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08/16/2007
No, No -- condemning gays at every turn in NO WAY leads to violence
In a long piece wherein he criticizes laws that protect gays from hate crimes (with a specific focus on the Canadian version of such protections), Christian writer Timothy Bloedow makes man bold assertions. However, it is the following that made us really take pause:
The fact is that there is absolutely no correlation between the typically Christian criticism of homosexuality and actual acts of violence committed against homosexuals. Banning criticism of homosexuality will not, therefore, have any impact on violence against homosexuals. I believe that homosexual activists and other Secularist enemies of liberty know this.
Therefore, one has to conclude that the passage of hate crime legislation, and the inclusion of hate crime provisions related to "sexual orientation" in human rights codes were strategically planned as a bigoted agenda to suppress Christianity and shove it out of Canada's public square and into the closet.
Hmmm...there's "absolutely no correlation between the typically Christian criticism of homosexuality and actual acts of violence committed against homosexuals"? So we guess society is only supposed to take away a message from Christian teachings when such messages make Christians look decent (love thy neighbor; do unto others; don't lie, cheat or steal; etc.)? And when those take-away messages are truly divisive to the society in which we live (no matter how hidden behind the veil of "love the sinner, hate the sin" they are), we are supposed to just discredit their faith-based root? Well sorry, Mr. Bloedow, but that is simply something we are not willing to do!
The simple fact is that Evangelicals are the MOST to blame for propagating homophobia and gay bias in this nation. While we 100% believe that the vast majority do not wish any real harm to LGBT persons, the fall-out from their constant cries of "gays are immoral," "gays are an abomination," "gays are sinners," "gays can be healed through Jesus," "gays are trying to destroy marriage," "gays are diseased," "gays took a dump and forgot to flush," etc., is that they have helped to foster a culture wherein those who DO hold actual malice towards gays can justify their violent, hurtful acts as somehow "Biblical." And while it is only this violence that gay-centric hate crime laws are meant to target, this savagery was certainly learned from somewhere. It is not a natural instinct to dislike same-sex oriented people.
The bottom line: If you work day and night to condemn an entire subset of the population, you cannot then turn around and wash your hands clean of the role you may have played in any harm that comes to your opposition's person! Nobody is trying to "ban Christian criticism of homosexuality," as such does go against the idea of religious freedom. However, we will never stop connecting the dots of bias, and we will never allow those who dedicate their lives to keeping us stigmatized, marginalized, and demonized, to pull their feet away from any literal fires that may flare up against gays. The stakes are simply too high on our side of the fence.
Civilized Societies Don't Have 'Hate Crimes' Laws [CLL of Maine]
**UPDATE, 8/23: Update: Words sometimes lead to sticks and stones [G-A-Y]
Your thoughts
Bloedow's statements are particularly ironic when you consider CCL Maine's treatment of Rita Moran earlier this year. (Look for the news article titled "Maine Pagan Democrat Family Values.") In an attempt to discredit the Kennebec County Democratic chair, they "revealed" the fact that she is a practicing Pagan. They went so far as to publish as much of her personal contact information as they could find. Short of encouraging their members to harass Ms. Moran, I can't imagine any particular reason to publicize that information.
Then when various Pagans and Pagan-friendly people began to comment on the article, the folks at CCL Maine would search for said commenters' personal contact information and add it to their comments. Again, I can't think of any reason to do so other than to encourage their own supporters to harass these commentors. (After a couple of days, the comments page for the article was pulled completely, possibly due to the number of people who were discussing what legal action might be taken against an organization that publicizes commentors' email addresses after explicitly saying they would not do so.
So finding the connection between belief and unethical behavior on such matters merely requires a search of the CCL of Maine's own website.
Posted by: Jarred | Aug 16, 2007 12:10:51 PM
Oh AMEN!
I have nothing further -- you said it all!
Posted by: Tina-cious.com | Aug 23, 2007 4:19:43 PM
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