Wednesday, August 11, 2004

The Truth about Social Issues

The clearest delineation between Republicans/Democrats, Conservatives/Liberals, or whatever label you prefer, is on social issues. One simple word describes the schism that is rapidly growing in our country: Morality.
Gay Rights and Gay Marriage, Abortion, STD's and AIDS, and the crisis of dysfunctional families are all built on the question of Morality.
The incredible rancor on the Left in all of these issues is toward people of faith who think morality matters. The Left, which supports the morally wrong side of each of these issues, loudly proclaims that nobody has the right to impose their morality on anyone else. What they are talking about, of course, is sex. The Left is made up by a giant population of sex-obsessed people who feel it is their right to not only be able to engage in it whenever and with whomever they wish, but the rest of us should be "tolerant" of their chosen "lifestyle". The current fight over gay marriage goes beyond even tolerance: What they wish to do is impose on the rest of us open recognition and even celebration of their pairings even though it runs contrary to the most basic of our principles.
The society we live in is based on personal freedom. I haven't met anyone who would want to spy on people in their bedrooms for the purpose of prosecuting and jailing them if they're engaged in immoral sexual behavior. Most people, whether they find such behavior abhorrent or not, simply would rather their acquaintances keep it to themselves. Isn't it funny that most heterosexuals prefer to keep their relationships private, but the gay crowd seems to want to tell everybody? Then if we happen to cringe or dare to suggest that's not morally acceptable behavior, the name-calling and censorship appears in full force.
Let's deal with these issues from both a religious and practical perspective. Religion clearly teaches that homosexuality is an abomination, abortion is murder, and a family is a union of one man and one woman for the purpose of procreation and the raising of children. What has to be remembered by everyone who takes these positions based on their religious values is that when it comes to sexual sin, we must not ignore other facets of that sin while speaking out against homosexuality. The unfortunate reality of today is a horrible epidemic of out-of-wedlock sex, adultery, and divorce. Even many people of faith have been divorced, and have been sexually active outside of marriage. The message has to be, "We have sinned and made mistakes for which we are truly sorry and are suffering the consequences, and are reaching out in love to other sinners to try to help them see their own error."
From a practical point of view, let's look at the common sense view of these issues. Regardless of anyone's religious belief, it has to be acknowledged that our society's "anything goes" mentality is harming huge numbers of the population. Whether one supports abortion rights or not, we all have to acknowledge it is a horrible tragedy. Every abortion takes the life of a valuable person, who could have been the next great leader, theologian, athlete, musician, inventor, or discoverer. What's wrong with two consenting adults having sex? They're not hurting anybody, right? Wrong. Let's look at all of the terrible consequences of this attitude:
Abortion
Broken homes, broken families
Unpaid child support
STD's
AIDS
Unloved, abused, and neglected children
Poverty
Mental and Psychological disorders
Crime
Drug Abuse
Disruptive students dragging down educational performance
High healthcare costs

All simply because people want to have sex without consequences.
Think about it.

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