Savage Bible Take Down

It was interesting to listen to the various commentaries on the radio today concerning Savage and his critique of scripture. A teacher at one of our local high schools was there with her students. She was surprised that only a minority of the students there walked out and that the vast majority seemed in favor of Savage's rant.

"I just don't understand the hostility toward Christianity," she said. 

Well, let me help (she sounded genuinely perplexed). According to a Barna poll, the number 1 thing people associate with Christianity is being anti-gay.

The #1 thing.

Politicians trying to win the Christian vote position themselves as being more anti-gay than other candidates... and this works. Preachers preach against homosexuality to rouse their congregations.... and it works. Religious ministries send out mailers warning the faithful of the "homosexual agenda" in order to spur donations... and it works.

These homosexuals, whom many Christians are constantly painting as devious, immoral, and dangerous... they are our mothers and fathers. They are our brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, co-workers. They are our loved ones.

And you, dear Christian, want to paint them as "other". You want to make people fearful and suspicious of them. You want to place them on a lower societal tier.

So, if you are perceiving some hostility toward your position, it should not be difficult for you to understand why. We have seen this pattern of behavior in history before...treating a people group as inferior.. and we are growing past it. You are welcome to join us in a free and loving future... or you may stay in your separatist, bigoted past; but we will not join you there. To quote CS Lewis -

"Our light can swallow up your darkness; but your darkness cannot now infect our light. No, no, no. Come to us. We will not go to you. Can you really have thought that love and joy would always be at the mercy of frowns and sighs?"
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And as for Savage? No, I would not have said it that crassly. But his point was valid. Christians ignore sweeping swaths of the bible all the time. They hold to the homosexual passages because THEY WANT TO. Every Christian self selects the passages of scripture he or she wants to live by. That being the case, let's quit blaming the bible and start taking responsibility for our own positions. The anti-homosexual position does not belong to a deity.... it belongs to you.