Earlier today I posted a long quote from Kathy Baldock, an Evangelical Christian, about how the supposed “persecution” of Christians in this country simply doesn’t exist. Fundamentalists these days have taken to professionally and loudly whining about how they’re suffering at the hands of the rest of the population, when what is actually happening is a lot simpler — namely, they’re finally starting to get treated more equally to the rest of us, slowly but surely. For many years, people really didn’t question the idea of conservative Christians having a special place in our society. Now people are questioning it more and more, and it’s making our country better.

As a counterpoint to Kathy’s quote, here’s convicted Watergate felon Chuck Colson emitting his best whine:

“We’ve fallen into the spiral of silence in which case the people who might be a tiny minority but are controlling the conversation intimidate the rest of us. Now where have we seen that happen most vividly? We’ve seen it in the gay rights movement. The gay rights movement is a tiny minority in America, so what you get is a passionate movement of 10 percent of the people, 5 percent of the people maybe in the gay movement, maybe 4 percent, 3 percent, and they control what the rest of us think because the rest of us are intimidated into silence. Folks, brothers and sisters, I tell you I believe in the depths of my being that the most important thing we can do today in obedience to Christ is to break the spiral of silence, to speak out, to point out unrighteousness.”

Yeah, Chuck Colson and Tony Perkins and the rest of them are so obviously being “intimidated into silence.” That’s why we’re quoting their words verbatim to spread to a larger audience. Everyone boo hoo for Chuck.

[h/t Joe]

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.

Desmond Tutu is so awesome, and he’s such a voice of moral authority that he’s pretty hard to argue with.  Of course, some will, but they’re in way over their heads.  He’s written an open letter in Essence speaking out against the worldwide persecution and bullying of LGBT people.  Here’s the first couple of paragraphs, and then click over to read the rest:

Today I pray for people in Africa and throughout the world who long for freedom because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It grieves me to be retiring at this crucial moment in history, so I write to you in this open letter, to invite you to pick up the work that remains to be done. More than 70 countries still imprison or execute gay and transgender people, and bullying and murders are all too common. This must change.

Each of you is called to respond to God’s urgency for love and life. So whether you are in South Africa, the United States or anywhere else, humanity needs to accept its own diversity as a gift from our Creator. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are part of our family of God.

Wise words.

There’s a silly poll at a website called The Voice of the Martyrs, asking whether Christians are persecuted in the United States.

(No.)

I only post this because we all know all too well that most of the “persecution” faced by fundamentalist Christians in this country basically involves them being forced to stop lording their beliefs over other people and/or get over the fact that that they live in a secular nation with a separation of church and state, and that it’s truly irrelevant what their beliefs on what “God said” about marriage, etc., are, when it comes to treating LGBT citizens equally.

So anyway. Go Freep this poll. It was already posted at Pharyngula, where P.Z. gave the following instructions:

Wah, wah, wah…make them cry some more, persecute them by going clicky-clicky on a little button on the internet.

Because that’s all it takes to persecute them, really. Over 90% are already answering no, but that number should be more like 99.9%.

(And yes, I know some of you readers are Christians, and you should know that polls like this aren’t about liberal, open-minded Christians who don’t have a victim complex every time somebody breathes in their direction.)

A reader at our Facebook page offers some fabulous perspective on this, though:

I thought Jesus said Christians are supposed to rejoice if they’re persecuted for his sake. The mewling and puking of the religious right needs to stop. More rejoicing, less bitching.

I think he outsnarked me.

Damn. I have to up my game.

Rwanda

South Africa as yet, has remained completely silent on the issue of pink human rights in Africa, specifically Uganda - presumably on the “head-in-the-sand” principle employed by the ostrich – if you ignore it long enough, it will probably go away. Perhaps they are right, but then who am I to criticize? I live in a country which seems increasingly desperate to imitate that other bastion of third-world lunacy, Zimbabwe. (Read More)