An Open Letter to Rick Perry
Dear Gov. Perry,
Your antics since you announced your bid for the Republican presidential nomination have already almost pushed me over the edge. You have long-since made me regret having voted for you the first go-round (before seeing the light). There have been multiple times that I have been embarrassed by you in much the same way that residents of Alaska must have been embarrassed by their then-governor Sarah Palin.
But the video commercial you released last week crossed the line. I am not only embarrassed that you are our state’s top elected official, I am ashamed of — and for — you.
It’s so apparent that you are making a completely unveiled attempt to pander to religious conservatives with this babble about “Obama’s religious war.”
Yes, there are people across the nation — and unfortunately, many of them here in the South — who will identify with your narrow-minded and hateful ideologies. But you, Mr. Governor, do not represent all Texans and certainly could in no way ever assume a position where you lead on behalf of an entire nation.
Your comments are hateful and full of fear. They are misinformed with respect to the ideals our country were shaped by and founded upon. And they place you absolutely on the wrong side of history — the same whitewashed tomb of people who opposed women’s rights, civil rights for people of all races and rights for the handicapped.
So here is what I say to you, oh woefully out-of-touch public servant to the people of Texas:
I’ve been a Christian my entire life and I believe in essentially the same creator, center of the Universe, life-giver, omniscient, all-loving being you claim to believe in — the very same Essence that millions of human beings believe in across the world. And although I no longer occupy a pew within a specific religious body, I respect your right to do so.
So go ahead on into your house of worship and occupy your pew. Worship the way you want to worship, say what you want to say, follow whatever rules they ascribe, judge those within your body, and exclude whomever you want to exclude. I will not judge you.
I would appreciate it, however, if you would behave in kind and refrain from bringing your hateful judgment to me or to any of my fellow human beings and their families.
Keep it there, inside your religion; it is not welcome in my house, my state, my nation.
Remember, the lines drawn between church and state are there for a reason. Our country was founded on the pursuit of liberty and the desire for religious freedom — not on narrow-minded ideologies that discriminate against a minority. These people did not want to come to the New World to impose their religion on others but rather to worship the God they wanted to worship. Period, end of story.
Though it’s true that many of our founding fathers were chauvinists and slave owners, I believe many of them had a seed of foresight to believe that the statement “all men are created equally” applied (or would apply) to both genders, all races and eventually all sexual orientations.
Our respectable President Barack Obama — who leads in a way you apparently will never be able — did not start a religious war. Prayer in school has been an issue of contention since I was a child. And gays serving in the military have nothing to do with an attack on your religion.
What a foolish comparison; high school students come up with more reasonable — and creative — theses than that.
“Gays in the military” no more impedes your right to worship than women being allowed to vote or allowing a black man to drink from the same water fountain as someone of your race did. Yet religious people somehow once supported such absurd and un-Godly beliefs as those, too.
People who dare breathe such views today are frowned upon, eschewed and pitied. At least generally, they have the sense to keep those thoughts to themselves.
You, sir, are not the only one who wears the name “Christian.” I know many such people who are heterosexual and accept their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. And I know many homosexual Christians who sit in pews and worship Jehovah and obey the two greatest commandments: loving God with all their hearts, minds, souls and strength and loving their neighbors as they love themselves.
(You would be a wise student to note that it does not say “love only your heterosexual neighbors.” Are you, Mr. Perry, doing that?)
It seems to me that every time you open your mouth and say something hateful, you diminish the very witness of the Christ you claim to follow. Your unkind words belie any love that your namesake should evoke.
We don’t need you to save us, nor do we need your judgments or your pronouncement of some ridiculous war made up to get yourself attention within a small group of narrow-minded, religious people like yourself. We are not trying to destroy your religion or asking for admission into your religious sects; further, we are not asking your leaders to perform our marriages.
We demand, however, that you respect us and our families. The United States of America is not just the home of Republican, Christian heterosexuals; it is our home too and at home, we are created equally — every last one of us.
Please, sir, do not attempt to force your religious beliefs on my humanity. As a homosexual, I am no less deserving of rights than any heterosexual. You are my governor, not my judge.
Fear-mongering public servants like you will become relics that students of government and politics will study as examples of narrow-mindedness and shameful behavior. When they study the great women and men of politics, you will be absent from among them; I rather think you will be in the category of those rued and pitied — George Wallace will keep you company there.
Rick Perry, you should be ashamed of your ridiculous video. You should immediately apologize and reconsider whether running for the office of president of the United States is something you’re cut out for.
By your words and your actions — embarrassing gaffes and soundbites nothwithstanding — you continue to prove you are not the man for the job.
Respectfully,
Todd Whitley, Granbury
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This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition December 16, 2011.
Sorry, but you lost all credibility when you admitted that you voted for Perry even once.
I respectfully disagree with you. Don’t ask don’t tell was the right answer. Living as a homosexual is living in sin and shouldn’t be glorified. I don’t push my sin on you and I would expect for you not to push your sin on me.
Ct Echos-youre an idiot-being gay isnt sin-sin is only tahtw hich harms others-its natural and innate-all psychologists say so-the letter is well written and truth-history will NOT look favorably on bigots against gays-you, Perry and other bigots will soon all be dead-hurry up and die ok so America, the REAL America where all men are equal-can topple this last frontier of hateful bigotry. Millions of gay families and their kids will win full equality-and there isnt anything you can do to stop it-
Homosexuality is a Biblical Sin. Remember how God dealt with Sodom and Gomorrah.
I take great joy in watching people cite the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, while completely misunderstanding or having not even read the story. Your “God” did not allegedly strike down those cities because they were full of homosexuals, Ct Echos, and the only scriptures which you can quote which could even be understood as homosexuality being a sin happen to be from the very same verses that would condone you for eating shellfish, or wearing cloth made of more than one fabric. It also, by the way, happened to come from the old Testament, which, if you remember, if you follow your religion apparently so far as to put it above other people, was made obsolete by your new testament. But no, your kind tends not to remember such things.
To add to the whole religious debate, everything people tend to quote is taken out of context of time. Words used then are not used the same now and furthermore, are translations that BEST fit the closest idea of the original language.so when you sit and condemn gays for being an abomination according to the bible, you are looking like an idiot. an abomination in historic times was simply something most people did not do, it was not negative. If you want to create a valid argument, at least use your information in the context of which it was given. Besides, all of the old testament, and much of the new, is anecdotal…things did not happen word for word like that, they are applying meaning and explanations to the unexplainable.all the other cultures have done it, yet we are blinded enough to believe we don’t?
It always cracks me up that religious idiots post anti-gay content here. You’re on a gay newspaper website. Hello – repressed homosexual. Love thy self.
Thanks for a nearly perfect letter (sorry , even one vote for Perry is too much!). Your reasonable, intelligent comments are the best antidote for the poison being spewed by the right wing. They will probally never read anything they don’t already agree with, but the rest of of are enriched by your statements.
CtEChos: With your Biblical views, why are you reading a gay newspaper? Are you trying to see what we are up to? Or are you curious about the massage section of the classified ads? Sheeesh! Both preaching and probing gay culture! Shades of Ted Haggard.
@Ct Echos: In that case, I won’t glorify your lifestyle, since you apparently live the life to which you speak. Speaking of which, if you believe the bible, then you also know that lying is a sin. That makes you about as guilty as guilty can be.