Turn the other cheek?

I am frustrated by the ideological trends that I have been seeing when it comes to Americans... Two people I know, we will call Jared and George for anonymity sake, were discussing the ever so controversial topic of gay marriage in front of me. The discourse upset me quite a bit more than I feel like it should have, hence the need to vent.

To set the stage, George is a liberal who believes the gay population should be able to marry and be equally represented by the law. Jared, however, is very right wing and believes that the institution of marriage should be limited to (only) a man and a woman. He has failed to voice his opinion as to whether or not they should have the same tax benefits and representation as a married couple.

Back to the conversation. Jared and George were delivering their usual banter about who is right and who is moral, etc. and it usually doesn't bother me. I just vaguely listen but one of them said something that caused me to feel the need to chime in with "Well, I just believe in tolerating other people's beliefs and lifestyles, even if I disagree with them."

What really riled me up was Jared's response: "I tolerate them too, but its not like I am going to have them over to watch my kids."

George: "Why?"

Jared: "Because we don't want them teaching our kids things we don't believe in."

Me: "....."

This is what got me started. George's repsonse to my question (I asked later in confidentiality) "Does that mean gay people should be banned from being teachers? Or social workers?"

"Yep.. that's why his kids are in a private charter school... I was talking to his kids and they said that Obama is bad cause he will help the gays... "

That is where I got pissed. First, how can someone truthfully teach a naive child that gay people and their supporters are bad? Second, Obama is not going to help the gays. He is against gay marriage. He believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. (Don't believe me? Read it: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.samesexmarriage.html ) He DOES, however, believe that gay civil unions should be recognized on par with marriages when it comes to legal representation and tax benefits. If Obama believes the same fundamental ideas as Jared, how then is he bad? Unless of course, equal rights for humans is bad.

UGH! As a christian, aren't you supposed to teach tolerance not bigotry? Do they even read the Bible for themselves, or just trust someone else's interpretations? Obviously this guy got his news from an inaccurate source! It just frustrates me how some people can be. Yay, white man's burden?

I am out of steam (for now).