Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
One thing I despise about the anti-LGBTQ industry and the religious right is the slick way they hide their lies and dishonesty behind morality. An example of what I'm talking about was a July 1 piece published by Family Research Council intern Laura Lee Caum.
In her piece, How Do We Authentically Love Our LGBT-Identifying Neighbors?, Ms. Caum took at same patronizing "love the sinner but hate the sin" tone which LGBTQ people have become used to from those on her side of the spectrum. It reads in part:
The most compelling example of combining love and justice is found in John 8. For those unfamiliar with this story, this passage tells the story of a woman caught in the act of adultery. The religious leaders of the day bring her before Jesus and proudly proclaim, “Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.” Those who preach a fire and brimstone message would applaud this dedication to the law. The religious leaders then ask Jesus his opinion on what should be done with the woman. Obeying the Proverb to be slow to answer, Jesus eventually replies, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
If the story ended here, spiritual leaders who preach a “love everyone” message would be ecstatic.
But the story doesn’t end here. As the religious leaders slowly walk away, Jesus asks her if there is anyone left to condemn her. No one is left. In a brilliant moment of combining the truth of God and the grace he offers, Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” That is the approach spiritual leaders should take. God is both just and merciful, and both must be preached. A sermon that follows this guideline condemns homosexuality for what it is, which is a distortion of the good gift of sexuality. This same sermon, however, should encourage a peaceful and loving attitude towards those in the LGBT movement.
To Christians who are tempted to sacrifice morality on the altar of supporting the LGBT movement, take a moment and reevaluate what love actually is. Though our culture has tried to combine the two, love and lust are radically different. One is selfless and live-giving while the other is selfish and destructive. Truly loving someone means instructing them in the way of truth. Jesus prevented the woman in John 8 from being stoned, but also instructed her to leave her life of sin. That is love. Love is not changing your social media profile picture to a rainbow flag, or marching during “Pride Month.” Examine the love that Jesus expressed, and do the same.
Pride Month forces Christians to examine themselves. Are we actually preaching the gospel, which combines truth and love? Ask yourself: Am I reaching out to those who struggle with homosexuality and loving them as Jesus does? How will I advocate for legislation that defends natural marriage and the family? We must answer these questions. We must act. Love requires that of us. Christians have no excuse to passively sit back and say, “Who am I to judge?”
Oh that's just sunshine and peaches. I've got a few ideas of my own that I would like to suggest. They are simple, but I think more to the point.
How about not labeling us as pawns of the devil like Family Research Council president Tony Perkins did here:
Or not expressing a desire to kick us out of the United States, like FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg did here
Or not implying that we want to treat Christians like the Nazis treated Jewish people during the Holocaust, like Perkins did here.
Basically stop trying to make our lives hell. The vast majority of us aren't struggling with our sexual orientation or gender identity. But we do struggle with the effects of the lies told on us by those will then claim that they are speaking in love.
We neither want nor need that type of love.
And one more thing, particularly to Ms Caum. Instead of focusing so much on what the Bible supposedly says about homosexuality, focus on what it says about lying and bearing false witness.
Religious-right activist Ralph Reed appeared on Daystar’s “Joni Table Talk” program last week to promote his new book, “For God and Country: The Christian Case for Trump.” During the broadcast, Reed complained that evangelical Christians have repeatedly been “demeaned” for supporting President Donald Trump despite the fact that they have been completely “vindicated” as the president has systematically enacting their political agenda.
“I think what Christians saw was not a perfect man because none of us are perfect,” Reed said, repeating the standard phrase used by evangelicals in defending Trump. “Not someone who had never failed to sin or make mistakes. He’s acknowledged that he’s a sinner, as we all are.”
Reed’s claim that Trump has acknowledged that he is a sinner obviously conflicts with Trump’s own repeated declarations that he doesn’t ask God for forgiveness because he is a good person who doesn’t “do a lot of things that are bad.”
Granted, it's never a good time for anyone, much less anyone who calls themselves "Christians" to claim that they feel vindicated for supporting Trump. But in the middle of a pandemic made worse by his bad leadership coupled with growing controversy about his inaction against Russia when finding out that Putin put a death bounties on our soldiers, one has to question the values of Christians such as Reed. Maybe it's just me, but I've always been taught that Christians don't have to make excuses for or give praise to the devil.
Reed is the second religious right leader in a week to praise Trump for giving conservative evangelicals what they want in terms of power. On Thursday, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins claimed that Trump deserves praise in spite of everything else (which would include his lies, inept leadership, all-around bad character) because he has put 200 judges on the bench.
Just something to file under "keep the receipts." Evangelical conservative leaders aren't living in a different world from the rest of us. It's the same world but they simply don't care. They don't care about the pandemic. They don't care about Trump's eyebrow raising relationship with Putin. And they certainly don't care about the bounties on the heads of our soldiers. The only thing they seem to care about is having power and influence over American policy and they are willing to attach their lips to the ass of anyone who gives it to them.
If and when Trump goes down to disgrace, folks like Reed and Perkins and their ilk should go crashing with him down the same hole. All the way to the bottom.
Merritt Corrigan, Donald Trump's latest appointee, sent out homophobic tweets.
At this rate, it would be news if any of Trump's picks turned out to be at the very least somewhat adequate instead of disasters, homophobic or otherwise.
A Trump administration appointee at the United States' agency responsible for foreign aid has a history of inflammatory rhetoric aimed at refugees, the LGBTQ community and women.
The comments come from Merritt Corrigan, the recently appointed deputy White House liaison at the US Agency for International Development, in tweets in 2019 and 2020.
CNN's KFile reviewed 400 previously unreported tweets from Corrigan's feed, which were captured by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
Corrigan previously worked at Hungary's Embassy in the US where she repeatedly tweeted support for far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, calling him "the shining champion of Western civilization," according to ProPublica, which reported on several of Corrigan's tweets on June 5.
Girlfriend is racist, anti-woman, Islamophobic, and very, very homophobic:
In October 2019, she shared a Breitbart article which reported that anti-transgender ads bolster Republican turnout in elections, and said, "We have to speak out now about the transsexual agenda before it becomes normalized."
Later, in the same month, she linked the acceptance for LGBTQ teens was related to an increase in teen suicides and also mocked former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, for pretending to be in a "real marriage."
Corrigan was particularly critical of conservatives who embraced LGBTQ people, writing in October 2019, "The morally bankrupt GOP must be held accountable for its total capitulation to, and tacit endorsement of, the gay agenda."
In another instance she mocked conservative tolerance of gay people writing, "The conservative case for just throwing in the towel and embracing globohomo."
“Our homo-empire couldn’t tolerate even one commercial enterprise not in full submission to the tyrannical LGBT agenda,” Corrigan also wrote on Twitter before she was hired by the Hungarian embassy in Washington.
Asked about Corrigan’s writing, acting USAID spokesperson Pooja Jhunjhunwala said the agency has a “zero-tolerance policy of any form of discrimination or harassment based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion or any other possible distinguishing characteristic that can define any of us.”
“All employees are held to the highest of standards and are expected to treat one another with dignity and respect. Period,” she said. “This includes political appointees, civil servants, foreign service officers and contractors.”
Of course we all know that this is Trump-speak for "if we ignore it, it will blow over and then be forgotten for the latest incident of our boss showing his orange ass."
