Senator Ball

On 2011-06-22 Senator Ball said a strange thing. His religion strongly condemns homosexuals, therefore that gives him the right to deny gay people the same rights as straights, e.g. being able to collect pensions they have paid into and marriage. The constitution guarantees freedom of religion. This means no religion may use force to impose its religious beliefs on others. In particular, Christians are not permitted to impose their superstitions about gays on gays. So far, the courts have failed to enforce the constitution. Polls are irrelevant when it comes to civil rights.

There is great scrambling to ensure New York churches may continue to spew hate speech and exclude gays even after gay marriage is permitted. That is probably their right. It was also their right to exclude blacks from church during the time of desegregation. However, in secular life, discrimination has to go. Christianity is no excuse. Neither is it a valid excuse for treating blacks badly which they originally claimed they were obligated to do. In a decade or so the churches that continue to harass gays will look as backward as those that refused blacks into the congregation at the time of desegregation.

~ Roedy (born:1948-02-04 age:68)