Christian Right

During this past weekend’s Values Voter Summit, the annual family reunion of the far right, Right Wing Watch posted many memorable video highlights. What does it all tell us about the Religious Right and today’s Republican Party?

Former “Growing Pains” actor and self-proclaimed born again Christian Kirk Cameron — who last March said that homosexuality is “unnatural” and “destructive” to the foundations of civilization — now says his words were simply a case of the “liberal press” looking for things to twist and take out of context.

It’s become easy to hate homosexuals in America, and in some instances, it’s become a part of the fabric of the organization. Political parties, churches, social organizations make billions of dollars on their “gay hate.” They can wrap it in any sort of bow they want, but hate is hate. Period. For some of us in the gay community, it takes a great deal of courage to still love and value ourselves as Americans…

For the past thirty years, the Bible has been so tightly intertwined into politics that we’ve been confused as to what makes up the Bible and what makes up a political platform. “Traditional family values” — what does this even mean?

There is absolutely no doubt that FRC, along with more than a dozen other “Christian” based organizations lie about LGBT people. And this is the root of the escalating tension: the propagation of lies. This does damage. This oppresses fellow humans. Those who continue to do this all use the Bible to validate their oppression, making it extremely vile to many Christians. You can only push on and denigrate people for so long before it boils over…

Now, as you can probably guess, there have been some, on the right, who have correlated Chick-fil-A’s recent public relations firestorm to Donald Perry’s sudden death. Some have even dubbed him as a victim of “leftist homosexual bullying,” asserting that the stress set upon him by the opposition to Chick-fil-A is what lead to his “untimely” demise. Some have even attempted to draw parallels between Perry’s death and those of gay teens, bullied into suicide — claims which range from absurd to downright repugnant…

As Chick-fil-A, a company that bankrolls anti-gay groups and whose CEO has said marriage equality is inviting God’s judgment, faces a national backlash for its opposition to gay rights, once again the Religious Right is employing an almost pathetic use of double standards…

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Conservative U.S. Christian “family values” and religious organizations are setting up fronts in Africa to fight for anti-gay and anti-abortion legislation to promote their fundamentalist convictions, according to a report released Tuesday by the progressive think tank “Political Research Associates.”

The vilification of gays is not new — but what is now new here in America is how it is being medicalized in public discussions about public health and safety. Not only are we hearing vitriol about how gays pervert and subvert culture and national security, we’re beginning to hear how homosexuality is a public health menace. Believe me: This kicks the crazy up a notch…

Hey Linda: You’ve been spouting off at the mouth a lot of utter nonsense about how dangerous it is to allow gays in the military. … Linda, some of the most powerful, victorious, and abundantly brave – breathtakingly heroic actually – armies in history had in their rank and file – and leadership – gay men. … And now with your ignorance and hate you demean their memory and you scorn those who want to wear a uniform of honor in order to serve this country and risk their very all to do so. How dare you.

We are in the midst of a slow motion variation of an assassination. You may well be fooled into thinking that it is aimed at stopping the re-election of the President, but it is actually aimed directly at the hearts and minds of “we, the people.” Would-be despots and tyrants, masquerading as bureaucrats under the guise of think tanks, have been busily organizing the dishevelment of society in order to maintain and increase the profits of the privileged, their positions of power, and the power of those positions…

In the last few years, “The Punisher” comic book has been the showcase of, shall we say, repulsive actions, all viewed in living color … But not once, I repeat, not once have any religious right group raised anything resembling anger, outrage, disgust, or downright shock over any of these things…

How and why do otherwise kind and Jesus-esque people become machines motivated by fear and unleashed in ignorance when the topic switches to the gay community? And how, on this one topic, do some Christians neglect the clear Biblical mandates to care for the poor and the outcast and turn all their negative energy onto the LGBT community? Who can we “thank” for this diversion and inoculation of deception and ignorance? “Holy Terror: Lies the Christian Right Tells to Deny Gay Equality,” by Mel White, is a treasure map to the answer…

I feel that in order to understand why the culture war is a “war,” we must understand what those who fight against us feel that they are losing. To them, it is about Power. With LGBT people placed upon an equal playing field as them, they have lost their status as the movers of society.

Another researcher has come out complaining about how a religious right “expert” distorted her work to stigmatize the LGBTQ community. Rick Fitzgibbons of the NARTH (the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) distorted research on same-sex adoption to make the case that children in same-sex households are not raised better than children “in stable homes with a mother and a father.”

Speaking Monday on WallBuilders Live, Daniel Lapin — the Religious Right’s favorite rabbi — not only tried to say that gay rights derived from the collapse of morality but also argued that it was “insane” that gays weren’t quarantined during the AIDS pandemic the 1980s.

If part of a person’s expression of faith means treating people unequally, denying rights of others and making them a target of their fear, that faith is not aligned with the God of the Bible. They may be aligned with a God of a party or a denomination, but they are missing the heart of the Father God, the One who created and loves His children. Every one of them.

Sometimes, mess coming from the religious right doesn’t need an explanation. It just needs a spotlight to underscore how clueless and homophobic they are. Recently, openly gay actress and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres was named as special envoy to raise awareness about AIDS…

Clearly, the loving and inclusive rhetoric of some mainstream Christians is fruitful. The million-dollar question is how do we get such voices to multiply and amplify? The decline of the Religious Right depends on faith communities rooted in fairness who pray to a Jesus that stands for justice.

It is critical that people realize that religious zealots have a radically different vision of this country than most Americans. If their power keeps increasing, they will be able to drastically reshape this country … bigotry, intolerance and religious conformity would become the law of the land.