Christian exodus during anti-bullying talk
By Colin Wright on April 30, 2012
Dan Savage, founder of the It Gets Better campaign was a key speaker at a national conference on journalism this week, and was ticketed to deliver a talk on anti-bullying, a topic on which he is fluent. It is certainly no secret that the largest amount of gay bullying is religiously motivated given that the Bible explicitly describes it as a truly sinful act, and those partaking in such pleasures are abominations deserving of the death penalty.
Lev. 18:22, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”
Lev. 20:13, “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them.”
It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to give an adequate talk regarding the issue of gay bullying without mentioning the Bible. Tiptoeing around this fact is counterproductive, since the issue needs to be addressed squarely if things are ever going to get better. Dan Savage knows this perhaps better than anyone, and so he pulls no punches. Consequently, many Christians left their seats and headed for the exits, upset about what they were hearing. Here is that particular part of Dan’s talk.
A thing to note about Dan’s rant is that he said nothing disparaging about Christians. All he did was quote scripture and reveal the absurdly high levels of hypocrisy that many Christians emanate when they cherry pick Bible verses to suit their needs. The Bible promotes anti-gay sentiment, and people frequently use that as justification to treat homosexuals poorly and limit their rights. However, as Dan points out, the Bible also explicitly condones slavery, yet modern Christians seem to have no problem ignoring the almighty in this case. This, then, reveals the obvious reality of the situation—Christians are not getting their moral compass from the Bible, but instead have their own internal sense of morality just like anyone else, including nonbelievers.
Also, Savage rightly points out how silly it is for Christians to walk out on him during his talk. After all, Dan, as a gay man, is the constant target of these Biblical verses and the resultant religiously motivated hatred. What kind of message are these Christians trying to convey with their exodus? What kind of statement are they making other than revealing their own embarrassment at the fact that they’re being forced to confront the harsh reality regarding the content of their holy book and then choosing to ignore it? They’re not saving face by walking out of that room. If anything, they’re helping Savage make his point by showing how impervious they are to reason.
I wish that those walking out were embarrassed. I don’t think so. They still choose not to confront or contemplate anything that borders on reality. They’ve been indoctrinated and crave a false safety and a god that’s responsible for their life path. They’re passive observers of their own lives with free will lost somewhere in the “god’s plan” thing, Oh, and eternal bliss. Can’t leave that out. Knowledge of the natural world is not embraced, it’s shunned. Good grief! What broke my heart is that they are still so young. They’re destined to spend their lives without knowledge, only blind faith. How depressing. More depressing is that they’ll teach their children the same thing. They’ll just strip all their natural scientific intincts right out of them early on and create more arm waving, head bowing, god “fearing,” afraid of nashing teeth tortuous hell, mega-church-loving copies of themselves.