Fortunately, Most Christians Aren’t Like Micah Clark

The Boy Scouts did (half of) the right thing a couple of weeks ago, and triggered another of Micah Clark’s (tiresome and predicitble) rants.

Some of his bizarre assertions: the Indianapolis Star is “one of the largest homosexual advocacy organizations.” The Boy Scouts “decided to abandon their moral principles in favor of keeping pro-homosexual corporate donors’ money.” The Greenwood Church that withdrew from sponsorship of a cub scout pack is “one of the finest churches in the Greenwood area.” Gays make up “only 3% of the US population but are responsible for a third of all child molestations.” The Scouts’ decision is yet more evidence that “true manhood is under attack.”

Needless to say, Clark plucks his “facts” from thin air–or perhaps from the same “researchers” who broke the news that Sponge Bob Squarepants is recruiting for the armies of homosexual activists that Clark sees everywhere. (Which does lead me to wonder how a mere 3% of the population can be everywhere Clark sees them…)

I would ignore this latest roar of wounded indignation, but a friend sent it to me not an hour after I had spoken to a sizable group of Christian senior citizens about same-sex marriage. The average age of the audience was probably 80+. They all belonged to Christian denominations. All but one of them was white. (The common stereotype of such older white Christians, of course, is that they are the bulk of the nation’s culture warriors.)

Since Micah clearly believes that he speaks for all “true” Christians, this gathering must have been composed of “fake” Christians. Not only did they reject the sort of hateful homophobic characterizations and falsehoods that Micah and his ilk constantly spew, not only did they applaud the Boy Scouts’ decision, they were strongly supportive of marriage equality.

In fact, these senior-citizen Christians must be Micah’s worst nightmare.

Micah Clark and those like him can turn blue insisting that neutral reporting turns the daily newspaper into an advocacy organization. They can excoriate “liberals” like yours truly, and dismiss our positions out of hand. They can invent statistics and “facts” and insist that theirs is the proper “moral” standard. But all of that is window dressing. Their position rests, ultimately, on their conviction that they speak for the angry God of their version of Christianity.

But just as they stereotype GLBT folks, they stereotype their fellow Christians.

For every literalist, fundamentalist church that defines itself in contrast to sinful “others,” there is a Christian denomination that takes seriously the obligation to love one’s fellow-man.

For every angry, judgmental, morally-constipated “Christian” I’ve met, I can point to three or four others who see their faith as a prescription for love and understanding and who shrink from the very real transgressions of arrogance and self-righteousness.

I am neither a Christian nor a theologian, but I know the difference between people who are at peace with themselves and people who–for whatever reason–need to blame someone else for the demons that beset them.

8 Comments

  1. First, Sheila, how is Bob?

    I love your term morally-constipated; constipation refers to the inability to pass unneeded waste products. These so-called Christians are severely anal retentive; keeping any morals they might have in their hearts and souls tightly packed. I have a number of gay friends (black and white), have had them for many years, and have yet to hear them trying to prevent “straights” from availing themselves of civil or legal rights. The only gay friend I have lost turned his back on me because I refused to accept his version of my beliefs as he viewd them. He is a white, 73 year old, Catholic, staunch Republican living in Florida and supportive of “stand your ground” gun ownership and use. I didn’t lose a very good friend; but he did. The expressions on the faces of people such as Clark while they spout their “facts” and religious beliefs is one of severe constipation.

  2. Thanks again Prof K. This guys has always been obsessed. Back when we were working out of the basement of the ACLU (Thanks to you) I went looking for this big organization of his. All I could ever find was a tiny office in Carmel as I recall. I think his organization exists only as a figment of his imagination. On a similar tack, at Pride this year there was a nut job screaming at the people with his bull horn. Just a whack job screaming at no one in particular. Not at all concerned that no one was paying any attention to him. I flipped him the bird so he would have at least some response. I asked a young policeman if I could borrow his gun for a minute. He smiled. We went on with our day. These Christian warriors are being seen for the irrelevant nut jobs they have always been. And yes….How is Bob?

  3. Jesus defended those who others would stone, and he threw the so-called true believers out of the temple for their money-changing habits. Sheila – sometimes you’re mighty “Christian”.

  5. Prof. K – In your opinion, that causes so many Christians, who pray to the same God, come to different conclusions about what He wants of them? Do they get different messages, or do they interpret the message differently or incorrectly? Or, is all this just in their imaginations? Thanks for speaking out as a voice of moderation and common sense.

  6. I don’t know. But if I had to guess, for a lot of people, religion is instrumental–they read the bible or Koran or whatever very selectively, cherry-picking passages that support their beliefs and biases, and allow them to feel superior to others.

  7. Interpretation of all religious writings is rather like the story of the three blind men examining an elephant by feel. One feels the tail, one the trunk and one the leg; they are then asked to describe what an elephant looks like. None are right but – then again – none are entirely wrong.

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