Stuart Carlson by Stuart Carlson

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cdward said, 7 months ago

That’s right! Mine’s looking pretty good, too!
motivemagus said, 7 months ago

I live in Massachusetts – nope, no strain yet!
believecommonsense said, 7 months ago

it’s about equal rights under the law. No reason giving equal rights to others should affect yours.
DALLASDAN said, 7 months ago

Down here we amended our constitution to protect families from gay marriage but we have more than our share of divorces
IrishEddieOHara said, 7 months ago

The family is the foundation of a healthy society. Two homosexuals does not make a family. Children raised by homosexuals wind up with psychological problems. Homosexuality spreads disease. Homosexuals are not monogamous and are promiscuous, even in “committed relationships”.

This cartoon is vile, stupid, and not based in any sort of reality at all.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Heh, IrishEddie is one of those idiots who wants to deny marriage to gays, and then complain that they’re not monogamous.
cdward said, 7 months ago

“Two homosexuals does not make a family. Children raised by homosexuals wind up with psychological problems. Homosexuality spreads disease. Homosexuals are not monogamous and are promiscuous, even in “committed relationships”.”
You could just as easily and truthfully say: “Two heterosexuals does [sic] not make a family. Children raised by heterosexuals wind up with psychological problems. Heterosexuality spreads disease. Heterosexuals are not monogamous and are promiscuous, even in ‘committed relationships.’”
Your arguments are hollow and meaningless.
IrishEddieOHara said, 7 months ago

Hey Anthony – Marriage is intended as a monogamous and long term relationship. Gay activists have said that it is rare that monogamy exists in gay relationships. The promiscuity continues.

Marriage, fidelity, monogamy, and family is the ideal, even if men and women have not completely mastered it yet.

BTW – One of the reasons for the decline in long term marriages is the acceptance of pornography and its effects upon marriage. Thanks to liberals, men are bombarded with images that suggest that rather than marriage being the height of joy and pleasure, numerous and various sexual experiences are what will do if for them.

Liberalism is wrecking this country.

So is conservatism.

The only hope for this country is the kingship of Jesus Christ and His rule over it.
tpenna said, 7 months ago
Two things:
1. To IrishEddie’s point about children of homosexuals being psychologically harmed, the AMA and APA disagree with you on that. For my part, I’ll go with the psychological and medical experts over such ignorance spewed by James Dobson and the like.
2. To IrishEddie’s other point, I have heard very little about a causative relationship between pornography and divorce. All I can say is that I am the most liberal of all my siblings, and I am the only one who has not suffered a cheating spouse or divorce. In my experience, miserable marriages are much more influenced by alcohol abuse, boredom, and small-minded religious notions about male headship.
My liberal, Christian marriage is six years strong and perfectly egalitarian. We look forward to our gay and lesbian friends being able to share in such bliss.
Angela Metzger said, 7 months ago

Irish Eddie, you seem to like to make blanket statements and generalizations, but how would you like it if someone did that to YOU?! Maybe someone should come on here and rant about how all Irish people are just lazy drunks who fight each other all the time…it would be the same thing! As an American (which I’m assuming you are), you have the right to express your opinion…HOWEVER, the WAY in which you express that opinion might need a little re-evaluation. Don’t put anything out there that you wouldn’t want said about YOU in return.
motivemagus said, 7 months ago

A few facts here: half of straight marriages in the US fail, so it’s hard to say that gay marriages would be any worse.
Some studies suggest that lesbian marriages average more successful (i.e., stay married) and longer-lasting than heterosexual marriages. [Insert male joke here.] I know a few such couples myself.
There is no link that I have ever seen between pornography and divorce that can’t be attributed equally well to someone who would cheat on his or her spouse - porn is only one symptom of inattention to one’s spouse, not the cause.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Eddie, you lose all credibility when you try to blame pornography on “liberals”. After all, we all know that right-wing christians NEVER get caught in sex scandals.

Of course, you also lose all credibility when you profess a desire to turn us into a Christian theocracy. We’ve done relatively well under our Constitution. Why do you hate it so much?

Given that allowing gays to marry has NO effect on heterosexual marriage, there’s obviously only one reason to deny their desire to marry.

You hate them, and want to hurt them.
deadheadzan said, 7 months ago

Irish, do you know any homosexuals or does your rant spring only from your interpretation of church law?
Dale Hopson said, 7 months ago

IrishEddieOHara says: “Liberalism is wrecking this country. The only hope for this country is the kingship of Jesus Christ and His rule over it.”

Hmmmm… looks as if you like liberalism after all!
Corosive Frog said, 7 months ago

Homosexuals are human beings. Human beings are not perfect. If you can’t cope with that, you should keep staring at God.

…but that’s not guaranteed to make you perfect like Him, look at fundamentalists from all religions.
wbr said, 7 months ago

ok to live with each other but “marriage” cost me tax $$$$$$$$$$$$
LLeRay said, 7 months ago

So wrb worships money over fairness and justice? Well, at least he puts his golden calf out for all to see.
Redeemd said, 7 months ago

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

-Romans 1:25-32
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Redeemd, as much heartache as it causes you, you don’t live in a christian theocracy.

If you hate our Constitution that much, then leave. Go find a nice theocracy to live in.

The Vatican, perhaps. Or if you don’t like that, then go to…well, not too many other choices for countries that try to force christianity on all their subjects.

Saudi Arabia is an otherwise religious theocracy, and a sort of ally of ours…try them.
IrishEddieOHara said, 7 months ago

Answers:

I do not currently know any homosexuals who are open about it. I may know some people who are and are hiding it. I have associated from time to time with homosexuals and what I say comes from first hand knowledge as we talked.
I do not HATE homosexuals. I wish them the best life, which is the life that they were created for and not a perversion of that life. We were created different sexually for a purpose. Natural law, divorced from any theology, shows that homosexuality is a perversion of the use for which our bodies were made.
I am not making generalizations. I have a book filled with information on the falsehoods that the AMA and other bodies have spread about homosexuals and how they think and feel. Suicide is notably higher among gay people than straight. This is because the voice of the conscience simply cannot be silenced by calling right that which is wrong.
50% of marriages do not end in divorce each year. Let’s do figures. If there are 250,000 marriages in a year and 125,000 divorces, that is not 50% because it does not take in to account the perhaps 50 to 75 MILLION marriages that kept on chugging along that year. Do you understand that concept?
Corosive Frog said, 7 months ago

IEOH, if you don’t know any homosexuals, don’t talk about what you don’t know. My gay uncle had been with his boyfriend for fifteen years before he passed away in 2003.

Yeah, we are born biologically different for a reason, but a human being (even an animal) is way much more than biology. Way much more than a “breeder” just there to make other human beings.

(BTW, I don’t like it when some gays speak about straight people as “breeders”. Even in heterosexual sex, there is much more to it than that (being a heterosexual female in love, I know a thing or two about it).
fennec said, 7 months ago

And for those of you all pushed out of shape by the supposed financial advantages of marriage, might I point out that after my (heterosexual) marriage, we ended up paying more tax, not less. This only changes if one of you has a much lower paying job or stops working altogether. Not, I think, a probable condition for most gays.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Gee, Eddie, let’s figure this out. You deny equal rights to gays. Because they were born differently than you, you call them perverted.

And then you note they have a higher suicide rate. GEE! Perhaps if it wasn’t for all the bigots like you, they’d be a little more content, and less likely to commit suicide? Do you understand that concept?

There have been a small percentage of gays in every human culture in history. Sounds pretty natural to me. What would be unnatural would be to find a human culture with no gays. Do you understand that concept?

Your attempt to force homosexuals into an unnatural heterosexual lifestyle is both cruel and useless. Are you so worried that humans aren’t breeding fast enough that you have to push your own misundertandings onto them? Do you understand that concept?
motivemagus said, 7 months ago

Eddie - according to the CDC, the US marriage rate is 7.5 per 1,000 people in the population, and the divorce rate is 3.6 per 1,000 people, but that only counts 46 states plus DC, so that might be underreporting. So nearly half. Of course, I expect that there are those who get multiply married and divorced, so this overestimates the number of people who get divorced, but roughly half the marriages in this country fail.
I guarantee that unless you are a hermit, you know someone who is gay, whether they admit it to you or not. Current estimates are around 2%, but there’s no doubt that it is undercounted. I’m inclined to think it higher – possibly much higher, say 5% or more.
And for the record, unless the Magisterium has changed its view, the Catholic position is officially that people are born gay, and the state of being gay is not sinful – acting on it is. Whatever my own views of this decision, it is more positive than people think it is.
tracht47 said, 7 months ago

Anthony- Good post.especially about the suicide rate. Very good point.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Self-fulfilling prophecy, huh?
tpenna said, 7 months ago

IrishEddie said:
“I have a book filled with information on the falsehoods that the AMA and other bodies have spread about homosexuals and how they think and feel. Suicide is notably higher among gay people than straight. This is because the voice of the conscience simply cannot be silenced by calling right that which is wrong.”

Again, I think I’m going to put the considered opinions of the AMA and APA well above the idiot ideas spewed by IrishEddie’s book by James Dobson or some other such fraud. No one with even an ounce of awareness of facts believes that homosexuality is a disease or disorder.

As to the suicide rate that you mention, I think Anthony gave the best possible answer to that. I’ll just add this: the suicide rate is notably higher among Native Americans, as well. Do you similarly attribute this to their voice of conscience telling them that they are awful people?
tpenna said, 7 months ago

Listen everybody. I want to make sure that certain fundamentalist whack jobs on these pages don’t give all Christians a bad name. Just for the record, I am a Christian, myself. The difference is, I have learned to read the Bible for what it actually is: a book about people (not God) and their understanding of their relationship to God. In this regard, it is an incredibly valuable source of wisdom. It is not, though, the “word of God”, nor does it have any internal claims to be such.

IrishEddie might point to II Timothy 3:16 (“All Scripture is God-breathed”) without remembering that the author (incidentally, scholars agree it is not a genuine Pauline writing) did not consider any part of the New Testament to be Scripture, as very little of it actually existed by that point.

Christians should, above all, follow the direction of Jesus’ teachings and example. He told us that the big two commandments were to love God and love people. This is in keeping with the major tenets of Judaism and Islam, as well as a number of other world religions. We really CAN just all get along!
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Well said, TPenna!

Another group with higher-than-average suicide rates: Dentists.

Those perverts.
cdward said, 7 months ago

tpenna, beautifully written and argued. I teach my confirmation classes that scripture is a faithful record of the people of God’s struggle to understand their relationship with God.

Those who insist it be more are essentially turning it into an idol.
tpenna said, 7 months ago

Thanks, cdward. Peter Gomes uses the term “bibliolatry” to describe such a process of elevating the Bible to the status of a fourth member of the Trinity.

One thing I like to point out is that people who want the “Word of God” verbatim (in God’s language) need to look at the Qur’an. According to Islamic tradition, that is precisely what the Qur’an (Arabic for “recitation”) is.

The Christian analog for the Qur’an is not the Bible. Rather it is Jesus, the Word made flesh. Says so right in the first chapter of John. The Bible is incredibly useful because it is where we read the testimonies of the early Christians about that Word. But we have to read it intelligently.
Redeemd said, 7 months ago

(Anthony…) If you hate our Constitution that much, then leave.

So all I have to do is quote the Bible and it means I hate the Constitution? Ironically you are the one railing against my right to free speech? I’m sure if you liberals have your way, the Bible will soon be considered “hate speech” and therefore illegal.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Redeemd, you’re right, I went too far there. My apologies.

I was trying to make the point that we shouldn’t be trying to base our laws on the bible, given that we’re a secular nation with a secular constitition, but your post wasn’t enough to warrant that line of reasoning.
curiosity1 said, 7 months ago

I appreciate that people have their faith in their bible and their understanding of what God’s word is supposed to be. I don’t believe in your God or your interpretation of your Bible. This is NOT a Christian theocracy, and even if it were, which version of Christianity?

Regarding the ideal family - should children be removed from single parent households? My desire to have a family (with or without children) is my right to have. Who are you to tell me that because my family is less than you ideal that I have no right to it? Does the same go for interfaith marriages? Atheists? More children of african -americans end up in trouble with the law so should we outlaw marriage for blacks in the United States? The argument is hollow and a cover for justifying blatant bigotry.

Regarding the argument that gay marriages have lasted a shorter period than straight ones - so what?! I should be prevented from being allowed to marry because I have a statistically greater chance of ending in divorce? Interestingly Atheists have a tendency to have longer marriages - should all people of faith be prevented from marrying as a result?

Regarding the argument about gay sex being unnatural? Does every instance of straight intercourse result in a child? No. Therefore the purpose of sex is NOT solely procreation. It is a pleasurable act, which enhances the bond of relationship between to people engaged in it. That same bond occurs in same-sex pairings as it does in opposite-sex pairings.

Regarding the argument that anal intercourse in painful and therefore all same-sex sexuality is ‘unnatural’ - have you ever seen a woman lose her virginity? That screams of unnatural to me if pain is the measure of natural. And let’s not even start on childbirth. Talk about painful. So…is giving birth wrong or unnatural because it is a traumatic experience for the mother. Ask her after her baby is born.

AND - fundamentally all of these arguments are personal opinions about the right way for a person to live their life. Do we not have the liberty of self-determination in this country? I choose not to live by your standard of righteousness. I cause no harm to anyone. And the argument that my marriage is a wound to your ability to practice your faith is completely offset by my argument that you preventing me from marrying is a wound to my faith.

What’s next - saying that my existence and refusal to reject being gay is an offense to your ability to practice your faith and therefore I must be destroyed? Nazi America - here we come.

Talk about a slippery slope.

Stand up, and be counted for the bigoted, fascist, homophobes that you are. At least be honest in your true faith.

And to the good men and women of faith on this site who have made counter-arguments and been supportive of me, my gay husband, and our gay brothers and sisters - I say thank you. Tank you for reminding us that there is not ONE Christian God. There are as many Christian Gods as there are faiths, and Jewish Gods, and Muslim Gods, and beyond, and yes…even atheists.

We must not allow the veil of Christianity to be seized and used to justify hatred, and disdain for personal liberty.

I fully support creating a national institution of Civil Unions if only to make the bible thumpers have to go back to arguing that they hate Gays, and not just that we want equal marriage.
tracht47 said, 7 months ago

I just saw a very sad story today. I think it was on CNN. An 11 year old boy hung himself because he was being taunted by the kids at school for “looking like a gay” and “acting like a female.” This is what hatred of gays and intolerance can lead to.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Curiosity1, awesome post, one that will likely be awarded the ultimate accolade by the gay-haters: Avoidance.

Question: Is there an online source to back up your statement that atheists have longer marriages? Would like to bookmark that one.
Akenta said, 7 months ago

Anthony, I found this, but google had other sites too:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm

Anthony, curiousity1, and tpenna, good posts (there were some other good posts, but my memory is only as good as the last few posts)
IrishEddieOHara said, 7 months ago

Look up the dictionary definition of perversion. It simply says “something that is used for a purpose for which it is not intended”

It is a perversion of God’s creative design to use our reproductive organs in ways and places in which they were not meant to be used.

As for the question “Which brand of Christianity?” that is rather simply answered. There was only one Church for 1500 years. It consisted of the East and West, even though the East separated themselves from the West’s leadership.

Feelings are not love. Having the “hots” for someone is not the same as love, but it is defined as love in today’s society. True love wants the best for the other person.

Our prayer in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is that all would come to the Savior and His Church.

One day, there will be no more governments, no separations of people, no differences. There will be one Kingdom of God and one King over all. Pray that you be part of that Kingdom.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Thanks, Akenta.

“Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience”.

Sounds like the conservative Christians should work towards preserving the sanctity of their own marriages, instead of devoting so much effort in blocking marriage for others.
Anthony 2816 said, 7 months ago

Eddie, your “intended” argument only works on the presumption that there is a divine creator who had an intent for each of our body parts.

Since we live in a diverse non-theocracy, your argument is worthless.

Keep your religion to yourself, stop telling us what gays feel, learn to appreciate the Constitution, and if you don’t like gay marriages, don’t have one.
motivemagus said, 7 months ago

IrishEddie - may I suggest you read Misquoting Jesus or Jesus, Interrupted by Bart Ehrman? They are very well written introductions to the historical approach to the Bible. Historians agree that in fact there were many forms of Christianity until the Council of Nicea – convened by Constantine in 325 and the source of the Nicene Creed – and of course there were other variations after that, long before Luther. (The 13th century was particularly active, as I recall, but I could be off by a few decades, this not being my field.) Scholars and archeologists have discovered a host of “other” gospels that didn’t get put into the New Testament – including things like the Apocalypse of Peter, which almost did. And as tpenna alluded to, about half the Pauline letters weren’t by Paul, including that awful nonsense about women being silent and pregnant.
This is not inconsistent with Catholicism, by the by - Catholics don’t read the Bible literally. The Church is the people, not the book. Americans seem to have been the first to come up with the notion of the Bible as inerrant - odd, since the original Puritans believed in Biblical scholarship and individual insight from the Bible rather than literal interpretation.
Corosive Frog said, 7 months ago

Catholics reading the Bible; For a loooong while, we couldn’t read it. Of the few people who had learned how to read their first languages, even fewer knew latin.

The catholic church here has come under tremendeous fire for accepting to celebrate the weddings of several notorious member of the organized crime (Hell’s Angels criminalized bikers, the most violent gang in Canada). Aren’t “Thou shalt not Steal” and “Thou shalt not kill” part of the ten commandments (and I’m not talking about the Charlton Heston movie here.) ? If Larry King or Elizabeth Taylor, after 8 (or nine, I lost count) marriages and divorces asked any priest to marry them to someone, they would and wouldn’t think twice.

Now, is homosexuality unnatural? It occurs naturally, without any induction or intension to change oneself that way (do you seriously think anyone would turn itself gay on purpose, come on!)so it seems natural to me.

BUT, we can call it illogical as we don’t know what its purpose is. It doesn’t seem to have any use, or it has a purpose but we just don’t know what it is yet (ya can’t know everything!) but somehow it is there…naturally (just like our tonsils or appendix (fossil organs, but we still have them instead of nothing) and yet, no doctor removes those extra parts without a reason).

It’s illogical because it escapes out all too human logic so far, but it’s there, so it’s natural.
deadheadzan said, 7 months ago

A story from my husband’s side of the family. He was Catholic and his brother is a priest. It was about a man that had read the bible(all of it) 3 times and became an atheist. My priest brother-in law said,”that’s because he read the bible 3 times”. The bible was considered a potential hornet’s nest by the Catholic Church- at least the Old Testament part.
curiosity1 said, 7 months ago

@Anthony2816 - Thanks for the response
@Akenta - Thanks for the link
@IEOH - I hope your God has more room in his heart than you seem to have in yours.
@motive & Corosive - Thank you both for providing interesting and thoughtful perspectives.
senorbullwinkle said, 7 months ago

WE CANT PUT UP WITH these GAY’S, we need to tie them up to a bed and pull their pants down and spank them, and rub hot oil on their butt’s and spank them some more!spank them until their headeral sexual.
It starts with one, then the next thing we’ll all be homo’s even your dog will see this behavior and be gay as a poodle.
tpenna said, 7 months ago

I’m pretty sure senorbullwinkle is trolling just to get people upset. No response necessary.
deadheadzan said, 7 months ago

senorbullwinkle is being ironic and over the top and I think he means it is as nonsensical to persecute gays as his post was.
tpenna said, 7 months ago

On second look, I suppose you’re right, Deadhead. Apologies, Senorbullwinkle.
Michigander said, 7 months ago

Who ever said that children always have to be a part of marriage? We have literally thousands of children who are neglected and unwanted by their parents. To those that don’t want them or can’t biologically have them because of being gay, why not let them marry anyway? Marriage is a vow to each other, anyway.
IrishEddieOHara said, 7 months ago

Wrong Michigander …

Here is a website with an article that speaks of marriage in part of it. You should read it.

http://www.christopherwest.com/article8.asp

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