Why The Religious Right Can’t Afford Not to Hate

In order to understand the coattail followers of Jerry Fawell including the American Family Association, Westboro (Fred Phelps), et. Al., and why they so vehemently hate and oppose the GLBT community, you first have to understand why Jerry Fawell was so anti-gay.

There was and is big money in being anti-gay. Jerry Fawell got his start as an Evangelical back when the South, including Fawell’s town of Lynchburg, VA (just look at the name) was still divided by legal segregation. He started his bible beating days preaching about how God did not want white and black people to cohabitate. This man used the bible to preach why our nation should stay segregated. He was using the bible to spread his brand of bigotry and hate. Being in the South, he gained recognition and of course wealth with his campaign against the government and desegregation.

When the civil rights movement finally began to see fruition, and racism was no longer spoken about so freely. After black people were given the right to attend schools, public restaurants and actually given the opportunity to exercise their right to vote, the money Jerry Fawell was receiving started to drop off. Racism was still alive and well in the South, but it was no longer good to publicly admit racism, so Jerry Fawell needed another way to get the financial support he wasn’t receiving based on racial bias.

This is about the same time the gay rights movement was building up steam…..and there it was, a sign from God. This is how Jerry Fawell would bring in millions upon millions of dollars, from those same bigots who were no longer visibly able to be racist. Jerry Fawell sent out tens of thousands of letters pleading with people to send money to help him rid the world of the abominable sin of homosexuality. He scared people into believing there was a “Gay Agenda” which included recruitment of all the little Johnnies and Susies in the world. He preyed upon the uneducated and the really uneducated that literally “bought in” to his way of thinking. Jerry Fawell built an evangelical empire from fear and hate.

This is another reason why the GLBT community cannot rest on its laurels. We need to be as proactive as possible, in an effort to stop being solely on the defensive and always reactive. Let’s stand together, and make the world better, one person at a time.