My next post was supposed to be Arabic-related, but I reacted so strongly to these videos that I had to share them. I would always love comments on these posts, if anyone has opinions!

The Iowan House of Representatives has recently been debating adding an amendment to the Iowan Constitution ending civil unions (same-sex marriages). To discuss the issue, there was a public hearing at the Iowan House in which members of the community, representatives, and officials could speak either for or against the restriction.

First, I saw this young man present his case:


Ah, that was nice. It's like a breath of fresh air, restoring my faith in humanity. He appealed to reason, gave personal evidence, and threw in some pro-Iowan down-home sentiment. Anyone notice the restructured MLK quote at the very end? Content of my character, very nice.

So, feeling reassured in the logic and pathos of the boy's argument, I clicked upon the opposition. I was just trying to be informed of a potential argument supporting the resolution. Well, this is what I got:


Wow. I don't believe one iota of his "argument" came from anywhere besides the Bible. I was practically shaking while watching it. His accent, his quotes, his "reasoning" - all of it grated on my common sense, my notions of equality, my knowledge and belief of the separation of church (or Bible-thumping extremists) and state.

Thankully, the bill died in the legislature. Let's hope people continue to use their heads and their hearts to uphold civil rights. As long as they aren't using this guy, there's hope for humanity.

As a note: I am usually against reading youtube comments, as they are more likely to give ulcers than anything else, but I would like to briefly clarify a few things.

1) The American constitution was not founded on Christian morals. The founding fathers were dieists, and were actually more appreciative of religions like Islam than Christianity.
2) The separation of Church and State was created in order to limit the scope of the Church's influence in order to protect liberties like, oh, I don't know, marriage.