Reject intolerance cloaked in faith

[canis_lupus]

From syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.:

James Lawson is out of step with modern Christianity.

Take gay marriage. Speaking in support of a proposed state constitutional ban on same sex unions, one Rev. Hayes Wicker of First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., was recently quoted by The Naples Daily News as saying, ``This is a tremendous social crisis, greater even than the issue of slavery.''

As asinine as that remark is, it is perfectly in step with much of modern Christianity, which has spent years demonizing gay men and lesbians. And then there's Rev. Lawson, who is scheduled to speak this weekend at the 10th anniversary conference of Soulforce, a group that fights church-based homophobia. Few things could be more out of step.

Lawson, you may know, is an icon of the civil rights movement; it was he who invited Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers. He sees his longtime involvement with Soulforce as part of the same struggle. ''The human rights issue is not a single issue,'' he told me recently. ``It is about all human kind. And all human kind has been endowed with certain inalienable rights.''

More commentary at: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/story/509887.html

[MNBrewer]

1. The rejection of gay rights

The rejection of gay rights as part of the civil rights movement has always puzzled me. I guess being oppressed doesn't NECESSARILY instill sympathy for others who are oppressed.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. If people knew a bit of history

Not all people reject gay rights as part of the civil rights movement. In fact, most who were actually present and part of that movement, like Lawson and like the late Coretta King have spoken of GLBT rights being a part of the civil rights movement. And it is not suprising that it should be so. One of Dr King's major influences and organizing masterminds was in fact a gay man, Bayard Rustin. He taught King the principles of passive resistance and was a major hand in the making of the Washington march.

[MNBrewer]

4. I didn't say that all people

reject gay rights as part of the civil rights movement. I guess I should have said the rejection by SOME... etc.

[racaulk]

3. You're right, and it works both ways.

I have met homophobic black people and I've met racist gay people, and I don't particularly care for people in either group. You would think the oppression of one's own minority would automatically make one more sympathetic to the oppression of other minorities, but it unfortunately does not always work that way.