Agape Press reports that the Traditional Values Coalition, one of the approximately 10,000 different religious right groups all complaining about the same things, is upset that CBS is showing a "pro-gay" public service announcement at the end of a soap opera:
A conservative group is criticizing CBS Television for airing a pro-homosexual public service announcement during a daytime soap opera. The network was to air the PSA at the end of today's episode of As the World Turns, which featured a teen character who tells his parents he is homosexual.
The PSA urges viewers to "take a stand against the discrimination and prejudice faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people." The spot is all part of a campaign by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) called "Be an ally and a friend."
So let's see if I get this straight. The ad says that people should be friends with gay people and should be opposed to discrimination and prejudice. The TVC is against that ad. Doesn't that mean that the TVC is for discrimination and prejudice against gay people and against friendship with them? As it turns out, their problem with the ad is a big non sequitur:
The TVC has offered to help CBS come up with a PSA that presents another point of view about homosexual individuals, Lafferty points out -- namely, "a view that you are not born that way and that you can come out of the homosexual lifestyle." But the network has decided to air GLAAD's spot, she says, "And so we are encouraging people to contact CBS and voice their concern about this biased move."
First of all, this is a non sequitur. Regardless of whether homosexuality can be changed, it would not follow that therefore it is a bad thing to be against discrimination and prejudice, or that it's a bad thing to be friends with gays. More importantly, has it not occured to them that promoting a "cure" for homosexuality is tantamount to saying "we have a way to make sure there are no more homosexuals on the planet"? This position treats homosexuality as a disease that needs to be cured. Gee, I can't imagine why gays aren't joining the TVC in droves.
But here's my favorite part of the article:
While "most people of faith believe homosexuality is a sinful behavior and that it can be healed," she asserts, "GLAAD is telling Americans that their religious beliefs are wrong."
And therefore....what? Is there some sort of taboo against telling someone their religious beliefs are wrong? What about people who are motivated by their religious views, particularly by the words of Jesus ("Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me also"), to befriend gays and to protest discrimination against them? Isn't the TVC telling those people that their religious views are wrong? Wrong views should be called wrong views, whether those views are religious or not. Attaching the word "religious" to an idea doesn't make that idea immune from criticism.
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Dear lord. On a soap opera, full of adultery and pre-marital sex and divorce, the PSA is what they take the time to find offensive?
Very good observation, Tara.
"GLAAD is telling Americans that their religious beliefs are wrong."
Gotta remember that argument. Next time I see a street preacher, I get to tell him "do you realise you're telling {everyone not of that denomination} that their religious beliefs are wrong?"
I think they're confusing religious beliefs and beliefs held for religious reasons.
How Un-American! Make them stop!
How Un-American! Make them stop!
Once again, Christians get to be known not by who they love, but by who they hate.
This is not good.
Worse, it's not really Christian (at least in my opinion).
"Very good observation, Tara."
Not really. When were there PSA spots advocating that people should be friends with adulterers, fornicators, and divorced persons and should be opposed to discrimination and prejudice against the same?
Rusty Lopez
I try to be respectful of other people's opinions, but when it comes to beliefs like creationism and homosexuality-is-a-choice-ism, I get a little belligerent. Of course they have the right to totally dismiss science and its mountains of evidence, but they shouldn't expect me to even consider their points of view on these subjects. I'm sorry that science keeps disproving your archaic beliefs, but if you want to believe in something that is patently false, I reserve the right to ignore your arguments and call you an ignorant moron.
That brief list I would guess would comprise about 99% of adult America and quite alot of it's youth.
Especially in the Red States, where divorce rates are the highest in the nation.
Hey buddy, I've got a Big Mac with your name on it, just $100 ... and I'll throw in some fries. Chicken McNuggets? Are you crazy? I don't deal the hard stuff!
That post would be funny, had I not clicked on the wrong link... ;o)
"... 'most people of faith believe homosexuality is a sinful behavior and that it can be healed,' she asserts..."
Bullshit.
Hear, hear. Gays can and do choose not to live "the gay lifestyle"; that is, they can get married to members of the other sex, procreate, and raise children, while refraining from romantic or sexual relationships with members of their own gender, Hell, I'll even grant that on rare occasion this may work out well for the players involved. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with not doing that, any more than there is anything wrong with wearing glasses instead of contacts and not getting horribly jealous every time my fiancee talks to her male friends. The problem for the Traditional Values Coalition is that so many of their potential supporters have this strange idea that spouses should love each other, hence all the "homosexuality can be cured" crap. That makes the TVC's position more paletable among their potential supporters. But it doesn't make it right.
Speaking of bullshit:
No. The thousands of so-called ex-gays can attest to the fact that sufficiently motivated people can adhere to "traditional" (and rather rediculous) gender roles. And the ex-ex-gays can attest to the fact that this can be pretty traumatic.
Said Andrew Wade
"many of their potential supporters have this strange idea that spouses should love each other, hence all the "homosexuality can be cured" crap."
I would like to add that plenty of homosexuals have this strange idea that spouses should love each other and so they want to get married, to each other. Yet this is opposed by the usual suspects.
The "reparative therapy" crowd would be funny, if they weren't so sad. A small group called NARTH makes its living "curing" gay people, although one of its founders has a gay son (wonder why daddy couldn't cure him?). I wrote about the "ex-gay" business last year in Richard Socarides is still gay. Who are the "ex-gays"? I think Andrew Wade, above, has it exactly right.
I remember reading that one ex-gay group fell apart after its two co-founders -- both male -- dropped their pretense, confessed their love for each other, and rode off into the sunset.
The whole "ex-gay"/"reparative therapy" movement is a vindictive sham, resulting from the most horrifically misplaced priorities.
PSA spots advocating that people should be friends with adulterers, fornicators, and divorced persons
In other words, sinners. You know, the people Jesus used to hang out with.
As for the PSA spots for this...they are called the Gospels. You know, he who is without sin...Love thy neighbor...
I know. Its so lame, so much pre-Rapture thinking, not in keeping with the upcoming pay-per-pew feature Apocolypse: The Great Jesus Smackdown.
Yeah, nobody reads that lame-ass Palestinian carpenter's stuff when you can read Paul (Jesus, never met him in person) the Apostle or Crazy John, author of Apocolypse: Any Day Now...Any Day Now..
I do not hate Christians. Just wish they actually read all of their Bible, starting with the Sermon on the Mount.
I do not hate Christians. Just wish they actually read all of their Bible, starting with the Sermon on the Mount.
Most of them do. A small but vocal minority picks only these parts of the Bible which give them pretext to hate other people.