LGBT student groups and gay-straight alliances in high schools and colleges across the country often sell T-shirts for National Coming Out Day to raise funds and spread awareness about the LGBT community.
The Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota is no exception. This year, like every year, the group printed shirts proclaiming that “love is love.” But this National Coming Out Day took on greater significance in Minnesota because it came less than one month before voters there will decide whether to enshrine marriage discrimination into the constitution.
Against that emotionally-charged backdrop, one student decided to use National Coming Out Day — a day for celebrating the LGBT community — to spread a bigoted, hateful message. Minnesota Public Radio reports about Concordia College senior Rebecca Julius:
Julius, a devout Wisconsin Synod Lutheran, designed black T-shirts that say “sin is sin” across the front and list three Bible passages about truth and evil on the back.
“I don’t identify with all these people that say homosexuality is a perfectly acceptable way to live; that’s not me,” she said. “So the reason I wanted to do this T-shirt was one, to stand up for God’s word because I feel like it’s getting completely trampled in this place that’s supposed to be Christian and two, to just separate myself from it and not give anybody the impression that this what I believe. “
Just to give you an idea of the likely depth of Ms. Julius’s anti-gay views, I’ll point out that the Wisconsin Synod Lutheran (WELS) Church is the same denomination that Michele and Marcus Bachmann belonged to for more than a decade.
Needless to say, Julius’s shirts were incredibly divisive on the 2,700-person campus, particularly because LGBT people are widely accepted there. Most “Cobbers,” as Concordia students are known, oppose the marriage amendment. But that didn’t deter Julius in the least. In fact, it seems to have emboldened her — according to the MPR report, she chose to go public with her anti-gay views “to reach out to others who oppose homosexuality but who might be nervous about sharing their opinion ‘because it’s not really the socially acceptable thing to do.’” A few like-minded students even ordered “sin is sin” shirts of their own.
Of course, like most hardcore homophobes, Julius is thoroughly convinced that her efforts have a heavenly imprimatur. She told MPR,
“I’ve definitely felt alone at more than one point on campus and I feel like I don’t necessarily fit the ‘Cobber mode’ but that’s OK with me because I know where I stand with my faith. And I know I have so many people behind me and supporting me and I also know that God is proud of what I’m trying to do for him.”
This sad story of bigotry does have a silver lining, though. Rebecca Julius doesn’t actually live in Moorhead, but across the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota. So no matter how often she wears her hurtful and divisive T-shirt or how sinful she thinks LGBT people are, she won’t be able to cast her vote against them next month.
I don’t remember having asked for her f*****g opinion anyway…….who cares.
I read somewhere:
“7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
Wish I could remember where that is from. Hmmmm.
What an embarrassment to real Christians such as myself! Perhaps pro-equality students of faith should wear black t-shirts that proclaim: Homophobia is Sin. She recognizes that many students are guilt-ridden and ashamed of their homophobia. The way to deal with that is to repent and get rid of the homophobia. If they feel ashamed, it’s probably the Holy Spirit trying to convict their hearts.
I’m pretty sure that’s from Romans, Tim. The judging done toward others is going to be turned back on the judgers, good or not good. God is for justice and equality for all His beloved and cherished children, and wants the same from us.
Hate is hate, and dumb is dumb. Good luck getting a job with a Fortune 500 company, lady. You are now radioactive.
The fact that this woman is:
1. Not doing her work at home and making babies…
2. Is bareheaded in public, speaks to and touches men she’s not related to.
3. Likely buys her produce from mixed fields and wears mixed fabrics and isn’t saying anything about working on Sunday, and likely committed usury to attend school…
She’s just being a blatant hypocrite on who is a sinner or not and who deserves to be treated fairly more than others.
Once you try to defend NOT treating another as you’d be treated with a reductive slogan like that, you’re a hypocrite.
And FU.
WELS also hates women and don’t even allow women to vote
Perhaps with luck she will not reproduce. May you find Peace in a world in which we loved by God, Lead in loving by Christ and nurtured and guided by the Spirit LGBT Folks, Friends and Allies will continue to thrive and prosper. Because we will be wherever you are.
I did write to the young lady. And sent her one post in particular to read. I invited conversation. WHo knows, maybe?
When will people catholic or not understand that being gay is not a CHOICE!!!! So I don’t understand how their way of life is a SIN!!! Wake up!!!!
Once again religion rears its ugly head. The GSA delivers a positive message about love and she comes in with a black shirt spouting off about negativity and sin. How miserable of a person do you have to be to even entertain such a thought about crapping on someone’s positivity?
Handily for Ms. Julius, whenever she commits a sin as defined by her religious tradition, the state won’t step in to deny rights to her. (Sins which are also crimes being the notable exceptions.)
I saw an extra minute of quotes by her, with her citing her experience in a small, private, faith-based school, and a sense of shock landing on a college campus where no one was recoiling at the presence of openly LGBT students.
It must be as much of a shock that fellow students from divorced and blended families are plentiful, and don’t live in hiding or shame about it.
Maybe she considers it impossible that she will be divorced one day. If that sin becomes personal for her, though, and she needs the civil protections of divorce, or wants the civil option to remarry, sin will be irrelevant.
how about showing her the power of the rainbow
the power of love?
http://www.cafepress.com/dd/71540506
http://www.childrenoftherainbowuu.org
Never underestimate the powere of the rainbow
…“to reach out to others who oppose homosexuality but who might be nervous about sharing their opinion ‘because it’s not really the socially acceptable thing to do.’”… Yeah Morticia, like racism, anti-semitism, misogyny, using foul language in public, and not cleaning up your dog’s s**t where people walk. It’s ‘socially unacceptable’ for a reason hatchet face–BECAUSE IT’S WRONG!
How about we start a pool about whether that shirt is a cotton-polyester blend.
Wait, is she actually living in Fargo, or is that where she’s originally from? In Minnesota college students who live on campus, even if technically an out-of-state resident, can vote on campus.
At least now everyone knows to avoid her like the plague.
Rebecca Julius felt the need, “to just separate myself from it and not give anybody the impression that this what I believe.”
Now why did she think that if she didn’t wear the “Sin is Sin” teeshirt she’d be giving people the impression she was pro-LGBT?
I know that closet cases are almost always men, but to me she looks like a dyke, if a weirdly malevolent one.
Sounds like NOM has it’s replacement for Maggie after she kicks off. If you’re going to be a b***h, you might as well start early in life. God is truly proud of you, dear. You are heaven material, we all can tell.
Oh, Rebecca, your notion of
SIN is Super Ignorant Nonsense.
Wow, I just came to this website because I am reading through the various links related to this story. I am so disappointed by the manner that most of you have expressed yourselves. You can have your opinions about the subject matter, but you only know Rebecca Julius based on one story (this one). This author is biased and represents Rebecca Julius as “bigotry, hurtful and divisive”. True journalism provides the story and facts and allows the reader to make their own opinion. In my opinion this “writer” is feeding fuel to the hot issue of gay marriage. Do all of you not realize that writers like this are representing hate and discourse? If the goal is that everyone has tolerance for one another, it goes both ways. When “Love is Love” t-shirts come out, then you have to expect “Sin is Sin”. The true goal is to understand with mutual respect; however, when stories like this are written to defame someone that doesn’t believe the same, then tolerance and understanding have failed. Instead of spitting on Rebecca and calling her ugly names, try respecting her strength to express what she believes even though you don’t believe in what she stands for. Never, never are people going to all agree on homosexuality. Instead of polarizing and trying to force your opinion on everyone, try coming up with solutions to meet in the middle. Otherwise, the hate, that also appears on these comments, will continue. Stop the name calling and demand that sites like this hire “writers” that explore tolerance.
BYW, I am an alum of Concordia College.
Kerrie, when someone wears a “sin is sin” t-shirt, they are NOT about being respectful to LGBT persons. They ARE about being judgmental and legally punitive, as THAT is the reason most anti-gay legislation and interference with anti-gay bullying measures boils down to. Simply hiding behind a vague “sin is sin” statement with some wide-eyed “who me?” vapid expression “I’m just expressing my opinion” does NOT hide the nastiness and animus behind the statement.
You think we are being disrespectful? For pushing back?
Screw you. And the God you rode in on.
And, for the record, I don’t give a flying f**k what she, or you, or anyone else thinks of me. I DO however, give a good g*****n when that assholishness is used to deprive me of the ability to define, defend and provide for my family same as everyone else.
You go OldBaldGuy!!!
Do religious nuts anywhere ever wear a “Sin is sin” shirt where the SIN referred to is greed, arrogance, selfishness, lying, ignorance, or pride? Or is always SEX with them? SEX SEX SEX get over yourselves, right wing religious wackos. Stop obsessing SEX and who has it, and with whom. Grow up and come out of the caves, and stop trying to impose your patriarchic theocracy on society, no matter what an ignorant, uneducated majority might approve of. Study some unbiased science and history. Who cares what your old fart in the sky sez in your grim fairy tale book. Try to impose it through law, and you will cause many generations of increasingly dangerous strife. America is a PROGRESSIVE nation, no matter how much you benighted fools try to deform it.
Kerrie, why is it that those of us who are GLBT are always the ones who are supposed to be mild and loving and accepting of people who call us sinners and disordered and want to take away the rights we have and prevent us from getting other rights to which we are entitled as free citizens? Why are we not supposed to be angry and not supposed to lash out when we are attacked by people who don’t even know us? Why are we supposed to just take it on the chin when self-righteous people who think they are God’s special messengers take it upon themselves to attack us?
How’s this for meeting in the middle Kerrie; we get the full protection of the law we’ve been promised for over a hundred years, and anti-gay bigots like Ms. Julius mind their own damn business instead of condemning us and trying to force us to live a certain way.
Kerrie! Ms Julius is an avowed and enthusiastic Christian. Surely she must rejoicing with the unmerited “persecution” she is receiving for standing up for The Lard. She is commanded to turn the other cheek and rejoice when she is “persecuted”, as her reward will be great in heaven. Why is she whining about the consequences of her name calling? Why are you whining on her behalf? Don’t you believe your own Buybyull? And by the way, whatever happened to the “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” stratagem Jesus advised his followers? Seein’ precious little of THAT lately.
Glad you wrote!
If the bigot does not want to be criticized she should stop criticizing others. It seems fundies don’t get this simple concept. They want the special right to put others down, but whine like crybabies when they are confronted.
I respect her right to wear that pig ignorant shirt that is meant to offend. But is my right to call her an a*****e for doing so.
Get used to it fundies. The day has passed where you get to dump on people under the guise of morality and they sit there and let you heap on the abuse.
The clock won’t be turned back. You picked this fight and we are finishing it. We simply will never again allow self-righteous snobs with backward views and appalling “morals” to insult our families without fighting back.
Am I intolerant of bigots who dehumanize me and harm my family? You’re goddamned right I am, and proud of it.
What is most amusing is that these traditionally privileged troglodytes are experiencing the push back they deserve as a loss of religious liberty. They actually believe that the ability to bully others is central to their belief system and worldview. And maybe it is, which says an awful lot about their so-called spirituality.
“You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Kerrie, Please look up the words “news” and “commentary.”
While you’re at it, look up the word “discourse.”
INCONTHEEVABLE!
Kerrie, being intolerant of bigotry and prejudice is not the same thing as being intolerant of people who have characteristics they can’t help having and which aren’t doing anyone else any harm, including being LGBT, a person of color, female, a person with Jewish ancestry, any person who doesn’t fit the dominant gender roles to your liking, people with mental health or developmental issues, people who are lower on the socio-economic then you respect, people who have more body weight than you think they should, etc.
Should we have to be tolerant of a racist or anti-Semite who is trying to sow discord and frighten or degrade the type of person he or she is against? Of course not. So then why should we be tolerant of someone like Rebecca Julius, who replies to the benign “Love is Love” with the judgmental, mean-spirited “Sin is Sin”?
And when I say not be tolerant, I mean we should feel free to criticize Ms. Julius, to express criticism to her as well as to criticize her to others.
Sorry, but you don’t get to “flip the script”, and no, you’re being not clever in trying to do so. If anyone are the haters, it’s would be at least some of the people in Rebecca Julius’s camp — which might include you.
Hoowever, you haven’t had the guts to tell us where you stand on this. Criticizing others’ stands while not being out front about where you stand isn’t something I can respect.
You wanna wear your judgmental “sin is sin” T-shirt go ahead, but the consequences of that is that you will be treated as a social pariah.
Don’t expect viewpoint tolerance. Discrimination in the name of religion is STILL Discrimination.
I love how all these bigots claim that they do not have to obey any of the Levitical laws.Yet they carry on about the one against homosexuality, which isn’t even homosexuality as we understand it today. The stricture was against things like agan temple prostitution. Interesting that that one law is harped on allmost incessantly by bigots.
Then there are one or two verses in the writings of Paul, who had a LOT of issues of his own. Again, though, it is not homosexuality as we understand it today.
Instead of finding out what science–REAL science, not NARTH–has to say about homosexuality and loving, committed relationships, she takes those few verses and runs with them. However, she is a hypocrite. Does she remain silent and not dare to preach to men? Does she cover her hair in church? Does she wear lothing of only one fiber…ad infinitum.
This is what ticks me off about fundies–do whatever they want while expecting others, even those not of their faith to toe the line. Disgusting and so is Ms. Julius’s bigotry.
I love how all these bigots claim that they do not have to obey any of the Levitical laws.Yet they carry on about the one against homosexuality, which isn’t even homosexuality as we understand it today. The stricture was against things like agan temple prostitution. Interesting that that one law is harped on allmost incessantly by bigots.
Then there are one or two verses in the writings of Paul, who had a LOT of issues of his own. Again, though, it is not homosexuality as we understand it today.
Instead of finding out what science–REAL science, not NARTH–has to say about homosexuality and loving, committed relationships, she takes those few verses and runs with them. However, she is a hypocrite. Does she remain silent and not dare to preach to men? Does she cover her hair in church? Does she wear lothing of only one fiber…ad infinitum.
This is what ticks me off about fundies–do whatever they want while expecting others, even those not of their faith to toe the line. Disgusting and so is Ms. Julius’s bigotry. The saddest thing is that they think their hatred is love.
I wonder if Julius is related to Donna, who reportedly called a Fargo radio station to complain about deer crossing signs on busy interstate highways. After all, everybody knows if you give deer ideas, they’re bound to try them out. It’s just like sex education and anti-bullying messages on Tshirts.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/10/radio-caller-complains-about-inconsiderate-deer/
[...] Minnesota College Student Wants Everyone to Know She Really Hates Gays [...]
The strange mentality of the pseudo-Christian. They see ‘love’ and automatically think of ‘sin’.
She’s going to have one helluva wake-up call when she stands at the Pearly Gates and God (or whomever) says, “No one up here ever asked anyone to hate their fellow man. To Hell with you!”