy is run by the people, not money. But I'll be damned if it's not being run by money these days." 

I couldn't help think what a great quote that is! I don't care what party you support, but our democracy - what America is founded on - is run by the people. But things have gotten away from us and more and more it's the money that counts. And that's not a country I'm okay living in. It needs to change.

Now that we're both back at home, we're watching the results come in on CNN. And I have to say, this is what I was looking forward to the most. Even within the last couple of weeks, Iowans have continued to keep an open mind and different candidates jumped in and out of first place in the polls. And the incoming results are showing the same thing. Right now (with about 48% reporting) it is a very close tie between candidates - Santorum and Romney with Paul fairly close behind in third. Even with almost half of the state reporting, they can't make a prediction because it's too close. This wasn't the case four years ago. So now we wait and see what the final results tally in as...

In the meantime, here are some pictures from my caucus tonight (take via my cell phone)

Message from President Obama

With 88% of Iowa precincts reporting, CNN made their prediction. Although it was a little unusual... they only mentioned who would win third place, fourth, fifth and sixth place. 

Look at this screen shot. They couldn't, at this point, determine who would get first or second place. The tie between Romney and Santorum was too close. In this screen shot, it was a difference of 13 votes! 13!! In true Iowa Style (as my husband says), Iowans are making every vote count. It is literally a "to-the-vote" process. It's unbelievable but also incredibly awesome. And, in all honestly, it gives me hope and belief in our democracy and political process. 

Ron Paul (21%) and Newt Gingrich (13%) have both made announcements that they will of course continue on to New Hampshire, which is no surprise. It will be interesting to see how New Hampshire will vote, especially after such a close race here in Iowa. Surprisingly, Michele Bachmann is also going to continue to New Hampshire with only 5% of the vote. At least according to her speech. After such a poor showing in Iowa, I really don't think she'll last very long after New Hampshire. Rick Perry, who came in with 10% of the vote, is going back to Texas to "reassess" his campaign. Interesting choice of words... but I'm betting he doesn't continue on.

Before all the votes are in and counted for, Rick Santorum takes to the stage to thank Iowa. He is still tied with Romney at 25% but the two keep flip-flopping back and forth between 1st and 2nd with the vote difference ranging anywhere between 13 and 125. Santorum's speech is very much faith based and also sounds more like a political rally speech than the normal "thank you" speech you hear after election nights. He's definitely taking this opportunity in the national spotlight to help gear up his campaign before New Hampshire. Which is probably a smart move on his part because I don't believe he's been very popular in polls elsewhere in the US.

Mitt Romney has also taken the stage yet without all of the final numbers in yet. He's playing the "good sportsman" card as he congratulates the other candidates first. Already this sounds like the more appropriate "thank you" speech that candidates normally give. As Romney is speaking, CNN is showing 99% of the precincts reporting and Santorum is ahead by 5 votes. Five. Un-be-lievable! They're also reporting that this will be the closest Iowa caucus results in history, the last closest were back in 1976 with GHW Bush and Regan they were separated by 2100 votes! It will also most likely be the closest caucus/primary vote throughout the US as well. The previous record was held in South Dakota at their primary in 1936 which was decided by 257 votes.

Check out this screenshot... 

There is a ONE vote difference!! ONE VOTE!! WOW! This was still with 99% reporting and taken at 12:39am. Just... wow. But this does prove a point - every vote counts. So get out and vote! Otherwise, you lose the right to voice your opinion.

The (almost) final tally - Santorum: 29,968      Romney: 29,964

I'm calling it quits. We're waiting on one precinct in Iowa. And so I'll write another blog tomorrow with the final final tally. (Just a note, the rest of this was written previously, just in case it doesn't make sense...)
What an unbelievable finish. I did not expect this. Not this close! And I'm not very happy about it! haha Apparently I'm the type of person that has to stay up to hear the final results and so this has made for a very late night! But, as my husband continued to point out to me - it's history in the making. Never has there been such a close vote! Never have I seen the two top candidates flip back and forth between first and second place! It's been fascinating to watch, don't get me wrong. I just wish it would have ended a couple of hours ago... :) 

Well, the Iowa Caucuses are now done. We've spent the time listening to the candidates, asking our questions and figuring out who had the best answers. The rest of the nation is up. We've done our part. Let's see if they follow the path we've laid out. Here is a quote from the Huffington Post about those who have won the Iowa Caucuses in the past: 

Seven democrats in 10 caucuses who won in Iowa have ended up winning their party's nomination, according to the Des Moines Register. (Two were incumbents who ran unopposed.)
Six Republican winners in Iowa, out of nine contests there, have gone on to win the GOP nomination. (Three were incumbents who ran unopposed.)

So, does Iowa really matter? Eh, maybe not. But do we pride ourselves on our first in the nation status? Yes. There is one thing however that I think we can all agree on... we'll be glad to get a break from all the political ads and robo-calls for a while... :)