How low will they go?

There are times that I think that fundamentalist Christians have gone as low as they can. I assume that they have shred of humanity and decency deep down somewhere inside of them. But regularly they show they are inhumane, that they are so blinded by the religious rubbish that they believe that have lost all compassion and decency.

Not many people know the story of the teenager Matthew Shepard who was viciously assaulted by a couple of God-fearing types in Wyoming. He was tied to a remote fence after the beating and left to die by his assailants. His murder shocked the people of Cheyenne, Wyoming where it took place. And it caused people to reconsider their hatred of people for being gay. Matthew was killed because he was gay. Now that kind of “reconsideration” bothers the Bible bigots. So they have gone through a great deal of effort to constantly imply that somehow Matthew was responsible and not the two strapping Christians who murdered him. There is always that hint that he deserved what he got.

The latest vile monster from the Religious Right to push that theory is a woman from the extreme Right named Janet Parshall. Here is what she said on the Larry King Show:

“PARSHALL: Well, there's a lot of questions about his [Shepard's] background. Was he, in fact, coming -- and this is no way, shape, or form, a justification of what happened because it was wrong, wrong, and wrong. Let there be no ambiguity there.”

“But, in reality, I understand that Matthew was somewhat of a person who hung around some of the gay bars and was coming on to some people. So, was he looking for trouble in all the wrong places?”

“If I were his mom, I would have given him some counsel, "stay away from that kind of a lifestyle," because there's a way that seems right on demand and the end therein is death, and, unfortunately, it cost Matthew his life.”

The story the fanatics want to push is that this slight boy was trying to “come on” to two straights boy at the same time. Right! Notice how she almost makes the accusation and then catches herself: “Was he in fact coming...” She catches herself in mid sentence of saying “Was he in fact coming on to them?” Obviously that was too blatant. So she pulled back. But later she says he “coming on to people”. And said he was looking for trouble.

Now get what this means? If Matthew was making a pass at someone so what? Is that a capital offense? Is any teenager who makes a pass at another teenager then deserving whatever happens to him? Teenagers make passes at teenagers all the time, Janet! It is not a crime. And it was not the “lifestyle” that lead to death for him. It was a couple of your fellow Christians who beat him to a bloody pulp and then left him alone on a hilltop to die!

At first the two killers claimed all they wanted to do was rob Matthew because he had money. When they got to court, and knew they could face the death penalty, they suddenly started claiming that they snapped because Matthew made a pass at them. And what is this “gay panic” defense? It basically says that “we are so hateful towards gay people that when we discover one of them we have no control over ourselves and we kill them but it’s their fault not our own.”

Matthew Shephard did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be beaten. His killers deserved something however. They were on trial for their lives. Wyoming could have imposed the death penalty. But gay groups had passed resolutions opposing the death penalty and Matthew’s family stood up in court and, in Matthew’s name, pled for the lives of the killers.

Now where do these demented people get the idea that killing homosexuals is okay? Try the Bible! “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” (Leviticus 20:13). As one “Christian” website of demented Calvinists puts it, gays “are wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13:13), are violent and doom nations (Gen. 19:1-25; Jgs. 19), are abominable to God (Lev. 18:22), are worthy of death for their vile, depraved, unnatural sex practices (Lev. 20:13; Rom. 1:32), are called dogs because they are filthy, impudent and libidinous...”

The lunatics at “Jesus-is-savior.com” quote another Bible verse saying that homosexuals “which commit such things are worthy of death.” Rev. Greg Dixon was the pastor of a large fundamentalist Baptist Church and Vice President of the Moral Majority. He said: “When they say homosexuals should have their civil rights I ask one question.: Do you give criminals rights like honest citizens? Absolutely not! Criminals do not have their civil rights.” But that wasn’t all he said: ““I say either fry ‘em or put them in the pen. Don’t unleash them on the human race.” Dixon made it quite clear that “fry ‘em” means execution. In the same sermon he said, “I don’t know how in the world you can get a society that won’t even put their murderers to death, I don’t know how you can ever get them to put these homosexuals to death but God’s word would uphold that. They which commit such things are worthy of death.”

Rev. Robert Billings was a leader in the “Christian school movement” and a born-again Christian who helped found Falwell’s Moral Majority. In one of his sermons he said: “I know what you and I feel about these queers, these fairies. We wish we could get in our cars and run them down while they march.”

The fact is that the sick and demented book called the Bible inspires the ignorant and the unintelligent to murder people.

Islamic fundamentalists kill in the name of Allah. Christian fundamentalists kill in the name of Jesus. Both are a danger to a free society.