Warning! Anything You Say or Do Might be Persecuting Fake Christians

X Facebook Email Flipboard Pinterest Print Reddit

Right wing bigots can’t get over Michael Sam. Look, let’s be precise: fake Christians can’t get over Michael Sam.

The college star was drafted by the St. Louis Rams despite threats by religious extremists to put whatever team drafted Sam out of business. They felt somehow that Sam being allowed to play in the NFL violated their rights.

Most sane people would understand that banning Sam merely because of his sexual preferences is what would be a violation of rights – his rights, as it happens, but for these extremists, they are the only people who have any rights. The rest of us have to live our lives tip-toeing around hoping we don’t somehow “persecute” them by doing something they don’t like.

To make matters worse, Sam had the temerity to kiss his boyfriend, and to really make matters worse, ESPN and others had the nerve to televise the kiss. You remember Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Lies about Homosexuality complain that he was *gasp* “forced” to watch Sam kiss his boyfriend?

Talk about being persecuted, those poor bigots! Sam might as well have been Nero.

The thing is, Nero didn’t really persecute any Christians, because to be honest, there probably weren’t any Christians in Rome to be persecuted, and Sam didn’t persecute any Christians either. For one thing, any real Christian would have spent that time loving their enemies, like Jesus told them to do, and turning the other cheek, also per Jesus’ instructions.

I mean, look, I’m just a surly old son of Odin here, and tell me if I’m missing something, but aren’t Christians supposed to do what Jesus told them to do? And not do? Like, don’t pray in public because it makes you a hypocrite? And love your enemies and do unto others as you would have them do unto you?

Brian Tashman over at Right Wing Watch points to a little whine fest between Lars Larson and Breitbart columnist C. Edmund Wright. As usual with these things, they started with a false premise, namely that, a) Sam’s kiss is representative of anti-Christian persecution in America, and b) that all Christians are hostile to gay rights and gay people.

You mean, like the Pope, who said, “Who am I to judge a gay person?” That Christian?

And isn’t that what Jesus says to do anyway? Not judge?

You know, when people wanted to stone a woman and Jesus said, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”?

And, “Judge not, that you be not judged”?

Well, far be it from these bigots and fake Christians to care what Jesus said. To be fair, they probably don’t even know what Jesus said because you have to actually open the Bible to find out, and if there is one thing pretty obvious about the Religious Right, it’s that they have never opened the Bible they pretend to be defending.

At least not the New Testament. You know, that part of the Bible by and for Christians.

And in fact, Gallup just reported that support for same-sex marriage has reached a new high of 55 percent. This means there are quite a few American Christians who also have no problem with Michael Sam.

But Lars Larson and C. Edmund Right are pretty sure that kiss persecuted them and worse, that it’s a lot like making it a crime to insult Mohommed. Or putting an NFL franchise out of business for drafting a gay player, I’m sure they’d agree.

Larson said,

You know what I compare it to, if you go to certain countries on this planet [are there other countries on other planets we can visit?] and you say a harsh word about Mohammed, the penalty is death. In America, if you say a harsh word about somebody who is homosexual, the idea is a public death or an economic death [like the Rams?] or a career death. So what’s the different in that kind of thinking?

And what’s the difference between being somehow punished for criticizing a gay kiss and threatening to put an NFL franchise out of business for drafting a gay player? Isn’t that a lot like those “insult Mohammed” laws you are complaining about?

Wright lamented that it was “not necessarily a great moment for America.” And then, with a powerful need to look in a mirror, Wright said, “They want to be celebrated and elevated and they want to quash anyone who dares not do that.”

For Lars, the infamous kiss gives us all a peak at the “ugly” said of “homosexual advocacy groups.”

I’ve got to say, listening to these two stumble over reality is not a real great moment either.

And that’s not even getting into World Net Daily editor David Kupelian, who said that Wright’s and Larson’s revulsion are of God. He told Linda Harvey,

If you take a 5-year-old who looks at that [kiss] and he says, ‘Ick, that’s gross,’ that is something of God, of innocence, goodness and wholesomeness in that child who sees something yucky.

To be honest, the only ugly thing I see here is all this hate in the name of a man who told them to love, and to forgive, and to turn the other cheek, instead.

But hey, let’s be fair: what is more fitting for these people? Fake persecution for fake Christians.

It’s a marriage made in heaven.

Author
Recent Posts

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

Latest posts by Hrafnkell Haraldsson (see all)