You Make Me Sad

bigotry, homophobia, gay, homosexual, bible, god, jesus,
Once again, somebody else wrote exactly how I feel, thus crystalizing in my mind an idea that had been lurking, amorphously, for quite a while. (I do has luvz for teh interwebs.)

Two comments to the latest Slactivist post captured exactly how I feel about people who say, "I think being gay is a sin, but that doesn't make me a homophobe."

CombatQueer: The Episcopal Church has actually been a wonderful, supporting place for me. Queerness isn't just accepted as a stain on an otherwise good person.

Stephen's reply: Good way of putting it. It's sad how many people I know who don't think of themselves as homophobic because they get along with gay people, but when it comes down to it, they really do see a person's homosexuality as a flaw to be overlooked.

That's it, isn't it? The basic truth. I know that not all homophobes are raving lunatics like Westboro Baptist. In fact, I would guess that plenty of homophobes are otherwise perfectly nice people.

In fact, I feel the same way about these homophobes as they feel about gays. I like you, except for that one flaw, that one stain on an otherwise good person. Such a shame. You make me sad.

You're still bigots.

I know, I know, the bible told you so. The bible says lots of things. In fact, the same section of the bible that condemns homosexual sex also condemns eating shellfish. Do you eat shellfish? How about bacon? Have you ever touched a menstruating woman? All of these things are strictly forbidden in Leviticus.

I'm guessing, in fact, that most people who use that passage in Leviticus to confirm their own squicky feelings about gays, aren't very familiar with everything else that's in Leviticus. Very few people are, outside of Orthodox Jews. After all, it's their rule book.

I'm bound to get this response to the question about shellfish and bacon: God made it okay in the New Testament.

Let's examine that. The reference is to Acts 10, in which Simon who was called Peter is given a vision of unclean foods and told not to call unclean that which god has made clean. And now we can eat bacon.

No. The point of the story is not that pig is tasty. You see, a Roman centurion named Cornelius wished to become a christian. Peter was not inclined to allow this, as Romans, and specifically Roman soldiers, were the ones who tortured and killed his friend. So, he went with the excuse that christianity was for Jews, not Gentiles. Thus god's vision of tasty, Gentile food. (It would've saved us all a lot of trouble if god had just said things, straight out, exactly as he meant them, but no, not yhwh.)

So here we have christians, eating shellfish and pig, wearing fabrics made of two different threads, working on the Sabbath- and clinging to the one verse in Leviticus that works for them.

You make me sad.