You gays are just as bad as...

A few days ago I wrote about the continuing way in which various Fundie groups are accusing gays of being the aggressors -- perpetrating mob violence -- when what looks to us like peaceful protests. I was busy with a music project so I'm only returning to the issue now. I have a few updates, then another reply from my friend.

Singer Pat Boone, taking his cue from the ad accusing gays of violence has likened the gay protests to the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Seamus Hasson, whose name is first on the ad, has compared our protests to Al Qaeda. And Rabbi Nachum Shifren (I don't know how he fits into this mess) has compared us to -- wait for it -- Nazis. I think all this means they know they are losing.

An organization with the title Truth Wins Out took out a full page ad in the Salt Lake Tribune (probably can't afford the New York Times where the original ad appeared) essentially saying the authors of the original ad are lying and thus are violating one of the Top Ten. It also highlights what the various signatories have said about each other -- meaning the only thing they agree on is screwing the gays.


My friend wrote:

Wow, my previous response quoted and dissected in full. Thank you. I'm glad to be worthy.

In case you did miss something (I have a reputation for being cryptic), let me add this:

You shouldn't make the comparison you did because it diverts your emotions and those of your readers from the real work at hand. Revenge for bombings and hate-driven murder is not a helpful motive for gays and their allies in this fight against the Mormon Church. Revenge clouds everyone's vision.

As I said, the Mormon Church and its conservative peers are a large, real danger to gays. I described that threat; essentially, the Church threatens to imprison us all in its version of the past. But the Mormon Church is conducting a war of ideas. Countering and overcoming that requires better ideas and better presentation of those ideas: calm, steady, mature and peaceful demonstrations and public argument that places gays in the moral right and the Mormon Church on the defensive. Gays are finally doing that, and doing it well.

Rage against the Mormons for "numerous bombings of abortion providers and deaths of gays to hate crimes. And they accuse us of violence?" cannot win this contest for the hearts and minds of Americans. Americans won't and shouldn't see the Mormon Church as party to hate crimes, even if individual Mormons are among the perpetrators. The Mormon Church preaches against gay morality and practices; it does not incite anyone to carry out hate crimes. (We know what things would look like if the Mormons were guilty of inciting to hate crimes: The Republicans led by Palin waded into inciting-to-violence waters late in the campaign this year. They were called out for it and had to back down.)

Hate crimes cry out for justice, of course, case-by-case justice found only in criminal courts. I certainly didn't mean to lay aside hate crimes as unworthy of attention. Leave that to the criminal justice system (which itself needs to be the object of demonstrations and argument so that it does its job properly).

The productive path is to size up the Mormon Church as the longer-term, muscular ideological opponent that it is and campaign against it accordingly. Its weakness is its self-righteousness and certainty. As those are exposed as errors, the Church will pay a big price for its ways and gays will win the political battle at last.

Are Mormons inciting people to hate crimes? With such crimes (racial and homosexual) up since the election it is hard to tell if all of it was incited by Palin or if the Mormons had a hand in it. The people who are paying for those words from McCain, Palin, and perhaps the Mormons won't be McCain, Palin, or Mormon leaders. There have been anti-gay hate crimes reported in the gay blogs just this week.

As for the rest of your comments…

Dear friend, I appreciate the debate and you are always a worthy debate partner. And I agree with a great deal of what you say here. However, in this case you might be attributing more to my lowly blog than it deserves. If I had vast numbers of readers I might be more careful in what I say. Then again, those vast swarms of readers would certainly spill their anger into the comments sections of each posting as happens to the blogs with vast readerships.

I started sending out summaries of gay news and my musings on them about 5 years ago to a few friends (you included) and family members. A year ago at the suggestion of my niece I funneled that energy into this blog. These postings now get automatically mailed to 10 people (the max the software allows) and maybe 10 other people read it -- unless I happen to attract a readership that is *very* stingy with comments. So I don't think any Mormons are reading this blog -- I haven't even told my Catholic brother about it.

I write this blog for two reasons. One is to share ideas that affect gays with friends and family because I'm pretty sure most of them won't go searching for such news on their own. Many have told me they appreciate my efforts.

The other reason is to work through these ideas in my own mind and a good way of doing that is to attempt to explain it to others -- and to listen to their thoughtful feedback. Thank you for supplying some of that.