How the Religious Right Views LGBT People

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   Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)

   January 15, 2013 at 1:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Unsurprisingly, a large part of the refutation of the bigoted position consists of quoting the bigoted position verbatim.

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   tubi

   January 15, 2013 at 3:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   That’s good. I will be sharing. Is it too late, though, to fix spelling errors in the text?

   The last page uses the expression “run the gambit”. S/b “gamut.”

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   Draken

   January 15, 2013 at 5:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Unfortunately, possibly in an attempt to gain broader support, he steps in the No True Christians poo a couple of times:

   What these groups do is nothing new and it’s certainly nothing Christian or moral about it.

   Worse than that, through their bastardization of legitimate research, they diligently exploit these inaccuracies; a most un-Christian tactic

   They are all preconceived notions rooted in fear and lies. The only difference being that anti-gay propaganda is sometimes mistaken as “personal deeply held religious beliefs” and expressions of the Christian faith.

   Well, these bigots certainly consider themselves fine Christians expressing the One True Christianity, and if not from the ten commandments, they draw their motivation from other parts of the Bible. It may not be christianity the way Alvin McEwen would like it to be, of course, but that is precisely the problem with this fallacy.

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   Francisco Bacopa

   January 15, 2013 at 7:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   This is why gay people should embrace atheism and quit playing at being Christian. Any reasonable interpretation of your texts hates you. Hell, if you go by Paul, all sex is evil. Cutting off your balls is super-cool and he accepts heterosexual marriage only for those folks who are so horny they would fornicate all over the place if they didn’t have a husband or a wife to fuck.

   I was at a gay wedding a few years ago officiated by a Christian Church DOC pastor. Not legally binding as it was in Texas, but I resented the fact that they acted out the rituals of a faith that hated them. Even so, best wedding ever.

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   Alvin McEwen

   January 15, 2013 at 7:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   To answer the question about Christianity, I didn’t lessen down anything regarding Christianity to appeal to a broad audience. My personal theory has always been that Christianity is not the problem when it comes to discrimination against the gay community. The problem is inaccurate interpretations as well as the exploitation of the Christian belief. Just wanted to clear that up.

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   Draken

   January 16, 2013 at 4:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Thanks for commenting, Alvin. But the problem remains:

   The problem is inaccurate interpretations as well as the exploitation of the Christian belief.

   So fine, you think Christianity should be about loving your neighbour, turning the other cheek, giving to the poor and to Caesar, that sort of thing. That is also the version of (catholic) Christianity I was taught in my youth. But there are sizable factions of people who claim, often backed up by Bible quotes, that you are supposed to execute homosexuals or wage war on nonchristians, and that it is perfectly acceptable to be stunning rich and not hand out a dime to the poor, and that you’re no good Christian if you don’t follow suit.

   So who are the real Christians, the meek ones you and I prefer or the rabid bigots you’re criticizing? The bible can obviously be used to ‘prove’ either. The only person who could really arbitrate this, if he existed at all, has been dead for nearly two thousand years. And we’re stuck with the No True Christian dilemma.

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   escuerd

   January 16, 2013 at 7:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Christianity is not the problem, but it is definitely one problem. There certainly exist varieties of Christianity that aren’t anti-gay, but that doesn’t negate the patently obvious fact that Christianity is one of the big drivers of homophobia in the U.S.

   I won’t suggest that any particular variety is true Christianity, because there is really no such thing any more than there is a true Islam, or a true version of the English (or any other) language. Of course, anyone who actually believes in some variety of Christianity will differ with me here, but I can’t take that position seriously unless they can offer a compelling argument for it, preferably rooted in evidence.

   Faith is the problem. It is routinely used to bolster, e.g., the ridiculous notion that having gay sex or gay relationships pisses of an omniscient superbeing who will eternally torture anyone who unrepentantly commits these “sins”. Given such beliefs, it would make sense to do everything in one’s power to help as many people as possible to avoid this fate. Any amount of suffering one inflicts on others in this lifetime can seem justifiable if it would help them avoid eternal torture. The oft-repeated paraphrase of Voltaire is apt: “Whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

   Pragmatically speaking, encouraging less virulent forms of the cult to prosper at the expense of the nastier ones is probably doing a net good. Still, it should be recognized as treating a symptom of the problem, when the root is the willingness to believe things based on blind faith.