Quote of the Day: "Let's Start with How This Affects Real People"

I love the opening line of Fred Clark's last posting today at Slacktivist:

Let’s start with how this affects real people.

Fred's talking about how the white evangelical army is on the march these days, under General F. Graham et al., as they seek to define their "real" Christianity over against the lives of their brothers and sisters whom God has made gay. Being a real Christian, they assure us, means being against.

It means being against those people. It means standing against them. It means marching over them, their jobs, their human dignity, their lives, as just happened when this army marched through World Vision and declared a victory over those who are gay. 

In the name of Jesus crucified, they declared this victory. 

And then Fred links to a posting at Ben Moberg's Registered Runaway blog, in which Ben speaks about the real-life effects--for him--of this latest "victory" of God's white evangelical army against him and others like him:

I am tired, friends, so tired of being hit. I am tired of being the most galvanizing symbol for evangelical Christians. It is awaking a lot of old demons in me and the stab feels so much deeper when it’s your own faith attacking you. But who am I kidding? It is usually my own faith attacking me. And I am now at a breaking point, as I am sure is true for many others.

Let’s start with how this affects real people: I honestly see no starting point for Christian communities, in their dealings with any group of human beings, that can be called either Christian or moral, which doesn't start there. And I remain perplexed--"shocked" is closer to the correct word--that so many of my fellow Catholics continue to be capable of talking about "reasonable" forms of discriminating against their fellow human beings who are gay.

That is, they talk about this when they talk about us at all.

Usually, we're simply not in the room, as they parse moral issues (and sperm, ova, zygotes, fictive abortifacients and "cooperation with evil" that strains the gnat of providing contraceptive coverage in insurance plans, but ignores the camel we all swallow as we pay our taxes to a government that builds armaments and targets innocent people with them).

Real people. 

People who deserve to be thought about, remembered, recognized as there when we talk about the "value of life" and our commitment to a "pro-life" ethic . . . . 

Just as gay folks deserve to be thought about, remembered, and recognized as there, if we expect to be credible when we carry on about our pro-life commitment to sperm, ova, and zygotes, and our horror at the evil in which we're involved when we participate in prescription of fictive abortifacients in insurance plans . . . . 

P.S. As long as we're talking about things I'm tired of in my own Catholic community, here's one of them. Supposedly we've marched into a new era of welcome for those who are gay under Pope Francis, and high-profile Catholic leaders continue to fight against programs in schools designed to deter bullying (and suicide) of gay young folks or young folks tagged as gay when they're struggling to figure out their sexual identities?

I don't buy it--the kinder and gentler thing. Not as long as Catholic leaders continue with this ugly, ugly behavior and are permitted by Pope Francis to get away with it.