Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Homosexuality in the Red States

On November 3rd, we heard a lot about how scared liberals and homosexuals were by the mass of the great unwashed lurking Out There in flyover country. I have contended, repeatedly, that the values divide in America is actually quite narrow. Many of my liberal friends have disagreed with me, particularly on the question of homosexuality and gay marriage. I have been told that bigotry is rampant in conservative America, that it is a "scary" place.

As further evidence of how close we are, I submit this Washington Post story about a gay, Christian, Oklahoma high school student.

His evangelical church rallied around him when a group of nutjobs from a Kansas church came into to town to picket him. (The Kansas church, the Westboro Baptist Church, headed by a fellow named Fred Phelps, runs a website called "GodHatesFags.com." Lovely.)

Here's my point: Even out in the most conservative, evangelical precincts of America, the GodHatesFags crew was able to field just nine protestors. According to the Post, the Oklahoma church arrayed some 500 members of its conservative, Republican to defend the young man. In a perfect world, would there be groups like GodHatesFags? No. But even Out There, the ratio of good-hearted Christians to wacko bigots is something like 500 to 9.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The tone of this article is fine, if not a little cloying. It shows an ignorance of weekly church-goers when there's expressed surprise at the bringing of one's Bible to church. What the heck else are you going to read when the minister says "turn your Bibles to II John chapter 3 with me"? Enjoy, Klug

Anonymous said...

Westboro Baptist isn't a church, it's a family. I mean that in a literal sense. Fred Phelps is a disbarred former lawyer turned evangelist, who, so far, has only managed to evangelize his rather large family. He doesn't have any other follows. The congregation doesn't have other members.