The mindful life with Waylon H. Lewis

An American Bigot

By Waylon H. Lewis, 8-01-06

Man sees woman, man awkwardly approaches woman, woman gives number, man calls nervously, man/woman go for walk, man/woman go for drink, man/woman go dutch (these days) on dindin, man/woman go on two more dates (that’s the law) and spend a warm, raw, love-filled night together. Man/woman fall in love, get married, have children.

And that’s how the human races perpetuates this tragicomedy known as this precious human birth.

What’s the root of all this? It’s that tender love. And you don’t have to be a man/woman to share it. You can be a mom/baby, a dad/grandma, a boy/dog, a poet/moon. Love makes the world go around—and, like taste, you can’t legislate it.

But you can’t blame our government—by, of, and for (most of) the people, for trying to legislate love. I wish they’d legislate taste, as they used to, and produce lovely government buildings that evoke Rome instead of cheapest-common denominator concrete boxes. But that’s another story.

Go to Washington. Go down South, or across the street. Read the paper. Do anything other than stick your head in the sand, and you’ll notice that we’re trying to figure out if queer folks should have the right to be folks. To love, to marry, to be queer together, to be queer in public view. And that’s what this about: not should they be allowed to marry, but should they allowed to ‘be.’ According to Bible Bigots, they should not. According to good Christians who read the spirit of Jesus’ law, of course they should.

I’m straight as an arrow. The whole dance around in shirts three sizes too tight thing doesn’t do it for me. But I’ll be first in line at any gay rights event, and I’ll walk the line all the way down the line. Why? Because I’m proud to be an American. An American isn’t merely someone who happens to live in America. An American is someone who gets that America is an idea unique in its realization: that, as Jefferson & Co put it, all men are created equal. At the time, ‘Men’ (uppercase) referred to Humankind.

But still it took those men (lowercase) sometime to figure that poor folks, not just gentry, oughta be allowed to vote. And it took the next generations some time to admit that those crazy Suffragettes were right: women were sentient, intelligent, and—yes—human—and oughta be allowed to vote. And it took those men and women some time to admit that, yes, blacks oughta be allowed to vote and drink out of any water fountain they please and sit anywhere on the bus they please...

So when are we gonna get the great lessons of the last century: that all Humankind is equal? That love is love by any other gender persuasion?

I don’t say this as a liberal. I don’t say this as a young person. I say this as an American. America is about liberty, the kind of liberty that can’t be forced. America is about human rights, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Whether gays should be allowed to marry is up to their church. That’s a matter of religious bigotry, or lack thereof. But they should be able to ‘legally’ marry—to visit their loved one in the hospital, to pass on their wealth to their better half, etc. And so civil unions are vital—not to gays, but to all Americans. I don’t want to live in an America that says some people are less people than others. We figured the math on that one was wrong shortly after the War Between the States, remember?

I’m straight. And I know that fact doesn’t make me more a man than my gay brothers and sisters. It just makes me different—and vice, versa. God Bless the Greatest Melting Pot that ever was.

I’ll see you in my hometown’s next City Council campaign, if not in a blog well before—suggestions for spouting off are most welcome.
[End of article]

You wrote, "According to Bible Bigots, they should not. According to good Christians who read the spirit of Jesus’ law, of course they should."

Your bigotry against Christians is showing. You conviently leave out what happens to gays in Islamic countries as if the only barrier and problem comes from Christians.

See: http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/homosexuality.html

>>>>>>Islam is probably the most rigidly and inhumanly anti-homosexual in its practices of all the world religions. The verses from the Koran condemning homosexuality are much clearer than those that the Christians use. In all Muslim countries and all areas where the Islamic Sharia law is enforced homosexuality is strictly illegal. All of Islam fits within the area of Christianity that we call "fundamentalist" with regards to sexuality. The debates in Islam about homosexuality are not about whether it is acceptable, but merely about how severe the punishment should be. So although there are liberal and strict elements within Islam with concern to homosexuality even the liberal opinion is the lesser of two evils.<<<<

I agree with your definition of an American. "Being American" can be defined in many different ways by many different types of people. Ulitmately it is our process, keeping church and state seperate, that defines what we are and what "being American" really is. I hope that as Americans we will continue to use our power to vote in order to keep such seperation and not let any type of fundamentalism take over our governing powers, as ironically we see in the part of the world we are at odds with.

Craig,

Bigots come in all stripes, persuasions and colors--I think you can agree with that. That's why I took care--in the very sentence you excerpted, ironically--to differentiate Christians who don't draw a line in the sand and call what's inside 'God' and what's outside 'Heathen.' God is love. I used to go to Sunday school, as a child--the people were kind--a lady used to say that you could tell how close someone was to God by how joyful and kind they were. In any case, I'll assume that your (rightly and rigtheously) pointing fingers at our Islamic bros and sisses doesn't, in your mind, absolve those who are guilty of bigotry--whether Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, white, black, straight, fat, thin etc.!

Best--thanks for sharing and helping me learn--

Yrs.

Way

Way, I was pointing a finger at you and noone else for your bigotry by singling out Christians for criticism as if to say, "If not but for Christians we wouldn't have such problems." My reference to how gays are treated in Islam came from a gay rights website which compared how they are treated by the 3 great religions. It would not have bothered me in the slightest if you had chosen to write, "According to religious bigots of various faiths and creeds,..." See the difference, the evenhanded treatment, and the more correct context of the pervasiveness of the problem?

Craig,

Well said, once again, and I can't disagree, and I apologize. However, the context in which I was writing—America, and our government—clearly points toward Christianity, which I think you'll agree has been the guiding light, as far as religions go, for our great country for a great long while.

Yrs.,

Way

Way, what I have learned over my lifetime is that we are all 'gened-up' with various biases and prejudices. We can consciously choose to act against those genes, as our intellects suggest, or give in to them. Either way we are making a choice. Societal norms and conventions are deeply rooted and part of our hand-me-down 'Wranglers.' ;)No one loose thread defines or shapes the denim of our personal fabric. You yourself have transcended Christianity with your embrace of Bhuddism. We each must walk our own paths. It is not necessary to find reasons to criticize our previous steps or the compass of others to justify our new directions. Good luck on your journey and keep writing HERE!

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