I was reading through the comments on that blog I posted a link to (http://naytinalbert.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-hugged-man-in-his-underwear-and-i-am.html), and I just thought I would share it with you.

"Sorry to rain on your parade, but I'm not impressed. It doesn't change the long, intolerant history of your religion; it doesn't change the fact that your Bible says I am an abomination and that I should be put to death; it doesn't erase all of the anti-gay constitutional amendments that have enshrined discrimination into our laws...

And for that matter your behavior, good or bad, doesn't lend any credibility to the ridiculous supernatural claims your religion is founded on. Even if every single Christian on this planet loved the gays, it would not be a good reason to believe people can rise from the dead.

You know what would actually impress me? If you abandoned religion altogether and embraced critical thinking and contemporary, secular ethics. Maybe if you had done that all along you would have been on the right side of this issue from the beginning, and you wouldn't have anything to apologize for. Sorry but I'm not going to give you a special award for finally, FINALLY coming to the same conclusions that intelligent, fair-minded individuals came to decades ago.

In the meantime, I find it really manipulative, self-serving and condescending that you are using this to pat yourself on the back. I mean, wow, you hugged a gay guy. Stop the presses!! Oh but he wasn't wearing pants. Oh geez, you have so much courage!!



Also, it's idiotic that anyone is really surprised that there are Christians out there who are not ant-gay. Despite how stupid Christianity is as an ideology, we live in a modern world where most decent Christians have rejected the parts of the Bible that call for murdering homosexuals, condone slavery or depict women as the property of men. Almost all of us have Christian friends and family members who accept us, and these days most Pride parades and festivals are supported by gay-positive churches. In short, you're not special. Lots of other Christians - individuals and whole churches - have already beat you to it. And you probably just surprised some people because you weren't in the parade itself and looked more like the anti-gay fundie protesters at first.

I know some other gay people are so starved for acceptance that they'll jump all over this story and slather you with congratulatory praise, but I'm not one of them. Wow, you figured out that gay people are human beings. What's next, you'll finally realize that evolution is true? :O

Welcome to the modern era. Took you long enough."

All I can say is that, while I agree, it does take small steps for something to actually revolutionize and change the way people see the world. Nothing is going to happen overnight, and if it takes a certain group of people over 2000-ish years to realize "Hey, we fucked up," then that's what it's going to have to take.

Whenever I meet somebody or find out somebody is gay I don't sit there and think "OMFGWTFBBQ this dude sleeps with dudes!!!" I actually see them as just another person. I mean, okay, there's a lot of stigma still there but that's all in part to everything around us; the media, the churches, our parenting, etc. Not saying MY parents specifically, but you get the picture. Nature versus nurture.

Still, in my mind, even a small group of Christians gathering at Pride gives me hope. Especially when, as one sign claimed, they were once homophobic.

Take this how you will
Rev. Cannon