The long, sorry history of Christian bigotry continues unabated

NEW BEDFORD There's no bigot like a Christian bigot. I think I may have read that some place, but if not, I will gladly take credit for it.

When it comes to bigotry, Christians have the copyright. Ever since Constantine gave the Christians a little muscle, they have been bad-mouthing and abusing people of different color and religion. Take a quick trip through history.

Was it not Christians who burned "witches" at the stake because they didn't conform to Christian tenets? Was it not Christians who slaughtered the American Indians and imprisoned them in reservations? Was it not Puritans, who after massacring Indian men, women and children, gave thanks to the Lord for allowing them to send the heathens to Hell?

Was it not Christians hiding behind white sheets and hoods who murdered blacks? Was it not Christians who persecuted Jews? Was it not Pope Pius XII who kept silent during the Holocaust, never lifting a finger in protest to Hitler? Was it not Christians who were (I use the past tense cautiously) killing each other in Northern Ireland over religion?

And is it not Christian leaders who are leading the unholy crusade against homosexuals?

If you think this hate campaign against gays is a good and righteous thing, ask yourself this: Would Jesus Christ be leading the stone-throwing if he were alive today? If you put a God-fearing Christian homosexual on one side and Jerry Falwell on the other side, whose side do you think Jesus would take? Think about it.

And to those of you who think that Jesus condemned homosexuality (as some uninformed Christians have maintained), think again. He never spoke on the subject. Neither did God in his conversations with Abraham, Moses, David, or any of the other Old Testament prophets.

What some Christians refer to as God's judgment against homosexuals actually comes from the Apostle Paul (Romans 1:24-27), who also preached that wives should be subservient to their husbands and that women in general should just keep quiet. You don't hear those Biblical passages quoted much these days.

Anyone who is familiar with the teachings of Christ should know that his two main themes were love thy God and love thy neighbor. He never specified what color the neighbor should be, or what religion, or what sexual orientation. He just said, "Love thy neighbor."

That seems to be the first thing that the Pat Robertsons and Gary Bauers and Jerry Falwells have forgotten.

Oh, they deplore what happened to poor Matthew Shepard and say that their condemnation of gays has nothing to do with hate, but yet they continue to brand gays as depraved, sick and un-American.

Un-American? Is that a veiled suggestion that we should just ship all homosexuals out of the country? Or maybe just put them in internment camps? How about stripping them of their rights as American citizens? Hey, that's a good idea. They're un-American, aren't they?

We already have at least one congressional leader, Trent Lott, publicly supporting the religious right's condemnation of gays as "sinful and sick."

And when you have nationally known clergymen and congressmen condemning homosexuality as evil, despite scientific evidence that it is caused by a chemical imbalance in the body at birth, you're going to have whackos who think it's all right to beat up on gays. We have seen evidence of that in the violence at abortion clinics. John Salvi thought he was just doing God's work.

I heard a caller on a local radio talk show the other day say that he really has nothing against gays, but that they disgust him. You hear the word disgust a lot in discussions about gays. What they do sexually is disgusting. Yet those same acts when performed by heterosexuals are perfectly all right, at least according to what we see on TV and in the movies. Hey, whatever turns you on, right? It's nobody's business.

But when homosexuals engage in these acts, it's not only disgusting, it's everybody's business.

Of course, disgusting is a very useful word in that it can be used to camouflage a lack of logic. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there right now who are disgusted with me for defending disgusting homosexuals.

The word is also useful in stripping a person or group of human dignity. By being disgusting or sick, you somehow become less human.

It follows naturally that they become sub-human.

Jews were labeled sub-human in Nazi Germany.

American Indians were labeled sub-human -- savages was the term -- by our Christian forefathers.

Blacks were labeled sub-human by Christian slave owners.

It makes the persecution and killing easier that way, you see.

What I really can't understand is why the Christian Right is so afraid of gays. I don't know of any gay groups campaigning to convert heterosexuals. They don't want special rights. They just want the same rights afforded other minority groups.

Yes, there are evil homosexuals who prey on children, but there are a lot more evil heterosexuals who prey on children. Yes, there are homosexual exhibitionists, but there are also heterosexual exhibitionists. There are good gays and there are bad gays, just as there are good Christians and bigoted Christians.

Yes, there is an evil at work here, but it's not the doing of gays. As a brother and grandson of Presbyterian ministers, I say to you: Fear not the homosexual. Fear the Christian bigot.

Bob Hanna is a staff writer for The Standard-Times.