The answer to the question raise in the title to this post is, in my opinion, a resounding yes. Anti-gay bigots who wrap themselves in religion and cling to a few Bible passages - while of course totally ignoring others they find inconvenient - are directly responsible for the atmosphere where LGBT teens are open game for bullying and torment. In my view, individuals like Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Benedict XVI and a host of others have blood on their hands just as surely as if they had murdered gay teen suicide victims like Jamey Rodemeyer. These bastards claim that sexual orientation is a "choice" despite medical science to the contrary. Indeed, the only choice in the overall equations sits with them: they can choose to be hate merchants or to instead focus on the positive message of the Gospels. Christian writer John Shore sums up the situation quite well in a post on his blog where he states the following:If you’re a Christian who believes that being gay is a morally reprehensible offense against God, then you share a mindset, worldview, and moral structure with the kids who hounded Jamey Rodemeyer, literally, to death. It is your ethos, your convictions, and your theology that informed, supported, and encouraged their cruelty.
We Christians who believe that God created gay people as much in His own image as he did straight people are begging you to reconsider your theology — to do nothing more than be open to an alternative, fully credible, scholastically sound interpretation of one or two lines from Paul.
How can you be unwilling to do something so simple, when you see the horrible ultimate cost of that refusal?
Christ died so that you could love more. And now you’re part of a system that allows that same Christ to be used as a moral justification for the most vile kind of abuse. How could that have happened? How could something so right have gone so wrong?
Jamey Rodemeyer has died from your sins.
What is the most disgusting aspect of this tragedy is that those like Maggie Gallagher care nothing about the harm they do or about the lives they destroy. Instead, it's all about the money they are raking in - blood money in amounts that makes the pieces of silver that Judas supposedly was paid look paltry.
The other part of the tragedy that distresses me is the deafening silence that continues to be the norm with the majority of "good" Christians. That silence makes it increasingly difficult for me at times to believe that any good Christians even exist.
2 comments:
Michael, I saw the news of this young man when it was a story of hope and self understanding. When I saw the news that the young man had ultimately lost his battle for hope and self acceptance, it brought tears to my eyes.
Bullying is such an evil thing, no matter what the cause. Hate, especially by people who are supposed to be defined by their love of others is an especially cruel thing. I believe Christians on the Radical Right and others who have no religious faith at all are morally culpable for failing to recognize their own sins; and I believe they will ultimately be held accountable.
Unfortunately, that does nothing to bring this young man back. It does nothing to comfort those who loved him and now miss him.
I understand your contempt for those who are Christian in name only. Believe me as a Christian who is beginning to balk at wearing the title due to the company it appears to lump me in with, I probably have a level of contempt for these people that transcends yours.
But, in your zeal to call these Christians to account you are in danger of loosing sight of the fact that there are many Christians who do stand up and who do act differently.
You must remember that a full 76% of all Americans call themselves Christians. If all of the people who make up that 76% of the population were rabidly opposed to gays serving in the military we would not be seeing the end of DADT.
If every Christian in that 76% of all Americans opposed the right of gays people to marry or enter into legal partnerships, marriage between two gay persons would not be legal in any state.
If every Christian in that 76% of all Americans felt that gays should be hated and kicked to the curb, there would not be job opportunities for gay people anywhere and openly gay people would certainly not be elected to public office in any part of this country.
The facts are that while a minority of Americans choose to be haters and to cloak their hate in religious dogma, it is clear that the majority of Americans are publicly supporting gay people. They vote for them to hold political offices. They work with them on the job. They serve with them to defend this country. They call them their friends. They welcome them into their churches and into their homes. They support them when they choose to adopt and care for children.
And the fact that all this is happening is proof positive that an overwhelming number of good Christian people who make up 76% of the American population actively support all these things.
Because the numbers of Christians are so large in the U.S. and yet the U.S. has clearly turned the corner on accepting gay people to an extent never before known, one could realistically contend that Christians are NOT culpable in gay teen suicides. Those who are culpable in gay teen suicides are radical haters who happen to call themselves Christians.
While you more often than not make it clear that you recognize there are moderate Christians, you simply must be careful not to inadvertently encourage or promote hate against Christians as a class of people any more than you would want so called Christians to promote hate against a class of people who are homosexuals.
To do so is to become what you despise. Most Christians do not hate. The minority that do make good news copy and good television.
I have no problem whatsoever in anyone calling out specific so called Christians such as Michele Bachmann or Pat Robertson or Rick Perry, just to name a few, who have publicly demonstrated the lack of compassion and the excess of religious dogma in their thinking. But you can't call out all Christians for the sins of the few.
America is becoming a more tolerant nation. It is making progress. The future is not bleak for homosexuals. It is bright. That could not be the case unless millions of Christians who make up 76% of the population were actively supporting and working for the change.
Jack Scott
Jack,
I do understand your point. And it is because of denominations like the Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church - not to mention the many millions of U.S Catholics who ignore the Vatican's teachings - that have helped things change in New York State.
My point is that they could do even more - e.g., calling out others who defame Christianity by making it a religion of hate. Michele Bachmann and Pat Robertson are but two examples that you cited. Unfortunately, there remains too much reticence about condemning those who make Christianity something evil.
I don't want to engender hate against all Christians. Merely to rally the "good" Christians to be more outspoken.
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