We had a guest speaker today in church who talked about a special mission to orphans. He showed a short video on how many children worldwide are orphans or in danger of becoming orphans, and then he left us with a challenge. He said there were 5,000 orphans in Michigan and 10,000 churches. We need to do at home what we are encouraging others to do in other countries. All well and good.
The video used words to describe God's love. He Searches for us, He Adopts us, He Ransoms us, He Gives to us. And in turn, we should do the same to others. Again, all well and good.
And yet . . .
I cannot help thinking of the religious and moral exemption clause in the Michigan anti-bullying law, a clause that was put there at the instigation of conservative, pro-family Christians. Organizations like Focus on the Family. Now I am not blaming this speaker or anyone in the congregation personally for that. I honestly believe that many of them who support Focus on the Family and similar groups honestly do not know what their "friends" are up to. I mentioned this to someone at church who like me knows what it is like to be bullied, and she was aghast. I told her, go check this out. This is not a joke. This is in the law and these are the people who support it, who put it there. These are the people who are claiming to be on our side.
Well, I am afraid that it is going to backfire on them. There's already been a lot of comment on this clause and it is pretty damning. They are going to find that their anti-gay zealotry has crossed a line. It does no good for Dr. James Dobson or anyone else to piously say, "Well, of course we don't support bullying, but . . ." No, the whole thing is that they are afraid that by being decent to all that they will be seen as endorsing gays. Well, the Bible talks about other things besides homosexuality. What about all the sex scandals that rocked the evangelical world not too long ago? What about the pedophilia that infests the Catholic church and its leadership's inability to deal with it in a meaningful manner? And then they have the nerve to talk about homosexuality and why an exemption is needed in anti-bullying legislation. Well, you know what, let's not just talk about homosexuality. Let's talk about some of these other things the Bible is against. Shall we exempt them from anti-bullying legislation as well?
Why is it that Christian leaders have no problems saying that certain things are unequivocally wrong; yet when it comes to other things like bullying (or even having sex with kids), they start playing mumbly-mouth? Where is their courage then? The Church was silent, too, during the Holocaust, if I remember correctly. I have heard all kinds of excuses why, and that is all they are, excuses.
The video used words to describe God's love. He Searches for us, He Adopts us, He Ransoms us, He Gives to us. And in turn, we should do the same to others. Again, all well and good.
And yet . . .
I cannot help thinking of the religious and moral exemption clause in the Michigan anti-bullying law, a clause that was put there at the instigation of conservative, pro-family Christians. Organizations like Focus on the Family. Now I am not blaming this speaker or anyone in the congregation personally for that. I honestly believe that many of them who support Focus on the Family and similar groups honestly do not know what their "friends" are up to. I mentioned this to someone at church who like me knows what it is like to be bullied, and she was aghast. I told her, go check this out. This is not a joke. This is in the law and these are the people who support it, who put it there. These are the people who are claiming to be on our side.
Well, I am afraid that it is going to backfire on them. There's already been a lot of comment on this clause and it is pretty damning. They are going to find that their anti-gay zealotry has crossed a line. It does no good for Dr. James Dobson or anyone else to piously say, "Well, of course we don't support bullying, but . . ." No, the whole thing is that they are afraid that by being decent to all that they will be seen as endorsing gays. Well, the Bible talks about other things besides homosexuality. What about all the sex scandals that rocked the evangelical world not too long ago? What about the pedophilia that infests the Catholic church and its leadership's inability to deal with it in a meaningful manner? And then they have the nerve to talk about homosexuality and why an exemption is needed in anti-bullying legislation. Well, you know what, let's not just talk about homosexuality. Let's talk about some of these other things the Bible is against. Shall we exempt them from anti-bullying legislation as well?
Why is it that Christian leaders have no problems saying that certain things are unequivocally wrong; yet when it comes to other things like bullying (or even having sex with kids), they start playing mumbly-mouth? Where is their courage then? The Church was silent, too, during the Holocaust, if I remember correctly. I have heard all kinds of excuses why, and that is all they are, excuses.
