Jason Hines,
Once again you have “ nailed it “ with your perceptive, pertinent, and provocative analysis of our government’s latest sally into religious liberty and the subsequent slippery slope of disaster for a marginalized minority.
It was a toxic travesty when our own churchmen in recent weeks, threw our LGBT members under the bus, when Adventists vociferously opposed the EQUALITY ACT being debated in the US Congress.
This desperately needed legislation would have prevented overt discrimination in housing and employment for LGBT individuals.
Currently any landlord can evict a gay / lesbian tenant merely and solely on the basis of their sexual orientation. Similarly, more affordable public housing can be denied to gays / lesbians, merely on that basis.
More despicably, an LGBT employee, no matter their competence,
no matter the adequacy of their performance, can be fired, merely because of their sexual orientation.
And let us remind ourselves, that ALL modern psychology, psychiatry entities proclaim that gays / lesbians have no more input / choice in their sexual orientation than do their straight siblings / cousins— through zero fault of their own, their innate gayness invites persecution / discrimination.
The EQUALITY ACT was forcibly drafted to outlaw such overt discriminations against fellow tax paying citizens who deserved better.
And TW opposed this protective package !
Also recently, the SOUTH PACIFIC DIVISION, in a blatant mockery of real religious liberty, tried to impose our church doctrines on members of other faiths — Jews, Buddhists, Shintos, Hindus, and even those with no belief — Atheists and Seculars —who were going.to be impacted, when Adventists opposed the upcoming same sex marriage legislation in Australia.
Our church’s opposition to their own members marrying same sex partners ( would they prefer promiscuous sex instead of a loving monogamous relationship ?) should not then be imposed by legal fiat, on tax paying citizens not of our religious persuasion.
During the PROPOSITION EIGHT debate in California, where LGBT tax paying citizens were being denied same sex marriage, with its multiple attendant tax, financial, and estate benefits, again our church was in adamant opposition — thereby imposing by legal means, our religious views on a wider majority.
I recently shocked friends when I stated GOD HATES GAYS.
Oh no, they remonstrated, God loves everybody!
Not our God,
not the Christian God,
not the Islamic Allah,
not the Jewish Jehovah,
these deities are all arguably the same personhood,
and yet those three religions,
ruled over by this cruel deity,
are the ONLY ones perpetrating hateful gay persecution.
There is zero inherent homophobia in the
Hindu,
Buddhist,
Shinto religions,
nor in the original animist / pagan tribal religions in Africa—-
but when Christianity “ contaminated “ ( I use that term advisedly ) East African countries, suddenly their LGBT citizens were subject to imprisonment and even threats of death, from the government entities there.
The British, Anglican Church colonizers of those African countries for multiple decades, had created homophobic legislation that even years after independence from Britain, is still on the books.
Similarly, India has just recently decriminalized homosexuality. Their own Hindu religion was never opposed to gayness, but decades of British rule ( again “contaminated “ by Anglican Christianity ) had resulted in cruel incarceration of Indian gay citizens !
At the recent fortieth anniversary KAMPMEETING of KINSHIP — the LGBT group who banded together in defense of Adventism’s shunning and shaming— there were multiple stories of miserable meanness, enforced conversion therapy, and pernicious persecution of gay members by fellow Adventists.
Had this been a gay Buddhist group, a lesbian Hindu group, and yes even an Atheist LGBT assemblage, there would have been zero tales of cruelty and persecution.
Why is it that only believers in God / Allah / Jehovah are so punitive to their LGBT family members ?
— quite frankly, it is because their God allowed hateful homophobic statements in their Scriptures, that are used to validate venomous, vindictive, vituperative, violent oppression of their gay members.
God, in formulating these toxic texts, fomented, fostered and inflamed hatred of gays, amongst his followers.
This hatred even extends to our still virginal / celibate teenage gays who have been viciously victimized by families, congregations and schools proving that sexual “ behavior “ was not the motivator for this animus.
Millennia of MISERY for gays in our westernized Christian world — gay bashings, gay bullying, gay murders, gay persecution, are all directly attributable to Christianity’s hateful homophobia.
Our Christian God HATES GAYS — otherwise He would never have been so directly implicated in their egregious persecution ! Orthodox Jews and Sharia Islamists, worshippers of this same God, exhibit equally egregious enmity to gays.
Our church’s malicious manipulations of the EQUALITY ACT have jeopardized our jobs, endangered our employment and harmed our housing !
God, and our church are harshly hostile, hard hearted and inhospitable to the very heart and happiness of our LGBT offspring.
