Beware of the 'yeah, but' Christian

Say what you will about the religious right, their behavior is a boon for people who like to create new words and phrases.

Sometimes the only way you can describe their actions is to invent new words and phrases.

Take my favorite phrase for example - headless monsters. A headless monster is a story or an idea that consistently gets refuted but continues to be repeated as truth due to the ignorance or the blind persistence of those repeating it.

Like the notion that "homosexuality takes decades off of your life," or "gay men molest children at a very high level."

Recent events have led me to create another new phrase to describe the religious right - the "yeah, but" Christian.

The "yeah, but" Christian is someone who, when caught in a contradiction or hypocrisy, pulls an addendum out of the air supposedly justifing his or her behavior even if he or she rails against someone else for behaving in the same manner and if said behavior contradicts all that he or she claims to stand for.

Take this case for example courtesy of One News Now:

Opposition is mounting to the University of Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama to be a commencement speaker in May.

Inviting the most pro-abortion president in history to speak at a Catholic school is not the only issue, according to David Castanzo is a spokesman for the Cardinal Newman Society.

"For a Catholic institution to make a clear and decisive move to award a doctoral degree to an individual who is so opposed to the pro-life movement, that is where the primary conflict comes into play," he explains.

The Catholic League is taking no official position, believing it is a matter for the church to resolve internally. But spokeswoman Susan Fani does encourage people to go to NotreDameScandal.com to sign a petition drive launched by the Cardinal Newman Society.

By reading many of the comments on this article, a lot of folks aren't exactly happy with Notre Dame for inviting President Obama.

But weren't some these folks the same people who gave the lgbt community hell during the Rick Warren situation. Weren't we accused of being intolerant and not wanting to "start a dialogue" with folks who think that homosexuality is a sin?

Aren't some of these individuals guilty of the same bit of "intolerance?"

"Yeah, but abortion is murder. No middle ground."

Then there is this situation:

A self-proclaimed bisexual male teacher in New York has invited his seventh-grade students and their parents to witness his commitment ceremony to another man.

The New York Times reports 32-year-old Chance Nalley gave slips of paper to his entire seventh-grade class at Columbia Secondary School, inviting them to the upcoming ceremony to be held at St. Paul's Chapel on the campus of Columbia University on April 4.

Nalley teaches math, science, and engineering at the school -- "whose mission statement includes a commitment to diversity," notes the Times. Nalley reportedly obtained his principal's support before coming out to his students in the fall of 2007, when the school opened.

And of course some of the comments from this article is screaming bloody murder.

But aren't some of these the same folks who believe that parents should be the final word when it comes to the raising of children? If the parents allow their children to attend, then what's the problem?

"Yeah, but homosexuality is a sin."

Yet another addendum.

If this sort of thing keeps up, then my next book will be a religious right-to-English dictionary.