While we have come a long long way toward the acceptance and understanding of LGBT people across this country (and many others), we still have some anti-gay extremists that we have to watch out for and keep an eye on. And, some of them are so extreme that they advocate violence against LGBT people. What is somewhat more frightening is that a few of them are supported by GOP candidates for president. The following clip is the hateful rantings of one of these anti-gay extremists.
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From Right Wing Watch:
In his most recent video, extremist anti-gay activist Theodore Shoebat declared that Jesus Christ would peronally beat gay people to death.
"When you have the sodomites coming out into the streets and the Christians come and beat them up," Shoebat said, "the people who are beating up the sodomites don't really get punished because the society is so conditioned that way ... If there's a law written in the hearts of the people, then the people who fighting this evil, physically, with their hands, fighting them, beating them up, those people are not going to get in trouble."
"We don't have that in America," he lamented.
"Jesus Christ took up a whip and beat people up in his Father's temple," Shoebat declared. "Now imagine if sodomites were in his Father's temple. Jesus would have killed them all. He wouldn't just have hit them; Jesus got violent!"
Allow us to remind everyone that Shoebat was featured alongside several congressmen and GOP presidential candidates in an anti-gay "documentary" produced by Janet Porter, who now just so happens to be running for a seat in the Ohio legislature.
I find it amusing that he has a San Francisco t-shirt on. If there is a gay capital in this country, it is most likely San Francisco. However, let’s move beyond that and discuss the scripture passages that this extremist anti-gay man used to justify his advocation of violence against gay people. The passage is about Jesus and him throwing the money changers out of the temple. It is found in all four of the Gospels.
The only one of the four Gospels that mentions anything about a whip is the John passage, John 2: 14-16. And, even that passage does not say anything about Jesus whipping anyone with that whip.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the moneychangers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
From Patheos:
So what actually happens in the scene? Jesus, making a whip out of some ropes he found lying around, drove out the sheep and oxen (presumably their owners followed them out). Then he overturned the tables of the moneychangers. Finally, he tells the people selling doves to get out. He neither swings at the doves in their cages, nor does he whip any people. He uses a rope to drive out the sheep and oxen, like any shepherd or cattle herder would do.
And that is it.
Does Jesus get fired up? Yes. Does he perform a calculated prophetic action evocative of the temple condemnation in Jeremiah 7:1-15? Yes. Does he lose control and get so angry that he starts striking people with a whip? No, he never does that (though just about every picture that comes up in Google Images under this scripture passage shows Jesus swinging at people. Go ahead, check). He never hits people, never mind engage in action that somehow justifies as a prooftext for military action.
Nothing in this passage serves as justification for doing physical violence to other human beings, much less as a “just war” proof text. Jesus was no sissy, but not because he went around whipping merchants. If we want an example of his “manliness,” we need look no further than Sunday’s second reading from 1 Corinthians 1:22-25: “We proclaim Christ crucified… [for] the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” Unfortunately (for some), such passages don’t justify the pummeling of one’s neighbor. We may just have to deal with the fact that it’s us, and not Jesus, who seem to want and need that justification.
So, there you have it. This event told in the Christian scriptures cannot fairly and accurately be used to justify violence against anyone … LGBT or otherwise.
Now, on to the tops:
From alx9090:
If you're going for first comment in a Hunter diary, you'd better bring the funny. The comment is from NMDad.
From greenbird:
This comment by slambros found in Hlinko’s diary began a low-blow thread to burst Cruz's bubble, sorta.
From Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
In Laura Clawson's diary, "Fiorina angry the rules aren't being changed to let her into debate she didn't qualify for," raboof has the perfect response.
Top Mojo For February 04, 2016:
First comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject!
Picture quilt, courtesy of jotter: