In the name of the Father, Son and Homo spirit

This Article appeared both on my facebook newsfeed, as well as amongst the featured stories on CNN's website this weekend. The title actually made me chuckle: “When Christians become a ‘hated minority’.” Christians make up roughly 31% of the world’s nearly 7 billion occupants, which means over 2 billion people in the world proclaim to be Christian. That is hardly a minority. The US, which is not a “Christian nation” (due to the supposed separation of church and state), is estimated to have 79% of Americans identify as Christian. A fella by the name of Peter Sprigg, who is a former evangelical pastor, was quoted saying, “The media will hail someone who comes out of the closet as gay, but someone who simply expresses their personal religious views about homosexual conduct is attacked.” Clearly Mr. Sprigg cannot differentiate between “simply expressing” his “personal religious views” versus expressing them through intense lobbying in Washington, DC against gay rights, and slamming the lifestyle choices of others as an abomination against his own personal beliefs. 

I was a little peeved by the garbage Mr. Sprigg was quoted as saying in the article, so I researched him online. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Drew University, a liberal arts school, and appears to have attempted an acting career. Somehow in life he became a spokesperson for The Family Research Council, a powerful, conservative Christian lobbying group, where he’s discovered a platform to argue that gay marriage is not an issue of civil rights. He has also allegedly linked homosexuality to pedophilia, and has argued homosexuals are trying to brainwash children into accepting homosexuality through public schools. 

I could argue that the Catholic Church has an alleged link to pedophilia – just last month a Catholic priest from St. Louis named William Vatterott was indicted for “underage drinking and inappropriate behavior” as well as possessing images of a boy under the age of 18. (This Article can provide more information about the indictment) According to a 2002 Los Angeles Times poll, of the 1,854 Roman Catholic priests across the United States questioned, 44% of the priests admitted to a “gay subculture” within the priesthood. Where are all of the Catholics and their picket signs for that? If a little less than half of the Catholic priests in America openly admit to a gay subculture existing, then why isn’t Mr. Sprigg lobbying against that in DC? Catholic parents don’t seem to have an issue locking their children in a confessional booth with a raging homo, but god forbid an NBA player comes out of his own figurative closet –all hell breaks loose. 

Simply expressing one’s opinion on another’s lifestyle is by far not the same as accusing them of being a sinner, or trying to make laws blocking those different from you from having the same basic rights that many take for granted. Last week, an ESPN commentator named Chris Broussard said Jason Collins, the first openly gay professional basketball player in the NBA, is living in an “open rebellion to God.” After his controversial remarks, Broussard called in to the New York-based Power 105.1 "Breakfast Club" radio show and said, "I'm fine with homosexuals," insisting that he has at least one gay friend. "I disagree [with being gay], but disagree respectfully ... I don't have any problem with homosexuals." I sense some back pedaling here. He has no problem with homosexuals and apparently has at least one gay friend, but he also believes gay people are living in open rebellion to god? “Open rebellion to God”... “I don’t have any problem with homosexuals”…I don’t see how these two statements go hand in hand. Mr. Broussard is an African American man. I wonder how he would feel if I said "I don’t have any problems with African Americans, because I have at least one African American friend…but...” and then finished with a hypocritical statement. 

 

Back in America’s dark days of slavery, slave owners defended their actions with Bible quotes such as "Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling; and do it with a sincere heart, as though you were serving Christ. Do your work as slaves cheerfully, as though you served the Lord and not merely human beings." (Ephesians 6:5&7) Watch any episode of Roots and you’ll see an actor simulating the southern bible thumping behavior that existed back then. Even as a Caucasian person Roots makes me question what is wrong with those crackers. 

Some Christians preach that people shouldn’t change their view of biblical truth just because times have changed. If that is their only defense to believing homosexuality is “against god’s will,” then they should continue to deny a woman’s ability to preach in church, which is justified by scriptures; and antisemitism should continue to be justified by the claims that Jews killed Jesus. FYI: Sexism and antisemitism are now deemed primarily uncool in our society.

Bryan Litfin, a theology professor at Moody Bible Institute in Illinois, acknowledged that the Bible once sanctioned slavery, but said that the practice was a “cultural expression” that changed over time. I cannot imagine a single African American person with slave ancestry accepting the defense of slavery being a “cultural expression” of the time. Perhaps Litfin, Sprigg, and Broussard could gather up their cronies with picket signs outside of Red Lobster quoting Leviticus 11:10 damning the lobster and shrimp eaters to condemnation: "Put down that lobster tail! Repent!"

For the record, the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama is a non-profit civil rights group that battles and monitors hate groups. Three years ago, it designated the Family Research Council (the powerful lobbying group in DC that Peter Sprigg is a spokesperson for) as a hate group - a characterization the group stridently rejects. A Christian group, who claims to be simply expressing their religious views, is an official “Hate Group”…how ironic. (Sense the sarcasm) Christian terrorism (and other religious terrorism) exists all over the world, where people preach hate and judgment in the name of their god. Perhaps people should put down their pitch forks and torches, and begin to listen to one another. Through dialogue and acceptance, an understanding of cultural differences can flourish between all walks of life.

              Food for thought...Enjoy the shellfish!