The violence and emotional abuse that I anticipated when the Theocon and InsaniTEA wings of the Republican party ramped up their hate speech against the LGBT community is not coming to fruition at unprecedented levels. Naturally, there has been a reaction from the left to blame Christians for this. On one level, I agree. But if we dig a little deeper, it can be demonstrated that Christians are not at all at fault.
Are Christians responsible for anti-gay bullying? Does religion sanction homophobia?
With gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gendered (GLBT) youth often tormented by bullies, one is forced to consider whether or not Christian rhetoric is not at least partially responsible for the bullying behavior.
Christian conservatives assert that homosexuality is a moral disorder. Such assertions create a cultural climate that tacitly legitimizes the stigmatization of gay young people, making them obvious targets for harassment and abuse.
Conservative Christian leaders oppose federal hate-crimes protection for the gay and lesbian community. Focus on the Family, a large and influential body of Christian conservatives, was one of several large and influential Christian groups that gave vigorous opposition to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, named for a gay man killed for his sexual orientation in Wyoming… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <The Portland Examiner>
The author goes on to complete a compelling case that the religious right is at fault, and I have no argument against his position. I agree with it 100%. My disagreement stems from categorizing the Theocons and InsaniTEAbaggers as Christian.
Jesus said that many would claim to be his followers who are not, so I base my definition of a Christian as one who follows Jesus’ example. On the subject of sexual orientation, whatever he may have said has not been passed down, so we draw a blank there, but we can follow the example of how he treated other people that the religious hierarchy labeled as outcasts. He met them at the point of their need and treated them with kindness and compassion. The only people who he condemned, were the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were the ones who tried to force their own ideas of piety on everyone else, while seldom living up to those codes themselves. They lifted themselves up with their hateful condemnation of others. Does this sound like anyone we know? If you answered Theocons and InsaniTEAbaggers, give yourselves a gold star.
Were Jesus walking the earth today, we would find him helping those who are suffering. He would be in prisons, under bridges, in hospices and AIDS clinics. He would not be in the churches of the religious right. They would not welcome his friends or his teaching.
So I conclude, that the real Christians today follow Jesus’ example by opposing the hatred and intolerance under discussion here, and that those who are responsible for it, are not Christians.
15 Responses to “Are Christians At Fault for Gay Abuse?”
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And now you have spoken plainly, outing me. I am a man of no religion. Anyone who identifies themselves with any religion at all is a cultist. Christians are simply members of the cult of Jesus. I don’t give a crap if your are a kind accepting Christian or a biased bigoted Christian. Nowhere in the teachings of Jesus did he ever say build a cult around me. I have deeply held beliefs about that spirit which blew all matter into being but Jesus wasn’t even around yet when that little firecracker went off. He, just like you and I, were still just a sparkle in that spirits eye.
What I am is a gay straight black white Asian aborigine politically progressive inhabitant of a planet we are rapidly murdering. And anyone who wants to cross the fence line of my religion without my permission can deal with the two dogs, both shotguns and then one very pissed off son of a bitch who will die before he lets his old lady get into the fight. My religion only has two rules, love GOD and don’t shoot to kill but rather to maim for life. Head shots for intruders into my religion are saved for the last round.
And all these tongue cluckers who sit sipping their morning tea reading about the suicide and violent, brutal treatment of my fellow gays going “tch tch that should never happen” are them who fall into the religion category of those men who stand for nothing but lay down for everything.
Mark, are you OK?
Where the hell did that come from? ❓
Of course they are TC. Check this insane shit out-
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101011/NEWS09/10110315/Iowa-pastor-Churches-will-urge-votes-to-remove-3-justices
Which they, Fly?
I’ve seen that. Their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status should be revoked immediately.
Beautiful post. The Jesus of Nazareth I read about was a friend to the outcasts, not to the hypocrites in power.
Thanks, Ahab. Exactly.
There are some so-called Christians on the Right, from the radical fringe (Westboro Baptist Church) to the mainstream (GOP candidate for governor in New York Carl Palladino, for example) who have stoked the fires of homophobia, and others more numerous to mention.
But it’s wrong to single out Christians in general for this climate of hatred. Skinheads make a sport of beating up gays, as do some inner city gangs. Growing up in the Sixties and Seventies you could see the jocks and hitters picking on and sometimes harassing gays and lesbians in high school; often it had to do with the thoughtless cruelty too often found in the young and foolish more than any twisted sense of morality.
Misogynists hate women, racists hate those of other races, xenophobes hate those of other ethnic backgrounds. And we have homophobes. I think all of these types have one thing in common; a fear of those who they hate. It has less to do with religion, for the most part, than of a need to feel superior and have power over those they hate.
As I’m typing this there’s a report on CNN about gay bashing, and Palladino, and the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi……and in Serbia street gangs threw Molotov cocktails at a gay pride yesterday- somehow I think that had little to do with Christianity and more to do with the growing neo-Fascist movements in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe.
Hugh, I agree, but I went further in saying that people who continue to promote hatred could not truly be Christians.
This is part of the reason I no longer attend church ( the other regards my uncle, an Episcopalian priest, who was a complete and total asshole, not to mention a hypocrite. God got his revenge though – he died on the pot – just like Elvis. Must have taken a crane to get his fat ass out of there! He wouldn’t baptize my kids because he said they were “bastards” (I wasn’t married to the children’s father) and a few other choice things he decided to throw in my face. I reminded him that he did a shitty job as a godfather – yeah, nothing to say to that, did you asshole?)
My son says that kids in his high school actually ‘pretend’ to be gay because it’s ‘cool’. No one harasses them because they are the ‘cool’ kids, which I’m glad to hear.
I follow the religion of Lisa; I don’t make my bed and I only do the dishes when I feel like it. Come join my church! 😎
Lisa, that makes two of us.
I think, I’d better, lest I suffer the MOM voice. 😉
Nah, no mom voice is involved; it’s strictly voluntary. Isn’t that a great way to think about LGBT people at school though?
I do make my bed and do the dishes when people come over. Unfortunately, my kids have adopted my religion; but I do make them do the dishes. 😉
Indeed it is. Come do my dishes next. 😉
That’s a good editorial. And you’re right, Teabag Christians aren’t Christian at all.
Thanks, Tom