Kathy Baldock, Evangelical Christian and fierce ally and advocate for LGBT equality:
I am growing weary of the Christian community saying our faith is being attacked and we are being persecuted. Is there any non-gay, non-trans person in this country that is not free to walk in any church on any Sunday and publicly praise God? No straight person is barred from marrying the person they love or even a person they do not love. No one has ever stopped me from reading my Bible or praying as I walk along a public trail. I am not persecuted.
As unpopular as it is to say, many of those I religiously identify with, have become the persecutors. God specifically tells His people in Isaiah 58 that He is not interested in their external piety and conformity to rules of service, worship and discipline. He tells His people that if they really want to serve Him and have Him listen, they need to “loose the chains of injustice … and set the oppressed free and break every yoke.” He further tells His people to “spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed.”
Injustice means treating people unequally; oppression is exercising authority or power in an unjust manner. Is the glbt community oppressed and treated unjustly? Of course they are.
This country is ruled by a Constitution that guarantees all of us equal treatment. All of us. Being gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender is not a choice or a behavior or something that needs to be or can be changed. Gay and trans people are a class of people. When people of faith lead the charge to withhold rights from a class of people, then they have indeed have become the oppressors.
I have nothing more to add, but you should read the entire post from which that quote comes.
Kathy Baldock, had I known someone like you years ago I might yet be Christian today. As it is, it is a history that contributes to, but does not participate in my affairs today, because of christnicks like Robertson and Dobson.
The citation you gave might be summed with Ezekiel 16:48-49, which in turn is a slap in the face of corporate greed in the name of Christ, or the church. A shame the Cathars couldn’t be left to succeed.
The political gay-bashing Christian claims of “persecution” are transparent, classic passive aggression. Case in point, the Ledyard, NY town clerk, Rose Marie Belforti. A lesbian couple came to her office to apply for a marriage license. Though that couple own property locally and thus through their taxes had been paying Belforti’s salary, Belforti refused them the service. Having screwed the paying customers over that way, Belforti made it all about “ME ME ME. I HAVE MY SINCERELY HELD RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. ME ME ME.” Never mind the trauma she had inflicted on the paying customers she refused. The nasty bigot never apologized to them. And then, her town indulged her a*****e bigotry by agreeing to hire a “deputy clerk” for the issuing of all marriage licenses. In other words, at no moment was Belforti compelled to do anything she didn’t want to do. Yet the passive aggressive gay basher appeared in a NOM video, saying that she felt she was being “persecuted.” She should tell that one to the Horse Marines.
thank you–together and with lots of varied voices, we will get there and there is EQUALITY.
[...] today I posted a long quote from Kathy Baldock, an Evangelical Christian, about how the supposed “persecution” of [...]
Someone needs to remind Rose Belforti that doing her job has NOTHING to do with what she chooses to believe. They did not hire her because of what she thinks about gay marriage…they hired her because she is to do her job, which is to serve the people. Period. At no time is her belief in ANYTHING supposed to interfere with the carrying out of her duties. Who does she think she is, anyway? She obviously believes that she is above the law. She needs to vacate her position and give it to someone who will not pick and choose which laws they wish to observe, and do away with the ones they do not. That’s not her call. If she can’t do her job, if she feels it causes her to act in a way which is contrary to her beliefs, then she needs to quit. After all, if she stays, she’s a hypocrite.