Real Christians Fight Intolerance

Real Christians Fight Intolerance
By Rev. Jim Rigby, AlterNet
July 14, 2006

Progressive Christians tend to be nonjudgmental and to feel that
challenging the intolerance of others is itself intolerant. For that
reason we often sit by silently when Fundamentalist Christians
criticize homosexual persons. We tend to think of this as being open
minded.

Not that long ago, it was considered consistent to be a Christian,
and yet, hold slaves. The day came when slavery was understood as an
affront to the gospel itself. I want to suggest that the day has come
when Christians must declare that gay bashing is an attack on the
gospel and that real Christians do not participate in any form of
discrimination.

Several years ago, I was asked to do the funeral of a gay man who had
been beaten to death in a hate crime. At that time, I had never
thought deeply about the danger many gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people face in this culture. That week as I worked on the
service, I kept hearing a local "Christian" radio station blaming gay
and lesbian people for everything wrong in America. By the end of the
week I understood the link between religious hate speech and the
funeral I was performing.

I know that critics of homosexuality do not consider themselves to be
hateful. They would say they "love the sinner but hate the sin." If
the shoe were on the other foot, however, and someone were attacking
their families, trying to take their children away, and constantly
working to pass legislation to deprive them of basic civil rights, at
some point they would understand that "homophobia" is too mild a word
for such harassment. "Hatred" is the only proper term.

I was raised in Dallas, Texas and had classmates who were in the
Klan. I remember that they did not consider themselves to be
attacking other people. They perceived themselves to be defenders of
Christian America. Their "religion" consisted of an unrelenting
attack on people who were black, Jewish or homosexual. If anyone
challenged these views, these Klan members considered themselves
under attack and believed that their right to free exercise of
religion was being threatened. In other words, they felt that
harassing other people was a protected __expression of their own
religious faith.

In the Gospel, biblical literalists and judgmental people were the
negative example in many of the stories. The point of those stories
was to teach us the hypocrisy of judgmental religion. When a woman
was caught in adultery, the Biblical literalists lined up to protect
family values. They pointed out that the Bible literally says that
adulterers are to be stoned. If Jesus took the Bible seriously, they
claimed, he would have to participate in the mandated biblical
punishment of an adulteress.

Instead of following scripture, Jesus tells the woman to get her life
together and tells everyone else to drop their stones of judgment.
The only way to take this story seriously is to conclude that real
Christians don't use the bible to condemn other people.

It violates the teaching of Christ to say that God will get angry if
America does not confront homosexuality as a sin. Jesus did not
mention homosexuality and it is a lie to say he did. Furthermore,
Jesus said "Judge not or you will be judged." These false prophets
are saying "Judge or else you will be judged."

Jesus was kind and understanding, but he was not silent about those
who abused the vulnerable. He called them "wolves in sheep's
clothing." Christians must follow the example of Jesus and confront
those vicious predators who use the Christian religion as a
camouflage for bullying. We must be as understanding and kind as we
can be, but to be tolerant of the oppression of others is not true
tolerance.

I believe the time has come to say that genuine followers of Jesus
Christ do not participate in discrimination against gay and lesbian
persons. Is it intolerant to challenge intolerance? Are we doing the
same thing as those we are challenging?

Gay bashing is not just an opinion, it is an assault. Just as the
Klan did, religious fundamentalists have a right to believe that
homosexuality is a sin. They even have a right to preach a message of
hate. But when they harass people in public, it is time for
Christians to rise to challenge their intolerance. We have an
obligation to protect our neighbors from harassment and slander,
especially when it is done in our name.

It is time to say that gay bashing is not only wrong, it is
unchristian. If Christianity is grace, then judgment is the ultimate
apostasy. If Christianity is love, then cruelty is the ultimate
heresy.

The Rev. Jim Rigby is pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in
Austin, Tex. He can be reached at jrigby0000@aol.com.