The call of today’s anti-gay Christians is, “Stop calling us bigots, everyone! Just because we believe what the Bible says about homosexuality doesn’t make us bigots!”
So, let’s think about that.
Pertinent question #1: When, if ever, does the anti-gay Christian irrefutably become a bigot?
Answer? The moment that he or she does anything whatsoever to restrict the rights of any other person, based upon the fact that that person is gay.
It is not beliefs that make a bigot. It is actions.
If you vote against gay marriage, or gay rights, you are a bigot, as surely as anyone who voted against civil rights in the 60’s was a bigot.
If you preach against gay rights—no matter how high your pulpit—you are a bigot.
If you write against gay rights, you are a bigot.
If you give your money or time to any Christian church, organization, or ministry that you know in any way actively works to restrict or limit gay rights, you are a bigot.
If, in private, you intimate to anyone that you don’t think gay people should be allowed to get married, you are a bigot.
No one wants to be a bigot, of course: not even the most virulent KKK member will claim that repelling appellation for him or herself. But bigot is as bigot does.
And since it’s impossible for a person to hold a conviction—especially one based on religious beliefs—that they don’t in some way live out, it is, alas, safe to claim that any and every Christian who believes that gay people shouldn’t have every last moral and legal right they claim for themselves is a bigot.
You can’t be in the KKK and claim that you’re not a bigot; you can’t be opposed to LGBT rights and claim that you’re not a bigot. Well, you can, of course. But if you do, you are fooling no one, least of all God.
Pertinent question #2: Does the Bible say that being gay is a sin?
Answer? No, it doesn’t. And here is the proof.
John Shore, advice columnist for the Asheville Citizen-Times (the major daily newspaper of Asheville, North Carolina) is the founder of Unfundamentalist.
Leave a Reply