[JustMe_T3K]

Originally Posted by DTO Luv

Exactly. Nebraska should allow gay marriage to make Nebraska more competetive and attractive for business. Why discriminate when you can make money?

What studies have been done or where are you getting your information that

Originally Posted by DTO Luv

Nebraska should allow gay marriage to make Nebraska more competetive and attractive for business.

If you can prove this as real you might get my vote for gay marriage.

[Raphael07]

Originally Posted by marmac

Doesn't Nebraska already allow gay marriage?

If they don't, what are those couples announcing?

No, Only Iowa, DC, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut do. Nebraska has a state ban. The couples announcing are often living in other states or are going over to Iowa and perhaps want people they know to know they're getting married.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by marmom

I used the word "rights" twice - half as many as your post - lol . As for why it isn't before the US Supreme Court, I do not know the answer to that question, but it's an excellent question.

It takes time, but I think the time is her. This Prop 8 thing is almost certain to end up there, where I think the issue will ultimately be decided in favor of gay marriage.

[marmom]

Originally Posted by Bosco55David

It takes time, but I think the time is her. This Prop 8 thing is almost certain to end up there, where I think the issue will ultimately be decided in favor of gay marriage.

In the words of Mr. Burns... "Exxxcellent!"

[pheaton]

I have a glass of poison in my hand. I can claim God has told me this isn't poison. I can wish it's not poison. I can plug my nose and close my eyes and pretend the poison isn't there, but drinking it will kill me just the same. You can pretend that homosexuality is part of Gods divine plan, or a way to teach us to love each other, but you are simply selling yourself short of what Gods plan for true love is. You are resorting to eating out of a dumpster when God's plan for love is a banquet of finest foods. This idea of love that society is convincing you is true and natural is nothing more than a counterfeit of the real thing. It's like we have flat tires, God wants to inflate them, society wants you to think that flat tires are normal. I'm not saying you are doomed to hell, I'm just saying that God has created us for more than what we are buying into. Not just homosexuals, but heterosexuals as well.

It's not wrong to love each other. But how we respond to that love is where the true beauty is. Are you loving Gods creation because of it's beauty? Or are you lusting after the way that other person makes you feel?

Lastly, gay marriage it's not banned. It's just not recognized. You will not go to jail if you get married to a person of the same sex. Can you go to the courthouse and get a state recognized marriage? No, but to me, even if a straight person does that, it's not a true marriage.

[Calvinist]

Originally Posted by Raphael07

Because the old Jewish laws is where our religion gets its source for an excuse to go against homosexuality even though Jesus himself said nothing about the subject.

1. There are a lot of Old Testament Laws that we don't have parallel laws for today.

2. The argument from silence is weak, at best, regarding Jesus' non-statements regarding the topic. He is God--and God spoke definitively on the topic.

Originally Posted by Raphael07

No, Only Iowa, DC, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut do. Nebraska has a state ban. The couples announcing are often living in other states or are going over to Iowa and perhaps want people they know to know they're getting married.

Actually, Nebraska states that you can marry another person of the opposite gender. Does it specifically "ban" same-gender? Or is that simply an effect of defining whom you can marry?

[DTO Luv]

Originally Posted by pheaton

I have a glass of poison in my hand. I can claim God has told me this isn't poison. I can wish it's not poison. I can plug my nose and close my eyes and pretend the poison isn't there, but drinking it will kill me just the same. You can pretend that homosexuality is part of Gods divine plan, or a way to teach us to love each other, but you are simply selling yourself short of what Gods plan for true love is. You are resorting to eating out of a dumpster when God's plan for love is a banquet of finest foods. This idea of love that society is convincing you is true and natural is nothing more than a counterfeit of the real thing. It's like we have flat tires, God wants to inflate them, society wants you to think that flat tires are normal. I'm not saying you are doomed to hell, I'm just saying that God has created us for more than what we are buying into. Not just homosexuals, but heterosexuals as well.

It's not wrong to love each other. But how we respond to that love is where the true beauty is. Are you loving Gods creation because of it's beauty? Or are you lusting after the way that other person makes you feel?

Lastly, gay marriage it's not banned. It's just not recognized. You will not go to jail if you get married to a person of the same sex. Can you go to the courthouse and get a state recognized marriage? No, but to me, even if a straight person does that, it's not a true marriage.

I don't care what you think your god is telling you to do. This is a secular nation and we make (should make) laws based on guaranteeing everyone's freedoms. That means we do it in spite of what someone's personal religion tells them to do. It may not meet your standards of what is acceptable but you can not expect to have the state enforce/uphold/adhere to your personal religious doctrine. Not everyone subscribes to it so not everyone should be subject to it. Religion should be your own private club. If you want to make everyone wear members only jackets, fine, but that only applies to the people in your club, not outside of it, so don't whine when no one else is wearing your club jacket or not observing your club rules. Also you can't expect to open up the door to religious based legislation unless you want to open it up to all relgions to make policy as well. By your logic, it's your religion so it is ok to force your religious morality on everyone else. Fine, but when it's time for you to adhere to the moral codes of Islam (like you expect everyone else to do to christianity with your views regarding homosexuals) are you going to put down your tasty B.L.T. or face stoning or beheading?

You absolutely can not have a fundamentalist interpretaton of a religious view as the law for a secular society. This is one of the hallmarks of what makes America great (P.S. it's not our army) is that we accomodate everyones views and make it so you can practice what you want without any one group taking over total control. It seems you would rather live in an outright theocracy than America.

[DTO Luv]

Originally Posted by JustMe_T3K

What studies have been done or where are you getting your information that




If you can prove this as real you might get my vote for gay marriage.

At this point I can't offer anything other than anecdotal but I will say this. If we still had Jim Crowe laws in the south, would you expect black-owned businesses to want to locate there? It's not uncommon for people to boycott businesses for social reasons. Look at Arizona. They passed legislation that was discriminatory and people reacted with their wallets and pulled a lot of business out of that state. It does not help our state to look backwards and unprogressive with a population that votes discrimination into law. The world is a more connected than before and when a place like Omaha or Nebraska is up against a Des Moines or Iowa, social issues affect where companies want to do business. I'm not saying it's the end all be all of decision making for business owners but it makes us look more attractive over another place if we offer married gay employees the same legal standing as straight employees.

[dsrich98]

No one is a worse spokesman for God than his followers.

[pheaton]

Originally Posted by DTO Luv

I don't care what you think your god is telling you to do. This is a secular nation and we make (should make) laws based on guaranteeing everyone's freedoms. That means we do it in spite of what someone's personal religion tells them to do. It may not meet your standards of what is acceptable but you can not expect to have the state enforce/uphold/adhere to your personal religious doctrine. Not everyone subscribes to it so not everyone should be subject to it. Religion should be your own private club. If you want to make everyone wear members only jackets, fine, but that only applies to the people in your club, not outside of it, so don't whine when no one else is wearing your club jacket or not observing your club rules. Also you can't expect to open up the door to religious based legislation unless you want to open it up to all relgions to make policy as well. By your logic, it's your religion so it is ok to force your religious morality on everyone else. Fine, but when it's time for you to adhere to the moral codes of Islam (like you expect everyone else to do to christianity with your views regarding homosexuals) are you going to put down your tasty B.L.T. or face stoning or beheading?

You absolutely can not have a fundamentalist interpretaton of a religious view as the law for a secular society. This is one of the hallmarks of what makes America great (P.S. it's not our army) is that we accomodate everyones views and make it so you can practice what you want without any one group taking over total control. It seems you would rather live in an outright theocracy than America.

I can make the same argument in the other direction. I feel that secularist and non-religious standards form their own "members only" club that is trying to force me into compliance with their destructive and self-serving ideas on what freedom and happiness mean. Trying to force me to accept this counterfeit idea of love that everyone is buying into. At the end of the day the law in Nebraska is one that does not recognize same sex marriage as with most other states. The fact that people want to change those laws suggests a forcing of non-religious secular belief onto us, not the other way around. Many non-christian religions, heck many non-christians have these same views, this isn't just some crazy Christian idea. This is an idea shared by God's people no matter how or if they follow God.

"True freedom is liberation not from the external constraint that calls me to good, but from the internal constraint that hinders my choice of the good." - Christopher West