It is not politically correct to call anyone a Nazi, but people on both sides of any issue these days are all too willing to do so. As a member in good standing of the world’s oldest continually persecuted minority I’ve been noticing a shift in the focus of hatred in America today. It’s become very easy for far-right wing preachers to demonize the LGBT community as a way of expressing their collective hatred of blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Native Americans and immigrants of every stripe. Gay people have a rainbow flag for a good reason. We’re of every race, color, creed, ethnicity and national origin. There is no family or culture where gay children are not born into heterosexual families. But a boisterous sector of society doesn’t see LGBT people as their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers – they see gay people as the cause of all their problems even though none of the dots connect — much the way Jews were demonized by the Nazis during World War II, largely due to their affluence. History is repeating itself with that same attitude being leveled at the gay community. We’re perceived as rich. I personally am not, and know very few gay people who are, but that’s not the point. People guilty of not looking too deeply into anything always need a scapegoat on whom to blame their own self-created problems. The gay community did nothing to hurl this country into financial desperation — nor are we responsible for the world financial crisis, but the ignorant need someone convenient to persecute. I’m reasonably certain Christ would not come-down on the side of discrimination – ever. Christ never once mentioned same-sex issues, frozen embryos or any of the nonsense fundamentalists get worked-up over.
Obama’s public support for the LGBT community has shifted the focus of intolerance. The new wedge issue is more than merely persecuting women and minorities its accomplished it all by focusing on the LGBT community. Far right-wing fundamentalist Christians are quick to level fascist and Stalinist accusations at Barack Obama while wearing foolish teabags hot-glued to their hats. These same people and their minions carry posters depicting our president as Hitler or Satan based on preconceived prejudice reinforced through the shameless hubris of FOX News and other Rupert Murdock noise-machines. They promote the myth of talk about Obama’s hateful agenda; an agenda I have yet to witness. I’m a news junkie who never misses an opportunity to read Obama’s words or listen to him speak. I have never heard nor read one divisive word fall from our president’s lips. But I’ve heard a lot of things attributed to him he never said. That’s the way things work today. Tell a lie, then tell it again so eventually the gullible latch onto it. It’s dicey in the political arena to blatantly hate black people these days, though the ‘haters’ have enjoyed some recent success hating women and Hispanics, which isn’t politically wise either. However, now that Obama has stepped forward to endorse full rights for the LGBT community, bigots can vicariously hate everyone at once by focusing their bile on gay people.
All this hatred hiding behind Christianity is nothing new, it’s merely getting wider attention. An ignorant Podunk pastor sets the Qu’ran on fire in a nation based on religious tolerance and the result is countless deaths in the Middle East. Then he and his say, “told you so,” without acknowledging his lack of wisdom and world understanding is the direct route cause of those particular deaths. Another Podunk preacher advocates to his Parrish that children as young as four be “punched” if they display signs that can be interpreted as not falling into typical gender stereotypes. All that fool minister will accomplish is gay teen self-hatred leading to suicide or individuals who live out their lives filled with self-hatred and ultimately come equate violence with sexuality. Neither preacher is bright enough to be tolerant nor wise to the dangers of the dogma they spew.
Now we have a North Carolina preacher who advocates gathering-up all LGBT people and confining them within electrified barbed-wired compounds and starving them to death separated by gender. There is nothing in the New Testament which would give credence to his ideas being in alignment with Christ. These preachers and their misguided sheep are the real, genuine new Nazi movement. You never heard Obama singling-out a minority for containment in a concentration camp devoid of all civil liberties. Historically, you’ve heard Hitler say that and now you’ve heard far right-wing fundamental Christian preachers say the same thing… To which I reply “The devil hides in the damnedest places – like in houses of worship.”
Freedom of speech may allow the boneheads at the Westboro Baptist church to disrupt the funerals of soldiers and homosexuals who died of AIDS. Freedom of speech may allow an exceptionally ‘slow-minded’ woman to give addle-brained testimony before the Nebraska State Legislature stating that gay people pray on children and routinely work to puncture each others colons. No, if that’s happening, it’s not happening on a large scale. At 62 years old, I’ve been gay over 2/3’s of my life and I’ve never heard of anyone puncturing anyone’s colon as part of a sex act. I’ve also never personally known a child molester in the adult gay community. Most sex offenders are overwhelmingly heterosexual, as are most rapists and murders. It’s just so damned easy to blame everything on the time-honored hatred of gay people. Society may have stopped burning witches at the stake, but they’re slow to stop bundling gay-people into ‘faggots’ of kindling — only this time in an effort to burn our president. When did hate become the core principle of Christianity? More importantly, when is it going to stop? To quote Mahatma Gandhi, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Below is a link to a recorded ‘hate sermon’ about confining LGBT people to concentration camps if you have the stomach to watch the old fool and his rant: