From: W
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 10:15 AM
To: Robert Gagnon
Subject: Re: Let Pass a Hate Crimes Bill and Invite Your Own Oppression
I... I'm shocked. I thought, for a while, that you were a rational conservative: debating the side of traditional interpretation because that was honestly how you read the Biblical passages. But now all I can see in your messages about this Bill is Fear. You aren't looking at any evidence, not looking at the future with trust in God. You are speaking irrationally (by definition) out of Fear. I am deeply disappointed.
I know that you don't hate homosexuals, but it is suddenly so very clear that you Fear us. Why? Do you not trust God? Do you not see the evidence that your fear is completely unfounded?
What evidence? (First, please understand that I am *not* actually making a comparison between you and these terrorists, nor am I comparing homosexuality to race, but only holding them up as an example for my point.) The federal and state laws against racial hatred have been in force for quite some time, yet the KKK not only exists, but is allowed to voice it's opinions, hold meetings and demonstrations, bring court cases to further their beliefs. They are not forced to include blacks in their official ranks, nor Jews. And they are an extremist group bent on the establishment of evil subjugation of all non-whites! If *they* can survive, full of evil as they are and with no sympathizers in the major government offices, surely conservative churches will survive this hate crimes bill and surely it too will be kept in check by the other laws governing the freedoms you so deeply fear loosing.
Fear destroys people Rob. When you fear, you will either run away (and be destroyed yourself) or you will try to destroy others. Frank Herbert's "Dune" says it very well:
"I must not fear. Fear is the little Death that brings total oblivion. I will face my fear. I will allow it to pass over me and through me, and when I turn to see Fear's path, there will be nothing. Only I will remain." (Litany Against Fear)
And the Bible concurs "Do not be afraid" is the constant chant of every angel sent to man. "Hope and Love" is the chant of the risen Christ. Stop cowering and lashing out like a wounded animal! You give the lie to your other arguments this way. Stand up boldly and move forward until you see fit to stop, but don't act in fear, but in love, and you will be guided into the truth we all seek by the Holy Spirit.
Love ins Christ,
~W
From: Robert Gagnon
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 12:15 PM
To: 'W
Subject: RE: Let Pass a Hate Crimes Bill and Invite Your Own Oppression
Hi W.,
Don't get excited. You have misread things.
First, I am not paralyzed with fear. But neither am I a masochist that enjoys pain or a sadist that enjoys watching fellow believers being pained. The disciples slept a sleep of ignorance at Gethsemane; Jesus, knowing full well what was coming, was sweating bullets but fortifying himself in prayer. Not that what’s coming is equivalent but I think you get my basic point.
Second, all that I’m saying is that Christians should wake up to the fact that ensconcing “sexual orientation” in federal law as the equivalent of race and sex will lead to a severe attenuation of their rights if they publicly make known their opposition to homosexual practice. It is astonishing to me how unnecessarily hyper-reactive your comments are. Christians who are opposed to societal validation of homosexual practice would be fools not to oppose strongly legislation that would lead to their own, and their children's, oppression.
If you are not aware of the extent to which a KKK member—by the way a very disreputable group (my children, incidentally, are of 40% African descent)—has his role in civil society severely attenuated then you have lived a rather sheltered life. Of course even an organization like that can survive; but it gets no entrance into “good society.” You couldn’t teach at a single accredited institution in the U.S. for example, or hold a ‘white-collar’ job in the public sector, etc. and be a known member of the Klu Klux Klan. You couldn’t be accepted into any reputable college. You think that an adoption agency would be charged with discrimination if they refused Klu Klux Klan members adoption rights? You have been legally established as a bigot. It’s codified in the law.
I’m shocked that you are so unaware of developments that have already taken place in Canada and Europe as regards the issue of “sexual orientation regulations.”
Read the rest of this very enlightening exchange.
