What Are The Foundations of the Earth

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Marriage Equality
Homosexuality has been a controversial topic that has ignited a hot debate for centuries based on religious foundations. In Randall Kenan’s “Foundations of the Earth”, the religious and societal views are questioned. The story in the book revolves around an old southern black woman whose societal and religious views starts to change once she becomes open to the issue of homosexuality. In his story, Kennan is not addressing the issue of homosexuality and religion, but rather demonstrating a conflict and how people should respond to it. My goal in this paper is to show that equality of marriage should be accepted by society owing to the fact that; it is an inherent human right, all individuals are equal before God, and the growing changes towards a more open-minded society.
To achieve this goal, I have organized this paper into two sections. The first section gives a summary of the story in the book whereas the second one portrays my support for equality of marriage and how it relates to the book.
Summary
The “Foundations of Earth” narrates a story of an old southern black woman, Maggie MacGowan Williams, whose grandson had recently died. She later finds out that her grandson was involved in an interracial relationship with another man. This shocks her because her Christian teachings and beliefs viewed homosexuality as an abomination. At first, Maggie is reluctant to meet Gabriel, the lover of his late grandson. Conversely, as time goes by, her views start to change and she develops a friendship connection with Gabriel. It is through her interaction with Gabriel that her societal and religious views start to change. She begins seeing the other side of homosexuality which she previously ignored. This allows her to realize that she should have been open about the topic before her grandson’s death and that she there is nothing wrong with same-sex marriages.
Support for equality of marriage
Same-sex marriage is in accordance with inherent human rights. This implies that “…all human beings have exactly the same human rights…” (Johannes,26). As such, no one is allowed to deprive another of their fundamental human rights. This fact holds irrespective of an individual’s gender, race and or language. Accordingly, persons who engage in same-sex marriages are human and have a fundamental right to enjoy their marriage. Moreover, conjugal rights are allowed for under human rights irrespective of someone’s sexuality. It is for this reason that Gabriel and Edward became a couple. This means that same-sex couples are recognized even within the constitution. Furthermore, there should be no grounds for undermining someone else’s human rights just because you do not approve of them. It would be a crime to discriminate someone simply because they belong to the LGBT community. According to inherent human rights, every individual has a freedom to choose who they become and how they do it. Therefore, same-sex marriages should be allowed for given that all individuals are entitled to inherent human rights.
All human beings are equal before God. In this regard, people should embrace each other, uphold each ...