April 7th, 2009, A day to remember

Today, April 7th, 2009, Gay marriage was legalizied in Vermont. As the fourth state to recognized gay marriage. This was a big deal for a Vermont, because once the first vote passed 95-42, Governer Jim Douglas made a big commotion when he publicly stated that he would veto the bill if it ends up on his desk. And well when it did, he picked up his pen and vetoed the bill. However, with a 25-3 override vote in the senate, and a 100-49 vote in the house, April 7th is a memorable day for gay couples. A day to remember, when they are given more rights, and able to legally get married. According to the Burlington free press article, Jim Douglas was expecting to happen. So what if he was expecting this, was the point in vetoing the bill to begin with when there are other things that need to still be figured out? Watch the video to see his reaction. It's the third movie down. 

So what does this mean now for gay couples? Even though the positive things that come out of the law, it means that they can file taxes together. Well, at least only in Vermont. It is only aloud to file state taxes. Federal taxes still need to be files separately. With the pass of this new law, there were some changes to it before it was passed through the house and. Some of the changes that happened. "Before, the Bill stated that religious communities do not have to perform or recognize a same-sex marriage ceremony, the House decided to take it one step further.'A religious hall, they will also have the same exemption. They do not have to offer that under the public accommodations law,' Campbell said" (Kennedy). This was a big step for the house to decided to pass the law. Click here to see the whole article from Fox 44 News. 

This related to our class because we have been talking about how religion effects our everyday lives. This bill wouldn't have passed without any religious beliefs taking place. Obviously the downfall to that is that if a gay couple wants to marry in a Church, they need to make sure that the Church allows it first. But that is a minor bump in the road compared to everything that has happened up until this point. 

Kennedy, Ben. "Same-Sex Bill Breakdown." Fox 44 News. 7 Apr. 2009. 7 Apr. 2009

Civil Religion

For our in class assignment we decided that we would divide the quotes into three categories. The first was that Human Nature is Good. We decided that in this group God is all-loving and all forgiving. God is our overseer and also a transcendent God. We also felt that a democracy was a good way to have a government.

The second category was that Human Nature is impressionable. We felt that God has a plan for all of us and that he is the rule maker, but we also felt that he was a Transcendent God. We felt the best type of government would be communism. 

The third category was that Human Nature is bad. We felt that the government was an Anarchy and that God is angry and spiteful. He is a remote God and that he doesn't control our destiny. 

Vermont's Lack of Religion

This past couple of weeks in class, we have been talking about the importance of religion and politics as we are starting to read The Stillborn God by Mark Lilla. A few days before starting to read this book, I found an article in the Burlington Free Press that talked about how Vermont is the least religious state. I read the article and my first thought was that there was a mistake made. As the article continued on, I was amazed and realized how true it was. I knew right then I wanted to blog about it. So I went to find the article and it was no where to be found. However, the article I found was from USA Today, which also talks about the change in religion from state to state. In the other article talked about how in Vermont, most people who are protestant and just not acknowledging themselves as religious. This is also happening with the Catholic religion. My thoughts about this, is not surprising to me. As a protestant, I know that I do not need religion on a daily basis. It is more of traditions and holidays when religion in my family is important. Whereas, according to this article from USA Today says that Mississippi is the most religious state. I think this is accurate because I know that the farther south you go, the more that religion is important. I just found this article to be fascinating knowing that I live in the least religious state but that I have contributed to part of the reason that we are that low. 

Do we really care?

After this past class, we have been talking about how we care about or relate to our major. For me personally and well three other people in the class also, my major means a lot to me. However, I feel like other things that I really care about stick out more. Whether it be from animal cruelty, poverty, or even the environment, we all care about something and even in the smallest way we try to that we care. I personally care about how the love in a family sticks together through the toughest of times. From births to deaths, from marriages to divorce, families are always strong. In the following clip Margaret Wheatley talks about how people act responsible when they care about something. 

I think that this will help us with our secular altars because all we have to remember is that if we care about something then we know that we can do something about it. We feel responsible enough to care. I think that as the semester continues on we will care about more things that what we already know of. As we dig deeper down, we will find the little things that we care about and unconsciously and consciously act upon. Also I feel that the readings will help us find what we really care about and will help us to understand them better. 

Informal Blog

After reading the two articles, I realized that this class will be a real eye opener for me. I found that I am not really religious besides that I go to midnight mass on Christmas. I think that there will be many things that I didn't know about other religions just from reading the articles. I was never forced to go to church besides on  the specific days that meant the most to my Grandmother, so I never got the experience of going every sunday. I want to get a lot of out this class because I feel that it will bring a new view of things to light for me and that I will understand the concepts of new religions.