The Homophobic Right In America
September 24, 2007 by Mark Pogue
Homophobia is still considered an acceptable prejudice in many parts of this country. Our kids use terms like “fag” and “homo” to put down people they dislike or consider odd or weird. Winking jokes about being gay are still regular elements of mainstream television and movies. Homophobia is a “family values” prejudice.
In an era when most people would not consider making a racial slur, and ethnic bigotry is all but banished from the media, why are anti-gay comments and stereotypes still thriving?
Evangelical and conservative Christians can be counted on to exhibit outrage and dismay over just about any attempts to treat gays like equal citizens. I’m talking about something much more basic: whether or not gays should be protected from discrimination when it comes to things like hiring, firing, housing, and financial transactions. Gays pay taxes and are God’s children also!
Here’s quote from a conservative Christian writer/author Hal Lindsey;
“There were homosexuals in the Corinthian Church just as there were fornicators, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, etc. All of these were forgiven and justified before God when they received the gift of pardon purchased for them by Jesus Christ. But just as the thief, the adulterer, the fornicator and the drunkard were required to change their behavior, so the homosexual had to change his lifestyle.”
Evangelical Christians feel the need to view homosexuality as a type of behavior in order to accept the existence of an ex-gay movement of people who have indeed overcome homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a choice and cannot be simply “converted” to heterosexuality through a 12-step program. This practice would produce sexual hypocrites at best. Evangelicals believe their savior died on a cross, so why are they so ready to crucify others different from themselves? Shouldn’t they be more concerned about helping the poor, the homeless, and afflicted? That was Jesus’ message to the world and his followers. Seldom do we witness a reenactment of the “Parable of the Good Samaritan”, but yet the Religious Right keeps the message of homosexual prejudice alive. Also, I have never heard of nor seen an Orthodox Jew, Buddhist, or Hari Krishna protesting against gays.
Here’s a few more quotes from America’s religious leaders and advocates of hatred:
* Michael Johnston, head of Kerusso Ministries (an “ex-gay” conversion center): “You know, really, when you think about it — let me just be blunt here — when an individual ‘comes out’ and proclaims their homosexuality, really, what they are doing is standing up and saying, ‘I’m a sexual deviant, and I’m proud of it.’ ” - Oct 16, 96 - Family Research Council
* It is [a sin]….You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol…or sex addiction…or kleptomaniacs.” - Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, Associated Press, June 15, 1998.
* “many of those people involved in Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals, the two things seem to go together, it is a pathology it is a sickness.” - Pat Robertson on TV
It’s attitudes like this that keep the fires of homophobia and hatred of gays alive. My question is…if homosexuality is such an awful sin, then why is not mentioned in The Ten Commandments?
Homosexuality is like any other sin. We all sin. However, I’m not sure of the point in the letter here. Is it to suggest we should accept some sins? It’s like saying since married couples seem to have a high rate of adultery, maybe we should not have laws against adultery. I don’t see any letters calling for the sin of adultery to be more accepted. Like we shouldn’t penalize one spouse for cheating on the other.
No one is saying to hate the sinner. The last comment about 10 commandments does concern me. I don’t remember the bible speaking about only 10 different sins being the ones you “really” have to be concerned about. Aren’t all sins regardless of how we view them keeping us separated from God?
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What I find really concerning is that it’s okay for a Christian to hate Gays because of a book they say has been written by a fairy tale god. Everyone else knows to “love their neighbor”… but for Christians we are all willing to make a great big exception. After all in the bible it says they have to discriminate against Gays, so it’s okay.
Hmmm… the bible also says to hold slaves. Why don’t you go and get yourselves some slaves? Oh, and doesn’t Jesus say you should give everything you have away to the poor? Why don’t you go and do that? Give everything you have away. Ooooh, it’s not meant like that literally? Well, isn’t that funny. So discriminating against Gays is to be taken literally but holding slaves and giving everything you own to the poor is not to be taken literally? Who decides that? You?
Please… spare me!
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Trust in the Lord…
Aren’t homosexuals creations of your God?
If homosexuality is unnatural and full of sin, then your God creates flawed beings.
Also…any Biblical laws against homosexuality were written by humans…whom are not immune to error.
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This reply is to Trust in the Lord.
How can anyone still believe homosexuality is a sin, when it’s not even a choice? It;s a much a sin as having blue eyes or blond hair. One is born gay. Not one gay would choose a life of ridicule and struggle.
I cannot believe it’s 2007 and we still have to teach people basics like this.
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Mark,
I am a follower of Jesus who has one request: Please do not lump me into the same batch as Pat Robertson, Trent Lot, or Hal Lindsey (I’m not saying that you have done so - I’m simply saying that there are some “Christians” with whom I’d rather not be associated). If you have been offended by Christians being arrogant, insensitive, and ignorant then I am deeply sorrowful.
Travis
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It matters naught whether homosexuality is chosen behavior or genetic predisposition.
The simple fact is that - just like heterosexual sex - the only people affected by homosexual activity are the participants.
Assuming all the participants 1. Are capable of making life choices and 2. Participate of their own free will, it doesn’t matter who is actually participating. 1 male 1 female, 2 males, 3 females, 4 males and 4 females, etc.
Personally, I’m not a fan of homosexual activities. I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to participate, and I don’t want to associate with people who are “flamingly” gay.
Of course, I’m not a fan of a lot of things: body piercings, facial tattoos, business suits, homeowners associations, lawyers… I won’t go out of my way to avoid anyone, but I’m not going to go out of my way to associate with them either.
Liberalism: REAL American Conservatism,
Rival
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rivalarrival…
You don’t want to see homosexual activities?
Better close your eyes because I’m sure at some point you may witness a homosexual kiss, if haven’t already. Remember watching two women kiss is homosexual activity…no cheating!!!
Homosexual love is just as valid as heterosexual love…just ask Ted Haggard or Larry Craig!
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Mark,
I never said it was any less valid. I don’t want to see heterosexual BDSM, or 300-pound people of any gender engaging in any sort of amorous activity, regardless of the gender of their partner.
All right, all right, you got me… my “homophobia” is limited to male hominids. Females are (curiously) exempt.
Call 911, control major bleeds, open airway, check breathing, check circulation,
Rival
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Well, isn’t it a good thing that we can look away or close our eyes if there is something we don’t want to see. Fortunately here we actually HAVE a choice.
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Travis: you say “I am a follower of Jesus who has one request: Please do not lump me into the same batch as Pat Robertson, Trent Lot, or Hal Lindsey.” One huge problem: you’re the one that lumped yourself in with them by saying, first and foremost, that you have forsaken all reason and logic in order to lay faith in a dead god. If you don’t like the way other people do the same thing you’re doing, then perhaps you need to figure out why so many worshipers and believers are capable of such stunning bigotry, hatred, and self-righteousness. It’s not the people, Travis, it’s the religion that breeds those traits. If you don’t want to be “lumped in” with them, then drop the delusions of god.
Whether or not something is called a “sin” in anyone’s ancient and fallacious myth-book has absolutely zero bearing on the laws of discrimination, which include, at the federal level, such parameters as “race, creed, color, national origin, sex, political affiliation, or beliefs.” Curiously, sexual orientation is only spared the indignity of official discrimination in some states, because those same pernicious biases born of ancient myth-books have, especially with the rise of modern “conservatism,” transformed from one’s private beliefs to a politician’s public political motivations. How ancient prejudices have become the cornerstone of a political party are simply beyond me, but the end result is that discrimination, all too often, does not count as long as it’s against gays.
Thus, we have the same civil rights as ethnic minorities, religious fringes, genders, and so on, but if we are gay, then discrimination against us is not only condoned, but actively encouraged. Other groups get protection, while gays get the constant threat of constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage, religious de-programming centers (that’s a laugh riot right there) devoted to “converting” gays. We have international media blitzes when a cute, rich white girl goes missing, but about once a week, some homophobe kills a gay person, often with little fanfare, little investigation, little prosecution, and little consequence.
How can anyone think that people actually choose this?
You believers love to proudly proclaim yourselves followers of a loving god - and yet your beliefs directly and regularly lead to the spread of hate. You can so easily forget all the parts of your precious fairy tale that talk about loving your fellow humans, about casting the first stone, about just who vengeance belongs to, and yet you’re so willing to base so much of your political and social beliefs on one single passage from the Old Testament - a passage that is accompanied by advice that tells us to stone to death any bride that is not a virgin, to put to death any married couple that has sex during the woman’s menstrual period (and whose job is it to check up on that?), and that if a man dies childless, his widow must be forced to have sex with each of his brothers until she bears a child. Talk about real pillars of morality, these Old Testament rules. How is it that you followers of this “god of light and love” manage to not leave a trail of corpses behind you wherever you go?
Oh, that’s right. That’s exactly what you do.
All because of these primitive, barbaric, draconian prejudices that have been preserved from the time of the ancients because, though we have eradicated disease, liberated the enslaved, and dethroned the monarch, we have curiously exempted this sinister religion from the scrutiny that everything else from that dark period of history has endured. Keeping religion - and even worse, using it as a basis of deciding right and wrong and then turning those viciously misguided choices into political machines - in this modern day and age is like attaching hand-carved stone wheels to a 747: it is nothing more than a specter of our most embarrassing ancient history that is guaranteed, in nearly all forms, to lead to disaster.
And after all the evils done in the name of your dead false god, you call homosexuality a sin? That’s right - you spread the hate and quash love whenever you get the chance, and you think two consenting adults doing what they want in the privacy of their own homes is a sin. Unbelievable. I wonder if your precious Jesus got nailed to two-by-fours to protect you from the shame and guilt that you should be feeling because of the sheer hypocrisy of judging someone else’s sin, or was it just for your own sin?
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Something else for you to think about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHjsaEK4vnw
“Keep Your Jesus Off My Penis.”
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There’s one thing we have to consider…
To the conservative, it doesn’t matter what you think.
To the conservative all that matters is your actions. Your actions define your character, and if your actions are sinful you are wicked.
You can have horrible wicked evil thoughts, so long as you don’t act on them, and be the Pope.
Which is why, when you say to them “homosexuality isn’t a choice” it sounds to them as though you are saying “being a murderer isn’t a choice”. It’s all about definitions and perspectives.
What they need to understand is that it is impossible for a homosexual to be happy unless they can be with another person of the same sex. So, the conservative condemns somebody to a life of misery because the one thing they want to do in their life-something which has shown no demonstrable signs of harming them or their partners-is not allowed by the Bib-lee.
…I hate conservative/christian logic. It’s sickening.
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I have found that using their own tactics against ‘christian’ bigots works well. Try Matthew 7:1 and Luke 6:37 to ruin their arguments, both spoken by their ‘Savior”.
I have also found atheists to have a much better understanding of the bible than those who profess to live by its word, but never read beyond those passages that fuel their bigotry.
I also find it unsettling that our ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ administration finds it perfectly acceptable to present fairy tales as legitimate scientific views in public schools. That isn’t education, it’s indoctrination.
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Hmmkay so.
I just thought i would bring “christian logic” to fight, well christian logic….
Taken from Leviticus 19 and 20
“love your neighbor as yourself.”
“do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”
“do not eat any meat with the blood still in it.”
“if a man commits adultery…must be put to death.”
“if a man lies with a woman during her mothly period and has sexual relations…both of them mut be cut off from their own people.”
ome of these “decrees” make sense. But everyone MUST admit that they are guilty of commiting one of these “sins” or the other ones listed. If everyone of these decrees are followed today, we will have no one left. We do not burn people to death, stone them or kill them because they had sex. It is pointless and really the people who view being gay as a sin are the ones being bad people.
Wishing death or condeming ANYONE is unfair and should stop.
I have always wondered why christians care so much anyways? Do they want the people they hate in “heaven” anyways?
If they are trying to save them from hell do they honestly think calling them out, threating them and attacking them is the way to do it?
this is america. people are free here. honestly, get over it.
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Trust in the Lord on September 24th, 2007 7:04 pm “Homosexuality is like any other sin. We all sin. However, I’m not sure of the point in the letter here. Is it to suggest we should accept some sins?”
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Of course! Religionists like yourself sin all the time and ignore them blatantly. You do this every Sunday when you allow women to speak in church and sit with the guys. You folks are always quick to judge others, when that’s another sin your god told you not to do. Remember the story about the “beam” and the “mote” in someone’s else’s eye? He also told you to love each other just like you do your god. But you have a problem with that one too. Should I go on?
Nah…. what’s the point? You’d just find some excuse so you can remain a bigot. Because if you lose that, what do you got left? ZIP. Makes you feel better about yourself to look down on someone, doesn’t it? It used to black people (which it still is in private). And women (which is still is — except when you want some sex). Latinos? (Oh, they’re still in trouble these days, if theyr’e illegal, right?)
Tell me, do you guys love any damn body???
I know, I know…. this was a total waste of electrons…….
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Those smugly throwing Old Testament laws at the Christians are well aware that OT law was in Christian theology fulfilled in full by Jesus Christ? A Christians belief in Christ who fulfilled the law of the OT thus means, the law was ‘lived out in full’ and that accomplishment applied to the ’saved’. It’s invalid to use it as an argument against Christian homophobia. Are they kosher eating too? No. Christians follow the New Testament, using the OT as an illustration of their history if you will. If anyone has any problems with the OT, there is, I believe another group you should badger. Of course no-one here would have the sack to. And as someone neither here nor there, if any prejudice is acceptable in the modern world it is Christobashing. The new generation of liberals are a. forcing the world to not just accept, but outright praise homosexuality as if it were the greatest accomplishment ever, b. despising ANYONE who questions this, and c. offering half-assed scientific ‘proof’ that homosexuality is ‘natural’, which common sense alone disproves. This coupled with the ‘bi-trend’ which thankfully is dying (leaving embarrassed heterosexuals in it’s wake) proves that for some reason, gays need not only tolerance, but out and out worship. Screw that. I don’t want religion in schools, forced down my throat, nor do I need society telling me to praise and support Adam and Steve in every aspect of their lives. PRIVATE lives. For Christ sake…
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Casper,
Come out of the closet, buddy. It’s OK.
Rival
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Zing! I’m laughing at you.
And by the way, why would coming out of the closet be a bad thing? Problem with gays have we?
I take issue with being forced by the increasing lib factor to support every damn thing that comes along as if the future of society depended on it.
Moron.
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@ Casper on January 14th, 2008 8:30 am
“Those smugly throwing Old Testament laws at the Christians are well aware that OT law was in Christian theology fulfilled in full by Jesus Christ? A Christians belief in Christ who fulfilled the law of the OT thus means, the law was ‘lived out in full’ and that accomplishment applied to the ’saved’. It’s invalid to use it as an argument against Christian homophobia.”
@ Casper on January 21st, 2008 8:40 pm
“I take issue with being forced by the increasing lib factor to support every damn thing that comes along as if the future of society depended on it.”
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And whose been listening to Limbaugh and watching O’Lielly?!?!?!
Well I must say that that’s certainly a nice bit of cognitive dissonance you’ve got going there. Tell me, where did you get your theology degree again, perfesser? Liberty U. was it???
Talk about morons….
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Casper quoted:
“I take issue with being forced by the increasing lib factor to support every damn thing that comes along as if the future of society depended on it.”
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Homosexuality is not a new concept! Ask your Republican closet queens… Ted Haggard and Larry Craig may even be willing to give you a lesson or two.
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Just listen to what Jesus said about homosexuality, nothing! He never mentioned it! If you bother to listen to the closed-minded, evangelicals, then it’s your own falt if you get upset. I pray for them. I pray God may open there eyes as he did with Saul/Paul. The arguements they make never did hold water, Pediphiles are almost always straight, as well as all other ‘groups’ of violent criminals. I wish they would once and for all show where Jesus condoned HATE or physical violence or intolorance of ANYONE! Please stop saying you follow Jesus and still hold onto these beliefs and attitudes that go directly oppisite of ALL his teachings. I fall short, but I follow his teachings and study A Course In Miricles to help me and in turn I ‘m also helping you. In the warmest and most loving light,
Mikie in Louisville
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And whose been listening to Limbaugh and watching O’Lielly?!?!?
Followed by Pogues ironically homophobic classic worthy of 2 and a Half Men.
Yes. Typical responses to anyone who holds a differing opinion to the liberals. I watch Fox News whilst polishing my gun too.
And, um…ah…what is it you all tend to spit defensively? Oh yeah, all conservatives are closet gays.
You forgot the old classic-
I MUST be gay, as I don’t support gay marriage, ’cause not accepting gay marriage makes me hateful, hence secretly gay. Maaaaaan!
I really must learn to adjust my mind into accepting what the left tells me to, without questioning, without weighing pros and cons, I must learn to disable opinion and goose step into their utopia. Maybe you can all strap a cage with a starving rat in it to my face, or maybe I can invest in a telescreen where you can preach at me all day, ordering me to touch my toes and praise the new order. And yet you despise the J.C freaks with their closed mindedness? The irony. The fucking snide comment wrapped irony.
You’re hateful and paranoid, totally closed minded to any opinion that differs from your own. 9/11 Truth as well I suppose?
Oh, and it’s a bachelors degree. It’s nice too.
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“Love your neighbor as you love yourself…and love God with all your heart, soul, and being.”
We so often talk about ageism, racism, sexism, homophobia, religious discrimination…discrimination based on mental and physical disabilities–height and weight discrimination, even a strange hate directed at people because of hair and eye color (and so many other things) as if they are different things. But I must tell you now, that there is no difference what-so-ever–all these things are exactly the same…HATE.
I have been both guilty of and a victim of all these things. When you treat someone like crap, then expect to be treated like crap yourself. “What goes around, comes around…” is found in life–with and without religion attached to it. Put positive energy in the universe, and positive energy will come back to you. The same thing is true about negative energy.
If a person of a different race or religion does something bad to you, then hate that INDIVIDUAL until you learn to forgive him…do not hate an entire group of people because of what ONE person did to you!
Whether you 2, 18, 62–black, white–male, female–straight, gay, bisexual, transgendered–Jew, Christian, Buddhist…–intelligent, learning disabled–4 feet or 6 feet tall, 110 or 300 pounds–blond, brunette, redhead, bald…or have green, brown, or blue eyes–my God loves you…even if you are an atheist.
How can God, who knows everything, hate or be disappointed in anyone?
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Its funny how most people never look at the original translations of the bible. The words used for homosexual actually mean male temple prostitute and temple prostitute. It never actually says anything about homosexuality being a sin. Google homosexuality and the bible and you will find a lot of websites.
By the way, I’m a straight, CHRISTIAN.
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And each translation keeps getting stranger…one version I recently glanced through explains that it changed words so everyone would understand how inclusive the Bible is…
In many instances, the word “men” was changed to “men, women, and children” to show that not just adult males could receive the grace of God.
In the story of Sodom, it says: “All the male citizens of Sodom…” when in biblical times, “men” would most likely mean “people.”
Some versions now say “All the men of Sodom, including the men…” implying that the sin was rape…but more people claim Sodom’s greatest sin was being inhospitable to strangers or visitors. Many believe that the commandment to “love your neighbor a yourself” is no different than “love God with all your being.”
Why is hospitality so important? Because we never know who we are truly dealing with. The next person showing up at our homes, asking for shelter and food, could very well be God or an angel in disguise.
On the atheist side of this, the next person who shows up might be a multi-millionaire who leaves a large sum of money for our generosity.
And yes, there is always the possibility that it is some sociopath who wants to play games with our mind before killing us…
We just never know.
By the way, I am also Christian…and my Savior, Jesus Christ, is Jewish. God is everything…whatever God needs to be to get Her people back on Her side.
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