Permission to be a bully

A blogger who calls herself Seething Mom has written that she seethes because of the way religious and political people treat her gay son. She has written about the stormy relationship with one of her brothers and recaps it in her latest entry.

That brother strongly believes the phrase, "Whatever happened, it's not my fault." He's arrogant and bigoted, but when things (marriage, job, etc.) go sour it only proves the world is out to get him. Seething Mom says this brother hit an especially bad time and returned to the Catholic Church. Much to his annoyance, they tried to teach him accountability. He left. He then turned to a Fundie mega-church. As long as he said he believed in Jesus they declared him saved. That gave him the validation he craved and provided him a bully pulpit to "preach to others what he never practiced himself." So now he is an arrogant and bigoted bully and had the permission of the church to be an arrogant and bigoted bully.

And when he took it out on her gay son Seething Mom severed relations.

That has left Seething Mom pondering the damage that kind of church is foisting on society. It is a church that offers forgiveness without requiring working towards restoration of relationships.

Not long after seeing Seething Mom's story I saw a post about Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana (yup, GOP) who has inserted another amendment into the defense authorization act that essentially permits soldiers to bully gay colleagues they don't like. Something about what good is a belief if you aren't free to act on it?

That makes it seem Seething Mom is right. Fundamentalism is permission to be a bully.