Christianist Conniptions Continue

In the aftermath of the Iowa Supreme Court ruling last week and the legislative action yesterday in Vermont and Washington, D.C., the Christianists are in overdrive in terms on conniption fits and anti-gay rants. The reactions have ranged from the duplicitous plan of the Nation Organization for Marriage ("NOM") to run a sinister ad attacking gay rights and gay equality employing paid actors to pose as concerned citizens to yet another rant by professional Christian and self-hating closet case Robert Knight who bounces from one anti-gay organization to the next. HRC has a expose on the nasty national ad being disseminated by NOM and the fact that the ads are not what they appear to be. Personally, the NOM ads while not intentioned to do so show the dark and sinister hearts of our Christianist enemies. Here are some highlights from HRC:

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The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, released a statement and a factual rebuttal today on a television spot produced by the National Organization for Marriage and set to run on CNN, the Fox News Channel, and MSNBC in the coming days. In the ad, actors make disproven claims about marriage for lesbian and gay couples.

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According to sources, the phony ad (the photo above is from it) is set to run eight times per day in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and California. The ad can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AzLrn5JVIo The National Organization for Marriage hired actors to peddle their lies about marriage for lesbian and gay couples. The audition reels can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRjVDZxho54 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqNFBt33o4

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The facts recited in the ad are not true - something that is the norm for Christianists who deem themselves exempt from the Commandment against Lying and baring false witness - and the actual facts behind the examples cited are as follows:

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The California doctor entered a profession that promises to “first, do no harm” and the law requires her to treat a patient in need – gay or straight, Christian or Muslim – regardless of her religious beliefs. The law does not, and cannot, dictate her faith – it can only insist that she follow her oath as a medical professional.

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The New Jersey church group runs, and profits from, a beach side pavilion that it rents out to the general public for all manner of occasions –concerts, debates and even Civil War reenactments— but balks at permitting couples to hold civil union ceremonies there. The law does not challenge the church organization’s beliefs about homosexuality – it merely requires that a pavilion that had been open to all for years comply with laws protecting everyone from discrimination, including gays and lesbians.

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The Massachusetts parent disagrees with an aspect of her son’s public education, a discussion of the many different kinds of families he will likely encounter in life, including gay and lesbian couples. The law does not stop her from disagreeing, from teaching him consistently with her differing beliefs at home, or even educating her child in a setting that is more in line with her faith traditions. But it does not allow any one parent to dictate the curriculum for all students based on her family’s religious traditions.

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As if the NOM ad is not enough in the smears and lies category, Robert Knight - most recently a writer for Coral Ridge Ministries, a vitriolic anti-gay organization - totally lost it in a recent column on Townhall.com, afar right "news" and opinion website where an author's being in touch with reality is never a requirement. Over the years, I have had numerous encounters with Mr. Knight and he has proven to be someone who lies with no concern whatsoever for the truth. I have even suggested to Knight directly that he hire himself a trick and get over transferring his self-hate towards the rest of us self-accepting LGBT Americans. Surely former "ex-gays" John Paulk or Michael Johnston could advise Knight on some good cruising spots. Here is a sampling of Mr. Knight's latest spittle spewing rant:

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To a disturbing number of judges, most of the media, and now the Vermont legislature, marriage was created only to shut out homosexuals. That’s it. There’s no other reason for its presence in the law.

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The creation of counterfeit “marriage” is a finger in the eye of God, who created marriage as the first human institution. Jesus reminded the Pharisees: “Have you not read that He which made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh?” (Mark 19:4,5, Gen. 2:24). But in America’s kookier courts and trendy New England, the Bible – the founding document of Western legal thought – is ruled irrelevant, and marriage is a speed bump on the road to sexual liberation.

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Society would survive without a single homosexual relationship, but it would collapse without marriage. The law recognizes that marriage is unique and irreplaceable. Lots of homosexuals are wonderful, caring people, and some have close relationships, but that does not make them “married” any more than a brother and sister can be “married.”

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God Almighty created marriage thousands of years before the men of Sodom thought they had a better idea. If judicial tyrants have their way, America will outdo Sodom and even decadent Greece and Rome, where same-sex “marriage” was unthinkable.

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When are citizens going to tell public officials at all levels that they simply don’t have the authority to radically redefine marriage and set up our children and grandchildren for mandatory lessons about same-sex coupling? While it’s still legal, the resistance had better get organized – and busy.