Friday, November 28, 2008

Not So Long Ago

Time Magazine chronicles the anti-gay movement in Florida led by Anita Briant. The year is 1977.

In the heat of the campaign, emotions have got out of hand. A gay worker was hospitalized after a beating; others have received crank calls. Urges a bumper sticker: KILL A QUEER FOR CHRIST. After receiving many telephone threats, Jack Campbell, a gay-rights leader, has installed guards around his house. Bryant has also hired security men because of phone warnings.

Meantime, Bryant has stepped up her rhetoric, telling one interviewer that God does not like homosexuality because "the male homosexual eats another man's sperm. Sperm is the most concentrated form of blood. The homosexual is eating life." During a debate with Gay Rights Activist Bob Kunst, she startled the audience by breaking into a stirring rendition of Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Many Miami homosexuals think that they will be the ultimate winners this week, even if they lose what is expected to be a close vote. Their reasoning: Bryant's spirited attack has encouraged homosexuals all over the country to come out of their closets. Already, gay groups from Boston to San Francisco are organizing as never before. Says Kunst: "We have created a national issue, and we intend to stay with it."
I think the gay marriage movement represents the revenge of the gays.

You spew hatred - you get hatred back. Proof that God is just. You have to wonder though. Bryant was the leader of an ostensibly Christian movement. Why did/do so many Christians have hate in their hearts? Such attitudes are hobbling the Republican Party considerably because some how the party got identified with the haters.

Of course the foundation for the hate is fear. But isn't living in fear the antithesis of having God in your heart?
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Strange times.

Inspired? by this William Burroughs Thanksgiving Prayer.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

2 comments:

Unknown said...

As a conservative christian, it was almost painful to read what people did "in the name of christ." I wish the illuminati stereotyped a little less and it was more well known that it's only a very, very small minority of people (not all conservatives or even most christians) that are like that.

M. Simon said...

True David,

I'm just looking at the brand. Reality can be different.

But you know how it is (I hope) - elections do not swing on reality much. They swing on branding.

As Casey Stengel used to say: "Can't any one play this game?"

Did you know that as far as the general public is concerned Abe Lincoln was a Democrat? MLK jr. was a Democrat?

That is what it is required to overcome.

How do you do that? Be in the lead on something that goes counter brand.