Do We Really Want To Elect A Left Handed President?
Not long ago in history, and in some parts of the world even today, being left-handed was seen as a curse. Despite the best science and medicine today that overwhelming tells us that being left handed is not a moral choice but is a state of being, there exists some level of prejudice, bias, and discrimination against the left-handed among us. In America, generally those born left-handed are not insisted to change their handedness to right-handedness, although that was the case just a few decades ago. Parents and teachers would routinely coerce the left-handed to adopt the majority handedness. We don’t persecute or torture the left handed as happened in earlier generations although in Muslim cultures being left handed can be quite a disadvantage as religion requires food to be eaten only with the right hand – the left being used for personal hygiene.
What does this have to do with a left-handed president? NBC news tonight reported that four of the last six presidents were left-handed (Ford, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Clinton). And now we are about to have another lefty, as both McCain and Obama are left-handed. Science doesn’t know the cause of left-handedness. Continuing brain research has yet to unravel this mystery. But left-handedness does seem to correlate with both creativity and achievement – and about ten percent of the population is left-handed.
Perhaps, you, as I do, can make the leap to analogize this left handed conversation to a conversation about homosexuality. Science and medicine today overwhelming concludes that homosexuality is not a moral choice but is a state of being. Overwhelming gays will tell you that as early as they can remember, their sexual orientation has been towards their own sex. But the human species seems to naturally react to those who are different. Whether that is differences in skin color, in religion, in physical appearance, or differences in language, customs, or just about anything that characterizes us.
And despite the deeply insisted on values of tolerance within both American tradition and Christian tradition, there still exists a stubborn insistence that homosexuals be treated with prejudice, bias, and intolerance. Despite the best science and medicine, many insist on their interpretations of 2000-year-old texts without regard to the context of the time and place of their origin. And many refuse to accept that Jesus never once spoke to the subject of homosexuality, but to a more encompassing message of treating others, as you would have others treat you.
The cherry picking of isolated verses to support one’s own bias may be the real sin.
Few have any problem today with electing a left-handed president. But, in the eyes of God, how mean spirited we are as a people to continue to demonize the minority among us who happen to be gay. And how mean spirited it of us as a people to exclude from one of the most cherished and desired of human institutions, the institution of marriage, those who desire to have equal acceptance of their mutual commitment to a loving and caring relationship. Shame on those who still, in 2008, insist that the benefits and privileges of marriage be held exclusively to the heterosexual.
What does this have to do with a left-handed president? NBC news tonight reported that four of the last six presidents were left-handed (Ford, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Clinton). And now we are about to have another lefty, as both McCain and Obama are left-handed. Science doesn’t know the cause of left-handedness. Continuing brain research has yet to unravel this mystery. But left-handedness does seem to correlate with both creativity and achievement – and about ten percent of the population is left-handed.
Perhaps, you, as I do, can make the leap to analogize this left handed conversation to a conversation about homosexuality. Science and medicine today overwhelming concludes that homosexuality is not a moral choice but is a state of being. Overwhelming gays will tell you that as early as they can remember, their sexual orientation has been towards their own sex. But the human species seems to naturally react to those who are different. Whether that is differences in skin color, in religion, in physical appearance, or differences in language, customs, or just about anything that characterizes us.
And despite the deeply insisted on values of tolerance within both American tradition and Christian tradition, there still exists a stubborn insistence that homosexuals be treated with prejudice, bias, and intolerance. Despite the best science and medicine, many insist on their interpretations of 2000-year-old texts without regard to the context of the time and place of their origin. And many refuse to accept that Jesus never once spoke to the subject of homosexuality, but to a more encompassing message of treating others, as you would have others treat you.
The cherry picking of isolated verses to support one’s own bias may be the real sin.
Few have any problem today with electing a left-handed president. But, in the eyes of God, how mean spirited we are as a people to continue to demonize the minority among us who happen to be gay. And how mean spirited it of us as a people to exclude from one of the most cherished and desired of human institutions, the institution of marriage, those who desire to have equal acceptance of their mutual commitment to a loving and caring relationship. Shame on those who still, in 2008, insist that the benefits and privileges of marriage be held exclusively to the heterosexual.
Comments
Pundits, exploitors of divisiveness and such seek to make that which makes us different a "wedge" to a unified purpose. America should always be a place of inclusion; sending us your huddled masses never set a pre-condition that the masses had to look like us nor think like us. The whole meaning of diversity is lost on those who believe such and the miss that the commonality we all have is the pursuit of liberty and our freedoms. The prism of freedom is not through a lense of black or white or straight or gay, but a lense of purpose and pursuit.
I find my ideological views aligned with many folks I meet that do not look like me nor are hetrosexual, but nonetheless see the world in the same light. For gay Americans to see the Democrat Party as their only real option these days I find is disturbing. The same result is the exodus of homosexuals from the Catholic Church and into the Episcopal Church throughout the country. People will migrate and congrgate where they feel they are a welcomed part of the fabric or community regardless of orientation. We have allowed orientation to become the modern day struggle that mimics our religious freedom struggle of the past. Again, seeking to find what divides us not what brings us together is the biggest hurdle of modern America.
Do I think at times the platform or extremists of the homosexual community goes over the top in places like California, absolutely, and in fact i think at times it does more harm than good and creates alot of blowback that is unneccessary, but I think that is a political distinction and not a social one. Anytime a group or base mobilizes it will be perceived as a threat to one side or the another, but just as it is absurd for people to judge homosexuals based on orientation it is equally absurd in my view for homosexuals to endorse candidates solely based on that issue alone. In my view thats no different than the racist who will never vote for Obama for President or the pro-lifer who will vote solely on that one issue. When this political behavior persists it cheepens the process and makes views one-dimensional.
But then thats the beauty of America, you have the right to cast your vote for any reason whatsoever and for whomever you please and never have to justify the rationale to anyone.
Semper Fi.
Thank you for a very reasoned and intelligent reply. I agree with you.