Last week, a Grand Rapids, Mich., television station decided to pull an hour-long infomercial called "Speechless: Silencing the Christians."
Whether this was a good decision for gay and lesbian civil rights or a bad one depends on what happens next.
On the surface, of course, it seems good. The infomercial, produced by the gay-hating, radical right wing religious organization the American Family Association, is a stream of misdirection, misinformation and outright lies.
Through interviews with leaders of a small number of far-right organizations like Concerned Women for America, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, the Media Research Center and the ex-gay group Exodus International, Speechless tells a story that would be horrifying if it were true: gay and lesbian activists are using violence and intimidation to keep Christians from practicing their religion.
Of course, it's not true at all. Gay people aren't trying to pass laws to keep Christians from marrying, or attacking them on the street because they're Christian, or firing them from their places of employment (which would be illegal anyway, under federal anti-discrimination law that we'd like to extend to ourselves).
These things happen to gays and lesbians all the time.
The infomercial is dangerous, because it feeds on fear and uncertainty with inflammatory language and stock video that tries to scare viewers into believing that if even basic anti-discrimination laws are passed, then America's children (who, interestingly, all seem to be white in the pictures flashed across the screen) are in danger.
What, exactly, they are in danger of isn't made clear. Open-mindedness? Independent thinking?
This sort of infomercial, though, sways opinions in the same way those ridiculous, hate-mongering internet forwards do - by feeding on people's doubts and prejudices by saying things that aren't true, but that people fear are true. So in the world of internet forwards, then-candidate Barack Obama was a Muslim terrorist. And in the world of Speechless, gay people are opening fire on places of worship (really).
When the Human Rights Campaign learned that the station in Grand Rapids planned to air the infomercial, they put out a call to action. The station was flooded with messages from angry gays and lesbians demanding the piece be pulled.
And it was.
What I like about the HRC's call is that it requested that a reasoned debate on hate crime be substituted for the deceitful infomercial. That seems fair.
But the other side, of course, won't see it that way.
In fact, my guess is that the pulling of the infomercial will only lend fuel to the AFA fire - now they'll be able to point to it as just another example of gays and lesbians - and the "liberal" media - trying to stifle Christian speech.
I also worry that the controversy over the Grand Rapids television decision means that many more people are watching Speechless on the AFA website than would have ever seen it on a small, local TV channel.
And yet, when faced with trash like the AFA infomercial, we can't do nothing. We know that lies like these affect real people in our community, giving bigots who fire us and bash us an air of legitimacy.
So what should we do?
First, of course, we need to counter the AFA's lies with point-by-point truth.
But it is not facts that sway hearts - it is points of commonality.
We need to do a better job of building bridges between the gay and lesbian civil rights movement and more liberal faith communities. We need to highlight the experiences of gay and lesbian faith leaders - like Gene Robinson, Mel White and Peter Gomes. We need to start flooding the airwaves with pictures of gay people attending religious services.
We need to end the lie that religion and gayness are incompatible.
I know that a lot of gay people will be uncomfortable with this. Many gays and lesbians, religious or not, have been hurt by religious institutions. But the fact is that America is a religious country, far more religious than other Western countries. And many gays and lesbians who grew up in America are religious, too. We attend church and synagogue. We go to Buddhist temples. We celebrate annual religious holidays. We pray.
Gays and lesbians shouldn't have to deny any parts of ourselves - not our sexual orientation, and not our religious affiliation, should we have one. We can be both religious and gay.
We need to show that gays and lesbians aren't silencing Christians - because many of us are Christian, too.
8 Comments for “‘Speechless’ Christians?”
posted by Paul Ginandes on
I must respectfully disagree with the premise of this article. The answer to religious oppression of gays and lesbians is not to join religious groups who don’t oppress us. The answer is to firmly place the conversation about gays and lesbians within the civil rights equality framework where it belongs. We need to stop pussy footing around these religious bigots who beat us with the bible and don’t care about logic, reason or civil rights. If we descend into their religious swamp of rhetoric, we will drown. Religion provides no answers as to how we achieve social equality under our Constitution. The more the religionazis lie, misrepresent and twist the facts to insert more religious influence over the lives of ordinary Americans, the more we must fight back against their attempts to frame everything as a biblical question. This is the real threat to American, Dominionism! The conservative right has sold its soul to those who would replace our constitution with their bible. Gays and lesbians are the first victims of this process because the christianists have chosen us to be so. We’re squarely in their sights, and they are never going to stop trying to squash us. We must counter their lies with questions about their goals for America. If everyday moderates of all stripes really knew exactly how extreme these theocrats views were, they would be horrified.
posted by CPT_Doom on
Well, this article I heartily agree with, if only in a political sense. It is not necessary to join liberal religious groups to use their existence to our political benefit. For too long progressives and moderates have allowed religion to be entirely defined by the radical right – and boiled down to being solely about abortion and gay rights. Liberal religious traditions, who take a more expansive view of morality and humanity, are important allies in the culture war that has been forced on us by the anti-gay hate movement.
Even more important than allying with liberal religious groups, we need to change the argument about the morality of the religious right. Every time they denounce us as being “immoral” for living in a way counter to their religious tradition, we need to point out that EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of the religious right lives a “lifestyle choice” that is considered sinful, immoral and grounds for damnation. If one is a Roman Catholic, there are plenty of Protestant groups willing to denounce “papists.” If one is Southern Baptist, Mormon or part of a nondenominational evangelical church, the Roman Catholics have pretty much handed you over to Satan. There is NO “Christian” religion or worldview – there are thousands, and that God of the Quakers bears no resemblence to the god of the Southern Baptists.
posted by TS on
Jennifer, I think it is silly for you to bother speaking out against videos like “Silencing the Christians.”
This movie is a mere marketing ploy. AFA always needs a way to bilk more money out of its fan base- so they sell crappy DVDs to people who already agree with their whole platter of crap.
“Silencing the Christians” will mildly increase the frenzy of those who already subscribe to its premises, draw ridicule from those who see the pathetic Religious Right persecution complex for what it is, and probably never reach the unpersuaded (who can only remain in this stateby deciding to deliberately avoiding political information of all types.)
posted by Arthur on
I have a dirty little secret for you. Americans pretend to be religious. Polls asking do you believe in ?God,? always get a large response. But, on the Sabbath, look around a middle-class neighborhood in any part of the country, and count the cars that haven?t moved since the previous night. Americans are more likely to visit a mall on their Sabbath than a religious building. Mega churches have responded to this phenomenon by becoming mall-like. Yes, we have more people attending services than other western nations, but it is not the majority.
With two Protestant ministers in my family, we have always made private jokes about C&E Christians, Christmas and Easter Christians. Fundamentalist Christians have used their PR machines to assume to speak for this type of Christian, who is not really attuned to their own faith?s beliefs. The Fundamentalists have taken ?In God We Trust,? a generic affirmation, as an affirmation of their own dogmatic politics. And C&Es don?t know better. Then MSM goes for the sound bite, it is easier to go to the extreme than a thoughtful discussion. So the Fundamentalist/Conservative gets the airtime, speaking for this ?Christian Nation.?
What has been silenced is the middle of road denominations or thoughts of all religions. The middle is labeled as liberal, implying it is somehow the other, the same as the political thought in the past few decades. The middle and left of religions have given the airwaves to the right. What we need is more denominations to stand up and say, ?These people do not speak for us.? But this will not happen in this age of ecumenical politeness in mainline denominations, and the MSM wouldn?t give them airtime.
posted by Marlene on
This axing of the AFA’s propaganda show will feed into their martyr complex, and use it to further their “we’re being oppressed” whining, which is precisely *why* they did this: to goad the TLBG activist community into reacting and protesting the airing of this piece of trash. Then after the show’s canceled, they can sponge even *more* money from the sheep and make millions more.
But the station should’ve known better than to take the money from a group of hatemongers equal to the Klan and the American Nazi Party combined! Now had the “special” aired at say 3 or 4am when no one’s watching, maybe the hue and cry would’ve been so loud.
In any event — we cannot allow hatemongers like the AFA any opportunity to spread their hate, bigotry and prejudice.
posted by Alex on
The only problem Paul is that there are quite a few key politicians that are also very deeply involved in their religions. These political figures are what keeps us down. They preach about how we are unholy and that we shouldn’t have civil rights and people either listen or dismiss it all together. What we need to do is get some people who are in the senate and congress on our side and bring this issue to the forefront. I’m not saying with something terrible or violent but with something that could give the congress and senators a little extra initiative.
posted by lolo on
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posted by Timothy (TRiG) on
Theoretically, I agree wholeheartedly with the first commenter on this piece, Paul Ginandes. Religious answers need to be denormalised. Religion cannot reliably answer moral questions, because it is not engaged with the real world.
When discussing social policy, we must “show our workings”. We must explain why certain outcomes are to be preferred over others, and we must demonstrate that the policies we support are likely to lead to those outcomes.
Religious arguments skip these stages, and jump straight into “This way is better”. They supply no “because”, no reason, except “My imaginary friend says so”. In a plural democracy, such ramblings are worthless, and should be discounted.
Paul Ginandes is also right to say that this is a much broader issue than gay rights. We just happen to be the first group attacked by this dangerous crowd. This is not Christians v. Gays, it’s Religion v. Reason. As a member of “the reality based community”, I am worried. Read Sam Harris’ little book Letter to a Christian Nation for a full outlining of what we’re up against.
***
I prefaced that with “theoretically”. In actual fact, we can fight on many fronts at once. And there is a place for the religiously minded on our side of the fence. Yes, images of religious LGBT people will do no harm. And the more we demonstrate, simply and clearly, that our opponents rely almost entirely on lies, the better we will do.
TRiG.