Evangelical Trash Talk

UPDATED: In the wake of the firestorm over his admission that his views on gay unions are shifting, Richard Cizik has resigned as president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. The lesson is that the homo-haters will not tolerate anyone who is willing to listen to science and reasoned discussion or who might view LGBT Americans as fully human. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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A prominent evangelical lobbyist resigned yesterday over his remarks in a National Public Radio interview, in which he said he supports permitting same-sex civil unions. The Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), later apologized for the remark, said the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the 30 million-member organization. But, Anderson said, "he lost the leadership's confidence as spokesman, and that's hard to regain."

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Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said Cizik's beliefs had diverged too far from those of the NAE membership. "There's been some concern from the constituents that he was at least some distance from where the constituency was, but this is a whole different order of magnitude for his constituency on the gay-marriage issues -- it's a mega-issue," he said.

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Richard Cizik (at left) of the National Association of Evangelicals is prompting more consternation and trash talk among the professional homo-hater set in the Christian Right. These folks are obsessed with gay sex and seem to spend nearly every waking hour thinking of ways to denigrate LGBT citizens and in the process scare as many sheeple as possible into stroking them checks or sending in their online contributions. Rather than thinking of ways to feed the hungry, cloth the poor or provide housing for the homeless, these rabid Christianists worry almost exclusively about "The Gays." Enter Richard Cizik who believes that there just might be other issues that should command the attention of evangelical Christians. Here's Right Wing Watch's take on the latest tempest among the homo-haters:

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It is no secret that Religious Right leaders have had it out for Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals for some time now, starting back in 2007 when they tried to get him fired for branching out into the global warming debate because they feared it was undermining the focus on their traditional anti-choice, anti-gay agenda.

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[N]ow he has even fewer friends among the old-guard right-wing leaders thanks to this recent interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air” where he all but admitted that he voted for Barack Obama, said that Dick Armey had good reasons for calling people like James Dobson bullies and thugs, predicted that climate change is going to become an issue on which evangelicals become increasingly active, pledged to work with the Obama administration to find ways to reduce unwanted pregnancies in this country, and admitted that his opposition to marriage equality is “shifting.”

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Well, this last sin has sent the most rabid of the homo-haters into absolute conniptions and the sputtering, spittle flying and gnashing of teeth is nearly off the charts. Of course the unspoken reason for the violent reactions is that fighting the make believe "gay agenda" is a huge cash cow for the Christianist organizations and if gays ever become accepted as main stream, many of the professional gay haters will be unemployed. Jeremy Hooper at Good As You has a great run down of the hyperventilating:

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Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America: “Mr. Cizik claimed that his views are five years ahead of his constituency, but these views are not anywhere close to Biblical orthodoxy, traditional Christian theology nor the bulk of Evangelicals who ground their faith in the Bible. Perhaps this is why he espouses them in forums to which most of his supposed 'constituency' do not listen.”

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Janice Shaw Crouse, Director and Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute: “The NAE consists of 45,000 churches, 50 denominations and 30 million constituents. I cannot believe that they are happy to have a spokesperson, who supposedly represents them, expressing views that are contrary to Biblical authority and contradict theological orthodoxy. I think, perhaps, my dear friend Rich has been inside the Beltway for too long and has swallowed too much of the NPR and Vogue Magazine Kool-Aid.”

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AFA: "Many have tried for years to get the NAE to drop Rev. Cizik, but the NAE has refused to do so. Churches have a right to know how the money they give to NAE is used."

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Ingrid Schlueter, co-host of the nationally syndicated Crosstalk Radio Talk Show: "Richard Cizik seems more concerned about impressing NPR's liberal audience with his broad-mindedness than being faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ,” ... “As an adoptive parent of two children given life by their birth mothers, I find it abhorrent that Mr. Cizik would sanction Christian support for the most radically pro-abortion President in the history of the nation.”

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Family Research Council: "This revelation should not come as a surprise. This is the risk of walking through the green door of environmentalism and global warming - you risk being blinded by the green light and losing your sense of direction. How else can you explain enthusiastic support for what will probably be the nation's most pro-abortion, anti-family president in our nation's 232 year history?

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Cizik's real sin? That he has stopped drinking the Kool-Aid and is actually focusing on a truer version of the Christian message. The hater set is having none of it since hate and intolerance are their only Gods.