Guest Post: Don't Take Away Someone Else's Rights!

Today's post was written by Patrick Komlofske. Pat is proud to be a devout Catholic, and the most selfless person I know. He is forever giving his time and knowledge to put a smile on other's faces.  You can learn about his recording business, JMJ Communications, here.

Earlier this week I read a Facebook post stating the following:

Don't like gay marriages?  Don't get one..

Don't like cigarettes ?  Don't smoke them..

Don't like abortions?  Don't get one..

Don't like sex?  Don't have it..

Don't like drugs?  Don't do them..

Don't like porn?  Don't watch it..

Don't like alcohol?  Don't drink it..

Don't like guns?  Don't buy one..

Don't…like your rights taken away??? Don't take away someone else's.

{re-post if you agree}

I've held back a reply because I wanted to think about it.  At first, I wanted to comment: Don't like your parents?  Don't listen to them..  Don't like authority?  Don't respect it.  I thought that I might forget about it, but for several days I kept thinking about how disturbing some of this is.  Then I thought,  "Why am I so closed minded?"

I am an individual that truly loves our Lord.  As the southern bible belt would say; "I accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior".  For the last 20 years I have gained much education from studying beliefs of other denominations and that of my own Roman Catholic faith.  Since 1995, I have owned a recording business where I go to conferences, record their talks, then mass produce them on the spot for others to share.  While I am more informed than many, I am still no expert.  Each event I learn some very profound lessons, and meet many other people who love the Lord as much as I do.  So from that point of view, I thought the words above are words slamming the same morals that most religions try to instill in others.

After some prayer about this, and some objective thought, I am more at ease about it.  I don't see it as a slam on religion because the Church does not write laws, nor does it enforce them.  Every denomination simply educates people on what is right and wrong.  Yes, some ministers will become vigilantes, and try to take the law into his own hands, but that is the exception and not the norm.  It's our political lawmakers who write laws, and who have a means of enforcing the rights we all have.  Thus, the objective side of me says; So since I am not politically correct, and have a more open mind....  Maybe we should change some of our laws.

Don't like drugs and alcohol...  Why not.  People strung out on drugs and too much alcohol have a change in behavior.  They do stupid stuff, and sometimes it adds great humor to our day.  The good part when they are too strung out they don't remember anything.  Don't like them in your face?  Beat the crap out of them..  (we got rights too).  Sure they get behind the wheel of a car, and bad things happen.  That's why I have insurance.  I am ready for a newer car anyway.

Don't like Sex and Porn...  It's only the churches that say don't do it.  Maybe they grab their reasoning from flim-flam, certainly whatever credible basis they use has no reasoning.  It's kind of weird that most denominations (Christian and non Christian) find this to lead to trouble.  What's funny is society wants to smack the Church for all it does.  But again, the Church only informs what is right and wrong.  It does not set or enforce law.  So what's the harm with it, it hurts no one, correct?  Maybe all the people (married and unmarried) with hurt feelings when their partner interacts with another need to learn to chill out and quit being so closed minded.

Don't like abortions?...  People want to be able to choose for themselves.  Perhaps rights should be extended for parents to have this choice for one additional trimester - the fourth trimester.  Maybe after the blob of tissue has come from the womb that people should be able to choose to keep it.  Perhaps it has Downs Syndrome or some other (birth) defect.  Maybe the fetus was black and both husband and wife were white (daddy just found out that mama likes the mail man too, but that's ok, no one should take that right away from her), and they just don't want to keep the child.  They should be able to perform the procedure on that blob of tissue.  Yea, I know some would see it different, but I see it this way.  You take a woman in labor.  Do a sonogram on her, snap some pictures of the tissue.  Then hours later, take that same tissue, wrap it up in a towel, put in a backpack for a few minutes, take another sonogram of the backpack, shoot the same series of pictures, then compare them.  The only difference will be the umbilical cord will be shorter, the rest of the tissue will look the same.  So if someone wants the choice to terminate a pregnancy so be it, if at a later time the only thing that changed in the delivery is time, then it should be their right to a forth trimester to try it out.  What can it hurt?

Don't like gay marriages?  What a quandary of mixed emotions.  This is a "sexual behavior".  Why in the world do our law makers want to rule on what people do in the bedroom.  You hear the church say "hate the sin, not the sinner".  The issue of same sex attraction is not necessary the sin, but what they do with this behavior that becomes sin.  But, people say we need to separate the church and state.  The same goes with separating sex from state.  Don't discriminate someone because of their orientation.  However, do gays need special rights and their own "hate-crime" laws?  As long as my rights and privileges are not taken away because of someone else's sex behavior.  If I get denied from a job offer because I don't fill their quota of x then my choices are not being met.  If people can tease or educate me because I am a Christian White Heterosexual Male, then I have the right to tease or educate non Christians, non whites, women, or non-Heterosexual people.

The list can go on and on.  Our country is full of people who want to make choices, and when they don't get their way, we claim their rights are taken away.  Teenagers are in a difficult time of their life.  Their minds are becoming brighter every day, and they long to becoming adults so they can make their own choices.  They rebel at the idea of adults, especially parents, making decisions for them.  It's like we shoot them down at every opportunity, yet we correct and guide them because we have learned the hard way, and want them to avoid the same mistakes we made.  But, parents need to rule and guide even if they come across as being not too bright.  I got to agree that some laws are just stupid.  In Kansas, you are obligated to wear a seat belt in a vehicle with 4 steel walls around you, but you are not required to wear a helmet if your riding a motorcycle.  The Church does a good job on getting proper morals out, and many people advocate to our law makers that they write laws to enforce these morals.  I guess we need to step back and be more objective about both sides of an issue.  Ask ourselves, who do people feel it should be right to remove restrictions to drug and alcohol use?  They have a good point of view if we would just consider it.  Then to, why do the law makers take these rights away - maybe their point of view has some merit.  Where do churches get the audacity to preach what they preach?  Could they have any credibility?  Could all their studies and research of the early church fathers mean anything at all? 

The above posting is a good philosophical debate students go round and round with in philosophy classes.  Unfortunately, the ones who get persecuted are the churches.  It's not just atheist against Christian.  It's not just Jew against Catholic, it goes from denomination to denomination, from agnostics to doctors of the faith.  God has given all of us a brilliant mind, and a freedom of will.  We all have good intentions.  Maybe we should just say rather than me being "Roman" Catholic, I should just say that I am "Patrick" Catholic, because my theology is comprised of phrases of "I think we should....", or "In MY opinion they should...", or "It is MY choice that government has to...".  King Henry did not like his bishop telling him he can't have multiple wives so he started his own religion.  Today there are more than 14,000 different protestant religions because all are in disagreement with their choices. In my own denomination, I for one, differentiate between "Roman" Catholic's and "American" Catholics.

For all the law makers and everyone reading this; I will close with an invitation to dig a little deeper on your beliefs.  Your opinion is good, but if it is only based on emotions, then dig a little deeper.  I know I don't have a strong foothold on faith and reason so I have to turn to someone with philosophers who have dedicated their life to study of this.  I know I don't understand the bible as it was written so I turn to a church who have experts in theology, who go back to the original languages of the text, and the tradition of the times.  People who studied all the early writings and traditions of the early church.  I surrender to the believe in the Catholic Church.  I am "Roman" Catholic because I yield and try to follow the teachings of the Holy Father on Faith and Morals, and stand with the authority of the bishops.  I feel they have exhausted studying the same principles I am looking for, so why try to reinvent the wheel?