Fucking religious zealots almost killed my cousin

[Hugabear]

I have a cousin who is gay. Apparently, a few of my fundie relatives have been trying to "get him saved", as a result he tried to commit suicide. Fortunately, some of my more sane relatives managed to step in and take him to a mental health facility to get some help.

If anyone ever wants to know why I am so damned hostile towards fundamentalists, it's because of fucking shit like this. And the way that the church treated my mom, when she decided she had had enough, the way they kept harassing her and telling her that she was going to go to hell for "backsliding". It's an insidious, hateful, manipulative national cult.

I'm not really big on religion to begin with, but I really don't have a problem with people who practice their beliefs privately, who don't make it their personal goal to convert everybody around them, or push their beliefs on everyone else. I may not agree with their beliefs, I'll still debate them when necessary, but I can at least respect their decisions. It's this fucking extremist bullshit, this hate that's growing across the country, being pushed by hatemongers like Savage, Coulter, Beck, etc that makes me want to drive my fist through a wall. And when it almost takes the life of someone I know, someone whose only crime was being who he is, I just can't even begin to put into words how it makes me feel.

Fortunately my cousin survived his attempt, and hopefully he'll get the help he needs, and stay the fuck away from my batshit insane relatives. But this is not an isolated incident. We often hear cases about GLBT people being driven to the point of taking their own lives over this kind of shit. For the life of me, I cannot fathom the unhealthy fascination that fundamentalists have with homosexuality, but it's ruining peoples' lives.

[MrScorpio]

1. How old is he?

Hopefully, old enough to move away from his crazy fundie relatives

[Hugabear]

3. Early 40s

They all live in the Texas Panhandle. Go figure, fundie stronghold. I know he tried moving out to Los Angeles about 15 years ago, but wasn't able to make it out there, so he wound up moving back to Texas. Really tough situation, his father (my uncle) is dying from Lou Gehrig's Disease, our grandfather has advanced Alzheimer's. It's not his immediate family that's the problem, it's some of his other aunts and uncles that are wrapped up in the local fundie cult church.

[MrScorpio]

4. Man, that's a tough situation

At least he has some saner relatives to help look out for him

[Hugabear]

5. One of the reasons I don't really want to move out there

Wouldn't mind being near my family, except don't want to have to deal with the batshit insane ones.

[MrScorpio]

6. The more I see situations like yours the more I thank goodness for my own family

Because none of the gay members in mine have had to put up with that kind of BS from other family members.

I'm sorry to see that other families are not the same way.

[ThomCat]

2. If she isn't old enough to move away from the religious

parts of the family on her own then I hope the whole of your family will get together to arrange to GET HER OUT OF THERE!

Arrange to mover her in with an aunt or uncle or older cousin who is more sane and stable who can allow her to finish growing up in a more nurturing environment.

:cry:

No LGBT kid should have to live with religious nutballs. :(

[me b zola]

7. Yeah, I'm a "believer" who sees fundamentalists as bad for humanity & the planet

After your cousin finds safety away from those feaks, decent people like yourself should call them (the fundamentalists) out and hold them to account for the crap that they are responsible for. FFS, if I had been raised to believe that Jesus was a hateful, judgemental SOB then I probably would have rejected him. Seriously. I can't begin to imagine worshipping a diety who was hateful.

[Hugabear]

8. Personally, I'd rather not even deal with them

Seriously, there is absolutely no reasoning with someone who sees the entire world in absolute black/white terms, who feel that their religion compels them to behave the way they do. You'd have about as much luck trying to deal with the folks at Westboro Baptist Church. They'll still feel the same way towards him, and will be convinced that if only he were to give himself over to Jesus, that God would turn him straight.

I've already reached out to his mother (my aunt) to offer my support.

[me b zola]

9. And you are correct

My in-laws are of this type. There is no reasoning. I try, but eventually it gets around to their own sickening moral upbringing. You have to jump through all types of hoops before you can eventually bring them to see that their "logic" is based upon fallacy and lies--that's when they expose the underlying hatred in their being. They don't care about facts & logic because of what they view to be "moral"--which is nothing but a large puss-bag threatening to rupture its nasty goo all over the rest of us. Yeah, they make me ill like that.

[Hugabear]

10. Thankfully my mom was able to get out

As I mentioned in my OP, my parents went to that same church for years. Eventually, my mom got tired of their hatemongering and their rules (no makeup, no cutting hair, only skirts or dresses, etc). She stopped going, but went through several months of harassment from churchmembers, telling her she was going to go to hell because she was a backslider.

[glitch]

14. Very well said.

You have a way of making words effectively match reality. :applause:

[crumb77]

11. I'm sorry to hear that

This kinda stuff tears me apart. I constantly analylize the minds of the religious and try to figure out how an Idea based on love condones and literally promotes hate. It now seems to me that people with hate use religion as a vessel to justify evil openly in public. A loosely translated passage

[knitter4democracy]

12. *hugs for you and your cousin* Been there, seen that.

I had to walk away from the evangelical church I grew up in and whose college I graduated from. Part of that decision was based on seeing what they did to my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. It was sin, it was wrong, and I couldn't stay there anymore.

When you see your cousin next, give him a huge hug from me and let him know that God doesn't make trash and that he's been made in God's own image, the image of love.

[SourFlower]

13. Maybe a restraining order?

It might sound extreme, but on behalf of your cousin, these people really should be pulled up short and made to stay away from him. Just a thought.