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Fred Phelps is right. Evil, but right
Jan. 26th, 2008 09:05 pmNow that I have your attention...
I came to a realization today. When Phelps and his ilk come up, I seem to end up on an odd side of the conversation. I finally understood today: the others are approaching it from the argument that Phelps is wrong.
I come at it from the idea that Phelps is right. Yes, God hates gay people.
Let me break it down.
1) If you are a Christian, and discover you are gay, your salvation was not real in the first place. It was an emotional experience that led you to think you were saved. Or God has given you over to your sin.
2) If you are gay, you cannot become a Christian. The rule is "He who repents and is baptized shall be saved." You must repent, which means turning away from being gay, before you can be saved. Afterward, God will make you straight.
3) If you are saved and discover God has not made you straight, see point one. You didn't repent hard enough.
Therefore, since being a Christian is the only way to be saved, and gays cannot be Christian, they are the enemies of God. That means God hates them.
This means, that within a Christian faith, Phelps is right.
****
The problem as I see it is that Phelps pours out the pure strychnine of homophobia.
Most churches at least add some kool-ade to the cup. It usually comes under the guise of "love the sinner, hate the sin."
Also there is the problem of "Speak the truth with love."
Granted, all this depends on what the pastor's particular hobby-horse is. An anti-abortion pastor may not preach more than a couple anti-gay sermons a year. An anti-gay pastor will find a way to tie it into every sermon.
***
Mudd's rebuttal to the idea is that everyone is salvageable or the Great Commission is worthless.
***
But what about liberal Christians, like Fred Rogers? The social justice folks?
"I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Rev 3: 15-16)
Basically, any fundamentalist will tell you that liberal Christians make Jesus puke.
***
So where does this leave someone like me?
At 15, I realized I was bisexual. I was already worried because my hyperactive libido had surfaced several years earlier, and I couldn't possibly be a good person if I had feelings like that. I was actively lusting for Oholah and Oholibah's lustful Egyptians and horse-hung Assyrians. Which is NOT what Ezekiel had in mind when he wrote chapter 23.
A year or so later, we ended up in a homophobic church.
I was informed that the God I had loved since childhood hated me. He had made me wicked, given me to my sin in order to damn me. I spent the next 20+ years trying to be good, to be straight and to make it up to God that I was such a flawed piece of work.
In the end, I gave up that impossible task and walked away from the religion, accepting damnation in the process. Like a great number of the GLBT community.
I came to a realization today. When Phelps and his ilk come up, I seem to end up on an odd side of the conversation. I finally understood today: the others are approaching it from the argument that Phelps is wrong.
I come at it from the idea that Phelps is right. Yes, God hates gay people.
Let me break it down.
1) If you are a Christian, and discover you are gay, your salvation was not real in the first place. It was an emotional experience that led you to think you were saved. Or God has given you over to your sin.
2) If you are gay, you cannot become a Christian. The rule is "He who repents and is baptized shall be saved." You must repent, which means turning away from being gay, before you can be saved. Afterward, God will make you straight.
3) If you are saved and discover God has not made you straight, see point one. You didn't repent hard enough.
Therefore, since being a Christian is the only way to be saved, and gays cannot be Christian, they are the enemies of God. That means God hates them.
This means, that within a Christian faith, Phelps is right.
****
The problem as I see it is that Phelps pours out the pure strychnine of homophobia.
Most churches at least add some kool-ade to the cup. It usually comes under the guise of "love the sinner, hate the sin."
Also there is the problem of "Speak the truth with love."
Granted, all this depends on what the pastor's particular hobby-horse is. An anti-abortion pastor may not preach more than a couple anti-gay sermons a year. An anti-gay pastor will find a way to tie it into every sermon.
***
Mudd's rebuttal to the idea is that everyone is salvageable or the Great Commission is worthless.
***
But what about liberal Christians, like Fred Rogers? The social justice folks?
"I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Rev 3: 15-16)
Basically, any fundamentalist will tell you that liberal Christians make Jesus puke.
***
So where does this leave someone like me?
At 15, I realized I was bisexual. I was already worried because my hyperactive libido had surfaced several years earlier, and I couldn't possibly be a good person if I had feelings like that. I was actively lusting for Oholah and Oholibah's lustful Egyptians and horse-hung Assyrians. Which is NOT what Ezekiel had in mind when he wrote chapter 23.
A year or so later, we ended up in a homophobic church.
I was informed that the God I had loved since childhood hated me. He had made me wicked, given me to my sin in order to damn me. I spent the next 20+ years trying to be good, to be straight and to make it up to God that I was such a flawed piece of work.
In the end, I gave up that impossible task and walked away from the religion, accepting damnation in the process. Like a great number of the GLBT community.
