The REAL Christian Persecution in America: Affirming Churches Hit with anti-LGBT Hate Crimes

Christian persecution is very real in some parts of the world, with parts of the Middle East and Africa immediately springing to mine.  Of course, if one listens to American Christofascists, they would have you believe that they are being persecuted, especially by gays.  The truth, of course, is something very different and if one reviews the history of America, historically it's been the Christians persecuting others - especially those they deem non-believers.   Now, with the Christofascists finding their ability to persecute others and their ability to impose their beliefs on others rapidly eroding they are disingenuously playing the victim card.  Meanwhile, as noted in a previous post, they are attacking progressive Christians and in some cases, such as in the image above, vandalizing gay-accepting churches.   Here are highlights from a piece in Patheos:

Christian persecution in the United States is real. It’s just not what you think.

Christian persecution isn’t about having to offer birth control to women. It’s not about having to serve wedding cakes to gay and lesbian couples.

Christian persecution isn’t even having people call you out when you spout homophobic, sexist, or racist opinions, veiled blasphemously as biblical.

Real Christian persecution is having your church burned to the ground because black people worship there.  Real Christian persecution is having your church graffitied hatefully because gay and lesbian people can worship there.

Real Christian persecution in the United States terrorizes people — often Christians themselves. It calls to mind violence, done in the name of God, continuing in the name of God. And Christianity — particularly as it has been historically practiced by white, heterosexual people in the United States — has a very deep, very long history of perpetrating this kind of violence.

The latest victim of such persecution is the Church of Our Redeemer, a Metropolitan Community Church in Augusta, Georgia (MCCOR). It’s an open and affirming church in the midst of a deeply homophobic culture that birthed the Southern Baptist Convention. The church is a beacon for LGBTQ equality, a home and safe haven for many in the town.

And just an hour away, the KKK, a self-professed Christian organization, is protesting the Confederate battle flag being removed from the South Carolina capitol in the most vile and hateful of ways.

Certainly, these two shouldn’t be simply equated with each other, but at their core, both are motivated by hate and by violence toward difference. Hate, it seems, has become a “Christian” value for some.

[I]n the United States, it has almost always been Christians terrorizing Christians?  White Christians terrorizing Black Christians for 400 years.  Heterosexual Christians terrorizing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Christians for decades and longer.

And those categories aren’t mutually exclusive mind you. But I put these examples together because it bears remembering that hate crimes in this country have tended to be committed overwhelmingly by Christians.

Christians like Franklin Graham fret and worry about attacks on the Christian faith from Muslims or other vague bogeymen who aren’t white, who aren’t Christians, or who aren’t heterosexual. But the real attack on Christianity is coming from Christians.

We need to stop giving undeserved deference - and special rights - to those who profess religious belief as justification to harm and discriminate against others.  
 

Virginia Marriage Amendment: Two Years Later

Today's Virginian Pilot has an article looking at the impact of the anti-gay "Marriage Amendment" passed in Virginia in 2006 and the practice of same sex couples still continuing to get married or hold commitment ceremonies even though the state will not recognize their unions. The piece also has disingenuous quotes from gay-hater extraordinaire, Victoria "Ice Maiden" Cobb (in my opinion, having sex with her would out one at risk of frost bite and amputation) of The Family Foundation, the Virginia affiliate of Daddy Dobson's homophobic Focus on the Family. The moral of the article is that gays WILL persevere with dignity even if those who hate us try to denigrate our relationships. Here are some highlights:

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Buddy Rau says two things nudged him into tying the knot earlier this year: his 40th nniversary with gay partner Kila Chong and the 2006 state constitutional amendment banning gay arriage.
Two years after Virginians passed the amendment, the measure hasn't stopped some same-sex couples from celebrating extra legal holy union or commitment ceremonies at liberal churches.

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Meanwhile, faith-based advocates of the amendment contend the measure helped preserve Virginia law prohibiting gay marriage and fended off legalization of same-sex unions popping up elsewhere.

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It was a harsh, severe slap in the face," said Glen Coats, who grew up in Chesapeake. "It's filled with vitriolic hate for a certain segment of the population in the way it was worded." Coats, a research analyst, said he and his 16-year partner had a holy union ceremony years ago and had no marriage plans. What they fear, instead, is wording in the amendment they think could allow outsiders to meddle in their wills and affect their ability to inherit property from one another.

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Coats, 54, is so concerned about the potential consequence of that text, he said, that he and his partner might leave Virginia when they retire. "It doesn't feel like home anymore," he said. Same-sex couples who stay can at least have a symbolic, religious union ceremony at churches such as New Life Metropolitan Community Church, The Great Awakening United Church of Christ, Norfolk's Unitarian Church and the Williamsburg Unitarian Universalists congregation. All offered union ceremonies before the amendment.

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"Whenever two adults come forward and say, 'We want to do this with the witness of our community and our notion of God,' then of course I want to say, 'Yes, yes, yes, let's do that. Who cares what the state is doing?' " said the Rev. Jennifer Ryu of the Williamsburg church.

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"We decided that a church that welcomes you, no matter who you are, is a good one to get married in," Chong said. . . . It absolutely meant something to me," Chong said. "I thought that we look to a God who's all-loving." It meant something else as well. "It helped us tell the God-fearing people who voted for the amendment: the heck with you," Chong said. "You don't want us, but we want each other, and our friends want us."

Equality Virginia Workshops: Aprill 12, 2008 at Old Dominion Univeristy

EQUALITY VIRGINIA PRESENTS

LGBT STANDING UNITED:
BECOMING MORE INCLUSIVE
SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2008
9:00 AM TO 3:00 PM
REGISTRATINON STARTS AT 8:30 AM
OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
BATTEN ARTS AND LETTERS BUILDING

· FOUR WORKSHPS
· PROFESSIONAL PANELISTS
· FREE BROWN BAG WORKING LUNCH
· QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS

9:00 AM To 11:00AM – “TRANSGENDER 101”

11:00 AM To 12:30 PM – “EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT TRANS, BUT DIDN’T KNOW WHO TO ASK” HEALTH AND EMPLYMENT WORKSHOPS

12:30 PM To 1:15 PM – FREE WORKING LUNCH: EQUALITY VIRGINIA – ADVOCACY IN VIRGINIA AND LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

1:15 pm To 2:45 PM – REPEAT “EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT TRANS, BUT DIDN’T KNOW WHO TO ASK” WORKSHOPS

2:45 PM To 3:00 PM – CRITIQUE, FINAL QUESTIONS AND ADJOURN

LET US KNOW HOW MANY ARE COMING AND IF A VEGGIE LUNCH IS NEEDED;

Email: StandingUnited@aol.com
for more information and to register
Please pass this on to everyone

Among the groups helping to defray the cost of the event are: HRBOR, Tidewater AIDS Community Task Force, MCC New Life Metropolitan Community Church of Hampton Roads, ODU Multicultural Student Services, ODU Womens Center, and Transgendered Rights of Virginia. Yours truly will be speaking on employment law issues.