Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
During a recent edition of MSNBC Live with Kendis Gibson, a good friend of mine and a wonderful transgender activist Monica Roberts, who runs the GLAAD Media Award-winning blog Transgriot, was interviewed about how transphobic rhetoric leads to violence against community.
It goes without saying that she did a wonderful job. And it was definitely a refreshing thing to see a transgender American invited on a news program. Particularly in light of how the Fox News network and the rest of the right-wing media will practically bend over backwards to exclude the trans community in debates, while giving transphobic people and groups a wide berth to spew their lies.
Though some folks have criticized me for it, I like going through past written words and videos of groups who oppose LGBTQ equality. I do it for three reasons - 1. to educate myself on their arguments because they generally get recycled and repackaged 2. keep myself from becoming slack in refuting them. 3. marvel at how simplistically idiotic they are.
And the above video by the group TFP Student Action is a doozy. TFP Student Action is an offshoot of the American Society for the Defense Tradition, Family, and Property - a far-right Catholic group . Naturally, this means that another activity of the group is pushing the lie that the LGBTQ community is unhealthy to society. It was small, but very vocal, part of the conservative right's ultimately unsuccessful fight against marriage equality. And with arguments made in the video above, it's no wonder they lost.
All it contains is a hashtag of bad talking points backed by wishful thinking, religious entitlement, and deceptions (i.e. using President Obama talking about single parents to denigrate same-sex households and spinning the lie about the Massachusetts father who was jailed for allegedly trying to keep his son from being "exposed" to homosexuality in his school.)
Yet, this video contained the general arguments of those opposing our right to marry. And what the opposition ended up arguing in the courts. A special highlight comes at 4:28 when the only black guy in the video is some random person they filmed on the street going on about "Adam and Steve" as he and his facial piercings draw so close to the camera that you think he's going to lick it.
But I shouldn't be too harsh. What points the video loses on facts and logic, the participants make up for it by being vigorous. Extremely vigorous.
The most enjoyable thing about watching this video is knowing that a few short months after it was made, the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality, thereby telling TFP - and other religious right and conservative groups - to go play with themselves. And after watching this video, can anyone really blame SCOTUS?
No matter what they say, conservative white evangelicals prefer the guy on the left more than the guy on the right.
I read this last week and found it so on point that I decided to post it at a later date. Then I lost it. But lo and behold, it popped right back up again when I was considering what post I would publish today.
Much has been said and will be said about conservative white evangelicals shamelessly embracing of a Trump presidency in spite of the fact that they are supposed to stand against every quality he has brought into the White House - lying, hypocrisy, adultery, corruption. etc. To me, it all about power. As long as he freely gives them access and the power to influence public policy, conservative white evangelicals will contort themselves to justify or ignore all of his vile qualities.
How they contort hasn't been spotlighted as much as it should, except by theologian, speaker, and author Benjamin L. Corey. In an absolutely wonderful piece,10 Signs You’re Actually Following TRUMPianity Instead of CHRISTianity, he breaks down the 10 ways conservative white evangelicals have twisted themselves up in knots to justify their support of Trump and in essence, replaced Christianity for 'Trumpianity.'
The entire piece deserves your attention, but I am to going list Corey's 10 points. For more details on each, read how Corey broke them down:
10. You spent 8 years criticizing every move of Obama, but the minute Trump was sworn in you started telling everyone that “Christians should respect the president” and that being “divisive” is a sin.
9. You think, “but we’re a nation of laws” somehow trumps biblical teachings on how immigrants are to be treated.
8. Your church is planning a “patriotic worship service” for the 4th of July.
7. You instinctively applaud when Trump threatens to “bomb the shit” out of people, but quickly push back if someone quotes what Jesus taught about violence and enemy love.
6. You think that having a filthy mouth and boasting about sexual immorality is a sign of being unsaved, but when it comes to Trump you all of a sudden have a “Who am I to judge?” attitude.
5. You think it’s God-honoring to refuse to bow to a national statue, but that you should be fired from your job, kicked out of the country, or even charged with treason for refusing to stand for the flag.
4. You want the nation to return to “biblical values”… except for all those socialist sounding biblical things like caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, giving food to the hungry, etc.
3. Your church spends one month a year celebrating the story of refugee family who fled their violent homeland and secretly crossed the border to safety, only to return home years later where their son became another unarmed person of color killed by the state’s violent security forces because they “felt threatened”…
2. You claimed Barack Obama’s election was the result of evil forces, but the minute Trump was sworn into office you started quoting verses about how “God picks a nation’s kings and queens.”
1. You spent the 90’s saying “character counts” but now say, “We don’t vote for a national pastor.”
TERFs are so desperate for attention that some engage in stupidly counteractive stunts, such as kissing up to the right-wing media.
TERFs claimed they were being censored, but they found a safe space in right-wing media in 2019 - Any of my lesbian sisters who was involved in this madness, you need to wise up. Don't think for an instant that your "new allies" aren't going to plot to put your rights and safety into a grave next to the one you are helping them dig for our trans brothers and sisters. Knowing them, they are probably making measurements even now as they smile in your faces and direct your hands to jab the knives into the backs of your own people.
Here Are 20 LGBTQ Celebrity Coming-Out Stories That Moved Us In 2019 - Celebrity or not, people coming out is a good thing. And it will always matter. Particularly with our LGBTQ children. There is nothing wrong with someone publicly showing them to not be afraid to live their lives honestly.
Whether or not Trump is re-elected in 2020, the one thing the LGBTQ community simply has to do is demand more attention to how his Administration is undermining our equality and safety. Remember this 2016 tweet of his when he was running for president:
We now see that the above tweet is one of his biggest lies. Since taking office, his administration has been systematically eliminating any mention of our community from executive guidelines on discrimination
With just over a year left in President Donald Trump's first term, another late-breaking news item barely made waves: The Interior Department — which manages the majority of the federal government's public lands — deleted "sexual orientation" from its anti-discrimination guidelines, as HuffPost first reported last week. The removal was just the latest in a nearly three-year-long effort to strip mention of LGBTQ people from the executive branch bureaucracy.
Reports of such changes began the day Trump assumed office, when LGBTQ content was deleted from the White House, State Department and Labor Department websites within "minutes" of his having been sworn into office, according to GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy group.
Since then, drip by drip, other parts of the federal government have had their online content trimmed to omit mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
. . . Indeed, the government's own civil rights watchdog group, the Commission on Civil Rights, in November found a systematic approach to dismantling LGBTQ rights protections. Karen Narasaki, a member of the commission's board, called it "truly unprecedented."
While the removal of these guidelines has been given less attention than they should have been, they underscore a reality too bothersome to ignore. This isn't simply a matter of Trump making a promise and then not taking any action. It's a matter of him taking the opposite action of the promise he made.
The group GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has pointed to 133 negative activities committed against the LGBTQ community by the Trump Administration.
From banning transgender men and women from serving in the military to appointing anti-LGBTQ leaders (some who have falsely linked gay men to pedophilia) to supporting anti-LGBTQ discrimination by religious entities while giving them access to gay tax dollars, Trump has freely run roughshod without the media even asking once about what he's doing.
What Trump has been doing to the LGBTQ community is the equivalent of promising someone that you will help him cross the street but then push him in the middle of busy rush hour traffic. His attacks on the LGBTQ community may not be as high-profile or obviously prejudiced as his attacks on immigrants and undocumented people, but they are equally egregious.
NC pastor Patrick Wooden (second photo), who once falsely claimed that gay men have to wear diapers and stick cellphones up their rectums, is angry that openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg (first photo) was hosted by another church in early December.
I was too busy celebrating the holidays so I missed a very interesting item which took place last week. Apparently openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is bringing all of the homophobes out to condemn him. First Franklin Graham, then Don Boys.
Outspoken North Carolina Bishop Patrick Wooden Sr., founder of the conservative Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, slammed William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, for hosting gay Democratic presidential candidate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and for arguing that Jesus didn’t speak out against homosexuality.
“I’m a registered non-affiliate, so I don’t want you to think I’m in any party. I’m for the Lord and what is right, but it is a disgrace that we live in a country where, if a person of color dons a ‘Make America Great’ hat, people now, on MSNBC and other news agencies, they call that hat a trigger ... But you can invite a man married to man to a Christian church and there is no outcry,” Wooden declared in a message to his church earlier this month. “Something is wrong with that. And the only way to get you to buy into that, they’ve got to try and get you to ignore the Scriptures and to take Jesus Christ out of the public eye.”
Wooden was upset about Barber hosting Buttigieg at his church on Dec 1. The Christian Post points out that during the event Barber addressed the so-called divide between the LGBTQ and black community. He called it a "false narrative." He also said we must address issues of poverty and social justice instead of being exploited by false narratives:
“Just to clear the house, because I know it’s out there, we here to talk about poverty. Somebody sent me this question: ‘What are you gonna say to the mayor about being gay?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ That’s not a Bible question. You don’t see Jesus raising that. It’s not a constitutional question. There’s no constitutional provision. I just got on a plane and flew four hours from Arizona here. I ain’t ask the pilot was he gay, but I did ask him could he fly the plane,” Barber said to applause.
“My surgeon, I don’t ask him if he’s gay. I want to know, can he do the surgery? And right now, what we’re looking at is, are there candidates who can have the political courage, wisdom to address the issue of poverty and the interlocking injustices. That’s the question before us. … We need to kill some of these false narratives,” he asserted.
'Rent' by Big Freedia is the perfect anthem for Trump's impeachment.
On Wednesday night, Donald Trump got impeached. It's not a surprise. The man has no impulse control or maturity, so he was bound to do something which would finally get him into trouble. Now whether or not he will be removed is another story. The conventional wisdom is that the GOP led Senate will not convict him. Of course in 2016, the conventional wisdom was that Hillary Clinton would be our first female president (and she should have been), so I think it's safe to have a wait and see attitude.
At any rate, I have a perspective on Trump's impeachment which I think needs to be shared. Instead of writing a long diatribe on the matter (because I don't think I can add anything new to the outpouring of long diatribes by folks who get paid to do that sort of thing), I am going to make mine short, succinct, and with the help of fellow "family" member, "The Queen of Bounce" Big Freedia. I'm sure when she recorded the song 'Rent' in 2018 Big Freedia didn't think someone would use it as an anthem of the Donald Trump Impeachment. But I think it perfectly fits the situation, because Trump is a big freeloader.
Don't be surprised. You just KNEW someone would be coming out with this.
Impeachment or no impeachment, removal or no removal, I sincerely hope that Trump's legacy will include how he unleashed a "grifter class" on America. From conspiracy theory spewing slop artists to propaganda rags to Twitter bomb-throwing shysters, a segment of hucksters felt emboldened by Trump ascension to the highest office to grab a moment for themselves in the spotlight hoping to gain attention and few bucks.
And no where is this more prominent than in right-wing evangelical circle. Trump has given them an unwritten, self-appointed mandate to hustle and sell their wares. Trump's personal pastor Paula White,(or as I call her - "Sister Hot Mess) is just one of many.
Disgraced former PTL head Jim Bakker is another. He has hopped with both feet on the Trump train, as you can see via this tweet in which he and another religious leader are selling a coin which is then supposed to be used to pray for Trump possible re-election. It can be yours for $45.
For $45, Lance Wallnau and Jim Bakker will sell you a Trump/Cyrus coin that you can use as a "point of contact" between you and God as you pray for Trump's re-election in 2020. pic.twitter.com/EwKgGL7sNp
I've been insistently covering the Hallmark Channelcontroversy because it presents something we should never forget. Behind their self-victimization and cries about persecution and accusations of "the radical gay agenda," the aim of religious right groups is to either erase the humanity of our community or confine us into their false definitions of who we are and what our lives are comprised of.
Lo and behold comes a long-time anti-LGBTQ activist by the name of Scott Lively to further illustrate this point. To the lucky who have never heard of him, Lively is an extreme homophobe. He wrote and published discreditedbook, The Pink Swastika, which accused gays of creating the Nazi party in Germany.
But Lively's biggest claim to infamy was going overseas to Uganda in 2009 with other religious right figures and railing against the LGBTQ community with such vitriol that Ugandan officials proposed the infamous "Kill the Gays" bill. If this bill had become law, people could have been legally executed in the country for being LGBTQ. Before it died in 2014, the part about execution was changed to long prison sentences.
Dear religious right, are you mad? Good. Stay mad.
To say that the religious right and conservatives are breathing fire over the Hallmark Channel's decision to apologize for axing a gay marriage ad would be an understatement. With articles bearing titles such as Hallmark surrenders to pressure from homosexuals, the American Family Association and other like-minded groups have no room for subtlety. They are furious.
Monica Cole, head of the AFA affiliate One Million Moms, had this to say:
“Most of (Hallmark's) viewers are conservative, and so they’re going to push away a majority of their viewership if they do this to appease a small percentage of viewers . . . "so we just want them to realize that they are offending their primary audience by doing this and ruining family movie time. So many feel betrayed because this is one of the very last channels that families could go to and not be bombarded with politically correct commercials and LGBT agenda."
And of course the majority of the comments on the article reads as such:
Well now I am dizzy. The Hallmark Channel pulled an ad featuring a same-sex couple after hate group the American Family Association and its affiliate group, One Million Moms, complained.
The company behind the ad, the wedding site Zola, pulled all of its ads from the channel in protest. In addition, LGBTQ organizations, LGBTQ community, and a lot of other folks spent the entire weekend figuratively dragging Hallmark, especially on Twitter with the hashtags #boycotthallmark and #BoycottHallmarkChannel .
Now comes this:
Hallmark CEO's statement: "I am sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused… Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials… We will continue to look for ways to be more inclusive & celebrate our differences"
Okay, American Family Association and One Million Moms, it's your turn. Top that if you can. Whatever happens next, this is still a victory for the LGBTQ community. Our lives, our loved ones, our families, and especially our children will not be excised, erased, or eliminated to fit someone else's narrative. We don't need anyone's "tolerance" or "acceptance." And we damned sure aren't going to take your disrespect.
Have you ever read a book considered to be a "classic" and wondered "who the hell picked this to be put on a pedestal?"
I feel the same way about certain folks proclaimed to be great thinkers or intellectuals. At the top of my list is conservative Ben Shapiro. I know all about his "pedigree" and honors, but I still say while he may have a mind, his maturity is something to be desired. But I will give him credit for exploiting the angry people - those on the right who always have to be pumped up about something no matter how stupid - for profit. That, and going on college campuses for rigged debates later described on Youtube as him "destroying an argument" has gotten Shapiro more acclaim than he originally had. And more money.
He certainly knows how to get his audience riled up such as with this excerpt and clip below in which he is raising hell when someone from our community say that they relate to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer:
Right wing extremist Ben Shapiro is demanding LGBTQ people leave Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer alone. Shapiro, who runs the far right website The Daily Wire, says the popular children’s Christmas character has enough problems and doesn’t need any more.
“Can’t you just leave Rudolph alone?” Shapiro asked on his radio show. “Like, he’s got enough problems without you putting your own issues with sexual orientation on his fragile flying back.”
Shapiro, who is virulently anti-LGBTQ, was reading from Wednesday’s New York Times opinion piece, “‘Rudolph,’ the Queerest Holiday Special.”
Ben Shapiro attacks the LGBTQ community for saying they relate to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: "Can't you just leave Rudolph alone? Like, he's got enough problems without you putting your own issues with sexual orientation on his fragile flying back" pic.twitter.com/TxoQs4DQh1
Oh Ben, you get so many things wrong. First of all, no one is talking about "sexual behavior" but you. And no one is talking about "political sexual behavior" but you. Folks can talk about LGBTQ issues and our community without mentioning anything about sexual intercourse, but apparently YOU can't. However, since I am not a psychiatrist, I won't ponder any further about your state of mind on that plateau.
There doesn't seem to be much going today when it comes to the LGBTQ community and the anti-LGBTQ industry, so I thought I would take a jaunt through the history of homophobic images via a publication I have used on many occasions.
Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Deathstyle was created and published in the mid 1980s by a man named Dick Hafer. As you can see below, it spotlit all of the anti-LGBTQ stereotypes of the day and presented them as facts. And as you can also see by the second image, several noted public figures at the time (including a Congressman who died this year), endorsed it as fact. There really is no need to refute this booklet because it basically refutes itself. But it's important for that things like it be remembered for two reason:
1. It is a wonderful, albeit nauseatingly foul, historical resource on homophobia in the United States.
2. If you took a look at the images, you would see that the religious right/anti-LGBTQ industry are saying pretty much the same things about our community as this book, but with more subtlety and less shock. It's not that hard to go from "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle" to "Christians need religious liberty to protect their rights from the homosexual agenda."
A Starbucks in Oklahoma fired its transgender manager after a policeman complained about her employee's actions; actions she knew nothing about until it happened and then tried to rectify.
The latest in the religious right's "How dare Chick-fil-A betray us! We are going to grind them into dust!" saga came my way via email from Tim Wildmon, head of hate group the American Family Association :
On Monday, December 2, I overnighted a letter to Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy. In the letter, I asked him to clarify statements made by the leadership of Chick-fil-A and the Chick-fil-A Foundation. You can read the letter here.
As you know, Chick-fil-A recently said it would no longer be supporting The Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Moreover, the Chick-fil-A Foundation announced its support of Covenant House, an outreach that affirms homosexual orientation and funds LGBTQ causes.
At the time I sent this email to you, Mr. Cathy had not responded to my letter. This is disappointing.
Specifically, I asked Mr. Cathy to answer these two questions: (1) Will Chick-fil-A publicly state that it does not believe The Salvation Army and FCA are hate groups because of the ministries' beliefs about sexuality, marriage, and family? (2) Will you publicly state that Chick-fil-A will not hesitate to fund these two ministries again, should the opportunity arise in the future?
Along with the letter, I included the signatures of over 100,000 people who want clarification from Chick-fil-A regarding its recent decisions.
This means that Mr. Cathy has not only snubbed AFA's concerns, he has also chosen not to respond to your concerns.
If Chick-fil-A is truly funding the Covenant House, then it's a good thing and more power to the restaurant. But I still won't be singing its praises any time soon. I'm indifferent about the entire thing mostly because I remember how, in 2012, reasonable attempts to explain the LGBTQ community's problem with the fast food restaurant got overwhelmed by lies generated by Mike Huckabee that Chick-fil-A was supposedly being attacked because its "Christian" values.
The religious right and other Trump supporters have been trying to establish a narrative that Donald Trump supposedly 'brought Christmas back.' Their subtle dog whistle appealing to racist attitudes make it imperative for us to remind people of the wonderful Christmas greetings and celebrations which took place when Obama was in office.
The religious right and other Trump supporters are not only intent on handing himcredit for Obama's policy successes, but they also seem to be determined to craft a narrative that Obama wrecked American traditions and values and that Trump is restoring them.
It's especially annoying during the religious right's annual "War on Christmas" freak out. There has been a vile addition to their yearly bitchfest that the forces of darkness are trying to eliminate "Christ in Christmas."
They are claiming that Donald Trump "brought Christmas" back.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council- "America isn't the only thing making a comeback under President Trump -- so is Christmas! The candidate who vowed, "We're gonna be saying Merry Christmas again," delivered on that promise again in a big way Thursday night. Thirty-feet of big, to be exact. In front of the giant spruce, the president made it very clear that this event wasn't about illuminating the tree -- but shining a light on the real reason for the season."
Selling merchandise claiming that the LGBTQ community supports him in spite of his constant stabs in our back. Only Donald Trump would do something like that.
The most annoying thing about Donald Trump and his Administration is how they will simply lie in your face. No, more than that. They will lie in your face in spite of the fact that you know that they are lying and they know that you know that they are lying. It's as if they think that they have some type of Jedi mind trick which will beat you down if they repeat the lie enough times.
Why am I on this tangent? Because of this madness, courtesy of NBC News:
President Donald Trump’s campaign has introduced new LGBTQ Pride merchandise through its website, sparking criticism that the offerings appear to be at odds with his administration’s policy track record.
The merchandise, which was first reported by NewNowNext, includes a white T-shirt that reads “Make America Great Again” in rainbow letters. The product description reads, “Show your support for the LGBT community and the 45th President with this exclusive Make America Great Again T-Shirt.” The site is also selling a rainbow "Make America Great Again" hat, which is currently sold out.
“Trump selling ‘Pride’ t-shirts when his very administration attacks LGBTQ people on the daily,” one person tweeted. “It’s like we are all in the damn Twilight Zone.”
And speaking of NewNowNext being the one who broke the story, the news site had this to say:
While we're at it, let's not forget how his Administration is trying to award tax dollars to religiously based adoption and foster care agencies while also allowing them to discriminate against us. Also, there was recent rebuke of his homophobic healthcare conscience rule by three courts; a rule his Administration attempted to enforce via blatant lie.
And the kicker is this -it isn't the first time the Trump campaign has attempted to sell LGBTQ merchandise while he put figurative knife wounds in our backs. NBC News points out that the campaign was selling "LGBTQ for Trump" t-shirts earlier this year.
Unbelievable . . . but then again maybe not.
As infuriating that it is, I 'm not completely mad at Trump for this. He is a user and a bloodsucker. And you can always trust users and bloodsuckers to be themselves.
When Trump ran, he said he would be a friend to the LGBTQ community. Before he even sat his undeserving fat ass into the Oval Office, he stabbed us in the back and then throughout his first term decided to snip our equality away bit by bit. And no one in the media interviewing him or asking him general questions has ever mentioned his two-faced behavior to his face.
Seriously, how hard can it be to ask "Mr. Trump, when you want for office, you said that you support the LGBT community. You even sent out a tweet saying that you support the community more than Clinton would. But since you were elected, your actions have been totally opposite to what you promised. Would you please comment about?"
Trump has lied to the LGBTQ community, tried to chip away at our rights and our safety, and finally is presently working to create narrative that we support him in spite of all of this. The fact that media has been silent about it all only sends a message to him that he can get away with it.
The possibility of LGBTQ characters in the upcoming 'Star Wars' movie has former Trump official Seb Gorka upset.
I've never been a fan of Star Wars movies (shut up), but the upcoming chapter of the series, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, has people excited by a number of reasons including the following from the New York Daily News:
J.J. Abrams’ latest “Star Wars” offering may have finally adapted to modern times.
During an interview promoting the upcoming film, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” on Tuesday, the filmmaker teased that there will be LGBT+ representation.
While some fans have hoped for a gay romance between Finn and Poe (played by John Boyega and Oscar Isaac) , nothing has quite materialized as of yet.
But Abrams, who said that he’s always tried to find a cast that “looked more the way the world looks than not,” isn’t ruling out the possibilities.
“In the case of the LGBTQ community, it was important to me that people who go to see this movie feel that they’re being represented in the film,” he said.
Knowing how conservatives and the anti-LGBTQ industry are, I'm sure that they will be milking the fake outrage teat for all its worth. Remember how they flipped out over a gay character in Beauty and the Beast?
And apparently one has started early with this probably soon-to-be overblown drama.
After a day like today - particularly with the impeachment hearing and the GOP fakery that came with it - I'm exhausted. So forgive this happy LGBTQ warrior and proud member of the Rainbow Mafia (it's a religious right slur, but damn it's still cool) for presenting something frivolous right now. I invite you all to tell me who was your first LGBTQ crush, i.e. the celebrity who awakened the gay in you.
To answer your question - I didn't come to grips with being gay until in college. Still, I had a childhood fascination (which turned out to be unofficial crushes) on the following:
Jackie Earle Haley, Stephen Geoffreys, Lance Kerwin, Ike Eisenmann, River Phoenix (I had it for him REAL BAD), Meeno Pelucee (woof! woof!), Matthew Laborteaux, Billy Jacoby, and Chris Makepeace.
To hear or read anti-LGBTQ hate groups like the Family Research Council or the American Family Association tell it, our community shouldn't be worried about Donald Trump. Apparently we are too busy raising hell.
First there is this "tasteful" image courtesy of FRC:
And when FRC says "the left," you just know that we are front and center. And locking up the Bible in chains it appears. I thought we saved the chains for each other via sexual play. At least that's what FRC and the others used to accuse us of doing.
But when it comes to spinning itemized hysteria, FRC takes a back seat to the American Family Association. AFA has a list of the havoc we have allegedly accomplished. And even though you should take AFA's rendition of these events with a grain of salt, it still makes me feel rather butch to be a part of a large group who can supposedly cause this much ruckus:
In the past three decades, LGBTQ activists have demanded the embrace of homosexuality by society and the church. This LGBTQ demand for “equality” has gone viral, and its stormtroopers take no prisoners.
They don’t allow Christians to take a “hate the sin, love the sinner” approach. No, they would say that by not affirming homosexuals, we are fostering what they call “hate.” And they desire to outlaw hate and punish those who preach it.
Many Christians don’t know how to stand firm when criticized on this issue. They understand what the Bible teaches on this topic, but the idea of being called a “hater” is mortifying to them, so they try to straddle the proverbial fence. It happens a lot. Here are some examples:
The Boy Scouts of America: While not an explicitly Christian organization, the BSA upheld Christian values to millions of young boys for decades. In recent years, they have completely sold out to the homosexual cause.
Tim Tebow: What a great example for boys across America this man has been. Yet, when the LGBTQ groups applied pressure on him, he canceled a speaking engagement at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, because the church teaches that homosexuality is a sin and he wanted to avoid controversy.
Louie Giglio: The founder of the Passion youth gatherings, Giglio was one of my favorite Bible teachers. He was asked to pray at President Obama’s second inauguration, but when a 20-year-old sermon surfaced in which Giglio warned against the rise of homosexual activism in America, he was severely criticized by the LGBTQ community. Giglio sheepishly withdrew from the event and then would not even reaffirm his own sermon.
