"Cognitive dissonance," that is. I have a certain programmed wariness of this term for the same basic reason I flat-out reject "elitist," am extremely skeptical of "patriotic," and even look askance at "liberal" and "conservative": As a phrase now invoked almost entirely for the purpose of idiot-bashing denigrating political views with which one disagrees, it is one that must be used with care.

I have the perfect example, though.

Have a look at this post on Stop the ACLU, a site whose addled and incurious contributors Ed Brayton regularly takes to the autoclave, probably while asleep and slurring into a speech-recognition module. First, Jay something, the "author" of this post, notes that Julie Bandera [sic] of Fox News laid into on-air guest Shirley Phelps-Roper of the notorious Westoboro [sic] Baptist Church, information about which can be found at the quaint URL godhatesfags.com. Then, according to Jay, Banderas told Ms. Phelps-Roper that she was going to H-E-double-hockey sticks, while the transcript Jay himself pasted indicates the opposite. (Jay did not note whether Fox planned to send security personnel to Topeka, Kansas to deal with the Phelps family in person.)

The Westboors have been crashing gay funerals for years, taunting the bereaved and screeching that homosexuality is, you guessed it, an abomination and a sin. As if that weren't bad enough, the flagrancy of these inconsiderate people (actually, the position statement of this "church" asserts that gays are "dogs eating their own vomit and sows wallowing in their own feces," a line pimped from 2 Peter) is dragging the rest of humanity into the sewer. Well, except for the Phelpses, I guess.

It wasn't until recently that the Westboors began attracting widespread attention, because most Americans seem to take much more offense at raucous disrespect at gay soldiers' funerals than at similar displays at gay civilians' funerals. Yet the idea that revealed religious "truths" are at the root of practically every institutionalized form of anti-gay bias has been around forever. Thanks to his verbal artlessness, Jay provides a great encapsulation of the sheer futility of his brand of faith, hastening to assure his rapt audience: "As a Christian, I believe that homosexuality is wrong, but making the leap to associating it with our soldiers is pure B.S."

As with just about every self-professed Christian, then, Jay emphasizes that his version of intolerance (he, a font of compassion and biology knowledge, believes that gays should not be harmed but should merely be "straightened out," so to speak) is worlds apart from the Westboors'. Personally I find it ludicrous that people who start any sentence with the disclaimer "As a {insert religious affiliation), I think that.." are given carte blanche to evince whatever sort of mindless bigotry they please, and even most reasonable people instinctively cut them some slack when they see this happen. (Brian Leiter wrote much more eloquently about essentially the same thing a few months ago, but I don't have a direct link.) If I were to walk around saying "I would never marry an African-American," people might find me strange and more than a few might take offense. If I were to stroll around telling folks that on account of my religious, I could never marry anyone of African ancestry, most would simply shut their brains down just as religious folks do and give the matter no further thought; some might pity me, but few would find my views in need of earnest discussion and perhaps a little rational tailoring.

Think about everything confronting a man like Jay in this situation. He simultaneously managed to juggle all of the following beliefs:

1. American soldiers are the bomb.
2. Gays are not the bomb.
3. There are gays in the military.
4. The Bible says gays will burn in hell and should be killed.
5. The Phelpses agree wholeheartedly with this assertion in of the Bible.
6. Jay agrees wholeheartedly with this assertion of the Bible.
7. Jay says the Phelpses are hatemongerers, nutcases and sickos.

It's no wonder this poor guy can't string three sentences together without giving the impression his head is collapsing inward under its own weight. We're talking serious, serious CD material here. Octuple platinum, even.

More than anything else, I find the cherry-picking that haters of faith engage in almost as offensive as the outwardly fanatical Phelpsian take. If Christians are going to reject "the gay lifestyle" solely on account of some words in a four-trillion-year-old book that's been translated through at least 5,138 languages, why don't they go whole hog and walk around throwing big rocks at people's heads? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they don't; but if people give themselves license to believe only part of what they believe is the true Word of God, why not just dispense with the hatred as well?

There's one bit of good to come out of the rising anti-gay tide, and that's that the inevitable polarization of attitudes and backlash has led otherwise disinterested ungay people like me to head for the polls to support pro-gay political candidates and issues such as gay marriage and gay civil unions. Once fully exposed to how many frighteningly and intractably muddy minds there are out there, also encased in bodies that regularly head for voting booths, it becomes much more difficult to remain apathetic.

(Update, 2:20 EDT: Brian Flemming -- maker of The God Who Wasn't There and one of my few MySpace.com friends -- writes almost the very same thing today.)

(Second update, 7:05 EDT: I amended the above to indicate that Phelps-Roper is the one who opined that her opponent in debate was hell-bound. When debunking Stop the ACLU postings, taking care not to propagate its errors is almost a full-time job.)