Several GOP presidential candidates have launched a new campaign theme: People who object to discrimination against gays are Christian-hating assholes.
They didn’t quite phrase it that way but that’s what they mean. “”I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like evangelical Christians are the only group that it’s OK to discriminate against today in this society,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is weighing a 2016 White House run.
Mike Huckabee and Carly Fiorini joined the chorus.
“It won’t stop until there are no more churches, until there are no more people who are spreading the Gospel,” Huckabee said. Fiorini called Apple CEO Tim Cook, a gay man who publicly criticized Indiana’s short-lived law legalizing discrimination against gay people, a “hypocrite” for continuing to do business in China and Saudi Arabia, which have cultures that are discriminatory against women and gays.
Obviously, they’re grandstanding to the GOP’s homophobe mob; Hillary Clinton, or whoever the Democratic nominee is, won’t have to do that, because the Democratic Party isn’t a party of bigots.
Now, let’s use Rev. Emily Heath’s simple quiz to review the logical flaws in Jindal’s assertion that Christians are discriminated against when people (including — not putting too fine a point on it — many Good Christians, as opposed to his kind) protest against gay discrimination:
1) You are being deprived of your liberty if you’re not allowed to go to a religious service of your choosing, not when others are allowed to go to religious services of their choosing.
2) You are being deprived of your liberty if you’re not allowed to marry the person you love, not when the state refuses to enforce your religious beliefs regarding marriage on others.
3) You are being deprived of your liberty if you’re forced to use birth control, not when you’re unable to force others to not use birth control.
4) You are being deprived of your liberty if you aren’t allowed to pray privately, not when you’re not allowed to force others to pray in your faith publicly.
5) You are being deprived of your liberty if you can be bullied without legal recourse, not when you’re not allowed to use your faith as an excuse to bully gay people with impunity.
6) You are being deprived of your liberty if you’re not allowed to purchase, read or possess religious books or material, not when other people are allowed access to books, movies, and websites of which you disapprove.
7) You are being deprived of your liberty if your faith group is denied equal protection under the establishment clause, not when your faith group is not allowed to use public funds, buildings, and resources to promote your religion over others.
8) You are being deprived of your liberty if another religious group has been declared the official faith of our country, not when your group is not granted status as the official religion of our country.
9) You are being deprived of your liberty if your religious group is not allowed to build a house of worship in your community, not when another religious group is allowed to build a house of worship in your community.
10) You are being deprived of your liberty if you’re not allowed to teach the creation stories of your faith to your children in your home, not when public schools teach students science in science classes.
It’s hard to believe that Jindal, who once was a Rhodes Scholar, has such a poor understanding of our nation’s founding precepts of individual liberty. This is doubly true given that, as a dark-skinned minority person, he of all people should be sensitive to discrimination against anyone in any form. In my opinion, his poor comprehension and judgment in this regard disqualifies him from higher office.
Superficially, Huckabee’s homophobia is a bit more fathomable, because he’s a fundie preacher. But it doesn’t take deep thinking to realize these guys don’t know their own religion. The Christian Bible consists of Old and New Testaments, which can be described as pre-Christ and Christ-based, respectively. The Old Testament does condemn homosexuality — and also speaks approvingly of conquering and enslaving other tribes.
True Christians believe God sent Christ into the world to fix all of that. Nowhere in the New Testament, not in a single passage, phrase, or word, is there anything approving of discrimination against gays. To the contrary, Jesus embraced all of society’s outcasts and commanded us to love them as we love ourselves. The homophobic rants of Bible-thumpers like Jindal and Huckabee are directly contrary to the Bible’s New Testament teachings and injunctions — and disqualify them from being considered Christians.
Fiorini is harder to figure out in any terms other than a rank panderer to the base and uncultured elements of her party. Her B.A. degree was in medieval history, so maybe she projected herself back to the Middle Ages and adopted their style of thinking. She wants to be president, too, but we’re in the 21st century now and America needs a 21st-century leader.
Images: Jindal, Huckabee, and Fiorini are unfit to occupy the White House