There's not much I have to say in this diary beyond the letter itself. I hope you all read through it, and I strongly encourage you to write them yourselves. The recent events at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), in which one of their top people quit because his conscience was jarred to reality. Perhaps a campaign towards them can get one of their ilk to repent in their ways.
If you go to the AFA website (something I wish I could've avoided), you will NOT find a contact page. They hide it, probably to avoid dealing with the general public, however, thanks to Google magic and properly phrasing the search right, I provide to you the link. Enjoy my letter, and let's put some pressure on these people.
Mr. Fischer, Mr. Don Wildmon, Mr. Tim Wildmon,
Because I was raised with proper values, I am going to be respectful in addressing you. In fact, I will probably be more respectful towards you than you are towards many others. As someone who has studied history for years, and minored in it for my degree, I take strong exception to the "Gays are Nazis" analogy Mr. Fischer used on his recent show.
First and foremost, the Nazi analogy has been overused to the point of farce. Much as we may disagree with others, using the analogy of a man and his fanatical ideological followers, who murdered six million Jews, and God knows how many other Catholics, gypsies, and yes, homosexuals, to a group of people who want no more than their civil rights is unjust and morally wrong.
Furthermore, the fight that homosexuals are undergoing is not a fight to force any faith group to marry them. Marriage is a civil function. It always has been. Marriage existed in Greek and Roman societies before the birth of Christ, and before Christianity came to their lands. In America, a close reading of the Constitution says nothing about marriages being a sacramental right, but it says that states will respect other states in their marriage certificates and other licenses. It is the will of all the people who should make these decisions, and not just your group. I understand and respect your right to try and influence the debate, but your arguments rest upon a principle of inequality and false allegations.
Nazis murdered homosexuals like they did anyone else they considered unpure. There is a good chance that some family members of your leadership were part of that fight, and were killed by Nazis. It was a singular evil upon this Earth, the likes of which we have not seen since, and all the religious people who died at their hands have their memories degraded by your false rhetoric.
As to the hatred you have towards homosexuals as a general practice, as to the arguments you use, they come from one book. Leviticus. I studied the Bible quite a lot as a child. I was an altar server, and later, a lector in my Catholic Church. I understand the Bible quite well. Leviticus is the grand backdrop for your group, and others', pursuit of denying homosexuals equal rights, because God commanded in there that homosexuality was a sin. The thing is, I am positive that you and others violate other passages of Leviticus. In fact, Christians for centuries have violated commandments in Leviticus. If your only justification for denying homosexuals rights is a book that Christianity has not obeyed in hundreds of years, and all of you have violated other tenets of that book, then you are hypocrites and liars, and you are breaking God's word in many other ways.
I do not say this to be cute. I say and ask the following to prove my point:
Did your wives bring to the priest a lamb and a young bird for sacrifice after you had your children, as commanded by Leviticus 12:6?
Leviticus 25:17 commands that you shall not oppress one another? Is this not what your actions against homosexuals are doing? Is this not oppression?
Leviticus 11:5 and 11:6 declares rabbits to be unclean. Many pioneers in the 19th century, including the family of famed author Laura Ingalls Wilder, regularly ate rabbits for sustenance in the prairies for lack of other meat. Does this mean the Ingalls family were sinners against God?
If any of you eat pork, bacon, ham, sausage, hot dogs (and I am positive that at least some of your number do), then you are in violation of Leviticus 11:7 and 11:8. In fact, the vast majority of Americans would fall in that category. What should be America's punishment for raising and eating pork products?
I see in the about section that you are wearing a variety of fabrics. Leviticus 19:19 says you should not mingle linen and wool together. Yet, many suits do just that, where the shirts are linen and the suits wool. Your very leadership would be violating God's word, no? It also appears in Deuteronomy 22:11, in fact, two books make direct mention of the clothing issue, yet only Leviticus directly addresses homosexuality. A strict interpretation of that would infer that mixing linen and wool was of more importance, given its appearance two books later, no?
My point is this. Leviticus condemns homosexuality. You insist that as a so-called "Christian" nation (which is everything the Founders did not want, if you care to study their histories in depth, but that would ruin your preconceived notions, wouldn't it?), we have a duty to keep homosexuals from having equal rights. This belief stems from an strict interpretation of the Bible, much as your group insists on strict constructionists to interpret the Constitution. However, since I'm sure your clothes are made from mixed fabrics, and I know that most of America eats pork products every day (including many in your group, I'm sure), and that I highly doubt you sacrificed lambs and young pigeons every time your wives gave birth, you are selectively choosing what parts of the Bible to believe and not believe, and as I stated before, this makes you excessively hypocritical, and I believe Jesus Christ had a few words on that.
Matthew 23:13-15 "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."
You, sirs, are the Pharisees of our modern age, perverting the word of God, oppressing others under your selective interpretations of the Bible, and not following in the steps of Jesus, whom you claim to venerate. I know one day I will go before God. I freely acknowledge that I have often sinned. I am greatly sorry for the wrongdoing I have committed, but I try every day to be a better person, to love everyone, and I fight for the equality of all people, because as Christ, I do not think that I am superior to other people in the eyes of God. If I come before God, and I was wrong all along, then I will accept those consequences, but the God I love and pray to loves all of us, not just a select few.
Good day to you.