Silencing Christians? Hardly

Apparently there was a controversy over that American Family Association video, Speechless: Silencing Christians, I talked about earlier this week.

It was set to air on Monday in Grand Rapids, MI right before President Obama's press conference. However the television station wanted to reset the airing to another time. Since they received no word from the producers, the station decided to rescind the offer.

The silence you are aware of now stems from the AFA in closed door meetings with other religious right groups as they plot to turn this into another phony case of "Christians being discriminated against."

First of all, the station did not refuse to air tthe program, although I think it would have more than enough reason to. It merely wanted to set the program for another time.

And for the record, Speechless: Silencing Christians, is a one-sided piece of garbage that pushes the usual religious right propaganda against the lgbt community with the usual cast of characters - Matt Barber, Robert Knight, Concerned Women for America, Janet Parshall, etc.

It's possible airing received a strong response. The Human Rights Campaign said the following:

Make no mistake: this is the opening salvo in a coming battle over pro-equality legislation.

Just as we are on the cusp of historic change – a federal hate crimes law, protections for LGBT workers against job discrimination – extremist groups like the AFA are launching a well-funded national campaign of hatred and fear to halt our progress.

This program recycles familiar lies: that hate crime laws will "do away with our freedom of speech," or that pastors will be "criminalized for sharing the love of Jesus Christ." (In fact, the proposed federal hate crimes law explicitly states that it only applies to violent acts – not speech.)

The "anchor" of this faux-news program, which may have already aired in smaller markets, is controversial talk show host Janet Parshall, who in 2006 suggested Matthew Shepard's lifestyle was responsible for his murder and called gay adoption "state-sanctioned child abuse."

We cannot let this bigotry go unanswered. We can't let it scare voters, force LGBT people back into a place of shame and hiding, or create an atmosphere of intolerance or hate.

Before the AFA starts their nonsense, let me say that this is not a case of silencing Christians. And what Speechless was going to do is par for the course for the religious right - present a bunch of unchallenged lies, anecdotes and misconceptions about the lgbt community. They never really want to debate us on their lies. They seem to want to present them in an arena where the rules have been predestined to be in their favor.

I just can't believe that they had the temerity to attempt to it on a regular network.

No doubt the Obama regime has gotten them desperate and scared.

Folks, this is a headless monster in the making. Let's kill it before the religious right can gain traction from it.

The problem with Speechless is that it exploits the feeling of entitlement that some Christians have in this country. They have had their minds filled by James Dobson and company with the idea that America is their country and the rest of us are here by their will and pleasure.

That idea of entitlement makes them susceptible to any anecdote or lie that comes down the pike about them being silenced. We have seen this so many times with the religious right taking incidents and manipulating them to claim that lgbts are out to get Christians. A perfect example is the Ocean Grove Pavilion. The religious right claimed that the church who owned this pavilion was "forced" to allow gays to have marriage ceremonies there. However the true story was that the church was getting tax breaks for the pavilion and a requirement of those tax breaks was that the facility should be open to all.

The program that was to air is filled with half truths like this. If I were a Christian, I would be less worried about being "silenced by lgbts" and more worried about the untruths put out by those who claim to also be Christians.