I understand that transgender or homosexual people may seem to you to be odd, or unnatural, or off-putting, or even a wrong choice. Many of you may have even made your determination without ever having met one of us or carefully researching the facts. I understand that the way we lead our lives may conflict with the way your religion instructs you to lead yours.

As much as we wish you didn’t feel that way about us (and would like to work to foster a better understanding of one another), rest assured that we have no desire to interfere with your beliefs or the exercise of your religion. We just want to live our lives in peace and with dignity, much in the same way as you do. The greatest thing about our society is the way people of different backgrounds, races, colors, beliefs and opinions can live together in harmony. It makes all of us richer, happier and stronger.

Look around the world at the places where people try to impose their beliefs on everyone else. Look at the killing and cruelty and destruction there, and the complete absence of any useful contribution to humanity.

Now, look at what certain political opportunists are trying to do in America in the name of religion and family values. Look at laws being proposed, in California and 2 other states, to put to death anyone who is gay. Look at the mean-spirited bathroom bills in many states that would force transgender men into women’s restrooms and transgender women into the men’s. Look at proposals that suggest the United States should be run according to Christian law.

This sounds more like ISIS or the Taliban than an American state legislature, don’t you think?

Imposing Christian law as the supreme law of the land is not freedom of religion; it is freedom of a single religion to the exclusion of everyone else’s freedom of religion and exactly what the Constitution and Bill of Rights were trying to prevent.

Discrimination is a fickle friend

Love and acceptance and harmony and mutual respect are not only the way to prosperity and happiness, but they are also principal tenets of most major religions.

Don’t let these politicians twist your religion into a hateful thing. Think about the hate groups you are becoming aligned with in your beliefs when you buy into the propaganda that gays should be shot or trans people are monsters – or even that it is ok to discriminate against vulnerable minorities. And, if you are an African-American, or a Latino, or a Muslim or Jew or Mormon, or a woman, think very hard before advocating for discrimination against a group you see as an easy target today, for you will surely become that easy target tomorrow.

Religious zealots, like other zealots, are generally confined to the margins of society and largely ignored. But when they can stir up support among good people by appealing to their fears or lack of knowledge of the facts or other weaknesses, or by taking advantage of a vulnerable political moment, they can destroy a society – even a great one. It has happened many times in history.

A Mean-Spirited Solution to a Non-Existent Problem

Serving pizza to a gay person is largely the same as serving a pizza to a straight person. There is no religious connotation to the act and no justification for discrimination. The same is true of providing medical care to the child of a gay couple. Both of these have been refused in the name of religion in recent months. You see how insidious this can get.

Whatever you may think about transgender people and what you think they are or what you fear they might do or what risk you believe they pose, there is indisputable fact to prove that we are no threat at all to anyone in public restrooms. Not only that, but we are among the most vulnerable to being harmed ourselves. Allowing the use of women’s washrooms by trans women has never caused in harm to women or girls. There is absolutely no need for any bathroom laws as there has never been any problem.

Don’t let them manipulate you.

Ask yourself why these laws are suddenly popping up all over the country? Has there been an epidemic of attacks by trans people on little children in public restrooms? No. There have been none at all.  So why all these laws? This is plain politics, the politics of hate and division, preying on the most vulnerable in society by stoking fear in people through lies and false hysteria, people who trust the politicians to tell them the truth. It is taking advantage of many people’s disapproval of the way of life of gays, lesbians and trans people and the perceived but non-existent threat to religious liberty.

Marriage and Religious Freedom

Gay marriage was likely the catalyst. I believe that many people of religion consider marriage a religious institution and that gay marriage was a step too far, co-opting this religious institution to sanction a relationship that is contrary to that religion.

But in addition to being a religious institution, marriage has become a legal institution too, with implications for taxes, property settlements, pensions, hospital visitation rights and more. A person can be married under the law at the same time that the Church refuses to grant them a Christian marriage, and to my way of thinking, there is no reason a Church should be called upon to grant a marriage to those who don’t follow its requirements for a religious ceremony.

However, when religious practice contravenes the principles of our society or affects those outside the faith, the state can and must intervene to protect the rights of all of its citizens. That is why there is no religious right to beating or stoning or lighting women on fire or slavery or multiple wives… or discrimination in the provision of non-religious services, like pizzas and cakes and medical services and jobs and housing. It is also why a call to arms to “kill all Sodomites” is so very wrong.

We are not all that far removed from a time when signs refusing services to Blacks or Jews were fairly common, where facilities were segregated. I am not sure where this desire to discriminate or hate comes from, but I am sure that it is soul-sucking and evil. One can never reach a moral or spiritual high or attain a true measure of success by stepping on others.

I am absolutely a supporter of religious freedoms, but these freedoms are not absolute. This has always been understood. Freedom of religion is as much about the freedom of others to practice their religion as it is about your right to practice yours – and even the freedom not to practice any religion. We all have to get along and to respect each other. Good men and women should be able to agree on this at least, be they religious or secularist.

Speak Now or…

Silence is not an option. All it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. The only people who can stop the mean-spirited perversion of Christian values to the ends of hate and discrimination are Christians themselves. Christians must speak out and declare that this is not Christianity, this is not the love that Christ was about. Christians must insist that these kinds of policies are un-Christian and must be defeated. Christians must vote these contemptible politicians out of office.

Do you want to live in a country doomed by division and discrimination, or one capitalizing on cooperation and co-existence? Your own happiness depends on your choice. We will all be better off if we love our neighbors and follow the Golden Rule.

I hope you’ll help put America on the right track.