When the Supreme Court gave a decision of 5-4 in favour of same-sex marriage, there were gasps and cheers in every country. People (even the White House) started to put up the 6-colour filter to show support while those against were crying doom for the US. As I grappled with this myself, I realized a few things.
First, the media seem to jump all over it and are puffing this issue up in favour of the court ruling. Buzzfeed released an article '15 Slight Overreactions To The Marriage Equality News' . While I contend that a media site is supposed to be impartial to news, the issue at hand is also me wondering how this would contribute to the society? Why do you need to put down the other person's view who differs with yours? To have a laugh? To make them sound ridiculous? To do it because the previous majority view did the same? In the progressive times that we live, apparently this backward tactic of putting down other people's views is still common I guess. In close relation to the article, there's the second thing I noticed.
Calm down peeps who are against the ruling. Some called doom on US, one even claimed that this was a 9/11 from a moral standpoint. While it does affect the nation in a way, 17 other countries have already passed this law. Among them are France, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Last I checked, they aren't doing too badly. As a Christian, while it is a sad thing that the law has been passed, I believe we can react better than just spelling doom (There are only four letters, I'm sure the others can spell it too). Rather, it is an even more urgent time to encourage the discouraged and to seek opportunities to engage this issue. Many articles are already written on the proper Christian response and that's what's needed. Moreover, my girlfriend did say, 'Weren't you expecting this to happen?' I guess we shouldn't be so surprised as the world is changing in a way that we didn't hope for, but hey, God did see it coming. On to my last point.
Now, in case some are ready to bash me up for bringing up religion and God, please don't. Because I don't like conflicts. :( But through this I do see the shortcomings of democracy. To put in layman's terms, democracy is basically the more famous opinion being shared. 30 years ago, the 'trendy' opinion was traditional marriage, today it's same-sex marriage. 30 years ago, the opinion of the minority was shunned for the majority, today it remains the same. Democracy, for all it's worth, does fall short as it doesn't unite all people, only those with the same opinion. It tells the ones with a separate opinion to just live with it or find more support. What makes it more dangerous is when the contentious issue is when it's one of morality (or appears so to some). Morality then becomes somewhat a scale that when more people gather to a side, the scale tips and it changes.
It's the semester break now and I think I'm using my brain a bit too much. Studying Communication as a course does help me to study things more critically I guess. I should rest and play something brain-dead like Mortal Kombat X where they literally rip your brains out. Hmm.
