Gay Stuff

Don't forget to name the three things you've always wanted to do but haven't tried yet.

Two items in the news today are so frustrating, especially the first one:

A Democrat candidate for Senator in Ohio, who also happens to be a Christian, has discovered the earth is flat, and he's fallen off the edge. So to speak. This is from today's WorldNetDaily.

A Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio wants to make homosexual behavior a capital crime punishable by the death penalty.

Merrill Keiser Jr. is a trucker with no political experience, but he hopes to beat fellow Democrat Rep. Sherrod Brown in the May primary. The winner will try to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine, assuming he wins the GOP primary.

"Just like we have laws against murder, we have laws against stealing, we have laws against taking drugs – we should have laws against immoral conduct," Keiser told WTOL-TV in Toledo.

It's fine if a community or a state or even the country wants to pass laws against immoral conduct. But capital punishment for homosexual behavior? Give me a big fat stinking break!

I'll support capital punishment for homosexual behavior just as soon as adultery and any other kind of sex outside of marriage is subject to capital punishment. And not a minute before.

It's guys like this who make Christians the pariahs/laughingstocks of the secular world.

And he's got more things on his platform for the Senate, but I'm not going there.

***

Second, there's this column by Deb Price in yesterday's Detroit News. Price generally writes on gay issues.

March 9, Jake [Reitan] and 34 other gay and gay-friendly young men and women will begin a six-week bus tour to 19 of the 200 religious colleges and military academies that ban openly gay students.

Traveling on a bus displaying the message, "Learn From History: End Religion-Based Oppression," Jake and other riders will encourage students at the conservative institutions to think about the similarities between how the Bible is used as a weapon today against gay people and how it was long used to hold back women, African Americans, Jews and the disabled.

"We're going into the heart of the evangelical community and talking to the next generation of leaders," says rider Chad Grandy, 20, of Mount Pleasant. "As a gay Christian, I'm going on this ride to say it's wrong to use God's name to try to defend horrible crimes against gay people and justify discrimination." (emphasis added)

I'm all for people driving around the country, meeting other people, and engaging in conversation. But I wish they'd get a little more detailed about what "horrible crimes against gay people" are being committed, especially by Christians, especially at Christian colleges, and especially using God's name. I haven't heard of any actual crimes, and if there have been any, I'd like to know so I can openly condemn them.

But if the "crimes" are name-calling, Scripture-quoting, and college policies against students openly practicing homosexuality, then spare me the histrionics. Students--straight or gay, Christian or non-Christian--are not forced against their will to attend Christian colleges that have policies they disagree with.

Meanwhile:

Already, positive things are happening. Bob Andringa, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, helped equality riders work with several schools to schedule campus events. "Our campuses are educational institutions, and we hope that Equality Ride participants will experience good dialogue, even on areas of disagreement," Andringa says.

It's good to see the openness of Andringa and the CCCU to good dialogue. Resistance is counter-productive, while openness will hopefully go a long way toward lessening the animosity that permeates this issue.