Crossposted on Pam's House Blend
This is hard for me to write, seeing as the motivation for doing so is the loss of a friendship. I am a terminally honest person and I refuse to lie for any reason, even to spare someone's feelings. Unfortunately, when the truth hurts, you find out who your real friends are.
I know, as we all do, several Christians that complete pieces of shit. But I ALSO know, as I hope most do, several Christians who are good decent people who fight for equality right alongside us. These are PEOPLE, and they act based on their own religious choices.
Christianity itself is neither evil nor good. It has equal elements of both, but as a religious philosophy it is in itself nuetral. Evil or good taken FROM Christianity is the responsibility of each individual Christian, or the Churches that interpret it. Christianity itself CANNOT be good or evil, only what people choose to do with it.
So when a friend of mine today was blanket bashing Christianity as evil, and hurting and offending some of my Christian friends who fight for our equality, I stood up to her and took her to task for it.
Bigotry IS bigotry. Regardless of the source or the target. My friend assumed that being a Trans Woman who was forced into a trans version of a NARTH-like camp gave her impunity to bash all Christianity as ever she sees fit. This is utter bullshit. A bad experience NEVER gives you the right to shit on other people.
I myself have been hospitalized by a group of teenagers screaming that god hated my faggot tranny ass. I choose not to blame all Christianity for 7 idiots with an axe to grind.
So let me illustrate this point as bluntly as I can.
"I think homosexuality is evil but I don't hate all homosexuals!"
Sound familar? Of course it does. We hear it from NOM every day.
"Christianity is evil, but I don't hate every Christian."
A quote from my Twitter friend. See the parallel there?
When I meet an idiot Christian bigot tring to condemn my existance, I calmly point out to them the facts about the Bible and Homosexuality, since the truth does not justify the bigotry. I don't blame the religion itself because some idiot read the Bible wrong and uses it to excuse their bigotry.
And by that same token, I won't stand by while someone uses a bad experience to justify bigotry TOWARDS Christianity. ALL bigotry is wrong.
Sadly my now former friend didn't want to believe she was being no better than Maggie Gallagher. Her own words proved her bigotry. She even acknowledged she knew she SOUNDED like a bigot but swore she wasn't. And just like Maggie, my friend resorted to calling me a liar and accusing me of libellous insults rather than believe even the possibility that she might have bigotry in her heart. She resorted to lamenting how I had surrendered to "insanity and delusion" by lying about her and defending the evil Christianity.
The delusion of course, is hers. And she was the only one lobbing insults. I expect the blunt honest truth from my friends and they know to expect such from me.
Bigotry is bigotry. When even the bigot has to acknowledge that what they say might SOUND like bigotry (but fer sure honest totally isn't, I swear!), it's a sad lack of a grip on reality to be in such deep denial of it.
This is why I attack what people like the NOM folks say and do, not their religious faith. I attack their ABUSE of faith, not the faith itself.
Bigotry is bigotry no matter what coat it wears, and all bigotry is wrong. And I will not back down or lie about it to spare someone's feelings. I'm sorry that bigots feel hurt and insulted when they are called bigots. I will NEVER be sorry for telling them truthfully that they ARE bigots.
Even if the truth hurts, lies hurt worse.
:;applauds::
ReplyDeleteI wish more folks realized this.
I'm just depressed my convictions cost me another friend.
ReplyDeleteBravo, hun. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteDisgreed. So we live in a liberal society and have double standards to maintain?
ReplyDeleteYou're confusing an idea with the ideas they hold and it defies all logic and reason.
Fascism is evil. Does that offend fascists? Am I bigoted for saying that?
Racism is evil. Am I offending the racists now? The notion of tolerance is relative to what is being tolerated.
We can't pick and choose which ideas to protect and which to openly criticize.
In a liberal democracy we criticize ideas that are bad and eventually reject them and refine ideas that are good.
Read the bible. Is the Christian ideal of a patriarchy evil or good? How about it's influence on homophobia? When you say such things against any concept, you're only trying to quiet dissent as history has shown.
Yes. It's 'evil' or in short -- a really bad idea. It's not bigotry to say that. It's honest and natural. It's a cop out to say otherwise.
P.S. Your post on Dr. Laura was amazing and I couldn't have said it better myself.
ReplyDeleteBut I think you've sadly undermined it here.
I am a Christian and don't consider myself evil, of course--nor my faith. But it is really refreshing to read someone who is not a Christian say what you wrote here and call bigotry for what it is no matter who is using it: wrong. So thank you!
ReplyDeleteAnd just like all bigotry, I believe it stems from ignorance--whether it is ignorance about what a person truly believes or whatnot. I find most people fairly ignorant of the Christian faith--and some of them even profess Christianity! Some of the ones who profess Christianty also (IMO) represent it wrongly.
I can relate to losing friends due to your convictions. I too have lost a few friends along the way because they could not accept my Christian faith or beliefs. It's sad, but a part of the price we pay for sometimes standing up for what we believe and/or even living our faith out in life.
Anyway, thank you again for your post here--I find it encouraging since many times Christians are called bigots while others don't realize their own bigotry toward Christians. ;-)
I'd say God bless you, but I don't mean to offend. . . just know that when I say it, coming from my heart I mean it as a GOOD thing. :-) I do wish you well.
To Anonymous; I'm sorry but you are mistaken. And I have undermined nothing. I have thoroughly read every version of the Bible. I cannot attack the ignorance of bigots without having done so. I know it far better than "Christians" like the folks at NOM. And keeping in mind that the Bible is made up of different books written by different people, I stand by my statement that the religion of Christianity in and of itself is nuetral. There is equally as much good espoused in it's pages as there is evil. The evil that stems from Christianity is WHOLLY dependant upon what each individual person chooses, yes CHOOSES, to take from the Bible. I know MANY Christians who choose to ignore the evil messages and focus solely on the good. And yes, I've dealt with many bigots who chose to follow the evil. So to bash Christianity itself very much IS blind bigotry, and you are making ludicrous excuses to justify clinging to that bigotry. Racism is not a philosophy or a religion, therefore you CANNOT compare it directly to religion. On top of that, the existance of good kind Christians, as proven by the very comments this blog has received, who support and help fight for true equality, proves that Christianity is NOT uniformly evil.
ReplyDeleteSo attack bigots who abuse religion to justify bigotry all you like. But if you blanket-bash the entire faith, and by default even the GOOD folks who practise it, you ARE being every bit as much of a bigot as the NOM folks and you NEED to be BETTER than that.
I have the moral high ground in my debates with NOM because I ONLY attack their actions, and their misuse of the faith, not the faith itself.
If you TRULY want to better the world, don't stoop to bigotry in attacking bigots, and thus undermine yourself.
@Anonymous B; Thank you.
ReplyDelete