Just Hafta Say
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Political rhetoric from racist homophobes being given legitimacy on the national stage in part results in suicides the likes we have heard a rash about lately. Sure, 24-hour news networks are getting around to publishing what has probably always been happening, but a part of me feels, unscientifically, that the sharp increase in publicized anti-gay rhetoric on much-watched television and blogs has something to do with an acceptance and use of especially demeaning anti-gay sentiment.
We need, instead, more of this:
And this.
And a lot less of this shit.
It's not that there were less gay people when I went to school in the late 80s/early 90s. It's that it wasn't a big deal in my school. Assholes were dealt with. Gay and straight friends stood-up to the handful of assholes.
I, for one, will teach my kids that love and compassion trump anger-fueled dogma and hideous stereotypes any day.
This is nice to see.
Despite what I believe about belief, it is an even higher form of silliness to suggest to someone who wants to believe that they can't because they don't fit the right mold of a believer. Stupidity.
3 comments:
Thanks for posting this. I watched it yesterday and found it to be quite moving, especially since he mentioned the horrible city council meeting here in Norman, where local right wingers absolutely went crazy about a declaration recognizing a month for gay people. The police chief, a self-proclaimed straight Southern Baptist said that their comments "sickened him," and he was horrified that a young gay man went home and killed himself.
Time to stop this nonsense.
Lord, have mercy. I didn't know about the Norman council meeting, until this. Christians, esp Conservative Christians have to realize our words can hurt, and they can destroy. We HAVE to stop this and get over it.
I was at a conference in Yukon yesterday where speaker Shane Claiborne said that the number one thing Christians were known for in the country was being 'anti-gay'. I was so happy to hear him say that this must stop.
How is it that we intend to represent Someone that the prostitutes, sinners and tax collectors were attracted to, by this kind of language?
I really like this quote from Walter Wink.
The fact is that there is, behind the legal tenor of Scripture, an even deeper tenor, articulated by Israel out of the experience of the Exodus and brought to sublime embodiment in Jesus’ identification with harlots, tax collectors, the diseased and maimed and outcast and poor. It is that God sides with the powerless, God liberates the oppressed, God suffers with the suffering and groans toward the reconciliation of all things. In the light of that supernal compassion, whatever our position on gays, the gospel’s imperative to love, care for, and be identified with their sufferings is unmistakably clear.
I am reluctant to call this a rash of suicides. It seems more like there is more attention being called to the subject, which is a good thing.
Having worked with clients who later killed themselves, I am also very reluctant to assign blame to one thing. The reality is that people that kill themselves are often troubled by things that are not always readily apparent.
I am certainly not defending bigots, but I think it is a little early to say there is an epidemic. I went to school in the 80's, though in a much more rural area. Words like 'fag' and 'homo' were commonly used as slurs. I think this is a lot less common and am impressed how fast those words have become mostly unacceptable.
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