Bigots and Phelpites gear up in Kansas for April 5th

April 5th is the big date for those “droves of voters” who ran out and voted for anti-gay candidates despite the serious need of school financing. The first actions of our new Kansas legislators was to appease the religious bigots who have pushed for this amendment. They immediately passed the amendment and set it up to be voted on. Not until March have they begun the more important task of passing a funding bill for the states education. Gay marriage is already illegal in Kansas, so the amendment was never needed. School funding is a mess. Teachers are loosing their jobs and the Wichita school district has already considered cutting programs such as athletics, drivers ed and ROTC.
The Christian bigot “droves of voters” have gotten what they want at the expense of our children’s future. We may be one of the first generations in a long time to leave our children worse off than both ourselves and our parents. All of this so a voting block can incorporate their bigoted beliefs at the expense of everyone else. This may affect people in heterosexual relationships not formally involve marriage. This new law could affect a lot of innocent people, causing them legal problems they never had before.
Much of the arguments for this, often found by letters to the editor of the Wichita Eagle, are based on Biblical passages. They claim they are only following the moral path set down by “the word of God.” There are many parts to the Bible that are outdated, such as those suggesting that women be raped as part of the spoils of war:
“And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved al the women alive?
Behold these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespasses against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among he congregation of the LORD.
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” (Numbers 31:15 – 18)
If they are to take that Bible literally, they should consider the Ten Commandments:
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass.” (Exodus 20:17).
So are the fundamentalists going to bring back slavery and encourage our troops in Iraq to rape the women they capture? That is what the “word of God” tells us is the right thing to do if the Bible it to be taken literally. Those of us with some sense need to remind people that the Bible was written for people living 2,000 years ago. In Genesis there is a passage of “parting the waters” to create the earth. Early humans believed that space was filled with water. We know better than that now. The bigoted beliefs of the homophobes are backed up only by superstition, not any “word of God.” What compassionate God would encourage us to rape women or keep slaves?
It’s time for the homophobes to grow up and face reality. There is no Easter Bunny and the Bible is just a book. It is not an excuse to take away people’s rights.