How to Talk to an Evangelical (Because You Must) -- Part 1

My loyal readers, making its debut today is another new feature I intend to make a regular part of this Blog. "How to talk to an Evangelical (Because You Must)" is an attempt to serve two purposes. It will help you to reason with religious people -- when they are willing to be reasonable -- in a manner considerably more constructive than the silly, childish, whiny, irrational way that so many Leftists do. It will also help me to speak directly to the religious folks who happen upon this Blog.

I am sick unto death of entrusting the cause of equal rights for gays to Leftist liberals. They have proved to be an unworthy vessel in which to hold such precious cargo. Though the Right -- both political and religious -- has some very wrongheaded notions about gender issues, the Left is doing nothing to change them. It is simply hammering those stupid ideas even more deeply into conservative heads. Most of the time, when someone refuses to consider womens' rights or gay rights, it is not because they hate gays, but because they have developed a strong dislike for liberals.

Today, I wish to focus on one of the most important things we need to get across to anti-gay Evangelicals who would "minister to" gays. Which is that we have as much right to expect them to be honest with themselves as they do to expect the same from us.

This does require that we begin by being honest with ourselves. It doesn't feel good to be told that we are sinners who are risking damnation, but most of the people who say this are NOT bad people. Not everyone who insults us, or makes us feel less than delightful, is evil. Most of them believe that we really ARE on our way to Hell unless we repent of whatever it is they think we need to repent of, so they believe they are doing us a great kindness by warning us about it. I don't regard the fact that they want to keep us from spending eternity in torment as any reason to be angry with them.

The ones who make me angry are those who are dishonest about their intentions. They claim they want to save our souls, but they refuse to take no for an answer. And when they get a "no," because we happen to disagree with them, they proceed to persecute us and try to ruin our lives. Those who do this are showing that their supposed piety is a lie. For them, it's all about control -- and they couldn't care less about our souls.

All genuine Christian, Biblical morality requires of an anti-gay Christian is that he tell me I am a sinner in need of repentance. Once he has delivered his cheerful little message, his job is done. God will not hold him responsible for how I choose to respond to that message. Those who say that they must get me fired from my job, or thrown out of my house, or tossed into jail because they fear for my soul are either liars, idiots or both. All they're doing is making it more difficult for sincere and genuine anti-gay Christians to minister to me as they believe they must.

That's as far as I want to take my first posting on this subject. If we could get even this much to sink into the craniums of anti-gay Christians, we could make tremendous headway in getting along better with them. As long as we are willing to show them the same goodwill that most of them believe they are showing us.