The sins of the fathers.

I have long contended that in practice it is not possible for Christians to “hate the sin but love the sinner.” Their vile treatment gay men and women shows that to be the case. A person’s sexual orientation goes to the very core of their being. How does one separate that from who they are? And the repeated instances of high profile, sanctimonious members of the Religious Right treating their own gay children abominably shows that these fanatics do not “love the sinner”.

Now I want it stated loud and clear that I do not consider being gay a sin. What a silly concept worthy of the Inquisition or Dark Ages! It came out of the absurd books that the fundies think are inspired by some deity. And their treatment of homosexuals will never improve as long as they believe that collection of malignant fairy tales is inspired by God. For the same reason the Islamic killers striking out an infidels will continue to do so as long as they believe that their collection of malignant fairy tales is inspired by their deity.

This inhuman treatment of others is inspired by the idea that some deity has revealed himself to man. Now such rubbish is not likely to catch on today. Not, at least with some new revelation from God. The last time there were enough bumpkins in one spot to fall for such trash was when Joseph Smith dictated his so-called Book of Mormon. And that was about 150 years ago.

These “revelations” are monstrous because they were written by men who reflected the violent views of their age. That people are dumb enough to take these culture bound books seriously and impose them on a modern world is the root of what I suspect will be the major conflict over the next century.

But I digress. My main point is that when they say they hate the sin they really do mean they hate the sinner.

That hatred is so strong that they will try to punish the children of the “sinners” they hate. Take the case of the Donelson Christian Academy outside Nashville, Tennessee.

For some reason, which I don’t understand, John Barnby wanted to send his son to this “school”. He seems to believe the faith concept. But Barnby is a victim of faith. He is a gay man who lives with another gay man and together they are raising a family. Surely he knew that means he is a vile creature in the eyes of the monster called Jehovah. But apparently Mr. Barnby thought otherwise.

He received a phone call from the headmaster of this school for training up religious fanatics. Danny Kellum, the headmaster, “stumbled over his words and asked if we were gay parents,” said Barnby. “I responded that we are a gay family and very interested in our son receiving a quality education at a faith-based school.” (Please note the contradiction in what he was seeking.)

Barnby said that Kellum got rather worked up and told him that his son would be taught how evil his family was and that they are subject to eternal damnation. He also said that the child would not be allowed to attend the school. Of course the child has done nothing worthy of such action but in the fevered imagination of the fundamentalist having sinful parents apparently is enough.

Barnby said that in a few days he received a letter which said the school regretted that he “had decided not to send their child” to the school. Gee, these people really have trouble being honest. They did, however, return his application fee.

Now this is probably a blessing in disguise. After all why the hell would Mr. Barnby want his child subjected to hours of brainwashing by the American Taliban. But this does illustrate, once again, that it is the gay person himself that the fundamentalists hate, not their homosexuality. This child did nothing. But their bigotry is so strong that they can’t resist lashing out at a small child in order to attack the parents.