Black people are not the enemy. Sprituality is not the enemy. SOCIAL CONSERVATISM is the enemy.

[renie408]

Socially liberal black people voted against Prop 8. Socially liberal religious people voted against Prop 8. The root of this evil is conservatism. 'Black' has nothing to do with it. People don't hold opinions about homosexuality based on their skin color. They hold opinions on homosexuality based on their religious beliefs. Religious teaching is usually anchored in tradition and tends to be conservative. It doesn't matter that Jesus doesn't say anything about homosexuality. It matters that people are raised in their Baptist/Catholic/Mormon churches to believe that homosexuality is a chosen perversion. Religion is not spirituality. Belief in god or a higher power isn't the problem. The problem is the large institutional religious organizations.

Institutional religion is the problem. Big religion tends to be socially conservative. We need to change the teachings of big religion.

Good luck with that.

I am an atheist. I went to church when I was a kid, but haven't been to church since I was about 15 and decided that it wasn't really working for me. So, I really have no idea how to go about changing the church to be a more accepting, less judgmental institution. But that's where we are at with a great many of the social problems we see in this country. Until people can no longer hide behind the church to cover up their bigotry, bigotry is going to be a huge problem in this country. I don't think just saying, "Religion is bullshit and we should get religion out of everything." is going to work. It is easy to make a list of the atrocities that can be attributed to religion. It is harder to remember that all over the world right now, there are people who are risking their lives to do a lot more to help people than argue on an internet message board and they do it because of their spiritual beliefs. Mother Teresa went to Calcutta because she was 'called' there by god. Spirituality is a huge force for good and guides and informs the lives of many good people. Barack Obama happens to be one of them. So, attacking spiritual belief isn't the answer.

I think people need to start recognizing the difference between religion and spirituality. They are so intertwined that when spiritual people see 'religion' being blamed for things like Prop 8, they react negatively. Nobody is attacking a belief in god or any higher power. They are attacking the huge religious machine which has taught people from the time they are little children to believe that someone's choice of life partner could be wrong.

The Bible says that all sins are equal in the eyes of the lord. The Bible says judge not, lest ye be judged. The Bible says to love thy neighbor. Even where the Bible implies that homosexuality is wrong, it doesn't say, "So you guys go out and make sure that homosexual people have a really hard time." The Bible says to let your life be your witness and to look after yourself and leave everybody else to god. So, religion is the problem, but spirituality is the answer. Somehow, we need to get TRUE spiritual belief back into religious teachings.

Again, good luck with that.