Christians are a majority in this country. There is no demonstrable trend of Christian students being bullied or harassed, much less being tormented into suicide. Most any LGBT-centric reactions that have come down against evangelicals are due to either an overstep in terms of a proffered condemnation or a refusal to accept the fact that personal faith convictions don’t give the holder a limitless pass in terms of public accommodations or civil policy. And those reactions have most always been against the overstep itself rather than the person of faith, with the widely prevailing attitude on the pro-LGBT equality side being a “live and let live” policy that fully accepts everyone’s right to (true) religious freedom.
Oh, and plus: Some LGBTs are Christians. Some Christians are LGBT. Obviously. Despite the “pro-family” community’s ferocious attempt to oil and water the two, sexual orientation and personal religion are actually not antithetical.
But why should those realities get in the way of American Family Association columnist Mike Adams’ agenda of making the world a more LGBT-unfriendly place? In a new column, the aforementioned “values” writer attempts to flip the script on the recent rash of gay suicides, concocting in great detail eight completely fake death scenarios involving supposedly persecuted Christians. No, we’re not kidding. It’s all an attempt to say that Christians are just as tormented in society as gays, but are simply too stable to attempt suicide “because they have centered their lives around Jesus Christ, rather than their sexual identity.”
Make sure you fully digest before you read:
Officials on college campuses across the nation are alarmed at a wave of recent suicides involving Christians who have been harassed by homosexual activists. The main stream media isn’t covering
the story so, as usual, I have taken it upon myself to do their jobs for them. None of the following eight cases have been covered by any of the three major news networks.
…
Scott was a librarian at a university in Ohio. He was a member of a committee charged with picking books for a freshman reading program. He recommended a book called The Marketing of Evil, which was critical of, among other things, homosexuality. A homosexual faculty member publicly accused Scott of sexual harassment – merely for recommending the book. Shortly thereafter, Scott took his own life.
…
These eight cases are all true except for one thing: The Christians who were bullied by gays and gay activists are all still alive. Not a single one has committed suicide. That is because they have centered their lives around Jesus Christ, rather than their sexual identity. And no amount of bullying can change my mind about that.
FULL PIECE: Mike Adams: Eight Straight Suicides [AFA]
A truly unconscionable effort. Here we have an anti-gay columnist for an extremely hostile “pro-family” group outright slighting deaths that we know stem, in large part, from the pervasive climate of nonacceptance that still plagues America. Yet Adams’ impulse is to further that climate by suggesting (a) that discrimination deserves unfettered entrance/embrace in public accommodations and civil policy, and (b) that the dead gay students would still be here if they’d only prayed to Jesus a little more?!?! And he’s doing this in the name of the “American family,” no less?!
Perhaps if Mike Adams actually had to experience the feeling that younger versions of himself are in such desperation over a certain characteristic that they can’t bear to go on another day, he might not be so quick to pen such an egocentric novelization. Though Mike need not worry, as we would never wish that feeling upon him. Not because he’s earned even an iota of our respect — he hasn’t. But the concept of life has earned it, regardless of how fully some folks wish to deny the value of our own.
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*EARLIER Adams: We wouldn’t be so ‘sharply divided’, Mike, if your side’s obtuse arguments weren’t so oddly cutting [G-A-Y]
