North Dakota is a great state. If you are looking for a state where you can go to the mall and have the luxury of smelling a cow’s rear at the same time, this is the place to be.
There are some issues in this state that must be addressed beside its smell. Not only do we have issues with wood chippers and the University of North Dakota, we also have issues with discrimination.
In this state, we can evict, fire or use any other form of discrimination against anyone based solely on his or her sexual preference.
As an American citizen, this is disturbing. It sounds like a direct attack against our freedoms.
The freedom of others isn’t important, it seems. We have the freedom to not fear wrongful termination or eviction and the freedom to marry whomever we please.
We have all of these freedoms. But when someone is born with a genetic preference, they are miraculously no longer granted these freedoms.
I think a great example of just how stupid we have let this all become is that we label it as a way to protect “religious freedom.” Let’s call it what it actually is, “asshole freedom.”
I am a Christian. I was baptized, went through confirmation, attended church picnics and am to this day a true-blooded Lutheran.
Yet I refuse to understand how throwing someone out of my place of business or firing a gay member of my employment staff, specifically over sexual preference, is anywhere near my Christian duties.
I don’t remember the Sunday school lesson on that sadly. We must confront this.
In our state, gay people are allowed to marry. That is great, for with marriage comes a great sense of happiness and pride. But for same-sex couples, there also has to be a sense of fear.
Fighting for equality isn’t easy. It’s messy. Let’s just leave it for someone else. That isn’t fair, though. We must challenge this.
Think about your average North Dakotan — we aren’t malicious. We live in the state of please and thank you, not the state of “get out.”
I think it is high time that we change this and restore religious acts. “Love your neighbor”… I remember that from church.
Maybe you don’t believe in marriage equality, and that is fine. Just recognize that if you feel an urge to fire/evict/remove a gay person from your place of business, you are not being friendly.
You aren’t stopping progress — you are simply being a jerk.
what kind of god denies LOVE? a weak, evil, make believe christian one
Loving, all-inclusive, helpful, profitable marijuana and hemp companies can’t even get tax status….
yet discriminating, freedom denying hate groups hiding behind religion and “religious freedom” are TAX EXEMPT?…..
…and still no LGBT protections in the workplace, housing, or education….the time to repeal tax breaks for discriminating groups claiming religious freedom is now…
“If Jesus were alive today there is one thing he would not be—a Christian”…Mark Twain
“I like your christ. I do not like your christians, they are so unlike your christ.”…..Gandhi
“Tax the people more who disagree with us.”
—spoken like a true leftist
In the same way the freedom of speech allows people to say things that other disagree with, freedom of association should allow people to associate in ways that people disagree with.
A century ago, interracial marriage was illegal. While that is obviously an unjust law, it is just as bad to say that interracial marriage should be mandatory. It violates freedom of association in the same way.
You must not use government to force people to behave a certain way just because you disagree with it.
Erik Jonasson, you are just as bad as the religious zealots who want to ban gay marriage.
Leave people alone; mind your own business.
I have lived here half my life and never smelled a cows rear, so I guess Erik is one up on that experience. I am glad he has a hobby.
Perhaps he should consider the freedom of a business owner to hire who he wants? Or the freedom of a business to serve what it wants?
Erik’s religion is not the same as mine. Mine teaches that there is no such thing as “gay marriage” and that I should be free to not have anything to do with it. Erik seems to want to force me to agree with his faith and impose his views on me. I don’t see this as progress, but as oppression and persecution.
Forcing someone to agree with you is not friendly, it’s being a “jerk.”
Erik, discrimination, weather good or bad, is our God-given right. If I choose to fire someone because they are gay, that is my right as a business owner. I don’t tell you how to operate your lemonade stand so don’t tell me how to run mine. If gay people want to be miserable and get married like everyone else then let them do it! It’s no skin off my ass plus we have too many dumb people being procreated everyday so gay couples would be a great solution. The great thing about America is we can have a tripod; guns, God, and freedoms and if you take away one of those legs…. Well America falls down. So I would like for you to ponder the possibilities and maybe even be a little more open minded next time you start blabbering about nonsense.
nice picture by the way… LOLZ