Michael Koby

Earlier this week, California made it completely legal for gay folks to get married.  All nice and legal like.  Basically, I hate this idea, this concept, etc.  Many people are going to flame me righteous for saying so, but you know what?  It’s my blog.  Why can everyone else share their opinion, as long as it goes with this new flow of acceptence and political correctness.  So when someone says that they don’t like the idea of gay marriage they get attacked as being bigots or even some form of “raciests” and to me that is completely unacceptable.

Here’s why I fine the idea that I’m a bigot unacceptable.  Mainly because the same people who would call be a bigot and tell me that I should be more accepting of views that aren’t my own are guilty of the very thing they are calling me a bigot over.  As an American, I’m entitled to my beliefs and opinions, the same as every other American citizen.

So with that in mind, I feel that I need to share.  But before I truely open up I need to set the record straight.  If you have read this blog for any length of time you probably know already but I’m going to say it anyway for the interest of full disclosure.  I’m a Christian, not hell-fire-and-brimstone, but a Christian none-the-less.  Also, I’m republician.  Again, not some insane republician that gives us a bad name, but generally one that has a good head on his shoulders.  So with that out of the way, can we move on now?

So my two main issues with the idea of gay marriage is the fact that view homosexuality to be wrong.  It’s unbiblical and it is not in God’s plans to further the species.  The Bible talks about this.  And I do not mean in the Old Testement either.  It is talked about in the first chapter of Romans.

“For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” (Romans 1:26-27)

The above has to do with the fall of the Roman empire (and you wonder why there was so much gay sex in HBO’s Rome).  There are some other Old Testement references, but since people seem to frown on those, I’ll avoid them.  The main point I want folks to understand (at least about my point of view) is that if you read the passage you notice that God basically says “fine, you want to trade Me for idols, then I’ll give you over to that which is unnatural.”  The key here is that word, unnatural.  The Bible is very clear about homosexuality being an “unnatural” ordeal.  So this is one of my main issues with the idea of homosexuality.

The second issue is the fact that homosexual’s can’t (without scientific help) reproduce.  They can not naturally continue the human species.  If everyone today was gay, the human as a species will cease to exist.  Some are going to argue “artificial ensemination” but that is not a natural form of reproduction (it needs scientific intervention).  So by accepting the practice of homosexuality you pretty much are okay with the end of human existence.  Okay, that’s a little far fetched and more than likely unrealistic, and since I don’t know an extremely large percentage of you, I really can’t say what you okay with.

So let me end with this note.  I don’t hate gay people.  Met some really cool ones over the years and I’m sure I’ll meet many more in my lifetime.  I believe in a phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner” and it something I try to adhere to.  So if you feel the need to flame, you may, but know that I will not respond to angry flames.  Heck I probabably won’t respond to any flames at all.  But I will not delete or censor comments (unless they are just really bad, my parents read this blog people).  This was an opinion piece, my opinion, on my blog.  Keep that in mind as you shout your taunts of “bigotry” and “unacceptance” please.

This week’s video I call into question the uproar over the presidential canidates and the things their pastor(s) say.  Really folks, there are real issues to consider.  Why are we focused on something as trivial as this?

Everyone remembers those famous lines from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special that airs every year on TV. It is the opening song and lyrics to that special where everyone’s favorite loser discovers the true meaning of Christmas. And yes I said the word “Christmas” four times now. That is because that is the time of year it is. It is not the “holiday” season. It is not some word made up to combine all the different cultures so we can feel politically correct when we talk to each other. It is Christmas time.

You might have noticed that the lights are up in the yards, the sales have begun, and the children are excited for the first snowfall of the season anxiously awaiting those snow days that mean no school and fun times (assuming you do not live in south Texas like me). Last year there was a real drive to move away from the phrase “Merry Christmas” and this annoyed me to no end. Christian teenagers were not allowed to pass out candy canes that explained the meaning of Christmas at their schools. And nativity scenes on church ground were challenged as being on “public property” and therefore a violation of church and state. While I will not go so far as to say that Christmas was under attack like some other high profile right-wingers, I will say that this shift was noticeable and that it annoyed me.

Why did it annoy me? Well to begin with, I am a Christian and to me Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ. I am not trying to get all preachy on you, but I want to make sure that everyone understands where I am coming from so that they can fully understand my frustration. If this is not what the Christmas season is about to you, then no biggie, but that is what it is about to me. I am already annoyed with the over commercialization of Christmas, but that does not bug me so much, I think mainly because it is something that comes with the territory. No, what annoys me so much about last year’s movement to be politically correct is that we feel this need in our society to be this way.

It seems that a person can not say what they feel anymore because someone, somewhere is going to be offended. We have become so wrapped up in this “we can not offend” mentality that things that have just been second nature have become “wrong” and last year saying “Merry Christmas” became one of them. It did not matter if you were Christian, Muslim, Atheist, or even Agnostic you understood that the term “Merry Christmas” was a way of saying “Have nice holiday” or “Have a great time and enjoy the season” and that it was not meant as an offensive phrase in any way shape or fashion. But, because we have to be accepting of all cultures, the phrase “Merry Christmas” was deemed politically incorrect and unusable in retail outlets across the nation. You had to say things like “Happy holidays” or “Happy Hankwansmas” or something like that.

People often complain that the Christian right is taking away everybody’s rights in this country. But the more I see, the Christian right actually has the smallest voice. Sure, we can get a lot of press because every news outlet likes to point out what those “whacky Christians” are up to today but really we lose just as many rights as the next person everyday. And often times it is not done through legal means but rather through the disease of political correctness. It is not political correct to talk about religion on a government funded property, more specifically it is not politically correct to talk about Christianity on a government funded property. Think about it. If a Muslim teenager was walking around talking about their religion in a public high school in any kind of open form this would be encouraged, but if a Christian teenager did the same thing they would not only be severely punished but discouraged from doing it again. And please do not tell me that this is not the case, I have experienced first hand in public schools.

But I digress, what I really want to know is who is deeming certain phrases as “politically incorrect” because really all they are doing is diminishing everyone’s ability to speak freely. You can say this because this group will get offended but you can not say this other thing either because this other group over here is going to be offended. Well, you know what, the beauty of free speech is that I can say something that might be offensive to someone but they are free to speak something that might be offensive to me. That does not mean that we should limit what we can an can not say to each other. Open dialogue should be encouraged, but so should understanding. I think that is where the problem comes from, not from the phrases we speak but the lack of ability for people to understand that when someone says something that what they are saying is simply nothing more than their point of view and that it is completely okay to have a different point of view.

On a good note, Macy’s announced earlier this month, along with other retailers, that they were moving back to saying “Merry Christmas” in their stores and found that last year they actually lost sales because of the changes made due to political correctness. The phrase “Merry Christmas” comes with the season and when the public stopped saying it on large scale I think people in at least some small way did not feel like the the holiday season was really there. I don’t know, I am just speculating.

How do you feel about this issues? And you are not limited to the “Merry Christmas” issue. I would like to know what you think of political correctness as a whole.

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In today’s Christian market music is divided into two types: Secular and Christian. With this kind of seperation it is often easy for a Christian parent to dictate what is ok for their children to listen to and what is not. However, having Christian music be the sub-culture and a niche market, leaves it being a follower instead of leader. This is where, in my opinion, the Christian music industry gets it wrong.

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