« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »
01/12/2009
Audio: SHOCKER -- AFA unhappy with Robinson invite
When we speak out against the Rick Warren inaugural invite, we are working from a place that says a ceremonial inauguration is not the place for a faith leader who has so vocally condemned gay lives and loves. But when our anti-gay opposition wants to speak out against a pro-equality person's inaugural invite, what must they do? Further condemn gays lives and loves, natch.
This snippet comes from today's AFA Report (a production of the American Family Association). The speakers are Fred Jackson and Jeff Chamblee, both of the AFA:
This is EXACTLY why civil progressives cannot afford to give a pass to the anti-gay rhetoric of someone like Rick Warren. Why? Because a huge portion of the evangelical community is not happy with even a thrown-bone like the Warren booking, just as long as even a scintilla of pro-gay, pro-equality light is let into the mix. When it comes to their discriminatory view, they're not even okay with counterbalance. They want an anti-gay nation! Their push is for a world where LGBT people deserve no seat. Plain and simple. Their endgame doesn't even leave room for conversation on the matter of gay morality, much less growth. Theirs is a completely closed book.
Rick Warren defenders have repeatedly couched the invite as a way to reach out. But we have to ask: How do we in the LGBT community reach out to people who continue to reach only to their anti-gay bully club? Or, more accurately: WHY should we reach out to people who haven't shown even a slight willingness to do the same?
AFA Report [AFA]
Your thoughts
I'm sorry, were they talking about themselves? Because EVERY WORD they spoke seemed to apply to the ANTI side, NOT to the pro-gay side.
Posted by: tjc | Jan 12, 2009 3:12:02 PM
Do I smell a BOYCOTT! Who could they boycott to ensure that they get the greatest possible media attention? They could boycott the tailor whose suit Robinson wears, or boycott the stylist who cuts his hair, or boycott the restaurant where Gene eats his pre-invocation breakfast... It's going to take a little brainstorming, but they should be able to seize on this opportunity to look incrementally more batshit crazy.
Posted by: Dick Mills | Jan 12, 2009 3:54:10 PM
Hey pinheads, no one gets struck down these days like in the mold testament!
You know something was done right if the AFA has their panties all in a bunch!
It is reassuring news, despite the fact that Rick 'Condom burner' Warren will still speak at the main event.
Posted by: John Ozed | Jan 12, 2009 4:03:58 PM
Wow.. Jeff Chamblee just told a whole lot of "Christians" they aren't really "Christians." I imagine that's going to piss more than a few "Christians" off.
I love when they say people are making up their own religion to suit them... I'm sure he only eats unleavened bread.
Posted by: jaysays | Jan 12, 2009 5:34:54 PM
As someone who has received death-threats at my home, lost jobs, and had their place of worship repeatedly attacked by vandals and picketed by followers of the new Nazis - the American Family Association, I am appalled at their response.
These people are DEADLY serious: one of their followers tried to murder an acquaintance in Gainesville, Florida, in 1993, while he was speaking at a public event. (He was stopped and arrested, and I believe still in prison).
But, what can we do? Is there any way to put these people out of business?
Posted by: Michael-david | Jan 14, 2009 12:24:41 PM
I think the reason to reach out is that the AFA doesn't represent everyone, even in conservative evangelical Christianity. There are alot of people who are in the middle and are listening, and when each side gives up and re-entrenches then it just adds to the rhetoric and feeds into homophobia.
I understand the frustration with groups like the AFA, but thinking a
Posted by: Brian Pengelly | Jan 17, 2009 10:53:44 PM
Brian: Of course we need to move the "movable middle." In fact, that is usually the group to whom we are talking, even when addressing the far-right directly.
But this post is in specific regards to groups like the AFA, and the way they react to something like Gene Robinson, versus the way progressive voices react to something like Rick Warren. And the problem with the AFA contingent is that they proudly encourage a monologue, not a dialogue.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jan 18, 2009 9:53:04 AM
comments powered by Disqus
