At the heart of the battle is a religious battle for the soul or souls of America. It is the religious war we didn’t ask for, yet find ourselves fighting. For conservative Theocrats, marriage is the hill upon which they will die,
It isn’t an uncommon approach for change. With any oppressive organization or entity, some promote change from the outside and some work for change from the inside. But it is challenging to see how any gay, lesbian, bi, or trans person can see a place for themselves within the GOP as the party affirms the status quo, and votes to continue the explicit opposition to gay rights. There had been a slight chance we would[Read More…]
Gagnon’s name surfaced yet again in a Google alert for “Homosexual.” The linked post is the start of a review of something Gagnon wrote which is supposed to be a secular justification against homosexuality. What does the Biblical Scholar have to bring to a secular argument to oppose gay people? And as I read, not only the commentary of Gagnon’s writing, but Gagnon’s text itself, that nagging question returned. Is Robert Gagnon gay?
I simply want to highlight the shift in Far Right efforts to protect beliefs rather than protecting the exercise of religion, and the ramifications it can have towards creating the ability to legally segregate and discriminate.
The best defense against these extremist zealots, is to continue to broaden cultural support for acceptance of all LGBT persons. The more acceptance and respect are the cultural norm, then the more the extremists are at the fringe and less comfortable acting out in illegal and dangerous ways.
But the Religious Fundamentalists are not a joke, and the LGBTQ community needs to consider seriously what their opposition may mean for us. It should not slow us down as we seek full equality, but we recognize the lengths they will go to to stop us from having fairness and equality.
The “fundamental principle” that Civil Rights leaders fought for is quite simple. No one group of individuals has a right to decide to discriminate against another identifiable group simply because they don’t approve or like that other group.
For me, that is the dividing line between Christians and Christianists. The former walk their own walk while the latter attempt to control others.
But in Reed’s use of scripture is a darker motivation, the destruction of a Constitionally based legal system in the US. Our legal system grows from the Engliush legal system, and connected to the earlier Roman legal system. It isn’t connected at all to a Hebrew-religious set of laws.
In reality, Pastor Bell gives God no money what-so-ever. God doesn’t accept US currency. This focus on God, and this fallacy of what we give to God, is a step back to the Dark Ages or further. It is one more example of a growing American Theocracy where God is at the apex of everything.