Whereas the election of Obama helped me feel better about my fellow Americans, the possible (likely? imminent?) passage of Proposition 8 just makes me feel sad about the sorry state of California.
Californians have a history of disappointing me (Prop 187, Prop 209, 8 years of Pete Wilson, the recall election) and, apparently, this will be no different. While the fate of Prop 8 is still up in the air while absentee ballots are counted, it would take nothing short of a miracle to close the 3.8% gap that currently exists.
It's pretty upsetting that Latino and (especially) black voters helped get this discriminatory proposition passed. I really believe the Yes campaign was so well-funded that they could just saturate the airwaves with lies and half-truths that the No campaign was unable to counter them. For example, I received a "robocall" Monday night that implied that Barack Obama was supporting Prop 8, which is not his position. It contained a soundbyte of the first part of that clip, but not the part where he said, "that's not what America is about."
I'm very uneasy about the complicity of the Catholic Church in funding the Yes on 8 campaign. The Knights of Columbus donated a million dollars to Yes on 8. A lot of attention went to the Mormons and their efforts (and with fair reason, you think they, of all people, would sympathize with non-traditional marriage arrangements), but I don't think No on 8 was hard enough on the K of C. Maybe they didn't want to alienate the Catholic voters, I don't know.
What I do know at this point is I'm done with pancake breakfasts. Knights of Columbus will not see another nickel from me, if this is how they spend it. What kept me up last night is that maybe I'm done with church too. Not done with God, mind you. Just done with the people who make decisions in Jesus's name for things I don't think He would have any part of. What happened to, "and they'll know we are Christians by our love"? I've been more than a little apathetic about the Church and its leanings for a while, and this is not helping matters.
So today, I am proud to be an American but ashamed to be a Californian and a Catholic. Again, not for the first time.
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I too have lost my religion, but not my spirituality. This has been something that I've reflected upon for some time now. One of my professors who I admire the most said to us, "You say that God is loving and accepting yet you use His name to cause pain". Prop 8 proved just that. As far as I know, the God that I know does not discriminate or use hatred to have others follow in His name. Thanks for the post.
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