Religious Freedom: The Separation of Church and Your Paycheck

     The supreme court is looking into a case of whether or not the mandate in Obamacare that demands certain corporations to give access birth control violates their religious freedom. The two businesses, Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Woods Specialties are both Evangelical Christian companies seeking an exemption to the mandate using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as. This isn't the first time we heard the words religious freedom and it being intruded on. Not too long ago, we had two bills introduced in both Kansas and Arizona that if passed, would allow businesses to not serve people based on their religious freedom. This was controversial since the bill was targeted not only to gay people, but people of other religions. Kansas' bill was defeated and Arizona's bill was vetoed. According to the first Amendment they do have the right to practice their religion, but to what extent? Where does the border of them practicing their religious freedom infringe on my freedom?
     Religion is the core of a person's belief. I understand that people who hold their religions in a high regard attempt to take their beliefs everywhere they go and it should be implemented in everything, like education and our judicial system but, they cannot because there are certain limits on where they can practice their religion. We have limits to our freedoms to ensure that our society functions properly. We have free speech, but we cannot go around yelling fire or unjustly slandering a person's character because that hurts our society. What supporters who claim that their religious freedom should realize that they do have right to practice their religious freedom, but not the expense of someone else's rights. Their religious freedom doesn't trump everyone else's rights. We are a nation that is comprised of people that practice different religions, or choose not to and for those reasons, the Constitution also establishes a separation of church and state to ensure that religion isn't influencing any laws in order to benefit everyone.
       Let's not forget that these companies and the people who feel that their religious beliefs should exclude them from certain policies are businesses that are open to the public. Their rights as human beings come before their religious freedom. They are going to deal with people that don't share their religious beliefs and practices. That would not be very fair or ethical to turn them away or deny them services. So, proponents of freedom of religion, you will have to make wedding cakes for gay people and give the "whores" their birth control.

Fred Dropped Dead

   

     The founder and former leader of the Westboro Baptist Church Fred Phelps has been pronounced dead. For those who haven't heard of Phelps or the Westboro Baptist Church, it is a church that was led by him and his family members. The Westboro Baptist Church is notorious for picketing soldier funerals, damning 9/11 victims, and spreading anti-gay rhetoric declaring that "God Hates Fags." The church is very vocal about what God apparently hates, which isn't only exclusive to dead soldiers and "fags", but America, celebrities, the world, and pretty much everything else you or they can think of. Looking on the last few years of his life you get a perspective that for a majority of it he has wasted it by being an example of ugliness and bigotry and choosing to hold hate in his heart for anyone that wasn't like him.
     Hate isn't a healthy thing to have in your life. Hate is like an anchor. It holds you down, sinking you beneath the waters leaving you to drown. It prevents you from being human and enjoying life. As being the loving Christian he claims to be, it would have been more productive if Phelps had spent most of his life loving God's creation instead of trying to find ugliness in everything and spend every waking moment despising everything based on your narrow view of the world. Life is too short and wonderful to spend most of it focusing on what you see as wrong. You have to let that hate go in order to truly live.
    I should be shouting to the top of my lungs Ding Dong Fred Phelps is dead. But, I won't. That would be what he wanted. That would be what his congregation which thrives on hate and hating others in order to live would want and inspect. I will not give them that satisfaction. As a gay man, I should hate him. Fred was the face of homophobia in religion. He was the guy that tells you that you are an abomination because it's what the bible says. He was the reverend that tells your parents you are no longer deserving of their love and that they should be tossed aside like trash for not living up to God's standards. He was the person represents the serious flaw in religion and why many are turning their backs from it. He was what the people who claim they just hate the sin, not the sinner really are inside. Fred represented the ignorance and how evil people can twist what is suppose to be good into their own sick ideas and agendas. Instead, I will just pity him, reflect on sad his life was, and try live mine for the better. Let Fred be an example that you should love your fellow man like God says, instead of condemning them, treating them like they are less than human.

100 Years A Slave Movies (A Black History Rant)

    Nick Cannon posted this tweet a few months ago, upset at the recent Hollywood trend of making slave movies like Djano Unchained and 12 Years A Slave. You get that he is frustrated and he's right to be. Whenever Hollywood decides to do a movie about black history, they either do a slave movie or a movie and civil rights. These are important issues in our history. These movies showcased how we as black people, suffered due to prejudice and were able to overcome those hard times. These movies are not necessarily bad, but need more. We need movies that has to dig deeper into our history.
    We are a people that were descendants of great civilizations. We came from kings and queens that not just ruled the in Egypt and had empires like the Mali empire and the Ethiopian empire. We came from scientists, and scholars. We had expeditions to other countries like America before Columbus. We come from architects that constructed pyramids and other monuments in other countries, but you never know that because Hollywood never shows that. We can go all the way back to 10 million B.C. and tell the story of Troy, and Pompeii to tell white history, but we just can't seem to get past slavery? Hearing these stories of African history and getting a since of who we were and where we came from will do more to inspire and motivate our people more than 12 Years A Slave ever could. But, how do we get Hollywood to make these movies? Do we get them interested by motivating our black directors and producers to make these movies? That is the question. I would like to hear what you think should be done.