Quick introduction [proofreading note: okay, yes, three paragraphs is not "quick," sorry :-] -- my wife and I will be celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary on Monday. Forgoing a large wedding ceremony (which we hope to be able to afford next year), we were married at the Justice of the Peace with my wife's Republican sister and gay best friend as witnesses. We then went our separate ways for the day -- I had to work and she had nursing classes to attend. We both noted that nothing seemed to change in how much we loved each other. We were attending the church she grew up in at the time and to their eyes we were living "in sin" by living together before that day, and somehow God viewed us differently due to a piece of paper? My love for my wife grows every day, but its rate of growth did not increase that day solely because she took my last name.
We gradually stopped attending her (very traditional) childhood church as we moved further and further away, but her mother and brother still attend and she has known most of the members since she was a child. Thankfully, she is now a very intelligent, open-minded person who respects all opinions while remaining secure in her own. She supported Bush in '00, Kerry in '04, and joined me after the primaries earlier this year to support Barack Obama. Her intelligence and common sense helped her understand the true issues of this election -- the dreadful state of the economy, the absolute embarrassment caused by right-wing foreign policy, and the need to restore honor and integrity to the White House. McCain would not be four years of the "same" -- four years from now, if this country continues to be led by a hard-right philosophy, we won't be in the "same" place we are now, we'll be four years closer to The Point of No Return (define that as you will).
My wife and I met in college, became quick friends, but initially agreed that our relationship would go no further, partly due to political and religious reasons. Well, her politics have moved closer to mine over the years while my religious beliefs have moved a little closer to hers. We both agree that moral / social issues should play a small part in deciding an election and should play an even smaller part in government.
Those who would fall under the category of a "one-issue" voter--especially if that issue is the divisive issue of abortion--are actually doing a grave injustice to the voters who even minimally educate themselves about the issues and the candidates. If you want to vote for McCain because, as a millionaire, you don't want to pay higher taxes, or because you agree with the Bush Doctrine and the preemptive war it spawned, or because McCain more closely matches your religious teachings that place women below men, demonize gays, and promote a superiority complex -- well, great. But if you want to vote for McCain because you're gullible and weak enough to be swayed by misleading arguments on a single issue? Then you deserve nothing less than ridicule.
Believe it or not, I recently received my first piece of right-wing propaganda Republican chain e-mail, sent by a member of our former church. Huntley Brown, a Christian pianist, recently wrote an article / letter / blog / opinion piece on why he can't bring himself to vote for (surprise, surprise) Barack Obama. A Snopes link was even provided in the e-mail, in case someone found it hard to believe that Christian musician (who isn't even famous enough to have his own Wikipedia page) would actually vote Republican. Mr. Brown's sole issue with Obama is his stance on abortion -- late-term abortion to be more specific. Sen. Obama has stated his support for federal and state limitations on this procedure as long as exceptions for the health and safety of the mother exist. So my deduction is that religious anti-choice crusaders view the life of a fetus as equal to the life of God -- or, in any way, worth much less than the life of the mother.
This struck a nerve, especially after McCain's "health" moment from Wednesday's debate. I did something I probably shouldn't have, replied-to-all with an edited version of this excellent response to Hunter Brown's letter by Kossack ThompsonLazyBoy. Not only was I preaching to a born-again choir, but I may have offended those I once considered friends, or at the very least created unnecessary tension between my wife and folks she has known for 20+ years. The original e-mailed replied with an apology, ironically only passive-aggressively apologizing for not hiding the e-mail addresses of everyone he CC'd the chain letter to. Because people only deserve to hear the "Right" side of a discussion, apparently.
Brushback also came in the form of another reply-to-all from another member of the church, though it was directly addressed to me:
The person you plagiarized from [ThompsonLazyBoy] has some ideas that are in direct conflict with the authority of the Bible:
Forgetting for a moment that perhaps not everyone accepts the blanket authority of the Bible--or even if they do, they may have a different interpretation of that authority--and forgetting that even though I jokingly admitted to plagiarizing I actually quoted my source, his argument should incite fear and anger in any woman who would dare believe she should have control over her own body:
It's a tough thing to tell someone who has been raped, or has been a victim of incest, that they should proceed with their pregnancy, but, it is the most likely outcome to be in accordance with God's word.
Read that again. Once again, the rights and the (mental and physical) health of a victimized woman are not just minimized, but disregarded completely. This is the view of someone who believes in a black and white world created by a vengeful God.
He then ironically "plagiarizes" Obama's website (just like me!), quoting the Obama-Biden stance on choice, contraception, and stem-cell research, and finishes by adding a few more points of his own.
Christians can take heart that of the nine Supreme Court Justices, the most likely to retire during an Obama term are liberal judges.
I can't argue with that one, which is why I agree with Kos that we need to cripple the current conservative movement and instill a true progressive majority.
Presidents cannot affect any change in the abortion law other than through appointing Supreme Court Justices.
A simple-minded view; along with the power of the veto, the past eight years should show us all how dangerously powerful a right-wing executive can be.
More short quips Right-Wing Talking Points followed on Troopergate, Pastor Wright, the lack of presence of white influence (his mother) in Obama's life (forgetting that he was raised by his white grandparents), Congressional approval ratings, and Democrats' responsibility for the current financial crises.
All in all, I can safely say that I don't see myself returning to that church any time soon. I do regret that other (mostly avoidable) conflicts in our lives have kept my family from attending services at our current non-denominational church as often as I would have liked over the past year. I enjoy the lessons taught there; they are non-preachy, non-fundamental, and have more to do with how one should live one's life as opposed to how one should tell others how to live their lives. And the members are varied, they cannot be pigeonholed into an Evangelical subset. They, like my sister-in-law above (one of our wedding witnesses), may not always agree with every aspect of progressive ideology, but they do not hold the blind viewpoint that their view is the only "Right" view.