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February 25, 2006
Clarification and rebuttal
Nothing like venting to get me in trouble. Both my sister and my good friend Brian responded to my previous blog entry. I'm halfway through my "I love Texas pictorial/list," but I guess I should have posted the negative and positive entries simultaneously. I've never been good with editing html, plus organizing photos is a nightmare. Apologies to everything good in Texas.
Nothing I wrote was a blanket statement covering ALL Christians. I singled out a nutcase CARRYING A CROSS on the side of a highway and a radio station show (housed in the same building as my sister's radio station) that espouses invading Iran because of visions of angels, protecting marriage from homosexuals (god forbid we honor monogamy!), and predicting bombs in all the liberal cities of America.
Yes, I would actually say that many Christians are very nice people who do charitable work, embrace diversity, and believe their beliefs should not be forced on everyone (although the last one usually doesn't happen, as their God is the one and only true god). However, these people are NOT present in the voting booths, on the airwaves, or in positions of power right now. Or if they are, they do not feel they have the support or strength to tell people that fear and hate are not acceptable ways to run a country. Texas is a state that overwhelmingly opposed gay marriage, writing it into their constitution. Texas is a state that rivals China in the enforcement of the death penalty, executing a disproportionate number of minorities and retarded people. Texas also leads the nation for hate crimes (including burning of black churches, this isn't just about gays).
Let me talk about the National Religious Broadcasters and their conventions, since I was upset about radio. The NRB claim they have 1600 stations and an estimated 140 million viewers. The NRB website of 2005 (http://www.answersingenesis.org/) actually advocates that humans domesticated dinosaurs and talks about ways to force religion into the science classroom. Even more fun, the head guy Frank Wright vowed at the last convention to fight hate-crimes legislation because it might inhibit radio dj's from espousing violence to gays. After the recent massacre in Boston, Dr. Dobson is being accused of encouraging the violence. He's on that radio station in Dallas, twice a day, when he is not drumming up support for anti-gay legislation or approving Supreme Court justices.
I know my sister and Brian feel personally attacked by my blog entry, but you were not the topic of conversation. By commenting on the blog, now you are. Yes, we had an argument about Fred Phelps, and I know I hurt your feelings by getting angry. However, it is VERY frustrating to me that this man has been preaching hate and murder for 8 years, even as violent crimes against gays are up 11% in NYC alone. Yes, I feel angry when his insane marches on gay funerals are ignored until his marches on soldiers' funerals bring popular opposition in the media. The death of a soldier who volunteers and was paid to support his country is in no way more valuable or important to the families than the gay man who was the victim of a hate crime. I believe that human life is valuable regardless of country, occupation, sexuality, religion, or how they died. Phelps is a horrible man who violates the privacy of families in the worst times of grief.
Does that Christian radio station (or any pleasant Christian radio station) come out against Phelps? Does that radio station come out against Pat Robertson when he clearly calls on the assassination of foreign leaders like Hugo Chavez, or blames the gays and liberals for the WTC attack? Does that radio station come out against Dobson when he predicts gays will lead to the "utter destruction of America?" More tellingly, did that radio station pull the other dj you described as virulently anti-gay? No, he brings in more listeners. When one of his listeners freaks out and beats a gay man to death, who stands out and tells him that his hate fueled a murder? If many Christians are good, caring people, why aren't more of them calling Christian radio stations and telling them that the stations are advocating hate?
There are many things I love about Texas, most especially people like my sister, Brian, and the rest of my friends. My sister's concern for people in need would make my mom proud. Brian has always been there for me. However, there are some glaring problems in Texas that many people ignore, either out of the insulation of wealth, a lack of concern for the future, or a mistaken belief of "it won't happen to me or my friends." I'm guilty of this myself. I don't tell kids at my school that I'm gay, even though it could theoretically help some kid see some positive gay role model. However, I'll hold a kid for detention for ANY bigoted comment. I have to pick my battles, just as any person in Texas must pick theirs.
Normally I can also just put up my defenses, ignore the worst of it, and enjoy myself. Maybe it was the homophobe at the wedding. Maybe it was the hate-filled, fear-filled radio rant. Maybe the normalcy of a cross-carrying crazy on the highway pushed me over. Maybe it was the drive to Lubbock and the reminder of how much I hated myself back when I lived there, the attacks on my friends at the gay bar in Lubbock, or the memory in Austin of marching down Congress to protect a gay person's right to adopt while surrounded by signs threatening death. All I know is that I had to write about it.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."
Posted by G at February 25, 2006 10:25 AM
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Comments
Well said, G. Texas may be filled with good people (or at least has good people,) but it's not enough. Apparently if the gay and lesbian population had bothered to VOTE in the marriage referendum, it wouldn't have passed.
Posted by: sam at February 25, 2006 01:37 PM
well said indeed. i hope you didn't take my comments as an attack any more than i took yours as an attack against me.
i too have many negative thoughts about texas and conservatism. it took me years before i was comfortable enough with myself to come out (and still haven't done so completely). when i did, it cost me many friendships that i held dear. i gave up my sense of security and sense of community with it. to this day i still feel like an outsider in both the christian and gay communities. there have been a few times when i've felt truly threatened by homophobic bigots.
yet i still feel that there are things worth preserving in texas. i also think that if the gay community parts the red river and starts with the mass exodus that the whole place will go to hell in a handbasket. i, for one, am not ready to see that.
Posted by: brian at February 25, 2006 04:44 PM
Rock on. That was amazing and dead on.
Posted by: ted at February 25, 2006 06:05 PM
Well said, G. Until I see religious people showing outrage over things like torture, hunger, poverty, and the death penalty, I'm not interested in hearing about how they're doing more good than harm. I'm seeing very little positive effects of religion -- in this country or any other.
We are supposedly the most religious rich country in the world, and we are appalling on every measure of protecting the most vulnerable of our society.
Here is a great article from Harper's:
The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong
Posted by: Barry at February 25, 2006 08:02 PM
It really chafes my heiner too that all of a sudden all these state legislatures are up in arms over Phelps when they didn't give a rat's ass that he was doing this at gay people's funerals.
As offensive as the Phelpies are, though, they have a First Amendment right to do this stuff, because they always stick to public sidewalks and other public spaces. So this whole thing pisses me off even further, because all these lawmakers are willing to burn the Constitution to make brownie points with their base -- but not for The Gay, of course.
The thing I think is most dangerous about Phelps is that he allows your garden variety homophobe to vote for anti-gay laws and so on while being able to tell himself that at least he's not as bad as THAT guy.
Posted by: Chris at February 25, 2006 08:31 PM
Brilliant piece, the final words of which are the truest and saddest words.
Posted by: Derek at February 27, 2006 08:51 AM
Please don't be offended when I really can't let your sister off the hook. I believe it's time for all "good" Christians - the "loving" and "accepting" ones - to stop talking and start taking action.
A Christian who stands by and "tut tuts" while Phelps spreads his disease is, in my eyes, complicit and almost equally responsible.
Isn't it ironic that Christians feel they have the right to complain when their community is painted with a single brush but they're comfortable using the same technique on us?
Evil must be opposed.
G: If you'd like to simplely delete this comment, I won't be heartbroken - she IS your sister after all. I've been thinking about this all day and just needed to get it off my chest.
Peace.
Posted by: Jim at February 27, 2006 07:21 PM
Well said, and I wish the moderate Christians (and Muslims!) would speak up more these days, and take a look around at how they are being portrayed by both their own, and by the media.
A more conservative blogger friend of mine was invited to speak as the token gay conservative on a local talk show. On many points, he was conciliatory to many of the token gay liberal's points. Afterwards he was asked to _not_ be so conciliatory, more confrontational, and to not agree or meet in the middle with the other talking head so much. Another large problem of what's going on today is the whole left/right, red/blue, black/white polarity that is being promoted by the media, who in the end are only intending to sell ad space. Inflamitory speech sells ads, peace and conflict resolution does not. We are all mostly purple.
Posted by: jimbo at February 28, 2006 04:40 PM