|
Understanding and confronting Christian hate speech
What are these 'moral questions'? When does religious morality become hate? Let's examine the religious right's escalation of intolerance towards gay rights, and see how this leads to overt hate.
In her post below, Joan Bokaer talks about a service at the Airport Church in Toronto turning into a political rally to to urge members of the Canadian parliament to vote against an 'unbiblical' gay marriage amendment. If there is one thing that rallies the extreme right and conservative Christians, it is the advancement of human rights for gay, lesbian, bi- and trans-sexual people. While the bible only mentions men, modern belivers expand that to encompass all non-hetrosexual acts and orientations. (For a deeper explanation of Lev. 18:22, go here.) For religious absolutists, this verse is divine permission to condemn, persecute, and hate and even kill those who engage in the forbidden act. The irony is that many other things that are also considered an 'abomination' to God, like shaving, tolerating disobedient children, wearing clothing of mixed fibers, eating cheeseburgers, shellfish or pork, are not forbidden by these absolutists, but the Biblical penalty is the same. The fear of an expanding mythological 'gay agenda' has caused many conservative pastors and churches to say and do many things that express overt intolerance and hatred toward those they see as offenders. The American Family Association has again boycotted Ford because they are advertising to gay people, and a Seattle area preacher has told his flock to buy and dump Microsoft stock to protest the company's endorsing a gay rights bill in that state. The most overt example of hate speech is Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church who go to funerals of gayand military people and parade hateful signs around. While little has been done in the US to counter overt religious hate speech, other countries have noticed this trend in their midst and have taken action to put an end to it. In Canada, a bill C-250 was passed banning hate speech in 2004. In Sweden, Australia, South Africa, and the UK, laws have been passed to criminalize hate speech of not only Christians, but of any faith that invokes hate and intolerance. In the UK, this law was aimed at Islamic hate speech, but in Australia, the laws there were meant to quell anti-Islamic hate speech from conservative Christian churches. In the US, individual states are taking up the matter of hate speech, and individual companies are standing up to those who promote intolerance, and the SPLC Intelligence Report last spring highlighted the anti-gay push of many conservative groups. Do you have to hate certain people and things to be a real Christian? To some, you must. For the rest of us, it is a virulent toxin that must be isolated from the greater culture. In order for our culture to survive and thrive, people need to have basic rights- no matter what their sexual orientation might be. Christ taught us to love our neighbors, not hate them. We must remember that.
Understanding and confronting Christian hate speech | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
Understanding and confronting Christian hate speech | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
|
||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
print page