Those of us on this site who are part of and supporters of the gay and lesbian community have suffered a lot recently. First there was Proposition 8, which affects many directly but is also powerful symbolism, given that it passed in (supposedly) liberal California. Next there is the selection of Rick Warren to give the opening invocation at the inaugural -- an inaugural which many in that community had been looking forward to, but no more.
So the first thing I want to do in this diary is to express my solidarity with them. They have a right to be sad and angry. I hope things get better soon, starting with the court's striking down of what I believe to be an unconstitutional law.
But sometimes, expressions of grief and anger have been accompanied by expressions of bigotry against a large group of people, of which I am a member. I'd like to propose that we reject all bigotry, that directed against gays and lesbians, and that directed against religious believers of all stripes. More below the fold.
Folks have done a pretty good job of policing bigoted statements against gays and lesbians. If you are a TU, you can peruse the hidden comments (if you can stomach it) for proof of that.
But bigoted comments of another stripe often go unchallenged and even celebrated. For instance, I dished out my first ever HR yesterday for this:
People are stupid
If they weren't stupid, there wouldn't BE a prayer.
QED.
As of this moment, the score on that one is 7+/1-, with one commenter describing my decision to HR it as "fascist."
Here's another from the same thread:
I'm sick and tired...
...of delusional people being given a national platform that's paid for with my tax dollars. This Warren business is just the most recent. Believe whatever fairy tales you like, but keep your fucking psychopathic god out of my face - and my government.
This one's 35+/0-. I could keep going. If you can't understand the bigotry in these comments, just replace "stupid" and "a prayer" with "immoral" and "homosexuals" in the first comment. The claim in the second one is similar to the first: the religious are delusional believers of fairy tales. I suppose the second poster could say, if he were so inclined, "I didn't mean all religious people are delusional. I just meant some." But this would still be a bigotry rhetorically akin to that of my childhood classmates in Alabama who told me when I was young that they "didn't hate all blacks. Just the bad ones." Both posters could make a valid point about the intersection of government and religion without resorting to bigotry.
Many feel their adversary is the church, and that is understandable, since much of the opposition to gay rights (and a host of other morally dubious positions) originates from churches. I offer no defense for those who would use religion to justify denying rights to others, especially when it is clear that this goes against a morality they otherwise subscribe to.
But many also recognize that not every religious believer is their adversary. Many are their strong supporters. In fact, gay people are leaders in my church and in many others.
Bigotry is a terrible response to bigotry. I would like to be able to commiserate with my fellow Kossacks, instead of avoiding the topic like the plague because I'm afraid that the character of the discussion will get ugly.
Philosophical appendix
Despite the straw-man nature of what follows, I feel it would be prudent to lay out in advance responses to some common arguments that I have heard here before. If you are not planning to make such an argument, then these responses obviously do not apply to you.
For those of you who may think that religious belief is simply irrational, and is therefore open to attack, here's my response: you're right, religious belief is irrational. But so is every other belief (or non-belief) regarding things like moral judgments and the fundamental questions of our existence. Science takes the existence of the universe as a postulate, and has therefore nothing to say about why we exist, or for that matter, whether to give up our seat to someone on the bus. Is religion a better approach than non-religion to these questions? Well, it is for me, but I can still respect those for whom that is not the case. Taking a definition of "stupid" as "unable to apprehend what is clearly apparent," I have just as much rational justification to call someone stupid who doesn't pray as they have to call me stupid for praying. That is, none at all.
For those of you who may say I have to speak out against those Christians who would use their faith as a bludgeon to oppress others, please know that many of us are doing just that.
Finally, for those who may claim that "organized religion is brainwashing," my response is first that such blanket statements are rarely correct, and this one is no exception. Why do I attend church? Quite simply, the traditions I observe are best practiced in a group, and the worship leaders are those who are most familiar with these traditions. (I wouldn't have the first idea of what to say at a baptism, for instance.) They are often serious scholars of the texts of the religious canon, and they often know, from experience, how to act when tragedy strikes, when people are sick, and when people are desperately in need. They do not somehow have a better idea about "what God thinks," and congregants do not necessarily shape their moral or even theological beliefs to fit the preachers', any more than people on this site shape their political beliefs to fit what appears on the FP. Church is also a community of friends, who come together to support one another, and to focus on doing good works.