A couple of weeks ago, in Setsuna’s entry, Answers in Genesis indeed, our very own commenter Rev. Eric Ragle lamented:
“It’s funny to be (sic) that the liberal left claims they want tolerance for all, but by doing so they are intolerant to Christians. And that’s not to imply I know anyone here’s political agenda, just making a point.”
He included five links to reports of Christian’s being persecuted and the same individual showed up in each story: one Michael Marcavage, head of Philadelphia based Repent America.
Now, I understand that some of this nation’s most important social advances have been accomplished via protest, and I have no aversion to groups peaceably assembling; I’ve done so myself on occasion. But you need to be a disenfranchised entity to get my pity or my support. Followers of Christianity are usually not such an animal and often are even the oppressor. So, I wasn’t surprised to see, when reading a report titled TESTING THE FAITH :11 Christians arrested at homosexual event, that Mr. (is HE a Reverend TOO) Marcavage is still up to his same tricks.
According to a statement from Life and Liberty Ministries, on Sunday the Christian protesters were “preaching God’s Word” to the crowd of people attending the outdoor Philadelphia OutFest event and displaying banners with biblical messages.
Not long after the group began their activity, members of the Pink Angels, which the statement describes as “a militant mob of homosexuals,” confronted the protesters and attempted to drown out their message with whistles, while hiding the signs with large sheets of pink Styrofoam.
“Even though the Christians obeyed all laws, city ordinances and lawful requests by the Philadelphia police officers on hand,” said Life and Liberty Ministries, “they were promptly and without warning arrested and hauled off to jail, where they spent 21 hours before being released on Monday morning.”
Eight charges were filed against the protesters, including three felonies and five misdemeanors. The charges were: criminal conspiracy, possession of instruments of crime, reckless endangerment of another person, ethnic intimidation, riot, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct, and obstructing highways.
“This is one of the most remarkable and unlawful actions by police that I have ever witnessed,” said Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America. “Their blatant disregard of the law by allowing hecklers to impede our way, block our message and then arrest us, is inexcusable, especially by police officers who are specially trained to protect civil rights.
“Christians are now being labeled as ‘haters’ and any speech that homosexuals perceive to be intimidating, such as our Christian witness at OutFest, makes them a prime target for ‘hate crimes legislation.’”
I don’t have pictures of the event but I would be willing to bet that Repent America protesters had signs suggesting that God hates homosexuals and that they will burn in hell, and this would make their assembly confrontational. With hundreds of thousands of churches in this country, all protected by the Constitution, assisted through tax codes and accepted as valuable, even necessary, expressions of human community, it’s hard to imagine these people don’t have enough outlets in order to preach and assemble. Why would they need to go to such places as OutFest when their religion is given so many opportunities to be expressed?
I suspect Repent America, and so many other organizations like it, just seek to be antagonistic. I can’t imagine how my sexual identity and the benign ways I express it harms others. I certainly have no desire to be a negative influence on American society. Truth be told, I have many of the same aspirations, dreams and hopes for a successful existence that others have. I don’t enjoy being part of a special class of individuals. I would much rather fade into the surroundings but present circumstances won’t allow it. Right now I need to speak up for equal rights and equal acceptance. But I won’t go into Churches with signs saying “Christians are clueless idiots who spread hate and intolerance!” or “AIDS is nature’s way of punishing Christians!” I’ll simply use my resources for communication and respectfully present the subject and my views, as long as it hasn’t been covered enough, in forums and blogs such as SEB.
I have little patience with people like Vice-President Cheney pretending that private issues (see GeekMom’s entry) were needlessly publicly exposed. His and his daughter’s lives are in the public domain because they have made public statements concerning gay issues. You can’t thank one debate antagonist for mentioning the existence of a gay daughter then turn around and chastise another for doing the same. Well, you can but then it just seems like more of the baseless “I’m being abused” bullshit that people like Eric Ragle bring to the discussion.
So here is my challenge - Prove to me that my lifestyle is dangerous to you personally. Please avoid using arguments such as pedophiles seeking equal rights because I find pedophilia just as abhorrent as most of you do. Nor do I support making love to or allowing marriage between a man and a donkey. Just show me how I compromise your chances for health and happiness, by loving and making love to, and even wishing I could marry another man.
If it’s just an attitude adjustment that you need and then I will not threaten you, by all means search for a way to adapt that attitude. After all, it could be that you are harming yourself more than I ever could.
Source: From that bastion of impartial reporting: WorldNetDaily
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40929
Posted on 05/28/2006 at 06:31 AM 
Perhaps, although unless you know exactly what prompted me to pose my original question don’t be too quick about including yourself.
Zilch, good points - only I wasn’t even referring to creationism. To paraphrase somebody else, it’s virtually futile to reason with a creationist, but the least you can do is study their psychology.
I simply come away with a feeling that vocal theists are more likely to be lazy about making their case than vocal atheists are in defending from these theist’s attacks.
By the way, I’m pretty tired about the argument from linking on either side. At least summarize and explain what point the site is trying to make and why I should bother to look it up…