Golden Rule Day

The Day of Silence is tomorrow, Friday, April 25. It is a day when gay teens and their allies protest the likelihood of their being bullied by being silent for a day. This year the event was in honor of Lawrence King, murdered for being gay. In response the Right launched the Day of Truth, asserting their right to bully gay kids. In the midst of this battle steps another idea: Golden Rule Day. Christian kids hand out cards with the Golden Rule: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Some cards have the Golden Rule on one side and Day of Silence on the other. Promoters explain that gay kids have been targets of violence and that as Christians they believe it is wrong to do so. Hooray!

But there are skeptics. There are those that feel the Right won't buy it. That's because they feel they can't look the other way when it comes to sin. If you see that a murder is about to happen, you should intervene if you can and prosecute the murderer afterward, putting them in jail (or give them the death penalty), using force if necessary. Since in many eyes gays are just as (if not more) sinful as murderers it makes sense to intervene when gays become too visible and use force if necessary. If you aren't punishing sin, you are condoning it. And you wouldn't want to condone murder.

A gay commentator is also skeptical. His complaints are a bit more subtle:

(1) The Golden Rule Day was on the same day as Day of Silence as a way of upstaging it. At least the Day of Truth event is a different day.

(2) It puts the Golden Rule in response to Day of Silence, which implies if one is for the Golden Rule then one is against homosexuality.

(3) By declaring the Golden Rule a "Christian response" it perpetuates the false Christian vs. gay split.

(4) It allows school districts to say, "Good, everyone believes in the Golden Rule and therefore we don't have to pass anti-bullying regulations."

(5) The biggest problem is the Golden Rule Day handouts say nothing about violence against gays, the most important reason the Day of Silence exists. There is no reason for the violence against gays conversation to take place.

(6) In the same way that "love the sinner, hate the sin" is used against gays, this will be too. Straights can say "If I were gay I'd want someone to stop me from being gay and since that's how I want to be treated I'll treat gays the same way." The Golden Rule becomes a requirement to harass gays into changing their orientation because burning for eternity in hell is worse than a bit of schoolyard bullying -- the GR gives fundies permission to do whatever they want to others because it is done in the name of righteousness, the violence is justified to save the soul.

(7) It allows those passing out the Golden Rule cards to actually avoid changing their behavior, to remain sanctimonious and self-righteous with a claim to the moral high ground, to maintain their belief that their doctrines are more important than people. Proof of that is there is nothing in the Christian press about the death of Lawrence King, their own Days of Silence. Also proof is their continued use of "evil agenda" in describing our actions and using threats against teachers who try to protect gay kids. They're not silent at all.

(8) The Golden Rule Day was created by Warren Throckmorton, who has made a living attacking gays.

Want to follow the Golden Rule? The day after you pass out those little cards, actually advocate to stop the bullying against gays. We've been burned too many times by platitudes that amount to nothing or are turned against us.