Challenging the Christian Embrace

Does any particular body, political, religious, or otherwise, hold the keys to kindness and respect?  I have a dear friend who believes that Christianity is exactly that key.  This friend complains that schools would be safer places for students if only bible study was still a part of the curriculum; that if students were compelled to participate in organized prayer, everyone would be nicer to each other.  I could not disagree more.  Consider the following:

One Christian pundit asserts that protecting the LGBT community from violence through hate-crimes legislation actually “poses the greatest single threat to religious free speech rights in America today.”  Really, not allowing someone to beat up fags is a violation of his freedom of expression.  I suppose that is true, but to be consistent, would it not also be within my right to express love for my lesbian partner through a marriage license?  This, of course, involves the consistent application of a principle (freedom of expression) – not central to most Christians’ arguments.  Read on:

Here is an entire Christian organization promoting the idea that equality is a privilege only for certain people (guess which people) - that if it cannot be rationalized via biblical logic, it must be wrong and therefore eradicated. Hidden among the more than prolific writings on this site (yes, I read several articles… without vomiting… barely) are suggestions that the effort to stop homosexual teen suicide is a bad thing.  One article states that a gay marriage is wrong because it cannot produce children; however, it also maintains that this “rule” does not apply to “traditional” couples who cannot produce children as they at least model God’s intention for relationships – priceless.

From another article, “Contrary to what is frequently and erroneously stated in the media, there is no scientific or psychological proof that homosexuality is anything other than…” so now Christians are interested in scientific proof.  That is a bit of a double standard in my view.  Most appear uninterested in the science of evolution, after all.  As an aside – I see this repeatedly in Christian apologetics (the effort to prove Christian dogma).  When presented with data, a pundit may simply respond, “that is incorrect,” or “that is a lie,” and no contraindicative data is expected.  You tell me there is no proof, and I am supposed to believe you.  I suppose that is where faith steps in – convenient.  Oh, and the article is clear in its condemnation of “non-traditional” values, by the way.

Let me qualify that I struggle to believe any particular body could possess the whole answer.  I merely ask, how can a body which condones (if indirectly) violence against “non-traditional” values, that would suggest people unlike the body are to be viewed with skepticism, that could profess to believe that equality is a term belonging to only its own be a source for the proliferation of kindness and respect to all people?

The data is prevalent.  I invested only a few minutes and one search query in one search engine (“Christian truth about homosexuality” via Google) to unearth pages of resources like the ones I referenced above.  I would require little more effort to continue finding these examples, and I can certainly illustrate numerous examples from my own life experience.  I simply lack the stomach for the prejudice that Christianity parades as love and truth.

I will be the first to celebrate the many wonderful redeeming qualities on display by some Christians in the world today.  I believe fully that not all Christianity is evil and/or wrong, and it is not my intention to condemn as a whole any particular religion.  My point is that I do not believe curricular bible study is an antidote to the violence and hatred experienced by so many unfortunate children.  If anything, the cure for violence is the absence of religiosity.  After all, from what root does most violence evolve?  Hint: consider the central elements of almost every war throughout history.

I love my Christian friends just as I love my Heathen, Muslim, and Miscellaneous friends, but I occasionally feel that you are all on crack.  If that makes you angry, perhaps you should pray for me.  That will probably fix it.


Let the crucifixion begin!
Hugs,
Kate