Melissa

Billings

ENGL 2010-427
Research activity #1

The topic that I am writing about is the role that religion, and religious beliefs play in issues
of personal freedoms and rights, such as freedom to marry whom you chose, segregation,
and minority rights, and a womans right to choose. Some people have strong beliefs that
religion should not come into play at all regarding these decisions, while others feel equally
as strong about that fact they theses beliefs absolutely should be considered.

I am interested in this issue for a number of reasons, the most important reason

being regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or skin color, we are all human beings, and
not one of us should be held in higher respect than another. Another reason is the question
of who decides which individuals should be placed in a special status, and who gets treated
as less. This decision has dire consequences, as we can see from all the horrible acts that
were done in the name of segregation, or the heinous acts committed by Adolf Hitler and
his Nazi followers. As humans, it is up to us to make sure that we never treat anyone like
this again. We must fight to ensure it.

The conversations happening in regards to this topic seem to fall into one of three

categories; Those who are of the opinion that it is their moral obligation to uphold their
religious values, those who say my religion teaches that this is wrong, so while I may agree
with t it, it is not my place to judge those who do, and those who either are not religious, or
believe that, on theses issues, their religion may not be in the right.

Mostly what I hear regarding these topics are the usual, the bible says it is wrong,

usually followed by a bible passage, or, it goes against Gods word. On the other side I
often hear the phrase, keep you religion out of my rights, or it is not our job to judge.
You can not read, or watch anything in regards to these issues where there is not fighting
and verbal abuse, form both sides, happening, This topic of equal rights is so important to
so many people. Those whose lives are being directly affected by them, and those who
believe that it is their responsibility to uphold what they believe God wants, and they
believe that any change would negatively affect their lives.

My point of view on the topic of equal rights is that every human on earth should be

treated equally, and everyone should enjoy those same rights. We should not have special
right for one group, and exclude others. My research includes finding what the bible
actually says about these topics, if anything, and trying to find convincing statements that
would hold strong against any reasonable arguments.

Luckily for me, most of my experiences with prejudices have been watching from

the outside. I have friends, who until recently, were not allowed to marry. Many people
that I care for do not have, what is considered by some, to be the ideal skin color, and it
sickens my to think of the horrible treatment that they could have endured, and to a lesser
extent still do. I have twice in my life experienced small degrees of discrimination because I
am a woman. Once when I was 16 and was turned down for a job because you had to lift
heavy items, and it was assumed that I could not, and once by a car salesman who said to
me, I will not discuss numbers with a wife without her husband present. Although I was
not physically injured, it was very hard to feel not up to par just because of my gender. I
will do what ever I can to make sure nobody ever feels the way I did then, or worse.