There are an enormous amount of folks spamming your bulletins with their views on prop 8 and how one should vote in the California election.

The views on both sides of the issue are valid.

The religious viewpoint is that homosexuality is an abomination before GOD.

If you literally believe in the BIBLE as the word of GOD, then your viewpoint is correct.

However, this isn't a religious issue, this is a civil rights issue.

There is no place in a modern society for discrimination in any form when it comes to the government. If you personally decide that you will not associate with a particular genre of person, that is your right. The government does not get that right, as it is an elected body that represents all of us, hopefully at our best.

There was a time in this country when we owned slaves. When we declared our independence from the British Empire, there was a portion of our founding fathers that felt that all men were created equal (Biblical term, uh oh!) and thus were entitled to equal representation in our newly formed government and thus the right to help form it by voting.

In a compromise to ensure that the newly formed United States of America would succeed as a nation, slaves were excluded from their freedom, and women from the right to vote.

Women's suffrage was a civil rights movement that was thankfully pushed by the likes of Susan B. Anthony (yeah, more than a crappy silver dollar that you get from the post office). Women were excluded from voting. Think about that for a moment. Look at the one you love, and ask yourself, "are they less qualified to determine the leaders of our country, or the course of our society?" Of course not. Their struggle and ultimate victory benefitted our nation. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says, "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." This amendment was passed in 1920.

Fast forward to the 1960's and the Civil Rights movement. Blacks were excluded from much of our society. Even though they had fought and died in World War 1 and 2, they were still prevented from fully integrating into our society. It took Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier in baseball to wake the country up to the plight of a portion of our country. It took Lyndon Johnson, a Texan no less, to sign the Civil Rights act.

Our country has seen times where blacks, and women were second class citizens, fully excluded by LAW. We look back on those times, and we might think, "how barbaric."

Yet here we are in 2008, in California, with an opportunity to deny a right for people that love one another to legally be declared wed. Would it diminish your marriage vows if two men shared the same beliefs in love, commitment, and devotion? Or two women?

We must remember that marriage is an invention of the Church. The church can choose wether or not to recognize, or referee such unions, but the Government can not.

Pproposition 8 has nothing to do with ones opinions on homosexuality. It has everything to do with the separation of Church and state and how a government, no, how a people, treat their fellow citizens.

Voting no on Prop 8 will not force religious institutions to start performing wedding ceremonies for your local gay couples. What it will do is guarantee certain basic rights that most Americans take for granted. The right to visit our loved ones in the hospital in times of health issues. The right to state publicly in the eyes of the government (and any benefits that tax laws provide to married hetero couples) that in sickness and in health... that you have found what you consider to be a life partner to love and honor...

Prop 8 is not about Gay rights, or about refuting a belief in GOD. It is about the rights of Americans to be treated equally, not by the average citizen, but by an elected Government.

The great thing about America is that even if one doesn't believe in an opposing opinion, we're often willing to die to give that person the right to hold, and express it, without being denied rights by the government.

Vote no on 8, simply because it's the proper, and correct thing to do. I'll still respect religious viewpoints, but only so long as they do not impact the rights of others in the realm of government.

It is possible to be religious and respect your GOD, and to respect the Constitution of the United States of America.

Remember the 1st Amendment- "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..... "

Equal rights is not about GOD, the Bible, or religion. It's about Government, and freedom.