a serious letter by Johnny FMC - also to be found at the bitch's blog http://plasticpc.blogspot.com/

[big brother watch re-posts this without editorial comments in brackets.]

To my dear right-wing brothers and sisters in Christ,

It's time we had a talk, which is to say, it's time for another Christian who
vigorously disagrees with your theology and political philosophy to try to get
it through your skulls that you all are making big mistakes.   Now I understand
that "you all" and "your leaders" cannot be assumed to be the same.  But you seem
to go along with whatever these folks tell you to do because of your apparent
belief that the Christian life is comprised of obedience instead of virtue and an
independent engagement with your religion.

I should say right up front that I am a Christian, and as such I have many faults
and hypocrisies of my own and I am writing sincerely.  The main topic of this little
missive is the exercise of power in a secular society by Christians; the concrete
context of such power which I will address below has to do with gays and lesbians.

The Gospel of Matthew instructs Christians to "go out and make disciples of all
nations."  Now I hope you realize that "nations" here refers to  ethnicities.  The
Greek word in question (ethne) is often translated "Gentiles," and this is how it
should probably be translated in Matthew 28:19 (yes, I do know what I'm talking
about when it comes to translating the New Testament).  Evangelicals call themselves
such because they take this and similar passages of scripture seriously, which is,
of course, fine.  Those who hear the message can either receive or reject it as
seems appropriate to them.  But even if one goes with "nations" as a translation
of ethne, the text cannot be referring to Rome, or Greece, or Gaul -- or, for that matter,
America or Germany or France -- because the ancient world did not have the same
concept of a nation-state that we do.  It hadn't been invented yet [essentially, their
structure was the empire, city-state, territorial or nomadic tribes, among others.]
In fact, it wouldn't be for many more centuries.  The early Christians (including Paul)
had no hope of converting all of Rome, so they worked on converting as many subjects
of the Roman empire as they could They eventually came to understand themselves as a
"third race": neither Jews nor Gentiles but something new: Christians.

You all might have a leg to stand on in your argument that the United States was
originally conceived as a Christian nation.  I disagree, but I can see how you
would draw this conclusion, since most Americans at the time of our nation's
foundation were in fact Christians.  But let's be clear here, America was never
"God's nation" or "the people of God" in the same way that ancient Israel and
Jews of all times and places are.  We have no contract with God, no Sinai
experience, no promises to a physical ancestor Abraham.  And our founders make
quite explicit that being an American is in no way contingent upon being a
Christian; citizenship is open to people of all religions.  But at most points in
our history, Christians were an overwhelming majority and held overwhelming power.

So your nostalgia for the good ole' days, back when we were a Christian nation
and everyone knew it, is really a nostalgia for the days when Christians had all
the power and could make laws that criminalize sins like adultery or other forms
of sexual misconduct -- in other words, when Christians could tell everyone else
what to do.

This brings me to my next point.  As far as I know, Christians are never
instructed in Scripture (if such a passage of Scripture does exist, by all means
enlighten me as to where it is) to arm themselves with secular power and force
our moral perspectives on everyone else by laws and by the deprivation of civil
rights guaranteed by authorities that do not explicitly appeal to the Bible (the
Constitution).  You guys are seemingly on a mission to "take America back for
the Christians," to turn back the tide of secularization.  But converting people to
Christianity and forcing people to conform to Christian moral norms by exerting
power in the public sphere are not the same thing unless your ideal "Christian
society" is what was going on in Medieval Europe.

I freely admit that some sins are also crimes -- murder, for instance.  But the
legal standard at work to separate the two has to do with the state's
responsibility to protect its citizens from harm.  Teenagers lying to their parents
about why they were out until 3 in the morning might be a sin, but it is not
a crime.  Perjury or fraud are definitely sins and are also crimes.  Saying that all
sins are socially harmful is not something that non-Christians are going to take
seriously.  Why would they?  They aren't Christian evangelicals!  Lots of sins are
legal, and they should be.  How else can Christians fulfill Paul's command for
the church to be a meaningful alternative to "the world"?

Therefore, in order for you to legitimately criminalize homosexuality (which is
apparently the goal behind efforts to support discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation as well as the long-term objective of your leaders), you have
to show not only that it is a sin (a debatable point, although you refuse to
admit it) but that it actually harms society.  I hear it repeated over and over again
that gay marriage presents some sort of threat to heterosexual marriage, but I have
never once heard anyone articulate precisely what this threat is.  I challenge you
to explain to the rest of us why denying gays and lesbians their right to civil
marriage harms the institution of sacred marriage.  And, just so you know,
repeating the same platitudes and citing Leviticus 18 and 20 and Romans 1
does not constitute an explanation.  So get on the phone to James Dobson or
the Southern Baptist Convention and tell them that they have some 'splainin to do.

You are free in our culture to tell gays and lesbians that they cannot be part of
your churches.  You have that right.  The efforts of gays and lesbians to protect
themselves against hate crimes and legal discrimination, and to secure the same
rights as couples that heterosexual couples have, in no way infringes on your
right to object to their sexual behaviors or to ban them from your churches. But when
you flex your political muscles to keep gays and lesbians in their ghettos and
closets by denying them their equal rights as citizens, you unfortunately come across
not as concerned about the decline of morality (which is much more clear in the
abject commercialism of our culture, not to mention the disgusting subversion of our
political system by those who profess Christ, than in the acceptance of gays and
lesbians) but as bigots.

And this label is fair, because bigotry -- fear! -- is your real motive.  If you were
really interested in "saving" gays from the "vice" of homosexuality you would be
trying to convince them and showing real love and concern for their welfare as human
beings instead of shouting in righteous anger about how evil they are through your
political spokespersons.

So please, follow the instruction of Paul that I mention in the letter below.  Get
your noses out of other people's business.  Nobody is asking you to approve of
homosexuality, just to afford others the rights that you so loudly insist upon for
yourselves.  Have you forgotten that a threat to the civil rights of any group in
this country is a threat to the civil rights of all of us? Or, like the white
slaveowners of the south, will you continue the American tradition of gaining rights
for yourselves by taking them from others?  Jesus says in John's Gospel
that outsiders will "know you are Christians by your love."  You have failed.

Gays and lesbians know you are Christians by your hate.

So get off your damned soapboxes and start rethinking what it means to
be a Christian in our society.  And tone down the rhetoric, for goodness' sake.

But in the meantime here's something you can do: find those Scriptures that
instruct Christians to tell everyone else what to do and how to live their lives,
and explain clearly how gay marriage harms straight marriage in general and
Christian marriage in particular.  I'm serious, I want to know.

Your brother,

Johnny F. M. C.