For me, morality is simply the personal answer to the question of right and wrong. And right and wrong should be universal ideas. Sadly they are not.
Lets take the issue of gay marriage and leave religion aside for a minute.
The complaint seems to be that activist judges are attempting to make our country amoral. The Constitutional problem is that it's a states rights issue. It is the State courts that are ruling in the gays favor and the federal covernment needs to keep their hands off.
The morality issue arises at the state level and national level when you have a president who makes it his agenda to ban those marriages. And in doing so passes it down to the state level to jump on his bandwagon. Ohio is an excellent case in point.
The strongest argument that Christian conservatives played a decisive role in the election came in Ohio, where a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage passed by an overwhelming margin. Conservatives said the proposal increased conservative turnout and helped Mr. Bush win a narrow, pivotal victory.
Phil Burress, the veteran Christian conservative organizer who headed the effort to pass the measure, said his campaign registered tens of thousands of voters, distributed 2.5 million church bulletin inserts and passed out 20,000 yard signs. His group called 2.9 million homes, he said, identifying 850,000 strong supporters whom it called again on Monday as a reminder to go to the polls.
"The president rode our coattails," Mr. Burress said.
What is even worse imo is that I find the whole thing not very moral at all. We are in effect treating these people as outcasts to society for what ever reason they are gay. If nothing else they should be afforded the same civil rights as anyone else in this country. Maybe we should add a postscript to the Statue of Liberty, "just not your gays."
As to the religious issue.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. I know you haven't had a chance to learn this, but it appears that Yasser Arafat has passed away.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Really.
Q And I was just wondering if I could get your initial reaction, and also your thoughts on perhaps working with a new generation of Palestinian leadership.
PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I appreciate that. My first reaction is God bless his soul.
So now we are blessing the souls of terrorists. lol.