It must end

I've been considering for about a week now how to do this. National Coming Out day made me think of it. No, I'm not a secret lesbian. I'm quite sadly a not so secret straight woman who is celibate not by conscious choice but by the lack of interesting men who are also interested in me in this area. I've been a straight ally for years. Everybody knows this. At least, anybody who's spent any time with me.

The recent media attention to bullying, specifically anti-gay bullying, has had me thinking. I've specifically been trying to come up with a way to justify how a Christian can justify not wanting to stop their kid from doing that. I've been on both sides of that issue. I started out thinking that homosexuality was a sin. Even as a teenager, however, I recognized harassing someone because they aren't chaste according to your world view is wrong.

Oh yeah, I said it. Harassing someone because they aren't chaste according to your world view is wrong. Yes. This is a chastity issue. (If you're not familiar with the term, chastity refers to morality with respect to sexual relations.) It isn't a subculture issue at war with Christianity issue. It's a chastity issue. Why? A lot of the people in this so called subculture are also Christians. Just because you're trying to kick them out of the church because you don't want to be associated with them does not invalidate their baptisms. Be glad about that, on my worse days I want to invalidate some folks' baptisms myself. It goes both ways.

I want to know what in God's name people hope to accomplish by claiming that telling kids it's wrong to harass their classmates is undermining Christianity. Specifically, I want to know what is wrong with James Dobson. Focus on the Family is apparently at it again.

School officials allow these outside groups to introduce policies, curriculum and library books under the guise of diversity, safety or bullying-prevention initiatives, said Focus on the Family education expert Candi Cushman.

"We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled," Cushman said.

Public schools increasingly convey that homosexuality is normal and should be accepted, Cushman said, while opposing viewpoints by conservative Christians are portrayed as bigotry.

Read more: Focus on Family says anti-bullying efforts in schools push gay agenda - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15928224#ixzz12TYhHV8e

Anti-bullying rhetoric? Are they worried that schools are going to infringe on their right to be really lousy Christians and verbally and socially crucify people who aren't like them? I don't remember reading in the gospels that Jesus wants me to hassle all the non believers, question their manhood, pull their pants down, insinuate that they are barnyard animals, and give them 'endearing' nicknames. I think that must be in the banned Gospel According to St. Bastard if it exists. Something tells me there's a reason that one didn't make the cannon.

"We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled," Cushman said.

Belittle the view point of Christian students and their parents? What about the view points of gay Christian students and their parents? Did they ever consider that? Did they consider the viewpoint of the students themselves? That they are trapped in school for seven hours a day, can't legally leave, and have to be subjected to the ridicule of other students?

Mostly I want to know why it's belittling for a Christian student to have to behave like a Christian and be kind to another kid? Is there something Christ-like about behaving like a little monster and calling your classmate a faggot? Who would Jesus push down the stairs? Do they want their little monsters to beat up the queers to advance the kingdom of God? Eliminate the "queer problem"? Who would Jesus damn? Do they want them to become quite unpleasant adults who threaten their coworkers with slander at every turn? Or to spend their weekends in college murdering young men on the prairie?

I think that's what it comes down to. If you see it and you don't stop it, you help make it happen. If you don't stand up and say no, you help make it happen. If you teach your children that someone else is less than human, you make it happen. If you teach your children that someone is intrinsically damned for who they are attracted to, this is your fault. Because God isn't like that. God saw his creation and called it good. God loves everyone---even you, you twisted up unhappy people who seek to continue the pain of others. God sees us, all of us, everything about us and loves us. All of us. He doesn't love us anyway. He loves us.

Teaching children to hate murders souls. Their souls. Their souls and the souls of the people they torment. You don't have an excuse for this. If you want them to grow up to be decent people, you have to teach them that absolutely no one is an acceptable target for this sort of thing. No one is less than human. No one is less than.

It doesn't matter what you think about their sexuality. It doesn't matter what you think about their religion. It doesn't matter what you think about their size. It doesn't matter what you think about their ethnicity. It doesn't matter. Humanity is made in the image of God. All of us. Not just you. If you hate another human being, you hate a part of God.

So get a grip. This needs to stop. It has to stop. Unless you want to give up being called a Christian. If you want that, you need to remember that every single human being you meet bears the image of Christ. They deserve your respect if you aren't able to give them your love.