DISCLAIMER: The following blog expresses my
personal opinions about certain religious ideas. I in no way intend to offend anyone or challenge their beliefs.
The other day I was watching "For the Bible Tells Me So," a documentary about how conservative Christians have explicitly used their religion to deny human rights. Among these was the ever-pressing and extremely current topic of gay rights. So far only ten out of the fifty states in America have legalized gay marriage (one of them more recently Illinois, who historically passed the law this past Valentine's Day.) And what I find so frustrating, as I saw in the documentary, arguably the most common reason for the justification of homophobia is religion.
I could go on a Bible-lengths rant of my views on religion and what I believe and don't, but that will be for another blog, perhaps. But right now I am concerned with the topic of love. No, love is not perfect. No, it doesn't have to be destined. Maybe this is because of timing, maybe because of personal conflicts. But no love, whether it be imperfect or forbidden, is so because two people are of the same sex. And in no way whatsoever should religion be used in such a way to curve morality to the point where this ignorant idea is justified.
A common theme within
Jane Eyre so far has been the manipulative nature of religion to legitimize certain thought and advocate certain way of life. For example, Jane is told that instead of standing up to her enemies who wrong her, she should just be passive and absorb every mental and physical blow like a sponge. To clear something up: if religion is your thing, right on. I understand completely why people find it important to have something to believe in, to have something to serve as guidance, or to have something to have faith in in times of need. But when religion starts becoming an excuse, when it starts filling people like empty shells with immoral beliefs that go against basic and undeniable human emotions and rights, this is where I start to lose the beneficial idea of guidance and start seeing a mirage of manipulation. And this is confusing. And frustrating. And I simply just don't get it.
So it is moments like
this that I like to reflect on. This past October, two straight women kissed in front of a crowd during an anti-gay protest in France. The image is not only powerful, but this quote explains it impeccably:
"This snapshot brings out a simple and efficient mechanism: the one of the oppositon between reason and emotion, between the power of the image and the complexity of the slogan. The protesters are holding signs and screaming claims that cannot exist, to make sense, in the instantaneity of the photograph."
- Romain Pigenel
This photo, and the countless homosexual couples across the world, blatantly disprove every anti-gay, anti-same-sex-marriage, homophobic claim that love between two people of the same sex cannot exist. Because it does. It exists with your neighbor, your cousin, that stranger across the street, that guy that checks you out at Jewel, the lady who told you to buy that shirt. So how can someone say that it not only shouldn't exist, but that it doesn't?
In my opinion, this picture is part of the many, but not nearly enough, viral medias circulating universally that challenges common worldviews and has a powerful impact. Too often we see, especially in media, obnoxiously conspicuous celebrity couples too readily getting married, only to get divorced within the week. And this drives me insane. I don't know if they're entranced by the idea of a billion dollar wedding or overcome by lust mistaken for love at first sight, but these people do not really love each other. So we, as curious, nosy, and magpie Americans love to do, are immediately enthralled and even somehow inspired by this idea of obliviously false "love." Yet a great deal of our country, and even a great deal of the world, has no problem being so repulsed by certain couples, who have been together for years in true love, that they deny the human right of marriage, a right that those we idolize throw around like nothing.
As we discussed while watching
Once, love is imperfect. It doesn't come at the right time, it may not always work out, etc. But it is also something that we cannot control. As we see during the film, we do not choose who we fall in love with. So the idea that there are many people out there who try to tell us to do so, or even try to do so themselves, is inexplicably ludicrous. How can people say for some love does not exist? Who's to say that it should or shouldn't exist?
Love is not a privilege. It is not something that is only graced upon those deemed "worthy." Denying someone love is not only wrong, but it is not, and never will be, possible.
