{"id":3081,"date":"2010-10-11T01:35:41","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T08:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3081"},"modified":"2010-10-11T01:35:41","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T08:35:41","slug":"are-christians-at-fault-for-gay-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/11\/are-christians-at-fault-for-gay-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Christians At Fault for Gay Abuse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The violence and emotional abuse that I anticipated when the Theocon and InsaniTEA wings of the Republican party ramped up their hate speech against the LGBT community is not coming to fruition at unprecedented levels.  Naturally, there has been a reaction from the left to blame Christians for this.  On one level, I agree.  But if we dig a little deeper, it can be demonstrated that Christians are not at all at fault.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"SafeZoneStopSign\"<\/a> Are Christians responsible for anti-gay bullying? Does religion sanction homophobia?<\/p>\n

With gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gendered (GLBT) youth often tormented by bullies, one is forced to consider whether or not Christian rhetoric is not at least partially responsible for the bullying behavior.<\/p>\n

Christian conservatives assert that homosexuality is a moral disorder<\/strong>.  Such assertions create a cultural climate that tacitly legitimizes the stigmatization of gay young people, making them obvious targets for harassment and abuse.<\/p>\n

Conservative Christian leaders oppose federal hate-crimes protection for the gay and lesbian community<\/strong>. Focus on the Family, a large and influential body of Christian conservatives, was one of several large and influential Christian groups that gave vigorous opposition to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, named for a gay man killed for his sexual orientation in Wyoming\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <The Portland Examiner<\/a>><\/p>\n

The author goes on to complete a compelling case that the religious right is at fault, and I have no argument against his position.  I agree with it 100%.  My disagreement stems from categorizing the Theocons and InsaniTEAbaggers as Christian.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jesus said that many would claim to be his followers who are not, so I base my definition of a Christian as one who follows Jesus\u2019 example.  On the subject of sexual orientation, whatever he may have said has not been passed down, so we draw a blank there, but we can follow the example of how he treated other people that the religious hierarchy labeled as outcasts.  He met them at the point of their need and treated them with kindness and compassion.  The only people who he condemned, were the Pharisees and Sadducees.  They were the ones who tried to force their own ideas of piety on everyone else, while seldom living up to those codes themselves.  They lifted themselves up with their hateful condemnation of others.  Does this sound like anyone we know?  If you answered Theocons and InsaniTEAbaggers, give yourselves a gold star.<\/font><\/p>\n

Were Jesus walking the earth today, we would find him helping those who are suffering.  He would be in prisons, under bridges, in hospices and AIDS clinics.  He would not be in the churches of the religious right.  They would not welcome his friends or his teaching.<\/font><\/p>\n

So I conclude, that the real Christians today follow Jesus\u2019 example by opposing the hatred and intolerance under discussion here, and that those who are responsible for it, are not Christians.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The violence and emotional abuse that I anticipated when the Theocon and InsaniTEA wings of the Republican party ramped up their hate speech against the LGBT community is not coming to fruition at unprecedented levels.  Naturally, there has been a reaction from the left to blame Christians for this.  On one level, I agree.  But […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-politics","category-religion","category-19-id","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}