The main reason I hate churches (and yes I do hate them) is because of how they treat my grandma.

She used to go every sunday...and always put £50 in the collection. And £50 a week is a hell of a lot for a 70 year old living only on their pension.

Anyway, she got ill and went downhill really quickly so obviously had to stop going to church. I was living with her at the time. About a month after she stopped going, a letter came through the door...was just a plain white envelope and I used to open my grans post to get rid of junk mail and that, and make sure her bills were paid, so I opened it. Was a very short letter from her church. Said something along the lines of 'we have been missing you at church recently, hope everything is alright' and in with it was a collections envelope. I was ****ing fuming that they were still wanting cash off her, I didnt even tell her because I knew she was soft enough to give them it, I just put it in the bin. The week after that another collections envelope came with a note saying 'get well soon'. again, went in the bin.

That was the last of them, I think they got the hint. But for them to do stuff like that...just proves they are only out for money.

(And sorry for going a bit offtopic too D: )

Yeah exactly. It pisses me of they demand money too. I hate it. You can be religious without having to be part of some institution. :bored:

Imo the church and christians hide behind their arcaic traditions of 'marriage is between a man and a woman for the procreation of children' to try and justify their hypocracy and bigotry. There are many male/female 'christian' marriages which neither procreate any children or they end in divorce..oh and there's many other things some do which go against their religion..but it's not addressed as to whether they should be allowed a christian ceremony..it's ok because they're not gay..
..I was brought up in the Catholic faith too but this just typifies everything I loathe about christianity..I'd have more respect for them if they just turned round and said 'we don't like gay people'...they're just hypocrites who bend the rules to suit themselves..

I saw some of the christians in North Carolina who were supporting the ban..with their banners and sloganed Tshirts..and a lot of them were very young...early twenties maybe...I find it disturbing that these young people are being brought up with this bigotry instilled into them...
...unbelievable that it's 2012

IMO younger people seem to be a lot more tolerant of things than older people who are already set in their ways.

Its a lot more common to be gay (or be 'out'...I'm sure the amount of homosexuals were alway the same) these days than it was say...30-40 years ago, so younger people are more likely to accept it.

The one thing I find particularly ridiculous about Christian Churches rejecting gay marriage is the shaky ground their supporting evidence for such rejection is based on. Its been proved multiple times that the passages where the Bible declares homosexuality an "abomination" etc aren't to be taken literally. I think the Bible also says that wearing cotton is an "abomination"? Its ridiculous! :laugh:

I was referring to the young christians campaigning for the ban..most of them seemed to be in their early twenties..not young people in general..
..I find it disturbing that so many from childhood are still indoctrinated with such bigoted beliefs

Well this is Bible Belt America we're talking about. Its to be expected tbh.

It's actually a state by state basis.

California
New York
Iowa
And a bunch of NE states are the only ones that allow it. Though not a single one was by a public vote but instead thru each state's own congress or supreme court.

..yes you're right it is to be expected in Bible Belt America...but I've witnessed it first hand here too..the bigotry instilled from a very young age

Yeah I guess so. I've seen varying degrees of it really. I mean at my school there are loads of Church of England kids and they all seem completely tolerant of gay marriage and all that, but those people I'm friends with from my (Catholic) primary school all seem incredibly intolerant of gay marriage and homosexuality in general. :suspect:

4 more years kthx

Rednecks...Gotta love em, generations of inbreeding...fine. Gay marriage..no

He's always shown support, no doubt these backward Americans will go for the strong homophobe though. Obama >

It's very sad, but it's no surprise when religious people are allow to make laws for everyone.

I just don't see why an institution should be allowed to actively discriminate against a certain section of society, it effectively just promotes inequality and isn't at all progressive. The aim is to try and work towards a society where everyone is equal (hi utopia), and by excluding certain groups from certain practices you're only prohibiting that further.

I understand that it's a religious ceremony but the simple fact that numerous non-religious people get married (and some whom also oppose gay marriage) is just complete hypocrisy. If you're going to allow that to happen, how can you possibly ban gay couples from marrying? Everyone should have a choice of either marriage or civil partnership, regardless of sexual orientation.

There seems to be a lot of these American evangelical 'cool to be Christian' type churches popping up in the UK, that actively try draw younger people in. The Abundant Life Church is one of them that I've noticed. There still seems to be a strong core of Methodist families about too, and all the branches of that. My friend made a radical conversion and went to church with him once, the stuff the preacher way saying was quite out there.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3...yiauo1_400.gif

-glares in the general direction go North Carolina-

http://www2.lhric.org/pst/shms/Image225.gif
Glares in the general direction of a church...

..yes that's what I mean..I find it quite worrying that there seems to be these 'christian' churches who indoctrinate children from a very very young age to be bigots imo

ahhh, totally misread your post :laugh:

..I find it quite alarming that even from Sunday school age..that some children are still being brainwashed into these archiac beliefs..but I guess 'christianity' will never progress

i'm apart of the "bible belt of america." My parents are strong Christians and believe that gay marriage should be outlawed, but imo I really don't care.
I believe if two people are in love and want to get married then let them get married.

I know a lot of people that believe this, that are from my state. I wouldn't just say that it's the "bible belt" a lot of other states are against it too.