I find it absolutely appalling and a perfect summation of what’s wrong with the “tolerant/liberal Christian” attitude towards sexual minorities.
First off, it goes for the typical No True Scotsman. History of Christian responsibility for gay-bashing? Welp, those weren’t The Real Christians so it doesn’t matter! Not our problem! And just like that, the historical–and ongoing–Christian persecution of sexual minorities becomes an internecine theological dispute rather than a pressing problem of other people’s safety and wellbeing.
Of course, this is an emanation of the fundamental problem with the attitude of the article, which is its focus on lumping everyone who is “different” into a single mass. It advocates “tolerance” of gays, of the pierced, of gang members, of wife-beaters. Being gay is the same as shooting metal into your nose at age 15 to make a fashion statement, the same as being a hardened criminal, the same as abusing your spouse. This is what those preaching “tolerance” of the gay community preach!
This isn’t about accepting legitimate sexual differences at all. It’s about showing how morally righteous the Christian is for piously restraining his desire to put us all in jail where we belong with the biker gangs and the meth-heads and the guys who bounce their wives off the walls. Aren’t they so upstanding and saintly for tolerating such filth!
I don’t want to be compared to a violent criminal or some teenager’s fashion accessories for being gay. I don’t want you to gloat about how “tolerant” you are of my disgusting behavior. Christian “tolerance” and Christian hatred are two sides of the same coin. Stop saying that my sexuality is something you get brownie points for “tolerating.” I don’t lose any moral standing for being gay and I don’t need to be “tolerated” for it by someone who believes in a goddamn invisible man in the sky.
Sometimes the “liberal, tolerant” Christians are worse than the fundmentalists/evangelicals. At least the latter group doesn’t dress up their horror at the existence of gays in the language of “tolerance” and talk about how awesome they are for it. There is one mentally diseased state that I should get credit for “tolerating” despite the repulsion it inspires in any sane person, and it’s not homosexuality, it’s religion.
Many Christians are stinking hypocrites. This is supposed to be news to us?
Many years ago, a so-called Christian was yelling about how he was going to get revenge on someone who’d wronged him. I said, “Shouldn’t you just turn the other cheek?” He said, “I’ll turn the other cheek, all right, and then I’m gonna deck that son of a bitch!”
Christianity, as practiced by large numbers, right there in a nut-shell.
The fact that “Christian tolerance” reduces to “look how awesome I am for not gunning down the scum of the earth, like gang members, wife-beaters, and two adult men in a loving monogamous relationship!”
Even when preaching “tolerance” Christianity cannot get past its fundamental belief in homosexuality being abhorrent and equivalent to the worst crimes imaginable.
Christianity preaches that homosexual behavior/actions are sins. Sins are equal in the eyes of God. So yes, you’re just as bad as anyone else who sins. A true Christian believes that all sinners are equal and equally worthy of punishment.
Do you really not understand this basic premise of Christian doctrine?
For the record, I am gay and I think it’s shitty too, but it’s their religion and who am I to say they shouldn’t believe what they believe. Their actions of course are a different matter. If it goes from hating gays to hurting them, that’s when we can get outraged and start up the lawsuits.
I think you’re reaching. As well as gays, the paragraph you quoted also mentions: the homeless, people with tattoos, living in poverty, and ex-lovers. Are you equating those to the “worst crimes imaginable”?
Bull fucking shit. Your inability to read and parse is reflected in your inability to post a decent rant.
That paragraph is an attempt to preach on Christ’s statement to love, without any conditions. The author goes on to list all of the groups that many would prefer to leave off, but the author reminds us all that the statement is to love. Period. This is an admonishment to Christians that the guy we profess to love did not give us any outs, no matter what we might prefer.
I am one of those Christians who loves all, regardless. Yes, that regardless caveat comes into play on a regular basis when I WANT to have an excuse to hate someone, but my faith and morals reminds me that I must love all. I don’t always like it, but I don’t have a choice if I want to try to walk Christ’s walk.
I even must love you, even though you appear to be dumber than a bag of hammers with this rant.
Pardon a possible hijack, but… several people have that posted on Facebook where I can see. For those who haven’t read it, here it is in a nutshell:
-A teacher gives her class an assignment to write an essay in response to this guy’s “I’m Christian, unless you’re gay” video and writing
-One mother of a 15 year old son in the class gets furious and goes into a rant threatening to call the teacher
-Her son leaves home and becomes moody and then tells her via email and texts he won’t come home until she reads his essay
-In the essay… you will never guess what he tells her, not if you live to be 159 will you EVER guess, it’s so ironic, so out of left field, so poignant, so… oh, yeah, that is it, you guessed, her 15 year old son is gay. Oh, and mom and dad make him feel like shit due to his tolerance.
-Now mom writes that this has made her reexaming her views and “I’m much better now” and liberal and tolerant and all
Okay, I won’t say that this is beyond the realm of possibility. It is possible it happened. But I would be WAY BEYOND surprised if it is anything other than pure unadulterated authentic Internet glurge.
Ignoring the fact that the story is trite and simplistic and “Stevie Wonder saw that one coming” enough to be on GLEE, most homophobic mothers who just learned their 15 year old son is gay are not going to go from “I hate fags!” to proud P-FLAG mom in two weeks and they sure as hell aren’t going to write this guy back and tell him how great he is for writing that column, not a single solitary sentence of which is really new to the table. So not only do I think it’s glurge, I think it’s glurge from the same writer deliberately trying to draw attention to himself and how wonderful what he wrote is, and that it could well bite him in the ass if the meme lasts long enough for anybody to much care. (This is a D-List meme after all and they rarely last longer than a piece of salmon.)
Tolerance as a word for loving and accepting people is far too firmly embedded in the english language and complaining that you are not to be just tolerated when someone talks of tolerance misses the mark just as badly as when someone insists they are not homophobic because phobia means fear and they don’t fear queers.
I think that you’re purposefully interpreting the quote in the worst way possible and were you to ask the author about his intent he could clarify his comments. Certainly this board is well aware of arguments that liken homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality and has rejected them. We’re already on your side.
Sampiro, I agree with you 100%. That “essay” that the 15 year old kid wrote smelled suspiciously of someone who (poorly) tried to imitate how a 15 year old would write. I was a teacher for 2 years, and I know their general level of prose. It’s definitely not (usually) what was in that post.
And you’re right, it’s not impossible for it to have happened, but it’s certainly far more likely that the entire story was just made up. Especially the whole “I WAS JUST GOING TO LEAVE THIS MASSIVELY IMPORTANT ISSUE ALONE FOREVER AND NEVER MENTION IT AGAIN, BUT I JUST HAAAD TO SHARE WITH YOU THIS AMAZING REACTION IT GOT ALL ON ITS OWN!!!”
Wow, that does sound bad! I’m surprised you didn’t quote the part of the essay that says that. Instead of the part you quoted, which doesn’t say anything even remotely like that.
I agree. All Christians, and not just the bigoted intolerant ones, ought to hate gays. It is a good thing that people like the OP are doing their best to make sure that they do. Far too many of them are getting away with being tolerant and decent people. Why I have heard that some Christians are even gay themselves! If we don’t put a stop to this, some Christians will be professing liberal or even leftist political views next, or expressing doubts about the wisdom of burning witches!
Thank goodness that I am an atheist, and therefore will not be made to feel obliged hate gays.
If you are someone who believes that people are entitled to love who they want, and don’t believe that the voices in your head, and millennia-old writings describing the voices in other people’s heads, tell you who can or can’t love each other, you are quite entitled to tell them what they should believe.
Because they are wrong, in an evil and dangerous manner.