I'm not going to elaborate on my opinion anymore, there are plenty of other people here who have opinions to share as well. But I do want to clarify something and make a brief point.
@Ark I
Thank you for sharing your perspective in a respectful way without being spiteful or questioning my character as a black person.
Even though I disagree, I want to ask you if you have any control over who you find attractive or who you develop feelings for? I'm assuming you're a male, but switch the analogy if you arent--if you have two females in front of you, one you are attracted to and one who you are not, can you magically become unattracted to the one that attracts you? Can you magically become attracted to the other one? If you come to know someone, a womban, and you fall in love with her personality and character, can you control your feelings of attachment? You love who you love, it is not a choice. You cannot choose who you are attracted to.
@RAS NATE
Please be aware that, also in 1970, only 12% of the American population believed that herb should be legal. The other 88% believed it was immoral, dirty, unhealthy, and had significant risks for your health. In 2014, 58% said that they support legalization and that it has significant potential for medicinal use. It had been 48% just one year before. This overwhelming shift of consciousness is due to the innate human ability to use Reason. Even Babylon has been able to recognize the need to analyze and self reflect from time to time.
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Thats all I want to say. I'll butt out and let others get the mic.
Otherwise, let me clarify that I'm not saying that everyone needs to approve of homosexuality. I'm just saying that you cannot be intolerant simply because of your beliefs, and unfortunately I see much intolerance towards homosexuals in the Ras community. Nobody has to like it, and people can think whatever they want about it...the fact of the matter is that you must be tolerant, you cant be violent towards a group of people because of your own personal opinions--particularly opinions that are metaphysical assumptions that can't be proved such as "homosexuals are evil" or "being homosexual is immoral". You have every right to think that, but as soon as you deny someone else from their rights because of your belief you are no different from the downpressor. Morality is not an objective "thing". Everybody views it and approaches it differently. Therefore we will never have societies in which everyone has a static and uniform set of beliefs. Many have tried, and history shows that they have always failed. Modern conflict which we see and are appalled at every single day is the direct consequence of what happens when humans fail to use Reason and allow their intolerance to bring out the worst of their character. This community actively condemns Babylon and other societies or religious groups when they quarrel because of their inability to live with one another in peace, their inability to Reason. Consider now that there are obviously people, both heterosexual and homosexual, who do not believe that homosexuality is unnatural or evil. In what way is the one who calls that we fiyah burn the homosexuals different from the Christian who calls for the elimination of Islam; or the various sects of Islam declare supremacy in their beliefs over one another; or the tribal fighting that Rastafari so often condemns which occurs in Africa? If you cannot see the parallels here than surely you have not truly looked. White supremacists have and continue to use their own religious beliefs to justify their actions. They justify their racist beliefs with opinions that are outrageous and the societies and laws and religions which they create reflect this. The brutality faced by our people was entirely right in their minds; to them it was (and is) an obvious metaphysical truth that white people are physically, technologically, and morally superior. Is that not a lesson to us all? Think whatever you want to think, but intolerance is simply intolerance. I don't care what beliefs you have but nobody has the right to deny another human of right or life because of those beliefs. For a community which prides itself on its ability to Reason, I would suggest a good deal of self-reflection and humility.
Critical thinking is the core of what it is to Reason, and to Reason is what makes us human. Our ability to self reflect is what separates us from animals, what separates us from machines, what separates us from the downpressors.
Bless Up For Reason
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