Organized Religion Plays the Victim Card

Image from Sydney Morning Herald

Political "conventional wisdom" in this country hurts my logic bone sometimes. Only in America could one group actively lobby to remove another group's civil rights, and then have the former accuse the latter of intolerance and worse when they dare to fight back.

After California voters narrowly passed Proposition 8--the measure that removed the existing right for same-sex couples to marry--it was widely reported that the Mormon Church was responsible for generating half or more of the money that pumped that measure up. Beyond that, there was some help from the Catholic Church, and also some Evangelicals like Focus on the Family and other groups who have hijacked the word "family."

So it is no surprise that when gay people decided to fight back with protests and boycotts, they chose those most responsible for the proposition: organized religion. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) took the biggest brunt of the backlash, along with individual members who gave money.

I understand that people thought that going after individuals who donated was one step too far. But when those individuals happen to work in areas frequented by gays--a popular restaurant, a movie festival cinema--the reason for that gets much clearer. Why should gays continue to give their dollars to people who used some of those dollars to vote against their civil rights?

And yet, to some, it is not organized religion that is in the wrong here. They are just voting their religious beliefs. For some reason, those beliefs trump both civil rights and the right to fight back in some people's minds. As an agnostic, I have a problem with that. And so does blogger John Aravosis of AmericaBlog, who has his own take on the issue:

[Excerpt]

Is your marriage worth more than a taco?

Oh where to begin.

This time, the victim of the gays is one Margie Christoffersen, until recently the hostess at El Coyote Mexican Cafe, a popular gay hangout in Los Angeles.

You see, poor Margie loves the gays. But now no one likes her because all she did was take the political step of donating $100 in an effort to rip away the marriages of 20,000 of her potential customers, and deny the right to marry to the rest of them, just as Margie's intellectual forefathers did to black and white couples from the 1960s back to slavery. . .

Read more at: AmericaBlog

And here is the article that inspired Aravosis (and me):

[Excerpt]

A life thrown into turmoil by $100 donation for Prop. 8

Margie Christoffersen didn't make it very far into our conversation before she cracked. Chest heaving, tears streaming, she reached for her husband Wayne's hand and then mine, squeezing as if she'd never let go. . .

Read more at: LA Times