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Today, I am publishing what I hope to be a definitive work analyzing religious right propaganda.
How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America pushes a simple premise – the claim by organizations like the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, etc. that they operate to preserve Judeo-Christian values is a lie. The truth is that through spreading anti-gay propaganda which has absolutely nothing to do with religious beliefs, these organizations stigmatize the gay community and falsely label homosexuality as a threat to societal order and wellness. And what’s worse, they use the religious belief which designates homosexuality to be a sin as a free license to sugarcoat their tactics as mere “expressions of their personal religious beliefs” and labeling every question regarding these tactics as an “attack on their religious liberty” or an attempt to “silence” them.
In reality, it’s nothing new what they do and there is nothing nothing Christian or moral about it. When any group spreads propaganda, it’s always “in defense” of something and it usually scapegoats a group undeserving of such hostilities. Whether it be the defense of “Southern culture,” the “German homeland,” or “Judeo-Christian values,” it all adds up to the same thing – isolating an innocent group as the essence of evil and claiming that if only said group were put in its place, the world would be a better place. It’s a big lie and unfortunately, no one tells the lie better than religious right groups. And it’s high time that the gay community demand a public discussion on these lies. Let’s hope that now will be the beginning of that discussion.
This booklet is free to anyone who wants to read, download, or post it to their blogs:
5 Comments
For there to be the rghteous and the saved, they must have a scapegoated group of “sinners” and damned…we are the damned, the cast out,
Excellent work, Alvin. It’s worth noting that of late, we have seen mainstream broadcasters (finally) ready to tell anti-gay bigots that they are anti-gay bigots. CNN’s Carol Costello, for example, told Bryan Fischer that his outlandish claims against gays constitute hate speech. The flip side of that, unfortunately, is that the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank clouded issues by saying that the so-called Family Research Council should not be listed as a hate group (as though the SPLC were not crystal clear with its criteria). So much work remains to be done, and this book is a great contribution to the effort.
They are only more evil because they scapegoat gays. They were evil before they scapegoated them.
The problem is identifying their evil.
Do any of those pictured on the left above look completely normal to you. I would be more interested in reading your book if I could be sure I wouldn’t have to look at any more of the likes of these demons.
Changing the subject: My limited experience with the evangelicalists runs to the effect that it’s all about money. The person on stage works very hard to produce entertainment (mostly drama, but a good laugh now and then helps) and the public pays for it. Just like we do TV or Hollywood. You do have to have a certain peculiar world view (a sense of exclusivity helps as well) to enjoy their message and their antics. Here, message and antics are all of a piece, just as with Shakespeare. The really clever ones, just like famous stand-up comics, often do very well financially.
What continues to amaze is that their audience seems to mostly lose track of the purpose of the meeting and internalize the message. Now that’s a danger for sure.
There are such things as real Christians. I know some.
One of the most poignant things you may see at one of the more outrageous episodes of religious ranting is the more or less normal Christian person who is unsettled by this spectacle. He feels that this behavior is not in keeping with his understanding of Christianity, but the preacher can push all the right buttons and quote scripture; leaving said more or less normal person befuddled and embarrassed, moot and meek. Pitiful.