“Doom and Gloom” is Not Christian

By Jim Johnson -

The Republican Party continues to use fear mongering as one of it’s prime tactics in this election cycle, and their affiliate, the Religious Right, remains a primary source.

One painfully obvious example of this is a recent letter produced by Focus on the Family Action, quoted in this MSNBC report, titled “Letter from 2012 Obama’s America.”  According to the report, it makes these outlandish claims of what the results of an Obama presidency would be:

•    A 6-3 liberal majority Supreme Court that results in rulings like one making gay marriage the law of the land and another forcing the Boy Scouts to “hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.” (In the imagined scenario, The Boy Scouts choose to disband rather than obey).
•    A series of domestic and international disasters based on Obama’s “reluctance to send troops overseas.” That includes terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that kill hundreds, Russia occupying the Baltic states and Eastern European countries including Poland and the Czech Republic, and al-Qaida overwhelming Iraq.
•    Nationalized health care with long lines for surgery and no access to hospitals for people over 80.

This will certainly terrify straight folks who just know that every gay man lays awake at night fantasizing about being in a tent with teenage boys.  Of course, these are often the same people who believe the earth is only 6,000 years old despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary—never let facts interfere with narrow, stringent interpretation of the bible.

As a straight Christian myself, this approach saddens and angers me.  I’m sad to see how my faith is slandered by people portraying themselves as righteous saviors of society (some of them sincerely believe that) but who come off as self-righteous judgmental nitwits.

Thanks to efforts like this, people frequently roll their eyes or give me that knowing “oh, you’re one of THEM” look when I share my faith, probably bracing themselves for me raining fire and brimstone down upon them like they hear “my type” does.  This is exacerbated within the LGBT community, where a steady dose of discrimination, judgment, and hatred have been received from people in God’s name.

Folks, that is NOT God, that is people twisting His words and actions into something barely, if at all, resembling who He is and how much He loves us.  His reality does not match the image of the angry God, scowling, throwing down lightning from Heaven, and looking for reasons to condemn us.

To put it simply, God is a “glass half full” kind of guy, not the “glass half empty, and we’re getting ready to spill what’s left in it” ogre that the Religious Right puts out there to justify their policies of discrimination and hatred.

The God I know and worship every Sunday in a LGBT affirming church looks for ways to love us, not hate us.  He wants to draw us closer, not exile us to Hell at the first opportunity.
In Galatians 5:14, the Apostle Paul wrote “The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In 1st John 4:20, we are taught “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”

Does this sound like a God who wants gloom and doom preached in his name?  Does this sound like a God who would hate and condemn someone because they are naturally attracted to someone of the same sex?  I hope you will agree with me that it does not.

When you hear harsh, negative, hate-filled right-wing rhetoric and God’s name is attached to it, rest assured that He would not say “I approved this message.”

Jim Johnson is the editor of “Straight, Not Narrow,” and an advocate for LGBT equality in society and the church.  He can be contacted at straight_notnarrow@yahoo.com.

Christians on the Attack with Ex-Gay Literature

According to a post on metroweekly.com:

”Donations should not be at the expense of minority populations or make the reader feel inferior…. These books were not research based. There were not facts to back it up.”

Susan Thornley, coordinator of library information services for Fairfax County, VA speaking by phone with WAMU. A group of Christian student protesters are claiming censorship and a violation of personal beliefs because, they claim, that they submitted ”reviews” of several ”pray away the gay” books to Fairfax County public school systems but were rejected by librarians. However, Thornley says the alleged reviews were taken either from church newletters or written by the ex-gay books’ authors themselves. And she added that there were already book on the libraries shelves that presented a variety of views on homosexulaity.

Read the rest by clicking here.

Gay Youth Parade Outrage!

It seems that the Massachusetts Gay Pride Youth Parade has the nutty religious right up in arms. Apparently, gay kids holding hands and standing up to the “straight to hell” dogma of the Christianists is cause for grave concern. Don’t miss the gallery of completely normal photos described as “disturbing.” Link to story >>