The GirlAlive Blog

Explaining gay rights to Christians

I haven’t posted here in a while because I’ve been hanging around more on Tumblr and Twitter since I’ve been busy with work. For all of you who have completely dropped the ball by not following me on Tumblr, here’s a recent post from there, in honor of Gay Pride month. (I may post here more after my job is done next month.)

I was raised a fairly strict Baptist. I am still a Christian. So I understand why so many Christians are against gay rights. (I happen to disagree.) I also know that most non-Christians are arguing with them wrong.

The first, and often only, scripture passage that most non-Christians know about homosexuality from the Bible is in Leviticus, and it is easily shot down with the argument that “Leviticus bans tattoos, certain haircuts and mixed fiber clothing, and you don’t follow any of those.”

The problem with that argument is that it shows a basic misunderstanding of Christian doctrine. Christians do not follow the law of the Old Testament in Leviticus. Those laws were abolished by Jesus, and the only ones that stand are the ones that are repeated in the New Testament.

You need to stop arguing with Leviticus and start arguing with the New Testament books of I Timothy and Corinthians, where the writers speak out against a sin that has been translated in some Bibles as “homosexuals” but was, in the original Greek, arsenokoitai meaning ”for them that defile themselves with mankind”.

That word is the key to understanding why I call myself a Christian, and I still believe in gay rights. The translation of that word is extremely unclear. It may be referring to pedophiles, or rent boys, or pimps. But it almost certainly does not refer to a consensual, loving relationship between adults of the same gender.

For that matter, even the word “sodomy” from the Bible should not be applied to gay sex. If you read the story of Sodom, the people they accused of what was called sodomy were not gay people. They were violent rapists that wanted to rape the men only after they had been told they couldn’t rape the women.

I do not personally believe that the Bible forbids a loving consensual relationship between people of the same sex. It forbids rape and prostitution, whether straight or gay. But it says nothing that leaves me believing that my gay friends are any worse sinners than any of the rest of us.

Losing my patience.

This is going to be another one of those blog posts that’s all serious and will probably offend people all over the place. And I don’t care.

Between the US Civil War and the 60’s (maybe 70’s, maybe 80’s maybe even until now) large groups of Christians in the south used the Old Testament as an excuse for racism. They would point to verses about not mixing goats with sheep and say that it proves blacks and whites shouldn’t mix. It was a load of crap when they came up with it, and it is still a load of crap. If you’re a Christian, Jesus erased those old laws with his death, and you’re completely ignoring the main things Jesus taught. There is no excuse for hate.

These days, Christians mostly agree that racism is wrong and horrible and against God. But at the same time, they have made plenty of excuses for new types of hate. Just the other day I heard a gay man say on Tumblr to one of my Tumblr friends, “I think you’re cool and we have a lot in common. Too bad you’re a Christian so we can’t be friends.” This is what the gay community thinks of Christians. You have made them your enemies. How is that showing them the love of God?

In the last few weeks Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase, Billy Lucas and Cody J. Barker are just a few of the gay teenagers who have killed themselves because they were being harassed over their sexuality. Children in America are dying because Christians have decided to keep making excuses for hating them. Christians are the ones who have pushed the hardest to make excuses to avoid gay people and treat them as less than humans. This is not acceptable.

Christians are the first in line to be outraged about the death of unborn children. “Who knows what those babies would have grown up to be?” Fair enough. But who knows what Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase, Billy Lucas and Cody J. Barker would have grown up to be? Where is your outrage over their untimely deaths?

One of my Christian friends used to watch Buffy with me a lot. She complained once about how she didn’t like how they made Willow gay and didn’t want to see that. I kindly pointed out that Buffy’s relationship with Spike was just as sinful, since they were not married, and he was a demon, but she wasn’t outraged about that. If your outrage about one form of sin is notably greater than your outrage over other sin, you are not filled with righteous anger. You are filled with hate.

I have a lot of gay friends. I think that’s what most Christians are missing. They focus so much on the “gay” part that they never fully recognize that they are people too. My gay friends are not on an evil quest to destroy families and society. They are regular normal people who just want to love and be loved like everyone else.

I am a Christian, and I love God, and I can’t see how treating any group of people as less than human is anywhere near doing God’s will. Jesus said to love your neighbor as your self. The message of Jesus is that people will want to be Christians when they see God’s love in you. How much of God’s love are you showing the gay community? Why are you forcing them to be second class citizens, unable to marry or serve in the military because of your beliefs?

I just have to say that lately, I see more love and caring among the gay community than I do among the Christian community. I think that Christians using the Bible as an excuse for hate, whether in the form of racism or homophobia, is the main reason for the recent rising levels of atheism. So my message to Christians is to please, in the name of God, knock it off. Some people are gay. Get over it.

Things I’m Happy About Today

1. I have a new hamster. Her name is Luna. Her middle name is Tic. She’s bitey and aggressive and mean, but also hilarious and adorable and entertaining and beautiful. Here is a picture of Luna baring her teeth in anger because she hates the camera.

   

   And here is a picture of Luna running back to her nest in the back of the cage to get away from the evil camera. (So you can see a little of her grey and blonde coloring.)

   

   So yeah. My new hamster is anti-social and not nearly as cuddly and affectionate as Jayne was. But I like her anyway. She actually runs inside the wheel and she climbs up the walls and across the ceiling, so she’s endlessly entertaining. I missed having a hamster.

2. Jeff Zucker has been fired from NBC. Hooray! He’s an incompetent moron, and I hate when incompetent morons have jobs and I do not.
3. I finished the web site for my editing services. I’m willing to read and correct all your stuff for dirt cheap. Let my desperation work for you.
4. James Wormworth has been named the new permanent drummer for Conan’s new show. Now, many think that this is negative news because Max Weinberg is not joining Conan’s new show. But I don’t mind, and James Wormworth accepted me as a facebook friend, so I’m choosing to just be really happy for him. Cause he’s awesome.
5. Stephen Colbert testified in front of congress yesterday. It just made me happy because he was saying the same things about illegal immigration that I have: how about just giving people the option to be legal immigrants instead?
6. I got some new books at the charity shop. Husband gave me enough money for four books! He’s a really good husband, and is constantly nicer to me than I really deserve.
7. I’m scheduled for surgery to remove my ovary monster. I’ll be getting rid of that stupid thing in October. Hooray! And they’ll hopefully do it laproscopically this time, so I won’t be in the hospital for more than maybe overnight. I’ll find out more about that in about a week.
8. Julia Nunes made a video of my favorite song of hers. She’s awesome!

Things I’m less happy about:

1. I still have no money.
2. I didn’t get a book review posted today. I’m lame.
3. Spike pig is starting to show his age. He’s five years old, which is heading towards elderly for a guinea pig. *sadface*

Overall, there are still quite a lot of reasons for me to be happy today.

[edit] One more reason to be happy: Charlieissocoollike is doing this right now! That’s so awesome! I’m so completely jealous happy for him and excited to see his contributions![/edit]

What should I write?

I have no ideas. I’m depressed and bored and I still have no job. Oh, and I’m also no longer eligible for unemployment benefits, so I have no money and can’t afford to pay my bills.

So here’s my idea: tell me what to write about. I’m trying to prove myself as a decent writer to potential employers, so I want you, my readers, to tell me what to write about. What do you want to know about? The last book I read? The reproductive habits of anglerfish? My favorite sideshow freak? A short story about a hamster? Suggest a topic in the comments, and if I like it, or if enough people second the idea, that’ll be what I’ll write about. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Then at the end of that post, I’ll ask for more suggestions. This will continue on an approximately weekly basis until I get tired of it or until I get a job.

So let me know what you want to hear about. Nothing is too weird or obscure. I will probably not write anything that violates my personal privacy or morals. And my husband has veto power over topics that are borderline. Go for it. Tell me what you want to read. Pass this post around to your friends. Spread it around. The more ideas I get, the better.

Just a few more items about drawing Mohammed.

The big day was yesterday. People all over the world drew Mohammed and Muslims all over the world had hissy fits. Pakistan banned Facebook and YouTube, only to re-open YouTube when they caved to terrorist demands and deleted a bunch of videos for being “blasphemous”. I didn’t know that YouTube was my religious authority, but apparently they have decided they are. By this morning the main Everybody Draw Mohammed page was removed from Facebook. (At this point it is still unclear whether the Facebook page is down due to Facebook spinelessness or hackers – again. It is back now, and the admins tell us that it was down due to Muslim hackers tracking the personal information of one of the admins and sending him very specific death threats. That admin panicked and took the page down, but now he has stepped down as an admin and the page is back up.)

I’m deeply disappointed in the cowardly reactions from YouTube and other American corporations (like Viacom). Since when do we just give in to terrorist demands? This protest from Muslims was not about drawing Mohammed. They don’t even have any true religious backing for their claims about drawing Mohammed (which I’ll get to in a minute). This was about the Muslim world trying to impose Sharia Law on the western world, the way they do in their own countries. Their goal* is to make the entire western world dhimmi, which is to say a person with no protection from the Muslim world, but with an obligation to follow Sharia Law anyway. We do not need to cave in to these demands under the guise of political correctness. They are stripping us of our religious freedom and our free speech, and that is not something we should ever give in to for any reason. Not after all the wars we’ve fought to get to where we are.

There is nothing in the Quran about drawing pictures. Nothing. There are some passages in various hadith that are very anti-art. But they are against all art depicting people, animals or plants, not just the Prophet and other important figures, as Muslims will claim. These writings also do not prescribe any earthly punishment for people who draw pictures. Mohammed himself believed that their punishment was God’s business. (And Mohammed was not shy about prescribing beatings and death for various sins.) Please read this brilliant article if you want more detail about this. This is important: I do not want to hear from any Muslims who have not read that article. Please make the effort to understand your own religious texts before forcing them on others. Because the truth is, if you’re here on the internet you are already breaking Sharia Law, and you have no right to try to impose that law on me, when you don’t find it important enough to follow for yourself.

To end with, I found a great video that expresses very well how I feel about this issue. It is a vlog from a religious studies teacher who stuggled with this issue on a very personal level because he truly does have love and respect for people from all types of religious background, including Muslims.

And one more site if you’d like to do some more reading on Islam:
TheReligionofPeace.com

* This reference of “they” refers to the leadership elements of Islam, not the average Muslim going about their daily business. The average Muslim has no idea what their leaders are using them for, so unless they are getting in your face and starting a fight with you, they should be treated with the exact same respect you’d give to anyone else on earth (with maybe a hint of pity).

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

I’m giving you fair warning right now that there are people who will find this blog post offensive. Probably offensive enough that they’ll threaten to kill me.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” -First Amendment of the US Constitution

If you are a fundamentalist Muslim and you believe that viewing depictions of the prophet Mohammed is a sin, please scroll carefully because I have no intention of forcing anyone to do anything they believe to be a sin. There will be a drawing of Mohammed below and if you believe that viewing such things is wrong, please don’t look at it. Maybe it is a drawing of your prophet. Maybe it’s just a guy named Mohammed. It’s hard to tell, since half the Muslim men on earth seem to be named Mohammed.

In the last couple years, cartoonists in the Netherlands and Sweden have had death threats against them, and even have had their houses firebombed and have generally been terrorized by Muslims who are offended that they drew pictures of Mohammed. Most recently, an episode of South Park was censored into meaninglessness because Trey Parker and Matt Stone depicted Mohammed. Even though they didn’t really. He was in a bear suit or in a trailer the whole time. It was censored because Comedy Central recieved death threats from Muslims.

Where does this come from? I’m not even sure. The Quran does not forbid depictions of Mohammed. This is a rule that was brought in later, probably around the 16th century. Until that time it was common for Muslim artists to draw full depictions of Mohammed and it was no big deal. Then sometime in the 16th or 17th century they decided that drawing pictures of the Prophet was wrong. It was originally supposed to be to prevent idolatry, but the spirit of this rule seems to have been completely lost to those who follow it to the letter.

Now the entire Western world is being bullied into following this debatable rule of Islam, whether we are Muslim or not. They argue that we are not respecting their religion. I would argue that freedom of speech requires that we be allowed to be disrespectful. Trey Parker and Matt Stone frequently depict Jesus (who is my own savior whom I love) as a dimwitted cable access show host. And whether I am offended or not, I would not deny them the right to depict Jesus any way they want to. Because how people depict Jesus does not change who Jesus is. Yeah, South Park is disrespectful and blasphemous. They offend everyone. But so far, the only people who think it’s okay to kill someone for being offensive are the Muslims.

This is not okay. Grown-ups use words to work out their differences. They debate ideas and try to understand each other. They do not scream insults and threaten violence, which has been the overall most common response from Muslims to the movement on the internet to have an Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. I’m sick of living in a world where adults think it’s okay to act like bratty toddlers in the name of religion.

Europeans fought and died during the Reformation because the Catholic church forced people to be Catholic or die. Then some governments became Protestant and killed people for being Catholic. Out of this mess, America was born with the core belief that no government has a right to tell its citizens what religion to follow. We fought hard to create a society where people can live in peace, knowing that their religion is a protected personal choice.

There are a lot of things that non-Christians do that I find offensive. Using God’s name as a swear word is offensive to me. I find smug and condescending athiests who are constantly trying to convert everyone to athiesm offensive. I find Westboro Baptist Church offensive. There is nothing about the KKK which is not offensive. But there is no law that says that Americans are protected from having their feelings hurt. Hurt feelings are the problem solely of the victim of the offense, not the offender. As one of my freedom-loving friends said, “That’s why it’s called ‘taking offense’ and not ‘having offense forced on you.’” I may feel offended by these people. I may even occasionally harbor hatred of their actions. I may believe that they’re going to hell for their actions. But I still defend their right to be stupid and offensive. They have every right to offend me and hurt my feelings. They even have the right to insult my God. My God is a grown-up and He can handle it.

That is why I’m drawing a picture of Mohammed. If you don’t want to see my drawing, I warned you at the top of this post, and you have no one to blame but yourself for seeing it. I am not a Muslim, and I will not be bullied into following your religion. It’s not about hating Muslims because I don’t. It’s about freedom. And if you cannot handle this kind of freedom, maybe living in America and Western Europe is not for you.

.

.

Picture below.

.

.

I’m posting this 2 days before the Draw Mohammed Day to give other people a chance to think about how important freedom is, and maybe give them a chance to take a stand. (And the main largest Facebook group about Draw Mohammed Day has degenerated into a lot of crying Muslims and very happy trolls. If you go there, be prepared to have to ignore morons of every type and variety. Some of the smaller ones are a bit more rational.)

(By the way, the llama’s name is French. If you understand that reference, DFTBA!)

Note: On 20 May Facebook removed this picture from my account as “offensive” and violating their terms, yet they refuse to tell me in what way it violated anything. It does not attack a group or individual. It promotes peace.