What are you afraid of?

The last few days, the internet has been chock full of debates revolving around gay marriage.  Is it right, is it wrong, should we make it legal, should we execute all gay people, should we make them all civil unions and let the churches decide if they want to marry anyone at all?  The last is the one I vote for, by the way.

Some debates have been civil and kind.  I have seen some similar red icons go up that are anti-gay marriage, in a silent protest.

Other debates have been absolutely horrifying.  Terrible, awful things have been said to one another-from both sides of the debate.

"You're a faggot who is going to get AIDS and die and you deserve to rot in hell!"

"You're an evil, hateful bigot who is probably hiding your own latent homosexual feelings deep inside!"

There have been some pretty horrible things thrown around.

Then there are many of us who wait, patiently, for the day that the rest of the country wakes up and realizes what they've been doing and what they've been saying.  I'm about as supportive of gay marriage as a person can get...and I'm starting to realize that there is only so much yelling I can do.

When someone tells me that gay marriage should be banned because the Bible says so, I'm still going to call them on it.  'Do you cut your hair?  Do you wear a poly-cotton blend?  Do you love bacon (really, who doesn't?)  Do you believe that women should be property, and we should all own slaves?  Have you stoned your neighbor lately for working on Sunday?'

You can't throw the bible at this topic and not at all the others.  You can't hide behind the words in Leviticus without upholding everything.

Doesn't that seem a little unfair?  Really.  No matter what side of the topic you land on, step back for a moment from your preconceived notions.  Is it fair to pick from the bible what topics you will follow, and which ones you will demand that your neighbors follow?  No matter how squicky you might think gay marriage is--is it fair?  Do we have the right to judge the sins of others?

We all take something different out of the Bible, and we all take something different out of religion.  My God is a God of love and compassion and beauty.  My God fills his/her children with love and calls on them to make the world a better place.  Not just in his name, and not just for her, but for all of us.

My God makes us each who we are for a reason.  She makes us left-handed or crazy good at math or clumsy or with an annoying laugh or with a beautiful face or with an ugly one.  He makes us gay or straight or bisexual or asexual or transsexual.  God makes us who we are.  God makes us that way for a reason.

Every person that God creates is beautiful.  Every person that God creates is perfect, in his or her own way.

That includes the gay people and the left-handed people and every person in between.

God doesn't hate.  Humans hate.  God loves.  God wants us to love.

Don't blame the bible for your hatred and for you desire to preserve the "sanctity of marriage."  That is solely on you, as a person.  Not on your religion.  You can blame society to an extent, but really...that is a personal choice.

So I have to ask...What are you afraid of?