The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #149990 Message #3493598
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
22-Mar-13 - 05:36 PM
Thread Name: An Open Letter to Michelle Shocked
Subject: RE: An Open Letter to Michelle Shocked
It seems like MS was saying that her religious beliefs, which at this point are her guidelines, tell her that homosexuality is wrong. However, she wants to have as much compassion for people as possible...without violating those guidelines. Trying to reconcile "competing" values.
I see worse bigotry than this all the time. At least she is trying to reconcile.
It seems that, in her view, telling her to not believe homosexuality is sin but "you can still be a Christian" is hypocrisy. You'd be saying, "Don't be a Christian" - saying of which might be construed as a type of bigotry itself.
In a way, she "came out" as a Christian and chose a difficult place to do it.
I personally have no temptation to believe in Christianity, so it is a very clear issue for *me* that homosexuality is not a sin. However, for people who subscribe to some manner of Christianity, and who think deeply about what that entails, it seems like this would be a conflict needing sorting. Again, I can't say since I'm not a Christian, but I imagine that if I was one of this stripe (fundamental-ish) and was presented with the argument that "God loves everyone," I'd feel like that was too easy a rationalization, and need more soul searching or something. I might be worried that I was sitting on the fence.
It seems naive to be surprised to find that someone in the world thinks homosexuality is wrong. (!)