U.S.A. and Homosexuality

Recently with the United States Supreme Court listening to discussions on Proposition 8, which California passed during their state-wide election in 2008 to not allow gay marriage in their state.  This issue has swept across the nation creating quite an up-rise on both sides of the issue.  I firmly stand with those that believe that gay marriage is wrong.  With the side I am on being discriminated and essentially being shut-up on this issue, I would like to show why I believe that gay marriage is wrong.

The many believe that gay marriage is okay often site the U.S. Constitution as a reason for why they believe this.  They believe that the Constitution gives gay people the right to marry, and this mindset is wrong.  When trying to find out what a document says it must be interpreted in light of: the time period in which it was written, the people who wrote it, and the purpose of it being written.  With that being said, do homosexuals have the Constitution right to marry?  The answer is no.

The United States Constitution was written in 1787 and has been operational since 1789.  During this time in American history, Americans went to church every week and also read and believed the Bible.  The thinking that the Constitution and Bible do not coexist is a complete fabricated lie.  Everyone of our founding fathers has stood for the Bible and has been greatly influenced by it.  In fact in the late 1700's congress voted to print copies of the Bible.  In fact President John Adams stated, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  The religious people Adams was talking about, was those who are affected by the Bible and what God has said in it.

Also the people who wrote the Constitution were all Christians.  Each one of our founding fathers read the Bible and were greatly influenced by it.  So obviously the founding fathers would have written a document that would govern this nation and it could only work with a people that believes in God's Holy Word.  The founding fathers knew that the Constitution would fail without being held up with the morals and teachings of the Bible.

The purpose of the Constitution is to uphold the people's rights in every way.  With that being said, currently the federal government is too involved in marriage and other personal rights that the people have.  Currently our law makers don't uphold our rights and most don't even know what the purpose of the Constitution was; to stop a tyrannical leader from rising up.  That leads me into my next point; I do not believe that the federal government should be giving tax breaks to those who are married.  This is unfair to all single Americans, whether gay or straight.  If this would be eliminated than I believe this issue dividing America would be less of a major issue.

Now I have mentioned the Bible a lot in this blog and I think it is important that you all know which passages support my point, which is being a homosexual is wrong thus a Christian should not endorse it.  Romans 1:24-28 states, "²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.  ²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.  ²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done."  This verse directly talks about the sinfulness of homosexuality and how it is morally wrong in a Holy God's eyes.  Also 1 Corinthians 6:9 tells us how homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Now I could keep on going and going with Bible verses, but the jest of the message that I am trying to convey is that homosexuality is nor morally acceptable in the eyes of a Righteous and Holy God.

This is the simple message that we on the side against homosexuals marrying simply want to convey.  There is nothing wrong that we as Americans have different opinions because that is what makes America great: freedom of speech.  When taken into context, the Constitution and Bible do not support gays marrying and it is time that we as Americans actually take documents and put them into context.  This will cut down on needless government intervention and help to uphold the freedoms that we all enjoy.  The issue with allowing homosexuals to marry is based on the tax breaks that married people enjoy, which I agree are totally unfair.

PHSSL Pennsylvania State Tournament

This past weekend was the PHSSL (Pennsylvania High School Speech League) State Tournament where every Forensics' team in the state of Pennsylvania competed in. Shanksville was represented by Rebecca Sheriff in Radio Announcing, Bernie Fochtman in Impromptu, and myself in Student Congress. The Shanksville Forensic Team is coached by Mrs. Kasey Connor who has done a lot of work preparing each of the competitors for competition.

The team traveled to Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania on Thursday March 21 with the Rockwood Forensic team, their team was composed of four members and two coaches; the trip took roughly three hours. This was followed by checking into the hotel and getting settled into our rooms with a meal to come afterwards at the Country Cupboards Inn Restaurant, which neighbored the Best Western which we were staying at. The buffet or "Pig Trough," was what I had and it had a multitude of food, from meatballs to baked macaroni and cheese. Then perhaps the strangest activity that I participated in happened after dinner: we went to Walmart. Yes Walmart. We went there for several reasons: for swimming trunks, a Constitution, and snacks. Two of the three items were there, but the one item that we could not find was a Constitution.

Swimming came afterwards and it was a grand time. From going to the sauna, to the swimming pool, to the hot tub; nothing could have relaxed me more than those three places. While we were in the swimming area three local residents came in to the hotel to swim, which is something that I never saw first hand before.

Then the first day of competition at Susquehanna University came with quite an interesting wake up call. The night before I set my phone alarm to wake Bernie, Brandon (from Rockwood), and me up at eight. Well at seven I got a call from my mom which woke me up and stirred Brandon from his sleep. Then ten minutes after Bernie's phone alarm went off; this woke Brandon and I up, and from there it was no going back to sleep with continuous text messages from a multitude of friends wishing us good luck. Brandon and I proceeded to talk about President Obama and our dislike for him, all the while Bernie was still quietly asleep. After about an hour Brandon and I went down to eat the free continental breakfast at the hotel, where Rebecca met us to enjoy the delouse food with good friends.

After a lunch at Applebee's were I 2 for 20 with Brandon it was time for the competition to begin. I went off to debate in Congress on various bills and resolutions; from the flat tax rate to tax fast food restaurants at fifteen percent. This provided for a very interesting debate and there were many different views, ranging from Liberalism to Libertarianism.

The next day of debate came, these two days provided for nearly six hours of debate. Those six hours were some what enjoyable, yet some what torturing. After the long debate the results came back and no one from Shanksville advanced to any further rounds. The weekend at the PHSSL state tournament was enjoyable, and we all hope to go back next year!!