Tuesday, November 22, 2011

"I'm a Christian. Unless You're Gay"

The headline is also the title of the post excerpted below. What it means is, often times Christians* don't act very Christian around or about gay people. I've experienced this for years, having been a very early internet warrior myself. I'm somewhere on the continuum between agnostic and atheist (and sliding further toward atheist as I age), and also gay. So, since the days of Prodigy (and even a few bulletin boards before that), I've been having online discussions--usually arguments, really--with Christians. I'd argue with Jewish, Muslim or Hindu people, but they don't tend to "start" it, in my experience.

We know that this is not how all Christians behave. But
many--particularly on the internet--do.
No, virtually all of the condemnation, nastiness and outright hatred poured onto me in these conversations is from purported Christians. With rare exceptions, when things have gotten heated, they applied the heat first. I try to be mature, reasoned and calm. But I tell ya, they know how to elevate the rhetoric. They have a difficult time with the mental exercise of putting oneself into another's shoes. "Imagine there's no heaven," John Lennon said, "it's easy if you try." Not for these folks. They will not go there. And while the story below is all about "the gay," it could easily be about non-believers, or people of other faiths than Christianity.

I would like to interject that this behavior is chiefly in the online realm. In my experience, people aren't usually confrontational in real life, with rare exceptions. It takes a picket line (like above) or other protest before it bleeds over into the "real world." But in today's world, where Facebook, Twitter and other social mediums are as common as actual personal interaction, the distinction has gotten quite blurry.

Like the author, I've very often tried to express myself on the subject, and had difficulty. He needn't have worried. It's excellent. [Thank you to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link. And the reminder at Joe.My.God.]

[Excerpt]


I’m Christian, unless you’re gay.

. . .“God hates fags.” We’ve all seen the signs being waved high in the air by members of the Westboro Baptist church. On TV. In real life. It’s hard not to take notice.
Over the years, I’ve watched seemingly never-ending disgustingness and hatred spill across the media airwaves from those who belong to the organization. For those who don’t know much about that “church,” they have made a seedy name for themselves by doing drastic things like picketing beneath atrocious signs and hosting flagrant anti-gay protests at military funerals.
Almost every person of nearly every religion has no problem loathing and condemning the Westboro Baptist Church and its members, and perhaps with reason. They take freedom of speech far beyond what our founding fathers intended when they fought to give us that right, and they laugh at the rest of the world while they do. . .

Read more at: SDL


*I by no means claim that all or even most Christians are hateful and homophobic. But the most vocal ones are, and they've got nearly the entirety of the 2012 Presidential candidates on board with them. 

2 comments:

  1. I never believed in love spells or magic until I met this spell caster once when i went to see my friend in Indian this year on a business summit. I meant a man who's name is Dr ATILA he is really powerful and could help cast spells to bring back one's gone, lost, misbehaving lover and magic money spell or spell for a good job or luck spell .I'm now happy & a living testimony cos the man i had wanted to marry left me 5 weeks before our wedding and my life was upside down cos our relationship has been on for 3years. I really loved him, but his mother was against us and he had no good paying job. So when i met this spell caster, i told him what happened and explained the situation of things to him. At first i was undecided,skeptical and doubtful, but i just gave it a try. And in 7 days when i returned to Canada, my boyfriend (now husband) called me by himself and came to me apologizing that everything had been settled with his mom and family and he got a new job interview so we should get married. I didn't believe it cos the spell caster only asked for my name and my boyfriends name and all i wanted him to do. Well we are happily married now and we are expecting our little kid, and my husband also got the new job and our lives became much better. His email is atilahealinghome@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete

  2. Hello my fellow friends online I'm Diana Gilbert from USA, I want to use this medium to thank DR.KABAKA because he brought back my Ex husband. my husband left me for his ex girlfriend he had before he married me I was so eager to get him back because I loved him, then I told my friend about it and she gave me DR.KABAKA email and I emailed him and told him my problem and he gave me instructions which I followed and he brought back my husband within 24 hours. If you need help in getting back together with your Ex, email Dr Great at drkabakaspiritualtemple@gmail.com WhatsApp number on +2349015857861

    ReplyDelete

Have something to say to us? Post it here!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...