Post by adlupic35 on Nov 16, 2011 23:39:50 GMT -5
The Great American Hypocrisy
Now, more than ever, the secularity of the United States is being questioned. Under the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States, a separation of church and state is established; however, the Christian church has constantly found ways to manipulate its influence over government since the beginnings of America. Similar to the intertwining of religious concerns with secular matters in the witchcraft trials of the seventeenth century Puritan society in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, same-sex marriage is a highly disputed sacred issue disputed within today’s supposedly worldly government. Currently, Congress is debating on whether or not to pass a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that establishes marriage as the union between a male and a female, thus allowing same-sex couples to marry. The bill is however strongly contested by the Republican portion of Congress and therefore is not likely to pass, bringing into questions whether America is truly a nation whose government lies separate from religion or a sacred nation that penalizes people for not conforming to the morals of established religion.
America proves to exemplify sacred qualities in a theoretically secular nation by synthesizing the religious morality of same-sex marriage with governmental standards of marriage. In actuality, marriage is split into two parts: that of religious ceremony and that of receiving a marriage license from a city hall. It seems strange then that the religious part influences the secular so heavily when both are separate entities. This brings into question why the two are so related. The source of synthesis lies in the church’s influence over the nation. Republicans, who are generally religious, are fearful of the destruction of their sacred tradition and thus incorporate their religion into governmental practices in order to preserve the sanctity of religious marriage at the expense of same-sex couples.
The government further proves itself influenced by religion by denying many civil rights that heterosexual couples are eligible to receive from same-sex couples. It is virtually unanimously agred among Americans that everyone should receive equal rights, although the people of America contradict themselves and the Constitution by denying the same basic marital rights that heterosexual couples receive from same-sex couples over trivial religious matters. With the impending failure of the attempt to repeal DOMA, same-sex couples will continue to be denied tax, government, medical, employment, and other benefits. Denying a couple such rights as joint-adoption, visiting their spouse in the hospital during restricted visiting hours, and inheritance just because of sexual orientation could not have come from secular process because logically it makes no sense, so it must have come from religious influence. For a nation that declares its government secular, the United States sure does tie a lot of religious beliefs into its laws.
The opposition to DOMA brings into light the true influence of religion over the American government. In a nation with a government supposedly free of religious influence, a strong opposition to the repeal of DOMA reveals the great American hypocrisy. America does not completely disassociate the secular from the sacred as stated within the Constitution, but keeps some of its religious ideologies within its laws. If the United States continues to ostracize people based on the religious values of a portion of its population, it is doomed to fall into the same pit as Puritanism. It is only a matter of time until the people of the United States fully realize the absurdity of the infusion of sacred ideology into secular practices, and if action is not taken, the United States will stagnate as the Puritans did.
Word Count: 596
Works Cited:
Associated Press. "Democrats Push To Repeal Defense Of Marriage Act | Fox News." Online Posting. Fox News. Fox News, 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/10/democrats-push-to-repeal-defense-marriage-act/>.