Monday, December 2, 2013

Hawaii...Same-Sex Haven and Local Religious Indoctrination

Aloha folks, Hawaii has become the 15th state in union to legalize same-sex marriage, which has ushered in a new debate concerning equality and tolerance. As I watched the countless hours of testimony, some in support and some in opposition, I couldn't help but notice the stance of many local people, from a religious standpoint, on this issue. Filipino's, Hawaiian's, Samoan's, and other colonized groups seemed to echo the same rhetoric to support their opposition of SB1..."it's not God's will", or "the bible says...." There was much debate on whether Hawaiian's, the host culture in Hawaii, accepted groups that engaged in same-sex practices. If anyone knows a little about Hawaiian culture one would know that Hawaiian's, as well as other Polynesian peoples, practiced homosexuality to some degree. But yet we have the descendants of these people using a foreign religion (Christianity) to "preach" and support intolerance in the name of God. It appears that many local people, which can trace some of their roots to a colonized period in their people's culture, find themselves in a Catch 22. They are loyal and proud of their culture and heritage, but at the same time find themselves using the same belief systems and tactics that subjugated their ancestors, to deny certain groups of what they enjoy and hold sacred.

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