Remember how the nice folks over at Patrick Henry College said that they wouldn’t offer hospitality to the young people of Soulforce, because those young people represented such a terrible danger to PHC students? How they quoted scripture to justify their inhospitality, i.e., “You must not keep company, not even eat with such people,” meaning people who understand Christianity to be about love and the radical inclusion of everyone as God made them?
It all might have seemed just a tad over the top to the average observer. Really? Even sharing a meal and an honest conversation with “such people” would be perilous? They even managed to insult their own students, telling PHC parents that their children weren’t capable of withstanding contact with the Soulforce Riders and must have their delicate, developing “worldviews” protected. In case you are one of the many people who found Mike Farris‘ man-the-barricades hysteria to be ridiculous – well, just look at what happens. From the Fresno Bee, via Box Turtle Bulletin:
Renee DeMusiak, 52, the florist shop employee, grew up with the idea that marriage meant only a man and a woman.
“I just always went by the Bible. Mom is mom and dad is dad. I was never really for gays getting married,” she says.
But in November, she plans to vote against the ban and for same-sex marriage.
She had only worked at Chase Flower Shop for two months when her dog got sick and needed expensive medical care.
“Michael gave me his credit card and told me to take care of her,” she says. “I’d never vote against him.”
She says her own search for a mate has been the stuff of blues songs: cheating men, hurt, and true love never arriving.
“I’m struggling to find someone. I see gay couples come in here all the time who have had better luck than me. It’s so important to have someone love you for who and what you truly are,” she says.
“I know religion is really going to come down on this one, but I just don’t think I can be opposed any more. I vote for people to be happy.”
Timothy adds: “By far the most effective campaign for equality is to live openly with dignity and kindness.”
Beautiful.
This is exactly why anti-gay activists feel they have no choice but to use ugly, dehumanizing language; as if defining GLBT people as demonic and unworthy of human contact will prevent that human contact. Unfortunately for them, it just ends up making them sound ugly and dehumanizing and not very Christian.
People can change
It all might have seemed just a tad over the top to the average observer. Really? Even sharing a meal and an honest conversation with “such people” would be perilous? They even managed to insult their own students, telling PHC parents that their children weren’t capable of withstanding contact with the Soulforce Riders and must have their delicate, developing “worldviews” protected. In case you are one of the many people who found Mike Farris‘ man-the-barricades hysteria to be ridiculous – well, just look at what happens. From the Fresno Bee, via Box Turtle Bulletin:
Timothy adds: “By far the most effective campaign for equality is to live openly with dignity and kindness.”
Beautiful.
This is exactly why anti-gay activists feel they have no choice but to use ugly, dehumanizing language; as if defining GLBT people as demonic and unworthy of human contact will prevent that human contact. Unfortunately for them, it just ends up making them sound ugly and dehumanizing and not very Christian.