I’d like to welcome Pat Hitt Martinez.  Pat was one of the plaintiffs in the pivotal  Martinez v County of Monroe, which forced New York State to recognize same-sex marriage. ~ Lori Hahn, GLBTQ Editor

A total of $74,000,000 (that’s seventy four MILLION dollars) was spent in support of Proposition 8, which rescinded marriage rights for same-sex couples in California.   At this writing, proponents of both sides sit in a courtroom trying to defend their positions as to the constitutionality of this hateful legislation.

That amount of money is absolutely staggering.  But what’s worse is that the bulk of it came from Christians and Christian organizations.

Let’s see what charitable work that money could have bought.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, 691,000 children went hungry at some point last year. That hate money would have added $107 to each child’s household for food.

36.2 million Americans overall “didn’t have the money or assistance to get enough food to maintain active, healthy lives.” They merely “struggled” with hunger at some point. That’s roughly $2 per starving American that was spent on Proposition 8.

11.9 million Americans experienced struggles with hunger and, “The government says these people suffered a substantial disruption in their food supply at some point.  About $6 per starving American was spent to deprive a group of people of their rights.

That $74 millions could have funded Women Infants and Children (WIC) programs for all of Wyoming, North and South Dakota, District of Columbia, New Hampshire, Vermont and Montana. (source)

By far, Mississippi is the state with the worse hunger problem, at 17.4% of the state’s population, especially among children. Yet, “American Family Association” out of Tupelo, rather than use their resources for good Christian values right there in their own back yard, spent a half million dollars to finance Proposition 8.

The Knights of Columbus Headquarters out of New Haven Connecticut, which boasts of its organization “We are an organization of dedicated individuals—1.6 million members strong, and growing. An organization that, since 1882, has embodied the selflessness of man as it has helped overcome the problems of the world. Poverty. Ignorance. Apathy. Things which imperil not only a single individual, but the whole of humanity” sent one million dollars to finance Proposition 8.

Focus on the Family, in 37 separate donations, financed almost three quarters of a million dollars’ worth of hate legislation.

Every year more than 20,000 18-year olds who had been abandoned, abused, orphaned, whatever, are booted out of the foster care system without any resources other than whatever their foster family might be willing to provide them after their 18th birthday. These kids become street people, often falling into drug abuse, prostitution, and crime. There is no funding for education or transition for these kids and so another cycle of abuse, abandonment, and neglect begins anew with them and their offspring. There is NO funding for these kids. $74 Million would have provided $3,700 per foster child released at age 18 this year with some sort of training, assistance, and preventive education. Nobody cared about them.

Teen pregnancy is viewed to be the cause of many problems. Teen mothers are more likely to not finish high school or college. Additionally, it is estimated that as much as 80% of unwed teen mothers end up on welfare. Compared to 25 years ago pregnant teens are also far less likely to be married.

A child born to a teenage mother is also seen to be at a disadvantage in society. Newborns of teen mothers tend to have a lower birth weight. As they get older, they are more likely to do poorly in school and have a greater chance of experiencing abuse and neglect. It has been found that sons of teenage mothers are more likely to wind up in prison. Daughters of teen mothers have an increased risk of experiencing a teenage pregnancy themselves.

Can you imagine the good $74 million would have done in helping to educate these kids or, failing that, assist the children of these children in getting a better start in life?

These are just child-oriented programs I could think of.  Then there are programs and funding for the elderly, disabled, veterans, etc. that we could hash out, too.

I dropped my jaw in astonishment, virtual wonder, when I read of Pat Robertson’s comments about the tragedy in Haiti.

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story, and the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

And Jimmy Swaggart’s sermon a year or so ago:

“I’m trying to find the correct name for it … this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. … I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I’m gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I’m gonna kill him and tell God he died.”

Jerry Falwell on 9/11:

“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.”

It saddens me in ways that I cannot truly articulate, the way a handful of opportunistic “Christians” can spread hate and call it “the word of God.”  It is times like these that I recall a line from that 1980s movie “Oh God!”

Paul Sorvino plays “Reverend Willie,” and calls himself “God’s own quarterback,” (who “personally paid six figures in income taxes last year”).  At a ministry show, Jerry (played by John Denver) shows up on stage (at God’s behest) and tells Reverend Willie (and I’m paraphrasing from memory here).

God says you need to shut up.  You say you’re teaching God’s words, but God says you ran out of his words a long time ago.

Amen.