Note to Christians: Get off the Pity Pot!!!
Monday the front page of the LA Times featured the saga of a young woman who feels oppressed by the fact that she cannot gay-bash at Georgia Tech, where she studies, among other things, the hatred passing as spirituality propagated in the Bible and Christianity as an institution.
Pardon me while I boo-hoo-hoo.
She's suing, of course, to retain her "rights," since the latest propaganda-ploy by those crafty Jesus-types is to flip reality on its head and claim that the people who own everything, run everything, make all the laws, and generally control life as we know it in the United States are in fact powerless and in need of defense.
Howzat again?????
I'm just re-reading Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown's defiant and heart-breaking and hysterical account of her heroine's life spent zigging and zagging to deflect the blows of the Moral Majority. They attack her character, her desires, her ethics, her beliefs, her looks, her choices, her actions; they commit her to an asylum for having consensual sex; they strip her of her college scholarship; they project every hateful belief they can onto her and feel righteous and justified in doing so.
So exactly WHO is being oppressed? Is it the people who cannot marry, love freely, adopt, and be themselves, or is it the people who CAN marry, love freely, adopt, be themselves? Not a real hard question, particularly for smart college girls like that one at Georgia Tech.
Unless of course her god insists that she minds other peoples' business. So a naked power play to discriminate against innocents disguises itself as a reasonable response to the Georgia Tech ban on hate-speech. Let me break down the logic of their rhetoric: I cannot let gays advance in their rights because I don't want them to and your stopping me from stopping them limits my "freedom."
Nope. If we forced you to have gay sex, Ms. Christian; if we forced you to get abortions, Ms. Christian; if we prevented you from adopting because we don't want innocent children exposed to your brand of hate, Ms. Christian; if we forbade you from marrying your choice of partner, Ms. Christian; THEN you would have something to sue about. And I would be right there using my considerable powers to help you.
But in the meanwhile, why don't you just try, just try, to do what your Jesus would do, and love your brother instead of suing for the right to call him a pervert?
Just a thought.
Comments
Boo-yah
Posted by: Ernie | April 12, 2006 02:06 PM
amen! Oh and I was at the grove today and when I returned to my car the front page of the LA times from THAT day was on my windshield. It was doggie eared to a full-page ad for born again christians. It was on at least a dozen other windshields as well.....
Posted by: Sarah | April 16, 2006 08:45 PM
In what way does she represent the whole group of Christians? If I made a gross generalization about gays, or women like that you would call me a bigot. But, I guess its okay for you to violate the whole group of Christians. If I had a blog (like yours) and made those types of generalizations about Jewish, African-American, Homosexuals, and Women; I am sure that USC would not retain me as a Student. What you have taught me (having never taken a class from you, making it the only thing you have taught me) it’s okay to be a bigot if you have a Phd.
Posted by: tyrant | May 8, 2006 08:36 PM
Why is it when a Christian tries to express their views on Homosexuality, it is called Hate. But when others express their views of Christianity it is ok. Seems like a double standard to me??? She is suing so she can express what she believes just like homosexuals will sue to get rights. But here is the kicker, you say Christians are not letting gays advance in their rights, but you are also not letting Christians advance either.
Just another thought
Posted by: Chris | May 9, 2006 11:01 AM
Just as Dionysius the Elder had a point (Damocles' sword), so does the tyrant above. Amost every time I see non Christians criticising the rest of us it's like they're saying, " I wouldn't oppress like THAT. I'd oppress even better!" It especially beggars me to see Phd.s so bereft of the Humanities they're entrusted with. Don't argue that Christians are doing a lousy job! Any anthropologist worth their salt will tell you that EVERYBODY is lousy at running human affairs. So don't be a hater on a hater hunt! It shouldn't be a one way street where some group can lionize themselves and bash everyone else who doesn't go along while the opposition gets shouted down. What about the proffessor who's being attacked as racist because he specializes in Shakespear? Do you see the ridiculousness of this kind of overcompensation?
Posted by: David | May 9, 2006 11:48 AM
I'm reading a dense book called "The Battle for God" bu Karen Armstrong. She says something about how fundamentalist Christians have a huge persecution complex. I'm not through the book yet. It stems from taking a mythical religion and trying to reduce it to reason-mythos ve logos, basically. Since that's pretty much an intenable stand, they're on unstable ground and always afraid.
Interesting. When you make a book like the Bible be completely factual, a lot of strange things happen.
Posted by: Eric Allen | May 9, 2006 01:12 PM
I love watching repsonses whenever a controversial subject is brought up. People begin arguing about ideology and miss the point that is rooted in reality. The bottom line is Christian or not, to belittle another human being is wrong and to sue for the right to do it is even more wrong. But yet once again, the REAL travesty is lost in a sea of bickering about personal views on who has the right idea. The sadder thing is that this so called "Christian" college student feels so threatened and small that she finds the need to lash out at a group of people to make herself feel powerful. Would someone get this girl some therapy PLEASE!
Posted by: Micahel | May 9, 2006 03:00 PM
"All men will hate you because of me."-Jesus
"Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man."-Jesus
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."-Jesus
"All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."-Jesus
"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me."-Jesus
Posted by: Gene | May 9, 2006 05:24 PM
Just because the world hates you doesn't make you richeous. It just makes you unpopular. Otherwise Jesus would be advocating Hitler, Saddam, Bin Laden, etc... I'm sure they all thought they were right too. Jesus is pretty specific about some things though ...
"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" - That's Jesus.
"Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." - That's Jesus too
"For God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." - Oops. Jesus again
I don't think chastizing people for their views is really what he was supporting with those scriptures. But that's just my opinion ... I could be wrong.
Posted by: Micahel | May 10, 2006 12:33 AM
Is it just me, or is there something unsavory about the way that some of these so-called christians display an inordinate interest in other people's sex lives and other people's children? There's something unwholesome afoot.
Posted by: Tony Comstock | May 10, 2006 09:01 AM
Alas, freedom of speech means even freedom of unpopular speech like the Georia Tech girl's rants on homosexuals. She is correct; it is hypocrisy for Tech to cherry-pick which sides are "acceptable" to express on any issue, especially one as controversial as this. The tools we use to supress the open speech of others today will be used to surpress our own speech tomorrow.
Better by far would be assigning her an essay: "Demonstrate, using facts with citations, that homosexual activity is harmful to society." And grade her on her reasoning. After a few of these essays, most activists of any stripe will shut up, and it's in keeping with the purpose of the school in a way that "speech codes" are not.
Posted by: Ned Harrison | May 11, 2006 04:54 AM
If one group can get in my face and tell me what to believe, why can I not get in their face to tell them what to believe?
Why does your freedom of speech call me intolerant, whereby doing so shows you equally intolerant?
Your rights to practice and to preach are no more greater, or lesser, than mine.
Perhaps both sides should think of this a bit more. You can't claim freedom of speech to throw your message in my face at a gay pride parade unless I have the same right to throw a message back at you in an anti-gay pride parade.
Until you understand that, and stop with the self-righteous hypocrisy (perhaps you don't like that since you are speaking out against Christians), the courts will always be the avenue most travelled.
Posted by: Michael | May 15, 2006 01:33 PM