Don't laugh this one off.
Jan. 4th, 2010 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinAndrew Sullivan writes about American input on a Ugandan law that would make homosexuality a capital crime.
I want all of you to pay attention to the last paragraph:
But if you ever wondered what the ultimate fantasies of the Christianist right are with respect to gay people, just look at what they say when they think no American is listening.
This is not just a few people. I have personal experience of this.
There's a pastor whom I've known since I was little. When I was nine, I made my Baptist profession of faith and was baptized by him. He's performed five weddings and I don't know how many funerals for our family. He's widely respected and admired by the community. Even after I more or less lost the faith, I respected him as an honest preacher- he worked a day job six days a week, raised six children (most of whom had various developmental or health problems), and never once took advantage of his position.
Then, some years ago, I met him at a barbecue where he was talking with the Republican candidate for sheriff.
In the course of the conversation I learned that this man, who I had respected as a moral, loving, thoroughly Christian in the good sense man...
... believed homosexuals ought to die.
And saw absolutely nothing wrong or immoral with this belief at all.
He didn't preach that way, but in a conversation with just two other people in a relaxed athmosphere, it just came out.
Never underestimate the level of murderous bigotry remaining in this country- and always remember that in our society it is expressed not with a snarl, but with a cheerful smile.
I want all of you to pay attention to the last paragraph:
But if you ever wondered what the ultimate fantasies of the Christianist right are with respect to gay people, just look at what they say when they think no American is listening.
This is not just a few people. I have personal experience of this.
There's a pastor whom I've known since I was little. When I was nine, I made my Baptist profession of faith and was baptized by him. He's performed five weddings and I don't know how many funerals for our family. He's widely respected and admired by the community. Even after I more or less lost the faith, I respected him as an honest preacher- he worked a day job six days a week, raised six children (most of whom had various developmental or health problems), and never once took advantage of his position.
Then, some years ago, I met him at a barbecue where he was talking with the Republican candidate for sheriff.
In the course of the conversation I learned that this man, who I had respected as a moral, loving, thoroughly Christian in the good sense man...
... believed homosexuals ought to die.
And saw absolutely nothing wrong or immoral with this belief at all.
He didn't preach that way, but in a conversation with just two other people in a relaxed athmosphere, it just came out.
Never underestimate the level of murderous bigotry remaining in this country- and always remember that in our society it is expressed not with a snarl, but with a cheerful smile.
