http://www.adn.com/photos/outdoors/winter/v-gallery/story/110686.html?/1521/gallery/110687-a632640-t3.html

And now back to are depressing political reality.

Actually, a warm, meaningful Christmas to all reading this!

A forum is different than a blog in that it is more of a discussion amongst a community. Any forum member can begin topics in a forum; in a blog they just leave comments on posts of which the bloggers decide the content.

If we’re going to talk about tradition, let’s be clear about where traditions come from. Historically in Europe and the U.S., marriage has had nothing to do with interpreting the Bible.

Marriage has historically been about property and procreation: men have agreed to promise to provide for a wife in exchange for whatever property she brings to the marriage. It wasn’t until the late 18th and early 19th century that marriage really started to become about love, rather than business.

Procreation was about more than creating a loving family. It was important for the economic, social, and political well being of the family and the community. Children helped with work, and were used by their families to build alliances with other families.

The point of the story of Adam and Eve is to explain the miracle of how we humans began. Adam and Eve had the right biology to procreate, and so they did. But do we punish man-woman couples today who do not procreate? Of course not.

If we look to Galatians 3:28, we find that all are equally blessed in the eyes of Jesus Christ. If this is so, why wouldn’t He also bless marriages between partners of the same sex?

We live in a democracy, and our founders took great pains to keep church and state separate. The constitution’s purpose is to protect all of the American people. Let’s keep this in mind when we vote. If there was ever a time when we could use a lot of Christ Love, that time is clearly now.

The Football folks don’t say, “Rugby, you should conform to the way OUR sport is played”. And conversely, Rugby doesn’t say, “Football, you should conform to the way OUR sport is played”. They each happily play their respective games, with no intention of changing the other.

It depends on where you are, but you may have an advantage and be more popular if you are a fan of Football, than Rugby, and vice-versa.

Rugby players can, and do, join Football teams, and vice-versa.

One day a Rugby player showed up at the Football field to play in that day’s game. He trotted onto the field in his Rugby outfit and holding his Rugby ball. “We’re going to play with MY ball because I have civil rights as a person. You can’t make me play by your rules.” he said to the Football teams.

It’s simple, by opposing Prop. 8, gays are trying to change the Heterosexual’s game.

Vote YES on 8!

It took almost 2000 years for extremist Christians to fully acknowledge the evils of slavery (which is clearly condoned in the Bible). Their mainstream brethren finally helped them understand.

It took even longer for extremist Christians to accept the right to vote for women and non-whites. Their mainstream brethren dragged them along.

It took even longer for extremist Christians to acknowledge that segregation was wrong. Their mainstream brethren showed them the way.

It took even longer for extremist Christians to tolerate the right to inter-racial marriage. Their mainstream brethren set the example.

In 2008, many church goers, clergy members, and religious scholars from around the Christian world respect gays and lesbians as equals, deserving of equal rights in the eyes of the law and, more importantly, completely deserving of God’s love - unconditionally.

Modern science is in complete agreement that sexual orientation has fundamental genetic, biologic, and developmental origins which establish sexual orientation by birth.

God doesn’t make mistakes, and God doesn’t want you to treat others as if they were mistakes.