KEEPING
THE FAITH
Issues and Ideas
The Gay Front in the War for Religious
Freedom
By Richard J. Rosendall
LEF Web Contributor
"And when you pray, do not imitate the
hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing
up in the synagogues and at the street corners
for people to see them. I tell you solemnly, they
have had their reward. But when you pray, go to
your private room.." (Matthew 6:5-6)
Anti-gay conservatives like to talk as if gay
people are all atheists (a delusion that can only
be maintained by overlooking their church organists).
In fact, it has been more than 35 years since
Rev. Troy D. Perry said, "The Lord is my
Shepherd, and He knows I'm gay." The secret
is long since out -- groups of gay Christians,
Jews, Muslims, Wiccans, and others are flourishing,
and they enjoy the same First Amendment protections
as other Americans.
The religious right's crusade against gay citizens
is at base an assault against religious liberty,
and is part of a drive for big-government conservatism
at odds with American values and tradition. Using
selective Bible verses, anti-gay Protestant fundamentalists
talk as if passages like Leviticus 20:13 create
an exception to the First Amendment for gay citizens.
Indeed, one of the greatest gaps in our public
discourse is the failure of mainstream voices
to be more assertive in pointing out that our
civil government is based on the Constitution
and not Leviticus. But even Leviticus offers more
suitable guidance for public policy -- in fact,
it was carved into the Liberty Bell: "Proclaim
liberty throughout the land, unto all the inhabitants
thereof.." (Leviticus 25:10)
Opponents of gay marriage claim that it will
lead to the silencing of anti-gay religious views.
They cite cases from other countries such as Canada
in which critics of homosexuality have been punished.
The difference is that those countries lack a
First Amendment. But anti-gay conservatives are
not really worried about a repeal of that amendment;
after all, it is they and not we who are trying
to amend the Constitution. What upsets them is
something outside the realm of government, something
already well advanced: the pro-gay shift in social
mores. Without that shift, the current push for
gay marriage would be impossible.
The radical right is trying to reverse this trend
by scaring people with dire warnings about the
impending collapse of society. The political fringe
from which these voices come is clear when you
consider that they are generally the same voices
still decrying equality for women; see the Southern
Baptist Convention and Concerned Women for America.
The warriors of the Christian right seize on
anything they can as evidence that the tide is
turning in their favor. The recent cry, "The
elites have lost," with which they deride
critics of Mel Gibson's savage medievalist portrayal
of the last hours of Christ, is revealing of their
mindset: they are holy warriors, not evangelists.
The judgment of the box office is not a standard
one would expect to be upheld by proponents of
"biblical inerrancy." Can the legitimacy
of what purports to be divine truth be contingent
on mere popularity?
The cultural warriors like to frame the battle
as being between Christian believers on one hand
and secularists on the other, but in fact their
chosen adversaries include Christians who do not
share their obscurantist and authoritarian bent.
The theocrats do not merely envisage a Christian
nation. It is their particular brand of Christianity
that they wish to impose on all Americans. Instead
of the loving and liberating God of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., they offer the angry and vengeful
Old Testament God of Judge Roy Moore. Instead
of using religion as a personal challenge, they
use it as a bludgeon with which to beat others.
To accept the right-wing characterization of the
battle as being about "Religion vs. Secularism"
is to degrade religion by ceding it to fanatics.
The whole notion of "biblical inerrancy"
is founded on an anti-intellectual embrace of
the Bible not as a proper subject of scholarly
investigation but as an icon to be held aloft
to ward off enemies. For the inerrantists, the
Bible has a single, absolute point of view --
the inconsistencies among the four gospels, and
the numerous hands evident in the books of the
Old Testament, be damned. The Bible's wealth of
wordplay, from puns to folk etymologies, is blasted
away by an obtuse insistence on literalism.
Historical and cultural context are similarly
ignored except when they are convenient for the
fundamentalists. And forget about the subtleties
and challenges of translation: one would think
that the Bible had originally been written in
King James English.
That this know-nothingism holds such sway over
our public discourse should be a source of embarrassment
to our nation; but of course embarrassment is
an elitist reaction. Few are willing to dispute
the preposterous assertions that America was founded
by God and that the Constitution was modeled on
the Ten Commandments. Speaking of the Decalogue,
the theocrats are frequent, flagrant violators
of the commandment against bearing false witness.
They misrepresent history and law as readily as
they do the Gospel.
As long as the Bible is to be used as a weapon,
allow me to hurl a few passages back at the holy
warriors: "Do not judge, and you will not
be judged." (Matthew 7:1) "Why do you
see the mote in your brother's eye and never notice
the beam in your own?" (Matthew 7:3, Luke
6:41) This advice to mind your own business, which
has been quoted by the President himself, provides
a sound Biblical basis for small-government conservatism.
Let the theocrats also read Jesus' answer to the
question, "And who is my neighbor?"
which of course is the parable of the good Samaritan.
(Luke 10:29-37) "You must love your neighbor
as yourself." (Leviticus 19:18) Lastly, "I
give you a new Commandment, to love one another."
(John 13:34) It is a sign of Christianity's flexibility
that it inspires both those who judge others and
do not help, and those who help others and do
not judge.
The reason to defend the essentially secular
nature of the public sphere is not to banish religion
from it but to protect the faith of the individual
from the tyranny of the group. The strategy of
the radical right is to portray this very protection
as itself a form of tyranny. Their logic is that
of Alice Through the Looking Glass. They make
a mockery of both politics and religion. Their
true enemy is not godless homosexuals, but a pluralistic
society in which their fellow citizens are free
to think for themselves and go their own way.
For the sake of our country, and not only its
gay citizens, these religious bullies need to
be defeated at the polls, along with those who
know better but pander to them anyway. It would
be better for enlightened conservatives if the
defeat occurs in Republican primaries rather than
the general election.
_______________________________________________________________________
Richard
J. Rosendall is a writer and activist whose
work has appeared in Salon
and the Independent
Gay Forum.
back to top
| Back
to main issues and ideas |
