Preach hate; get arrested — it’s the law!
Isn’t it amazing just how insensitive and obtuse some Christians can be?
As mentioned previously, some Christians are going to have a Rally for Religious Freedom, supposedly to challenge the Hate Crimes legislation recently expanded to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.
I just caught this video over at that linked website:
Throughout the video they are complaining about not being able to get up in other people’s face to share their opinions. And they seem to not understand that you can’t do that in society. A bunch of folks went to a Coming Out rally and were arrested for disturbing the peace and charged with various felonies. The guy at the end of the video was similarly charged with a hate crime after approaching a stranger at a car wash to preach at him.
The guy says he wasn’t motivated by hate, but by compassion. Bullshit. He had just heard his pastor preaching about homosexuality, and he was fired up and ready to spread the hate when he saw the stranger’s gay pride sticker on the car.
People are entitled to believe whatever insanity they wish. They are NOT entitled to carry their message of hate into places specifically to stir up the hate and incite a confrontation, which is the only reason they show up at such places. Why would Christians insist on going into a gay pride rally to preach hate? It is not love or compassion to tell someone “Your life is sin and here’s the way to fix it.” That’s hate. It is targetting a message of hate toward a specific, identifiable group of people, which is wrong.
The guy who led the group at the coming out rally was upset because counter-protesters were holding up signs to block the messages of hate on the Christians’ signs; and the counter-protestors were blowing whistles to prevent the preaching from being heard. And the Christians were whining about it. Unbelievable! The Christians were shocked that they were the ones being arrested and charged with felonies. How can they be surprised at this, when they were the ones entering a rally for the purpose of disrupting the gathering. The counter-protestors were merely preventing the disruptors from doing what they’d come to do.
They cannot claim “we did nothing wrong”, when they know for a fact that they were wrong, even those older grandmothers. They had no business showing up and doing what they did, so they were rightfully arrested and charged.
This upcoming Rally for Religious Freedom is an exercise in futility. Nobody is trying to take away their religious freedom. Religious freedom does NOT include getting up into other people’s faces, or showing up at places where you are not welcome, simply for the purpose of preaching your own brand of hate. You can believe what you want, and preach whatever nonsense you want inside your churches. You cannot go out into the streets and expect a free audience without challenge in public any time or any place you choose.
Why signs? Why tracts? Why anything? Why protest? If anything needed to be done by Christians at a coming out event, how about passing out bottled water to people or some other type of assistance to help the event go smoother. Then, if someone asks about why such help is being done, then tell them who you are (from xx church) and leave it at that. IF a person asks why would a Christian be helping at a GLBT coming out event, THEN explain the gospel, being sensitive and honest about answering questions. Present an attitude of love (DUH!) and sincerity. This is just my take on how things should be handled by Christians at these events.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:18 pmBut why show up at all? I am sick and tired of hearing conservative evangelical Christians attack the rest of us by asking “What do WE need to do about THEM?” it is not the Christian’s place to go invade other people’s events just to tell them they are “sinners” or to “share the gospel”. Christians don’t need to DO anything about OTHERS, other than leave us alone.
MOST of the GLBT folks attending these events are already Christian, and many of them are happy in their own churches, understanding the gospel in their own way. And if they aren’t Christian, or have left Christianity, they sure as hell don’t need to have Christians chasing after them to tell them what they’ve already heard and rejected, and especially not in a venue where such proselytizing is not warranted.
Whether they are Christian and happy, or not Christian and happy, it is a sure bet that 99.99% of them have already heard the wingnut version of the gospel and they aren’t going to the festivals to get preached at. There’s a time and a place for everything, and if the GLBT folks want to hear that they are sinners and bound for hell simply for being who they are, they know exactly where to go find that message. The Christian message of these preachers is ugly, hateful, abusive, and UNWELCOME.
And most Pride and Coming Out events are already well covered by gay-friendly churches, synagogues, and other places serving the spiritual needs of their members. They put up their booths in such events as a welcome. They aren’t there to tell the gays how wicked they are, the way those evangelical anti-gay Christians in the video are doing.
Passing out bottled water to hydrate festival attendees is great. Passing out bottled water as a way to initiate a conversion effort is morally reprehensible, and not much different from feeding the homeless but forcing them to listen to a sermon before dinner is served. That’s disgusting.
If a religious group doesn’t 100% support the GLBT community, they have no business interfering in GLBT events.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:02 pmWhy do these douchebags always think what they’re preaching is something we haven’t heard, we want to hear, and will change our minds? Do they really think getting up in our faces and screaming their nonsense will magically make us “turn straight” and become mindless Godbots like them?
Sorry, I was thinking rationally there. I have that problem, you see.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:13 pm@Buffy:
Many of them have the idea that “others” have preached hate, or shared the gospel wrong, or something, but they themselves are doing it “in love” and “for the right reason”, and therefore it is somehow okay, and that therefore, because they come “in love and compassion”, we shouldn’t be offended or insulted.
None of them seem to understand that “You are a sinner and Jesus died for your sins” is NOT a loving message at all. Especially when they are highlighting what they believe is a sin worse than others, that somehow GLBT are worse sinners than others, or even if “all sin is the same” our sin deserve to be made into their “special project”.
Even people like Steve (above) has said “all sins are sins”, but I don’t see Christians gathering in groups to protest and preach in bars or other places. They pick and choose what they want to call “sin” and target those whom they believe are lesser or weaker. And even with that, they aren’t consistent in their labeling of sin, as many churches realize now that being gay is NOT a sin.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pmAnd furthermore, the preaching of the gospel is NOT that “Jesus died for your sinS”, but that “Jesus died for your sin-nature”, since supposedly just being human at all is enough to warrant eternal damnation. If Christians spent as much time on their own drinkng, wife-beating, adultery, divorce, child-abuse, thievery, bigotry, discrimination, and all their other problems, they’d have no time for snooping into other people’s bedrooms, which is ALSO a sin (gossip, meddling, etc.).
November 11th, 2009 at 5:10 pmI notice that they fail to mention that Marcavage makes a habit of being unruly and disruptive in order to get arrested. In short, he’s a Professional Martyr(tm).
November 11th, 2009 at 10:28 pmoh that’s even worse. I’d not heard of him before.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:01 am