Christianity & Homosexuality in America
Violence, Discrimination, Hatred
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
One of the first things we should take note of is how the level of anger has risen in the rhetoric coming from many Christians, particularly in reference to homosexuality. Senator Trent Lott openly compared homosexuals with thieves, expressing the fundamental assumption that homosexuality is essentially criminal in nature and deserving of similar treatment.
The website for Gary Bauer's Family Research Council speaks of "waging war against the homosexual agenda." The nomination of James Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg has been held up for months, ostensibly due to his promotion of the "gay lifestyle."
I wish someone would explain to me what it is about sexuality which makes it a "lifestyle."
Then there have been all of the newspaper ads which have appeared across the country, encouraging gays to abandon their homosexuality and come to seek "treatment" which would "cure" them of their nasty, sinful ways. According to Christians, these ads are not in any way "anti-gay" since they only "hate the sin, not the sinner." They claim that they are offering "hope, not hatred" with these ads, and that there is nothing about them which could reasonably be construed as helping to promote discriminatory or hateful attitudes. But I ask you:
If I were to place full page ads explaining that Christianity is a Bad Thing and that people should come to me for "treatment" which would "cure" them of their horrible propensity to be Christians, how would that be construed?
Does anyone imagine that I would not receive massive criticism for writing anti-Christian propaganda? Even this very article will be seen as anti-Christian by many - and this at least is offering extended, rational arguments. If any Christian can take those ads, replace "gay" with "Christian," and be offended, then they are nothing short of hypocrites for supporting such ads when aimed at gays.
Discrimination & Death
It is a particular shame that our legal system is failing many of those coming under political attack by such Christians. The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling validating President Clinton's asinine "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military. According to this policy, being gay and in the military is OK, but only as long as you don't mention it to anyone. And if people do know, you can only stay in the military if you do not and will not and are not interested in engaging in homosexual activity.
How would people react if the same policy were applied to a person's Christian faith? Howls of derision and anger would be heard from pulpits across America - and justifiably, I should add. A bit before that, the U.S. Supreme Court also let stand a lower court ruling which upheld the Constitutionality of an amendment to the Cincinnati city charter which prohibited legal bans on discrimination by sexual orientation.
So, in Cincinnati, it became quite legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians. If you have gay man working for you, you can fire him at will. If you have a lesbian as customer, you can refuse to serve her if you wish. None of it would be illegal. Imagine if such were possible only against Christians.
Coincidentally (or is it?), this ruling came one day after the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. He was horribly beaten, burned, and lashed to a fence overnight in near freezing rain - primarily because he was gay. Police reports the main motive to be robbery - but rarely is a person beaten and tortured merely for robbery - that kind of act requires more than greed. Such attacks were not new to Shepard - he had been beaten twice in previous months, also because of his homosexuality.
Even as he lay dying in a Colorado hospital, college students there mocked him with a scarecrow atop a float in a parade. Homophobic and bigoted Christians came to Caspar, Wyoming to picket his funeral and dance on his grave, holding signs stating that "AIDS cures Fags." A Time/CNN poll revealed that three-quarters of adults questioned think that the problem of violence against homosexuals is not only serious, but very possible in their own communities.
This incident has renewed efforts across the country to pass hate crime legislation which would provide for increased penalties when crimes are committed for reasons of hatred. Ironically, Mike Massie of the Wyoming legislature has tried four times this past decade to get such legislation passed, but he's been told it won't happen unless sexual orientation is dropped from the list of list of biases. President Clinton urged Congress to pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would have broadened the definition of hate crimes to include gays, women and the disabled - but conservative Christians strongly opposed the measure. Oops - there's that link between homophobia and misogyny again.
-->