October 28, 2007
Who is this arrogant, ignorant homophobe, and why does the Chicago Sun-Times pay her money to pollute its pages with this garbage?
Deborah Douglas ddouglas@suntimes.com
Gay activists made a big hairy deal this week when Sen. Barack Obama hired formerly gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin to lead some fund-raising concerts in South Carolina this weekend.
So what.
McClurkin doesn’t have to stay gay if he doesn’t want to.
For gays who insist they are born that way and that’s the end of it, suggesting that someone could choose not to be homosexual is a slap in the face. The science on this isn’t clear. The search for the gay gene is ongoing, and while doubt remains, individuals continue to make up their own minds about the nature of being gay.
. . .
…McClurkin told Ebony magazine he battled homosexuality for 20 years after several episodes of sexual abuse. Anyone should be able to understand how a child who was abused that way could grow to be confused about the role of sex and sexual identity.
. . .
I thought about my gay friends and was torn. Then I got over it. Gay people must not stop fighting for their right to equal access and treatment. Nobody has a right to deny a gay person a job or a home, or kick him in the head because they don’t like the way he lives and loves. But society’s rules stop at the church-house doors, folks.
We cannot let our passion for civil rights negate the right for people to hold their heartfelt religious beliefs. Despite what gay activists insist, believing the Bible’s admonitions against homosexuality does not make Christians homophobic. It is not an either/or proposition. If it were, guess who would lose? Christianity has a better PR machine, considering it has a best-selling book attached to it. Ultimately, those who denigrated McClurkin and Obama (who says he does not hold the singer’s views) were really condemning people of faith. …
. . .
Gays smarting over McClurkin’s transformation should know the rest of us sinners get talked about, too. For most Bible believers, sin is sin. Whether it’s lying (even white ones), heavy drinking (free drinks!), stealing (pilfering office supplies) or fornication (the heterosexual and gay kind), it is not acceptable.
Besides, anybody who has been to a black church with good gospel music knows gay guys are always singing in the choir.
“So what?”
I can’t believe a generally decent paper like the Chicago Sun-Times would print this garbage — and worse: “Deborah Douglas is a Sun-Times editorial board writer.”
Somebody’s getting a LTTE from me today. Ther only problem is that there are so many things wrong here, I don’t know where to begin — with the “there are more of us than there are of you, so like or lump it” attitude, with the molestation-turns-you-gay myth, with the gays-can-change lie (the only “ex-gays” are in denial — or dead), with the equation of homosexuality with drinking, stealing, “fornication,” and other “sins” (what, no comparison to murderers and prostitutes?), with the mindboggling denial inherent in the notion that condemning homosexuality doesn’t make one homophobic (!)… or with the nasty swipe at gay men (why didn’t she just come out and say “fags”?) in the very last line.
But I think my LTTE will go something like this:
- - -
Ms. Douglas’s disingenuousness is breathtaking: “Ultimately, those who denigrated McClurkin and Obama (who says he does not hold the singer’s views) were really condemning people of faith.” Observe how Ms. Douglas manages to twist this story into yet another tired claim of “Christian persecution.” Yes, those nasty old gays — all 4% to 10% of the population — are piling on the poor, persecuted Christians who make up some 80% of the population.
And where does that leave gay, lesbian, and bisexual Christians (yes, they do exist) who “denigrated” McClurkin and Obama? Are they condemning themselves?
Ayn Rand — no more a friend to gay people than Ms. Douglas — once wrote: “Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).” Our greatest leaders, from Thomas Jefferson to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by word and action, have agreed; it is this simple idea — and not some narrow, elitist corruption of Christianity — on which our nation was founded, and only by which it can progress.
Ms. Douglas’s double standard is equally astounding: “We cannot let our passion for civil rights negate the right for people to hold their heartfelt religious beliefs.” Hold whatever “heartfelt religious beliefs” you like — but religion does not confer the right to stand on the heads of those who do not believe as you do, just so that you can retain your precious — and tenuous — position at the top of the heap.
Sorry, but civil rights do trump faith — and Ms. Douglas had better hope they do; by some twist of fate, I may one day be a member of the majority that decides to strip her of the rights (or rather, privileges) she so blithely takes for granted.
Society’s rules may stop at the church-house doors, Ms. Douglas, but the church’s rules must stop at the sidewalk.
Filed under: "Ex-Gays", Barack Obama, Christianity, Donnie McClurkin, Homophobia, Radical Religious Right
