tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post2130762045622987256..comments2023-06-13T10:36:03.712-05:00Comments on Bilgrimage: Manly Men and Homophobic ChurchesWilliam D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-21908768758530445522008-02-28T08:30:00.000-06:002008-02-28T08:30:00.000-06:00Glad to hear from you, BC. I appreciate the addit...Glad to hear from you, BC. I appreciate the additional information on the Hutcherson story. This misuse of faith symbols to attack LGBT people is, as you say, vile. Even more vile is the implicit justification of the murder of gay youth. Speaking of this as a war implies that those being murdered are the enemy, who deserve their fate. I fear that in the case of gay youth who have been bashed and killed in recent days, we're going to see new versions of the gay panic defense--the claim that, by making their orientation public, they hit on someone, who then took out his rage by shooting or bashing the youth. Like you, I hope that subsequent generations will make this obscene hatred masking itself in piety unthinkable. No more gay youth need to be murdered.William D. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-83599148226215994422008-02-27T22:21:00.000-06:002008-02-27T22:21:00.000-06:00Bill,Here's one of the reasons I love reading your...Bill,<BR/><BR/>Here's one of the reasons I love reading your blog so much: It reminds me of the many afternoon discussions we had when I would pop my head into your office after reading some bizarre news and finding you had seen the same report. <BR/><BR/>I also managed to see Rev. Anderson's "sermon" yesterday. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why his (or any) congregation, small as it may be, would submit to preaching that is more akin to an angry rant.<BR/><BR/>To Rev. Hutcherson, I would just say, if I open a door for you and you tear my arm off, which of us is being more like Jesus? His kind of rhetoric scares me, however, because it plays to a mob sensibility... and I am afraid that this violence against gays, most tragically against our youth, will only increase as those in Hutcherson's fold, and those who think like him, see the base of power erode. <BR/><BR/>I got the first idea that Hutcherson truly believes that Lawrence King and Simmie Williams and you and me and every other gay person deserves to die when less than three days after Lawrence King's murder, Hutcherson ran a photo of a student-made GLSEN poster hung up at the school where two teachers had the guts to challenge his homophobic bullying (the price of which, Hutcherson believes, should be the termination of their employment) and complained that teachers would be allowed to hang such a poster in the halls of a school. "Don't they know we're at WAR?!" In his mind, Lawrence King is the enemy and deserved his fate. <BR/><BR/>It's hard to be a pacifist in the face of such wonton antagonism. But the good news is, Hutcherson and his ilk seem to lose more credibility every time they open their mouth. And while his vile bleatings may hold sway over the adults of his congregation, its children are increasingly turned off by animosity towards gays and lesbians. So there is hope yet.Brad C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/10594211762867099183noreply@blogger.com