legislating morality vs. having morals

There is a current frame of mind wherein people who attempt to legislate morality (generally, these laws have the most immediate impact upon gays, lesbians, women and people who don't want kids) say they are being "attacked" for their beliefs. As an example, Sen. Jim DeMint recently said that gays and lesbians, as well as pregnant single women, shouldn't teach elementary school. He then backtracked and apologized--not for what you think though. He apologized for making a statement about what should be a local issue (Reagan anyone? Remember, the last time you heard about "states rights" was when he was implicitly stoking racial fires in the south.)

Through a spokesman, the good Sen. then said that "He was making a point about how the media attacks people for holding a moral opinion."

You see, this is where the good Sen. and people like him go off course. No one is attacking him for holding a moral opinion. People are attacking him for trying to IMPOSE THAT MORAL OPINION THROUGH LEGISLATION.

(I apologize for e-yelling)

He can hold all the moral opinions he wants, in fact, I'm sure he has moral opinions about a lot of things--cussing in public, sex before marriage, divorce, eating meat on fridays during lent, etc. The problem is, no one tries to enforce THOSE morals. Coincidentally the only morals people want to impose are those aforementioned ones that, generally speaking, only impact gays, lesbians, women and people who don't want kids.

So, stop hiding behind this imagined persecution for beliefs while simultaneously ACTUALLY persecuting people. When young, straight Christian boys are killing themselves because all the gays at school, the pastor from the pulpit, the teacher from the classroom, and his parents are telling him not only does God not love him, but he's unworthy of basic rights, THEN we'll talk about you being "persecuted". Until then, you're just wrapping yourself in the mantle of righteous, but genuinely, persecuted people who have come before you and it's quite disgusting to see.