I grew up in the absence of religion. I didn't have to sit through church service on Sundays and I didn't have to go through the aggravating CCD classes that my friends endured during our childhood.

I grew up outside of the bubble. I have seen religion and faith impact friends and family members in so many positive ways.

But I have also watched it become a foundation of hatred and a justification for being an entitled, judgmental asshole.

News flash: if you are preventing someone from doing something that restricts who they are as a person because it goes against your religion and it's morals, you aren't doing the world a favor.

You're not some holy savior that is going to correct a person of their "provocative" ways. You're just a bitch, Karen.

You preventing a same-sex couple from having the same rights as a heterosexual one isn't going to "save" anyone. It's not going to magically turn them straight, and it's not going to give you a one way ticket to heaven. It's just going to make you look foolish.

But I don't think the true goal of bringing about such hatred is backed by some holy mission anyways. I think it's backed entirely by hate.

I get that some people are afraid of what they don't understand. Or that some people are raised in the church and are taught to believe certain things, so that's what they believe as they grow up.

But you're a full-grown adult. You have experienced life and can think for yourself, yet you are still filled with an abundant amount of hate for ways of life that are unlike your own, or people that don't look and act the way that you do.

I have two important pieces of information: a heterosexual, white, Christian-based lifestyle is not the only lifestyle. It never has been. Other people have existed and lived lives outside of this supposed "ideal" for a very long time, you just failed to acknowledge it as such and fail to admit it.

Also, yes, this is the "land of religious freedom." That doesn't mean that ONLY your religion gets to use that right. That doesn't mean that you get to shut out other religions that want the same amount of representation as your own.

If you're going to be a hateful person and shun members of the LGBT+ community, minorities, people of other faiths, etc. just be honest with the rest of the world and admit it's because you're a faithful person.

Don't use your religion to justify it. You're just making the people who actually believe in the fundamentals of the faith look awful.

Since you people like to pick and choose which Bible verses you decide are okay for the situation but fail to recognize the entire book, I'll do the same.

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets"