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We all know what the religious right and those who are anti-gay say about the lgbt community. We all know the lies and the distortions they stoop to in order to demonize us. But what if, just what if, they were challenged on these distortions with the facts? Would they attempt to refute with other facts? Would they agree that they were wrong? Or would they stick to their guns under the mistaken idea that being “Christ-like” is refusing to admit you are wrong even in the fact of being pointed out that you are wrong. Robert Jeffress, who has been in the news lately because of the Tim Tebow controversy, is the test subject to my question. Watch what he does when he is presented facts about the lgbt community which refutes his conjecture:
Where to start? First of all, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973, not 1976. And research was involved thanks to folks like the late Evelyn Hooker who was a pioneer in the study of homosexuality.
The basic point is that Jeffress is a sad man. He reminds me of the pharisees and the Sanhedrin council who spoke out against Jesus and plotted his death. He wraps himself so hard in the phony guise of being a steadfast warrior for good that he has abandoned all humility and common sense.
He thinks he is so close to God that he has become interchangeable to God. Jeffres forgets that he is just a man and as such is subject to mistakes in thought and actions. And when confronted with these mistakes, he refuses to yield just a little. He refuses to say “maybe I should take a look at this” or “perhaps I am wrong.” He holds firm to his beliefs, which can be at times can be an admirable quality.
However, in this juncture, it’s not so admirable. In fact it demonstrates a prime reason why so many are leaving the Christian religion. Jesus called men to preach the gospel, not be stubborn jackasses.
Too many “Christian” pastors have mistaken one for the other.
8 Comments
It took all of 20 seconds for him to lie about gays and child sexual molestation. That has to be some sort of record.
Couldn’t make it past 47 seconds. The man’s disgusting.
Like so many right-wing pastors, Jeffress is not going to stop lying anytime soon. He makes his living off attacking those his bigoted followers hate.
Jeffress reminds me of the first time when, as a fairly young but precocious child, I got into an argument with a racist.
Sadly, this racist was also my father, and he was unmoved by the pictures I showed him of African Americans being beaten, fire-hosed and attacked by dogs, and the ‘colored / white’ drinking fountains and all the rest. Know what he said about the fountains? “Look at it, I bet they spit in it all the time. Anyway, it’s all shitty like that because those N*s don’t know how to take care of things.” (My father had a very foul mouth, too.)
He absolutely would not consider that just maybe it was because the racists running those places chose to give the crappiest water fountain to the “colored” people and spent money for the newest refrigerated unit only for whites. I never was able to educate him or change his mind. Indeed, most of our ‘arguments’ ended with him insisting that one day, I would ‘straighten up’ and learn to agree with him. He passed away a few years back and I’m proud to say, “No, Dad. I never absorbed your bigotry. You failed.”
It’s the same thing with these anti-gay homophobes. They’re immune to facts, and make up stuff to support their hate. The few we can get to admit that sexual orientation isn’t a choice will still assert it’s wrong to be gay anyway and say that life-long celibacy is the only moral choice. But most of them won’t even go that far, and continue to equate homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality. A debate requires, at minimum, an agreement that objective facts take precedence over made-up BS — and unfortunately they refuse.
People like Jeffress live in a different world than the rest of us. Their definition of “Gay” is also different from ours, and includes what they call “homosexual pedophiles.” As a result, there’s a huge language barrier between us and them. It’s impossible to carry on an effective conversation when both parties have different definitions for key words involved.
One thing I feel we need to do is stop using the word “Homosexual” and stop treating it as though it is synonymous with “Gay.” “Homosexual” is a much broader term that includes people and behaviors that have nothing to do with us. I believe that’s the only way we can hope to clarify the true meaning of “Gay” to people like Jeffress.
“Homosexual” is an adjective — it describes behaviors. That’s why the homophobes use it: they cannot admit that there is such a thing as a same-sex orientation. Thus, homosexuality is merely behavior, which can be changed.
The “homosexual pedophile” bit is a deliberate misconstruction, based on verbal sleight of hand: about 30% of child molestations are committed against boys by men; therefore, they are “homosexual” encounters: therefore, the perpetrators are homosexuals. It’s all bull, designed specifically to give some “scientific” validity to equating gay men with pedophiles.
And you’re never going to clarify the true meaning of “gay” to people like Jeffress because they doesn’t care. They’ll refuse to hear you.
The word “homosexual” is a clinical/medical term. Anti-gays use it because the term still carries a lot of negative baggage from earlier days when homosexuality was considered a mental illness.
That, too.
Yes, to both of you, but I frequently hear our side using “homosexual” as though it is synonymous with “gay,” and that helps the haters. It also confuses some in the general public who don’t follow our issues very closely on either side.