Trying to get “friendly” in the state constitution

Forrest Johnson

Once again, the National Union of Friendly Americans (NUFA) has its work cut out for it. The members of the Minnesota affiliate of the New Conservative Neanderthal Party (NCNP), formerly known as the Republicans, voted across the board in 2011 to approve a constitutional amendment that will allow Minnesota voters to decide in 2012 if marriage will thereafter be defined as between man and woman.

Social engineering at its worst. An affront to civil rights.

And the results may end up entombed in the state constitution.
The conservatives were able to put their fears right there on the ballot for all of us to decide. Conservative religious fears. Hell in a hand basket fears.

Yes, once again God has been dragged into the fray and I’m sure he’s a bit tired of all the attention people are tossing his way, what with the end of the world coming up a dud again and again and everybody scrambling to their Bibles to see exactly what He’s said about gays and lesbians and the Institution of Marriage as a whole.

Forget Jesus and his teachings apparently. These folks are going over the Savior’s head and directly to Dad, the Big Man, for their answer.
I don’t talk to God often but I do know that he’s a bit tired of all our shenanigans, our wars and the constant witch hunts carried out in his name.

And to me the notion of “in defense of marriage” sounds more than a little bit ironic when about 50 percent of marriages between a man and a woman hit the skids. I would think the social conservatives who worry about things like gay marriage should actually be lending a bit of a hand to those poor heterosexuals who just can’t seem to get it right no matter how many times they try.

Recent studies show that facts mean little to those with predetermined mindsets. You can club a person over the head with the facts, even have God deliver the news, and those hardheaded people won’t change their worldview.

People supporting the “defense of marriage” think gay marriage is wrong, they think it will creep into their lives and the lives of their children, into the life of the nation. It could be the downfall of civilization as a whole.

It’s about biology and procreation and populating the planet. It’s about “the children.” It’s about a bunch of worrywarts who still see the idea of people of the same sex sharing love as just too different for their liking. It’s about fear. I really can’t quite figure out exactly what kind of fear it is because those folks just won’t answer that question. Instead, they say things like “It just isn’t right” or “It just isn’t natural” or “God didn’t invent marriage to let it end up that way” or “It’s about the children.”

The National Union of Friendly Americans (NUFA) has determined that the only way to allay those fears is to try and get at the root cause of the fear. Like I’ve said before, God is growing tired of all the things people say he says when in effect he never really said any such thing at all.

NUFA social thinkers believe the root cause is that social conservatives and Bible thumpers believe it would be like letting the genie out of the bottle. And they believe this isn’t a nice genie, it’s an evil gay genie that hopes to convert all heterosexuals into a life of sin and debauchery.

“Proselytize the heathens in the name of God, A-OK,” say the Bible thumpers and the loyal members of the NCNP. “But try to convert in the name of gay marriage means a crusade of another stripe. We will have none of that. To the ballot it goes.”
Even though an antiquated state law doesn’t allow gay marriage the social conservatives fear that laws are easily changed.
The St. Cloud legislator who sponsored the amendment said the same thing conservatives have been saying for years by cloaking the real message.
“Not all wisdom resides here in the state Legislature, and not all wisdom resides in our courts,” Rep. Steve Gottwalt said.
Let me decloak the message for you.
Liberal judges and politicians have been running the show for too long and sending our American values down the drain. That’s the problem, don’t you see. Godless liberals, progressives and other forms of socialists and communists have undermined our society.
Oh, the social conservatives can wave their hand and say “No, no, we don’t mean these people harm, we’re primarily Christians at heart. We are tolerant. But we will not let the sacred institution of marriage be thrown to the lions.”
They say they even know some gay people. Maybe have a brother or sister who’s gay, maybe a cousin. They are tolerant and understanding Christians but gays still shouldn’t get married for crying out loud.
The social conservatives are letting us all decide if their fears are our fears.
You’ll have your chance to hold the mirror up to their fears and the freedoms of all the rest of the people on that first Tuesday of November, 2012.
NUFA will be busy in the months ahead to make sure as many Americans as possible are friendly to all people.
Voting NO on the very closed-minded ballot question is the friendly thing to do.
How about having “friendly” in the state constitution?