A reader writes:
I had a question that I needed to ask you. I just found out that the owner of Chick-Fil-A stated that he was against Gay Marriage. Personally, I agree with him, yet when I told someone on the Chick-Fil-A Facebook page that being against Gay Marriage isn’t the same as being “Anti-Gay”, they ended up calling me a “Hateful bigot”.
Does being against Gay Marriage automatically make me a hateful person or oppressive person?
I don’t try to hate anyone and I don’t want to be seen as hateful by others. I just feel conflicted. If you can help me understand how to resolve this conflicted feeling that I’m currently having, I would be very thankful!
It is difficult to know what to say the first time one encounters this type of claim, which is regrettably common.
Hatred and bigotry are real phenomena. They really exist. And they are evil.
It is natural to want to avoid them and to want to avoid being perceived as committing them. That is true in everywhere, but it is particularly true in our own culture, which highly prizes tolerance, understanding, and letting people “do their own thing.”
Precisely because there is such a strong aversion to these things in our culture, there is a perverse phenomenon that also occurs in which charges of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance are used to perversely express and create intolerance.
This occurs when accusing someone of these faults is done as a way of shutting down rational discussion, of stifling disagreement, and of wounding (emotionally or socially) the one against whom the charges are made.
People who make blanket charges of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance are themselves being intolerant, displaying bigotry, and may even be hateful.
Why do I say this?
Very true, Jimmy. A friend recently posted on Facebook, “Since when does disagreeing equal hate?”
Jimmy, even without reading the whole of your Post, my apt response is this : Remember the Adulterous woman and Jesus??? He bluntly and emphatically told her: “GO AND SIN NO MORE.” So, we reject all the crap about gay marriages, homosexuals, lesbians, aborters of unborn babies, embryo stem cell supporters, and all those who demand euthanasia for me since I am just two months shy of 74 years and useless to the Society according to their estimation!!! We DO NOT HATE SINNERS, WE HATE SIN JUST AS JESUS DID. We shall never condone or accept disordered intrinsically horrible sins as OK. But we shall treat those with maladjusted sexual attractions and those supporting all those other anti-God and Satanic sins with compassion and pray for them.