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Igor from The Wonk Room brings us the damage report — some transcript and video. Jackson actually uttered the old saw about “sexual tension” in the ranks. FAIL:
Jackson regurgitated the familiar arguments about repeal undermining unit cohesion, military readiness and the religious freedom of military chaplains. Choi debated on the issue on Jackson’s turf. He recalled the lessons from Civil Rights movement and likened the prohibition of open gay service to racism in the military:
CHOI: I think when you fire people simply for their integrity, for their act of telling the truth about who they are, there is nobody who can say that any team, any organization is strengthened. When I put on this uniform, when I wore these clothes in combat in Iraq…I didn’t swear just to serve a certain kind of people. I didn’t swear to protect only a certain kind of religious liberties. I swore to protect everybody and for anyone on to get up on the TV and say that we cannot risk the truth or integrity, I think makes a mockery not only of what our country was founded on, but the Civil Rights movement and what scripture tells us. I was raised in a religious tradition as well and I…[...]
You know, something that we learned in Iraq is that when a military is subordinated to the interests of a religious minority or a religious group of any sort, you have the same kind of social problems that the Middle East has that the countries that we are trying to liberate and to improve have and I don’t think that America is built on those same foundations….I’ve faced racism in this country and homophobia and Harry Jackson I think it feels exactly the same.
6 Comments
hmmmmBishop Jackson told both the DC council and the DC superior court that he had absolutely nothing against gay people, that he was not a bigot. He kept up this same spiel when partnered with NOM. Do we have a case of perjury on our hands?
It wasn’t a floor-moppingAlthough I don’t disagree with anything that Lt Choi had to say, it seemed to me that some of his responses to the things that Jackson said were non sequiturial.
Jackson said pretty much all of the same crap that pro-DADT people say, including the need for the “best” people.
The things that need to be hammered on (IMO):
1. Dispel the idea that homosexuality precludes the possibility of being “best” person for a military job. When I heard Jackson say that, it raised my blood pressure.
2. Dispel the whole “sexual tension” bs that Jackson “imagined” that goes on. It sounds like they imagine a whole lot of things, such as a giant gay suck & f*** fest. Why not just say that military deployment is no place for any kind of hanky panky at all? Why does everything have to be so sexual with the pro-DADT people? I find that part particularly offensive. As if homosexual men & women are incapable of doing their work because all they want to do is wait for you to drop the soap.
3. (Like Lt Choi was doing) Hammer home the idea that it’s better to have personal integrity to be honest about who you are. It’s not the same as forcing ideas on anyone. It’s just about not having to hide or feel shame about one’s self. Hiding who you are is something that crooks do.
4. Of course there’s other stuff that needs attention, but points 1-3 seem to be what sticks out for me as lacking when I hear anti-DADT people speak.
Of course, everything that Lt Choi said are absolutely great, but it seemed detached from the out-of-line stuff Jackson said, which could probably have been contested as it came out.
Either way, I’m a huge fan of Lt Choi.
So…Is Bishop Harry Jackson just some go-to guy for the anti-gay side on all issues gay-related or what? All I could imagine him saying about this before I even played the clip was something about “unit cohesion” and sure enough…yeah.
Why did you put the word “bishop” in scare quotes Pam? He is a douchebag, but he’s still a real religious leader.
Ya know what REALLY irks me about this tendency of yours? The fact that whenever you accuse a bad person of not being a “real Christian (TM)”, it sort of implies by default that Christian = morally good. And as a non-Christian, I find that offensive.
Really, really, really wish you and some of your other writers would stop playing these games. I typically love reading PHB but every time you pander to a specific religious sensibility like this, it undermines your articles.
Doesn’t matter, who he was debating, or what title that persons uses.(Which is another whole discussion here in the US where TITLEs are not supposed to be used!… But have been invented and 'inherited' ad in finatem to define power structures)He could have been talking to Military Brass, Gates, or President (there I go) Obama:He made his points and is qualified to make them. Especially as referencing the increasing vehemence of the American Taliban (read the book just out.)I am more of the opinion that, in LadyGaga, we have a 24 y/o who is simply brave enough to put into words what we all feel. Here in the 21st Century it is the old fogeys of the military who remain HOMOPHOBIC and want that perpetuated. They are the ABNORMAL, snf at least immature if not diseased soldiers. They who harp on showers for heavens sake as if they are freshmen in highschool! Psychologically they still are. It is the gay and gay-supportive military professionals, those who have managed to process through all stages of psychosocial advancement to adulthood, who realize American military could be as adult, professional and civilized as our 22 Alllies are.No our 'top brass' are as retro as IRAN, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Pakistan, etc. … hence they may even be considered to be one aspect of the vanguard of American Taliban!!
He’s a senior pastor, not a “Bishop.”“Bishops” are people who have religious authority over the Christians in some sort of episcopal province (for example, a Catholic or Episcopal Diocese). Jackson does not. He’s a pastor of a single church who picked up “Bishop” because it made him sound more important.