Reply #38: I agree, it's a bad politics to beat someone with their Bible. But "Real Christians"=load of crap. [View All]

[readmoreoften]

I hate this "Real Christian" crap. So, they're "real Christians" when they sing songs in the street but they're "fake Christians" when they beat us up? Maybe the person who literalized the Bible-beating isn't a "real gay" maybe he's just confused. Hell, he could be a straight ally for all we know. They're Christians. They may not be followers of the liberal Jesus, but they pretty much own the concept in the US and that's not the LGBT communities fault and we need not authenticate their relationship to the Lord Jesus when we call them out on their shit.

The people who beat up the lesbian I know were likely influenced by Christian ideology being Texan fratboys. If that's not good enough, another friend had his eye cut open while he was beaten into the hospital by Christians who prayed over him during the beating and recited Bible verses in Dallas. Another young man in Austin was taken to an apartment under the guise of a sexual encounter and forced by three fascists (one was actually a member of the Nazi party) to sodomize himself with various objects while they recited Bible verses and called him a demon. This was covered by the University of Texas paper, but not in the general news. I do not believe they were punished.

I do know that the ARA (Anti-Racist Action), a group of very athletic anti-fascists who are skilled in the martial arts confronted the attackers in the second case and physically challenged them. While I don't think it's a politically bright idea to beat stupid hate-carolers over the heads with their own Bibles, the decline of the physical presence of the Klan, Nazis, and White Christian separatist groups is due in good part to the actual physical challenge the ARA demands.

To put it simply: part of the intimidation and recruitment tactics of hate groups that threaten (including Christian ones) is their appearance of physical strength. When the ARA leaves them bloody and looking weak, their ability to recruit disenfranchised working class youth plummets and that's saved many LGBT lives. So in the case of the ARA, I support what they do wholeheartedly. A lot of these men and women are straight and white and yet some have died fighting fascism in the US and Europe in the name of their LGBT, African American, Jewish, and Latino/a brothers and sisters. I will never, never speak ill of them.

But this whining, passive aggressive tactic is harder to battle. It's excellent rhetoric they've got going there. Christians are always the victims. They're pre-victims. It doesn't matter if we ignore them, because they consider our very existence a threat to their children and their 'way of life.' If we even so much as argue with them in the streets, we're "crazed." And, of course, if someone hits them over the head with a Bible it's a Violent Anti-Christian Apocalypse. Meanwhile, liberal Christians complain that they're not "really Christians" and that we need to be sensitive.

Yes, not all Christians are bad. Many are even standing with us. But the whole theological "who is a real Christian" is not the responsibility of non-Christians. Non-Christians are not obligated to "learn about Christianity" so we can tell real Christians from fake Christians. That's the responsibility of progressive Christians. It's not our duty to keep the torch alive for the Christian religion.

I don't feel sorry for these people. They are not poor mislead souls. How many LGBT kids do they drive to suicide? I feel for progressive Christians and I respect progressive Christians. Y'all have a lot of work to do because they have indeed hijacked the name of your religion. But it's progressive Christianity's job to set the record straight with LGBT folks, not the other way around.