RSSComing out against discrimination
Mar 29
Interesting interview with a man who used to work for one of the largest anti-gay lobbies in the US who recently “saw the light” that what they were doing was wrong:
Former AFA columnist Joe Murray speaks out against homophobia and hypocrisy
Good quote:
“How could preachers preach such vehement messages towards gays when it was clear that the Bible was unclear at best, and silent at worse, on the issue? Why recklessly condemn a group of individuals? Why fixate on them when your congregation is knee deep in divorce (Jesus had some pretty clear words on that issue)? And as for gluttony, how could preachers lecture gays on restraint when churches host pot luck dinner after pot luck dinner and not be deemed hypocritical?
It was this hypocrisy that caused me to open my eyes. Those on the Christian right, for whatever reasons, have become fixated on homosexuality. They are obsessed by it and perverse form of vengeance appears to be fueling their inquisition. I may be wrong, but I think actions are speaking much louder than words here.
The whole gay issue is no longer about the quest for the Truth; it is about fear and loathing. It is about shame and sorrow. It is anything but Christian.”
It’s nice to see when people learn to see things differently. Especially when their actions have been so harmful to a vulnerable group of people.
Further, it’s obvious the anti-gay movement is strongly rooted in a desire to get their congregations fired up about something. Scapegoating gays for their problems is a lot easier than solving the real underlying problems like rampant divorce and the disintegration of the family.
Mar 30, 2007 @ 07:10:51
When someone is vehemently proclaiming something, it is often the case that they are trying to vehemently deny something without actually identifying it. In this case, preachers have much to vehemently deny.
They are denying a century of organized systemic child molestation by priests and clergy by pointing the finger at gays. They claim that gay men are the ones doing the molestation, and thus purging them from society will cure all social ills.
Unfortunately, study after study shows there is a clear and significant difference between pedophiles and men who are attracted to other adult men. Very few of the priests who have been incarcerated for their abuses self-identify as gay. They don’t use children as an alternative to adult men, as most of them claim not to be attracted to adults at all. They seek out young children of either gender, because it’s the innocence, naivety, gullibility and powerlessness of the children that is the real turn on for them. They like to dominate and control their victims in a way few adults would allow. They are sadistic by nature.
It is a difficult concept to understand, this separate sexual option, as different from gayness as bestiality, and so it is all too easy to vehemently deny it by vehemently pointing the finger elsewhere.
Mar 30, 2007 @ 13:08:01
Is there even any point to religion left? Can they really help anyone solve any real world problems?
You say that they should be addressing issues like rampant divorce and the disintegration of the family. But there is really nothing they can do about either of those issues, aside from wag their finger from the pulpit.
Divorce is not a social issue. It is an economic issue.
A two parent family today, in which both parents work at least part time, makes less money adjusted for inflation than their parents did, even with only a single working parent. Money is the root of most marital stress, and the indirect cause of most arguments.
Further, women have learned to fend for themselves. Having better education, more and more women are choosing to raise children on their own, supported by their full time career.
From taxes to legal rights to stress, marriage has become more of a burden than ever. Governments assume people will inevitably get married, so they continue to apply pressure to this core constituency. And then, when we discover that more adults in North America are single than married for the first time in history, they act surprised.
And they treat it like a moral issue. They turn it back over to organized religion to save the “family”, while they continue to squeeze it out of existence.