Sometimes I just don’t understand why people think the way they do? I say that only because a close friend of mine recently informed me of a discrimination issue brewing directly in his backyard in Springfield, Missouri.
It appears the issue began back in October when the city became the 14th community in the state to extend protections to gays, lesbians, and other sexual-identity minorities in the areas of employment, housing, and accommodations. It was added to the city’s already existing nondiscrimination clause that includes race, religion, and disability. While that seems like such a great achievement and a huge step forward in overall equality, the Assembly of God and Springfield Citizens United openly denounced the legislation once it passed. Since then, they have also been able to garner enough signatures from the surrounding community to bring it to the next ballot for a public vote.
I’m sure you’re probably wondering what the driving force is for them to want to overturn this new legislation. It’s actually pretty simple in that they believe it now forces everyone in Springfield with deeply held religious beliefs to have to go against them. For example, it would require a deeply conservative Christian owner of an apartment complex who believes homosexuality is against the word of God, to have to accept a gay couple seeking housing. But if the legislation were overturned, it would end up protecting that owner by allowing him to deny housing to that gay couple.
While I find this deeply disturbing to my very core, I did have a good laugh after reading one citizen’s comment on a Springfield news article that reported on this story. It said the title of that article should have been “Religious bigots vow to repeal law so they can continue to legally discriminate.” And although I found their comment amusing, there is definitely a sad truth to it.
Our country has gone through this very thing so many times before, you would think we’d finally all have spiritually woken up to the travesty of denying rights to our fellow human beings. Women, people of color, people of non-Christian based religions, and disabled people have all fought for equal rights over time, having been denied things they never should have been in the first place.
The more I thought about this growing issue in Springfield, the more I wondered if the opposition to the new legislation would support denying equal rights for employment, housing, and accommodation to a woman, a non-white person, or someone in a wheelchair? Probably not, but that’s only because the main argument they’re using is how homosexuality goes against the word of God.
Frankly, I’m so tired of this issue. I’m so tired of the Bible being used as a weapon to support discrimination. I’m so tired of people speaking on behalf of God or Jesus and stating what they do or do not support. As far as I’m concerned, they both represent but one thing, unconditional love.
So for all those people out there that support the Assembly of God or Springfield Citizens United in their quest to overturn this anti-discrimination legislation, please take some time in serious prayer and meditation to ponder one final question. Would God or Jesus, if they were truly filled with nothing but unconditional love, really deny a man or woman a job, housing, or accommodations solely because of their sexual orientation. To me the answer is pretty clear. I just hope the rest of the world will one day see that for themselves as well…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson