Family Research Council tacitly advocates bullying gays under guise of religion

The Washington Post should be embarrassed to print this editorial by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. In it, he displays the hypocrisy inherent in his Christian position of 'love the sinner, hate the sin', the reason that Christians like him are causing homosexuals such mental and social problems, as well the untenability of his position.

He begins:

The media has recently been filled with reports of several recent suicides by teenagers who are reported to have been victims of "anti-gay" bullying. Some homosexual activist groups lay blame at the feet of conservative Christians who teach that homosexual conduct is wrong, as well as pro-family groups such as Family Research Council which oppose elements of the homosexual political agenda, such as same-sex "marriage."

The Christians and pro-family leaders I know are unanimous in believing that no person, especially a child, should be subjected to verbal or physical harassment or violence--whether because of their sexuality, their religious beliefs, or for any other reason. Such bullying violates the Christian's obligation to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and receives no support from the pro-family political movement.

Yay! Excellent! On this we agree, bullying is wrong. However, he then lays out the groundwork, if not the claim, that it's not only okay, but it's incumbent on Christians to create a climate where bullying can fluorish.

However, homosexual activist groups like GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) are exploiting these tragedies to push their agenda of demanding not only tolerance of homosexual individuals, but active affirmation of homosexual conduct and their efforts to redefine the family.

So according to Perkins, although bullying should not be tolerated, it's necessary to oppose a climate where homosexuals are accepted and can live their lives out of the shadows. After all, we don't want to affirm that being gay is acceptable. We have to make sure that people know that being gay is wrong in the eyes of the Lord and that Christians have a duty to make sure that gays don't make social strides towards acceptance and equal rights. Just don't hit them.

So to sum things up to this point, bulling gays is bad, but so is accepting them. They shouldn't be physically harmed, but under no circumstances should they feel they're normal.

Read on:

There is an abundance of evidence that homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression. However, there is no empirical evidence to link this with society's general disapproval of homosexual conduct. In fact, evidence from the Netherlands would seem to suggest the opposite, because even in that most "gay-friendly" country on earth, research has shown homosexuals to have much higher mental health problems.

Ahhhh! Homosexuals are mentally defective. Yes, of course. So they should know that they're abnormal in both conduct and mental make-up. In fact, everyone should know this. So it's OK to advertise that gays are aberrant, even though we know that society tends to terrorize it's outcastes.

Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal--yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are "born gay" and can never change. This--and not society's disapproval--may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide.

Again, the use of the word abnormal. Even though we know that homosexuality is part of the animal kingdom, right-wingers want to paint this as "abnormal". But it's not the condemnation that Perkins wants heaped on gays that leads to their suicide, it's the knowledge that they're defective - even though it's people like him heaping these thoughts of abnormality on them.

'It's not our fault that we tell them what they do is an abomination. Our scorn doesn't lead to their problems, it's their internalization of their abomination that leads to problems.

How do we fix this, Tony? How?

The most important thing that Christians can offer to homosexuals is hope--hope that their sins, just like the sins of anyone else, can be forgiven and their lives transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

OHHHHH! The invisible ghost in the sky can fix all of their problems. If they just embrace our fairy tale, things will get better, they'll stop being abominations and we canall live in the clouds with Invisible Man.

Perkins belives in fairy tales and yet it's homosexuals who are delusional?

Doesn't Perkins realize that - while he calls for an anti-bullying stance - taking the position that gays are "abnormal" and "suffering from mental health problems" in being gay IS BULLYING. Bullying isn't just what happened to Matthew Sheppard, bullying is living in a climate where you're told that you're less than fully human. You're told that you made a choice to be an abomination, but that by accepting a farcical notion of the spirit in the sky, you can be made whole.

The climate that Christians are trying to create IS bullying.

the Post should be embarassed to print this on National Coming Out Day - the one day that homosexuals should feel some measure of support. And the Post publishes this guest editorial from a bigot.