just a guy with some ideas. like 6 ideas, maybe 7 or 8, but certainly not too many more than that.
Over the course of the last few days, I’ve now recieved over 250 letters from people around the globe who wanted an opportunity to express their beliefs and opinions to me. Or, in quite a few cases, to just curse at me. These letters have come via email, Facebook, and blog comments (most of which I’ve deleted at my discretion).
But I honestly think that my least favorites of all of these letters are the ones in which a “christian” goes in to great detail to explain to me their beliefs, and why they believe them - and then to explain to me that they just want to make sure that I don’t think that all christians are crazy murderers, and that the murderer of Dr. George Tiller does not speak for god, or christ, or jesus, or whatever.
Here’s why this upsets me:
- Why are you on the defensive? The murderer was part of a radical anti-government group who believed that the laws of Kansas did not apply to him, and that he didn’t even have to register his car. He was insane, and lived outside of the realms of normality.
- I just threw every iota of energy I could muster up at organizing an event that became something much bigger than I could handle. The last thing I want to hear, is you explaining to me why a man like George Tiller doesn’t deserve a vigil, or to be called “caring” or “kindhearted”. Were you at the vigil? Do you have any idea how many lives Dr. Tiller touched, or saved?
- I have no interest in your religion. Been there, done that. You guys tossed me out like a dirty swiffer pad and you have made no apologies. You quote “god is love” yet you show none to those who are different than you.
Lastly, and this is the part that really gets under my skin: several people of christian faith have emailed me or messaged me, and for some reason they feel the need to make it clear that they are “conservative” when it comes to issues like abortion and gay marriage.
Wait… what? Why does your hateful view of gay marriage have anything to do with this? Are you just adding insult to injury here, or what?
And it gets better. Because they usually like to throw out some biblical jargon or loosely quoted scripture to add on top of it all. And here’s the best one:
“Love your neighbor as yourself”
You quite obviously do not live by this “rule”. You just pointed out to me that you don’t support the gay rights movement. And if you don’t support gay rights, then it gets quite simple, really:
If you don’t support gay rights, then you obviously consider me to be less of a human being than you. You must think that there’s something wrong with me. Something that makes me undesirable to your little world. ‘Cause let’s be honest here - gays don’t go to heaven, right? I mean, you christians certainly don’t want us fags up there with you.
The moral of the story is this: If you don’t support my rights as a human being, then I have nothing to say to you. If you can honestly look me in the face and tell me that you don’t believe I should be able to have all the same rights as you do, just because I happen to fall in love with men - then we are not friends. We will never be friends. We may put up a little charade and be polite to each other - because that’s what I do, I am a polite, caring person - so we may pass each other or see each other and smile, nod, and say hello. But I do not like you.
And as long as we’re clear on that, then I think we’ll operate just A-OK in this little world we share.
And when your children and grandchildren are old enough to read and understand the course of history, I hope that they are ashamed of you and the intolerant way that you lived your life.
nailed it like jesus.
