The Homophobic Right in America

The Homophobic Right In America
Homophobia is still considered an acceptable prejudice in many parts of this country. Our kids use terms like "fag" and "homo" to put down people they dislike or consider odd or weird. Winking jokes about being gay are still regular elements of mainstream television and movies. Homophobia is a "family values" prejudice.

In an era when most people would not consider making a racial slur, and ethnic bigotry is all but banished from the media, why are anti-gay comments and stereotypes still thriving?

Evangelical and conservative Christians can be counted on to exhibit outrage and dismay over just about any attempts to treat gays like equal citizens. I'm talking about something much more basic: whether or not gays should be protected from discrimination when it comes to things like hiring, firing, housing, and financial transactions. Gays pay taxes and are God's children also!

Here’s a quote from a conservative Christian writer/author Hal Lindsey;

“There were homosexuals in the Corinthian Church just as there were fornicators, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, etc. All of these were forgiven and justified before God when they received the gift of pardon purchased for them by Jesus Christ. But just as the thief, the adulterer, the fornicator and the drunkard were required to change their behavior, so the homosexual had to change his lifestyle.”


Evangelical Christians feel the need to view homosexuality as a type of behavior in order to accept the existence of an ex-gay movement of people who have indeed overcome homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a choice and cannot be simply “converted” to heterosexuality through a 12-step program. This practice would produce sexual hypocrites at best. Evangelicals believe their savior died on a cross, so why are they so ready to crucify others different from themselves? Shouldn’t they be more concerned about helping the poor, the homeless, and afflicted? That was Jesus’ message to the world and his followers. Seldom do we witness a reenactment of the “Parable of the Good Samaritan”, but yet the Religious Right keeps the message of homosexual prejudice alive. Also, I have never heard of nor seen an Orthodox Jew, Buddhist, or Hari Krishna protesting against gays.

Here’s a few more quotes from America’s religious leaders and advocates of hatred:

* Michael Johnston, head of Kerusso Ministries (an "ex-gay" conversion center): "You know, really, when you think about it -- let me just be blunt here -- when an individual 'comes out' and proclaims their homosexuality, really, what they are doing is standing up and saying, 'I'm a sexual deviant, and I'm proud of it.' " - Oct 16, 96 - Family Research Council

* It is [a sin]....You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol...or sex addiction...or kleptomaniacs." - Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, Associated Press, June 15, 1998.

* “many of those people involved in Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals, the two things seem to go together, it is a pathology it is a sickness." - Pat Robertson on TV


It’s attitudes like this that keep the fires of homophobia and hatred of gays alive. My question is…if homosexuality is such an awful sin, then why is not mentioned in The Ten Commandments?