Fundy Pity Party

Commentary By Ron Beasley

The Christianists are having a pity party because of the Iowa gay marriage decision.  Rod Dreher is really upset that it's becoming increasingly difficult to openly preach his brand of hateful Christianity.

This morning, I had breakfast with some guys, including a lawyer. We weren't aware of this decision, but we talked about this issue. The lawyer said that as soon as homosexuality receives constitutionally protected status equivalent to race, then "it will be very hard to be a public Christian." By which he meant to voice support, no matter how muted, for traditional Christian teaching on homosexuality and marriage. To do so would be to set yourself up for hostile work environment challenges, including dismissal from your job, and generally all the legal sanctions that now apply to people who openly express racist views.

In Leviticus a lot more time is spent talking about the evils of pork and shellfish than homosexuality.  I doubt that Dreher would be very popular among the fundamentalist Iowa Christian pig farmers if he were to point that out.

    1: And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them,
2: Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.
3: Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
4: Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
5: And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
6: And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
7: And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
8: Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.
9: These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
10: And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
11: They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
12: Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

Leviticus has 27 chapters and there is a single line in chapter 18 on homosexuality.

 22: Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

No mention of female homosexuality.  Christians cherry pick the Bible to fortify their own  phobias and prejudice. 

The Anonymous Liberal chimes in:

So forgive me if I don't join Dreher's pity party for the poor oppressed Christians who are increasingly being forced to keep their intolerant beliefs in the closet.

Which brings me to another point. I find it more than a little pathetic that Dreher and his friends feel that they can't be "public Christians" without going out of their way to advertise their disapproval of homosexuality. First, there are millions of Christians in this country who have no problem at all with gay marriage or homosexuality generally (indeed, there are many gay Christians). But more importantly, since when is expressing disapproval of homosexuality a key part of being a "public Christian"? What about going to church or singing Christmas carols or celebrating Easter or (gasp!) volunteering your time to help those less fortunate? Aren't those pretty effective ways of being publicly Christian? Is gay marriage really going to make it any harder to do any of those things? We still do live in a majority Christian country after all, and I have a feeling that will continue to be the case even after we start treating gay people like full citizens.

Amen  

Comments

[mikkel]

It's also kind of ignoring the fact that all of that "abomination" stuff was referring to Judaic Law. They were never supposed to care that non-Jews ate shellfish, etc. In fact if you weren't Jewish you were considered a Good Person as long as you didn't murder or steal...and that was about the extent of it.

[Grendel72]

Leviticus has 27 chapters and there is a single line in chapter 18 on homosexuality.
You unfortunately give Christianity the benefit of shortening that quote, it should conclude:
...they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Which highlights precisely why people like Dreher should be marginalized. Their argument is not based on "disapproval" of gays, it is based on murderous hatred of gays. It is a vile and anti-human belief system that should be unwelcome in polite society.