Heather W. Torrance said... Hi Colin,
To be fair, you should probably pick on other religions, too, not just Christianity. Islam is also very anti-homosexual, as are traditional Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism...really, nearly all of them. Obviously Christianity has been the most damaging to you personally, but for the sake of homosexuals in countries where it is literally a death sentence to be out, perhaps you could speak out for them and pick on those religions.
As for the reactions you get from Christians...well, I understand the people who are offended that you lump them all into one group. But, more than that, I think they should be understanding of you. If they're tolerant, they need to be louder about it. They need to denounce other Christians who are intolerant towards homosexuals, instead of denouncing gays who've had to put up with bad treatment they're whole lives and are understandably burned by it.
I don't agree that all Christians are fundies. There are plenty of liberal Christians out there - whole denominations of them, in fact, as well as significant movements within many of the large churches, such as the Methodist and Episcopal churches. But they are fighting a rabid opposition, they're outnubered, and frankly, a lot of pro-gay people are also anti-religion, so they don't have as much support as they could. So maybe instead of attacking Christians, you should just attack fundies of all faiths, and find some common ground with the liberals in the faith who are on your side.
Best,
Heather
Dear Heather-you missed the point too. I am very well aware of the type of people you speak of, two female friends are Priests and my excellent Dr is also a Xtian.They are not the evil kind. The Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhists is not anti gay. I don't think Buddhism has a doctrine of hate toward us.
People like Pailin et al pretend to speak for ALL Xtians because if uou don't agree, then you are not one, in their eyes. The email printed previously from Joyce is the kind of evil I am writing about and if people truly did read my blog, they'd know my position, and it is not one of blindness to other faiths or to people who have faith, like me, but who are not fundy. There are haters without faith too. There is much to be offended about and I'd have been happier that you were offended by the Vicki's comment rather than what you perceived me to think. I am in agreement with you: Islam, Judaisim, and Xtains and others all preach hatred of us and in some countries we are killed in the name of God. In the UK and the USA we are killed in the name of hate fuelled by religious hatred of us.
1 comment:
Wow.
Here in the West most of us discuss the shortcomings of Christianity because we have experienced the Christian brand of religious intolerance. And, too, many of us grew up with exposure to various forms of Christianity.
We are familiar with Christianity, and write about its negative influence on us individually and upon society generally.
To write about what we know does not in any way diminish the negative impact of other religions with which we are likely less familiar.
It is silly to expect Western gay people to write at length about Judaism, Islam, Hindu, and other influences if that isn't what we know. There are gays and atheists and others living in the Middle East, India, China, etc., and they are more qualified to address the shortcomings of those other religions.
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