Equal Marriage Rights and Photography

Well stated Michael.

But the real issue is not monetary, but moral. Of course the same people advocating against gay marriage are the same people cheating on their spouses or in the closet.

Michael, with all due respect, your logic is convoluted and ultimately wrong. You can torture stats until they confess to what you want, but that doesn’t make it right. It’s a sad day when you start putting money over morality. Everything should be judged through the lens of the bible, because ultimately you will be judged not by man but by God. There is no God you say? In that case let me ask you something. Who then sets the moral standard for society so that chaos doesn’t rule? If every man is equal, then who are you to tell me my morality is wrong ( and vise versa)? If that’s the case, then if I’m a pedofile who says I was born with a desire to have sex with 5 year old, who are you to say that’s wrong? You’re just a human like he is. What about child sacrifice that the cults engage in? Beastiality? Again, using that logic no one can say that’s wrong. How about society making that call? That didn’t work in Germany when over 6 million were killed. Or in Stalin’s Russia or Mao’s China. Unless you use a morality based on God and not man, you go down a slippery slope to chaos where any behavior is OK. America is going down that slope now. Judge not (which is taken out of biblical context BTW), diversity, etc. is the rule of the day. And stats show the result. The highest rates of murder, teen pregnancy, divorce, etc in our history. Life itself is no longer valued because if you evolved from apes and wont’ be held accountable when you die, then who cares if you kill? When you use God as a moral compass, when someone says “Who are you to say what’s right and wrong?”, you simply say “I’m not saying it. I’m a human just like you. I’m saying that God says it’s wrong”. Anyway, something to consider. (BTW Paul, christians are human and can be hypocrites just like you and everyone else. So using your logic what you say must be invalid because there are non christian hypocrites too)

Michael, if anyhting your “torture” of statistics is quite simple, if not overly so. Insomuch as this could not be considered government spending, I believe the concept of fiscal multiplication of the money supply would still hold water. While the current multiplier value is difficult to determine in this unique economic climate, estimates from the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2009 place it at anywhere from 1.5-2. In effect, for each additional dollar of spend $1.50 to $2.00 is added to the general supply of money (this combines the initial spend, and all subsequent spend – a marrying couple pays a florist who pays a grower, who buys a TV, which pays a Best Buy associate’s salary, who takes her son out to dinner for good grades, where the server gets a tip and buys a new hockey stick, etc., ad nauseum). With apologies to any classical economists for my blatant Keynesian bias here!

And may I please comment that religion and morals are not mutually exclusive, nor necessarily (as we see time and time again) mutually inclusive. Hate is hate, a troll is a troll, and I would be happy and proud to vote for President Bartlett, fictional or no.

I choose love and respect as my guiding morals, and I choose love and respect for my friends and family who often see very little of either. I think Jesus, Allah, Yahweh ben Yahweh, Buddha, John Lennon or the Flying Spaghetti Monster would tell me and Mr. Albany to rock on.

Pax Vobiscum
Alumnus of McGill University and Montreal Theological Seminary, BTh (for whatever that’s worth)

Michael,

Whether all agree on the details of your economic analysis or not, one point is beyond dispute: the amount of money involved is enormous. You made that very clear.

My folks and I are big West Wing fans. The scene you included is one of my personal favorites. I too would vote for Pres. Bartlet any day, if he were a real candidate.

I am a former Christian Fundamentalist/Evangelical/Born Again Christian. My involvement with that movement nearly destroyed my life. It took 17-18 years for me to undo all the damage done to me during the 3-4 years of my intense involvement with the movement during my undergraduate years. I have made many enormous sacrifices as a result of having my life sent so far off course by this colossally destructive, authoritarian, loveless, graceless, mindless, ignorant scourge on humanity. These are harsh words, and it saddens me that every one of these criticisms is well-earned. I wish to God it were not so. I could cry when I think of how this movement destroys individuals, families, and communities.

There is now a counter movement of ex-fundamentalists who are getting on with their lives and trying to heal from this devastating experience. For example, see Marlene Winell’s book, “Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion.” Bishop John Shelby Spong, one of my favorite thinkers, has written much on the disservice done to the Christian community done by extremists who would hijack the Bible with their unthinking and uninformed hyper-literal interpretation.

Michael, I commend you for taking a firm and enlightened stand on this important issue — equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation. None of us are free until all of us our free.

Michael, I hadn’t heard of you or seen your work until today. I got lost in the numbers and cost/benefit argument, but to me it simply boils down to: love is never wrong. However it’s expressed.

By the way, your photos are beautiful.

Michael!!

What a pleasant surprise to find such a refreshing argument for SSM on the webiste of a fellow photographer (and fellow gay person, I assume!) Bravo! The comments that your post inspired are also fabulous. I will post a link to your site on my FB page and hope that it brings more of those dollars your way — your work is lovely!

As we are all discussing Equal Marriage Rights and Photography, Even if you are only looking for a few easy portraits to document your unique day, you are going to need to discover a photographer and book them well in advance.