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Friday, January 11, 2013

Religion / LGBTQITSLFA Dick Yanked From Benediction

Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 2:28 PM

The crew running Obama's inauguration invited an evangelical preacher to give the benediction at his second inauguration and... it turns out that the guy gave a blistering anti-gay sermon that popped right up when you Googled him. Which no one on the Obama's crew thought to do. So the gays, still annoyed about the anti-gay preacher who gave the benediction at Obama's first inauguration, blew up. (Except Pam, who shrugged it off.) This time the anti-gay preacher was disinvited. Andrew Sullivan has a great rundown of what was troubling about the anti-gay preacher's anti-gay preaching:

The sermon in question, which I listened to, is not full of hatred. It has all the caveats about not hating gay people, not promoting intolerance. But it is quite clear that Giglio has never stopped believing that what he calls "the gay lifestyle" is a terrible crime against God. He also calls it one of the most important issues of the time. He proposes the horrifying abuse of "ex-gay therapy." He cites Leviticus, which mandates the death penalty for gays, and says it is the lynchpin of the teaching against homosexuality. In fact, he doesn't just cite Leviticus; he goes on for ever about it.... Now, people evolve. And we should be happy to welcome those who have evolved and no longer find homosexual relationships sinful or poisonous. But Giglio shows no sign of having changed. His defense is that "clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years." But in that sermon, he described it as possibly the most important moral battle of the time. And get a load of this: "Those who practice such things are worthy of death."

When I cite preachers who cite Leviticus when condemning gay people—and argue that their doing so opens the whole Old Testament up to examination—rightwing religious nutjobs crawl out of the twitterwork to insist that I just don't understand the Bible. (I understand the Bible fine. What I don't understand is why it's kosher for Team Hate to toss Leviticus in our faces but it's somehow not kosher for our side to bring up shellfish, slavery, polygamy, stoning girls to death for not being virgins, selling your daughters into slavery, murdering your disobedient children and other highlights from the Old Testament.) But here's a guy who says that "those who practice such things"—gay people who have gay sex—are worthy of death. I'm pretty sure that a preacher who said something similar about, say, interracial marriages and meant it and refused to apologize for it and hadn't evolved or recanted or grown up wouldn't be invited to give the benediction at a ribbon cutting for a new port-a-potty, much the benediction a presidential inauguration.

Anyway, Rev. Louie Giglio is out—pushed out, as his latest statement makes clear. John at Americablog:

Giglio is upset that we’re intolerant of his intolerance:

The issue of homosexuality (which a particular message of mine some 20 years ago addressed) is one of the most difficult our nation will navigate. However, individuals’ rights of freedom, and the collective right to hold differing views on any subject is a critical balance we, as a people, must recover and preserve.

Louie Giglio is free think gays have a malfunction that he can cure. And we’re free to tell him to take a hike. Religious bigots have an awfully hard time dealing with the concept of mutual free speech. They love the idea that they can say whatever hateful thing they want. But they get very upset and confused when someone gives them a piece of their mind in return.

That's exactly it. Religious conservatives like Louis Giglio and Tony Perkins and Brian Brown believe they should be free to run around—and free to make the rounds at the cable news networks—calling gay people sick and sinful and perverse and claiming that we're a threat to the family and the country and the survival of the human race and blah blah blah. Just like it's okay for them to point to Leviticus but it's not okay for us to point to Deuteronomy. But we're somehow being intolerant when we say, "Okay, that's bullshit." Or, worse yet, it's hugely unfair and monstrously intolerant when people who 1. like us, 2. want our votes, 3. want our campaign contributions, or 4. all of the above decide they don't want to share a stage with a ranting, raving, anti-queer bigot.

The world has changed, guys, like Wayne Besen attempted to explain to FRC's Peter Sprigg on CNN today. This is what a tipping point looks and feels like. For LGBT it feels pretty delightful. We fought long and hard to bring this tipping point about it feels pretty good. But this moment is extremely disorienting for the haters.

The world is changing, they aren't. Talk about being "left behind."

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Posted by Ballard Pimp on January 12, 2013 at 6:58 AM

@22, maybe in a couple of presidential inaugurals we can have no benediction at all. As someone else said, that would be most appropriate.

Posted by sarah70 on January 11, 2013 at 10:29 PM

Leviticus. The book of the Bible of, by, and/or for the Levites, the priestly caste of the Temple. The Temple has been gone for 2000 years, along with its priests, its stone altar, and animal sacrifices. It hasn't been germane to Judaism in 2000 years and it's never been germane to Christianity.

Posted by Brooklyn Reader on January 11, 2013 at 8:38 PM

@21 That would be awesome and it would give Obama major cred. Unfortunately, Obama's not that "evolved" yet. Maybe in a couple presidential elections we can have a lesbian pastor deliver the benediction.

Posted by floater on January 11, 2013 at 7:46 PM

Maybe Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the Washington National Cathedral, could deliver the benediction.

Posted by nocutename on January 11, 2013 at 6:30 PM

Giglio also has ties to key Ugandan antigay church.

Posted by imbecile on January 11, 2013 at 5:50 PM

What's always so stupid about these guys is that Leviticus et al. are in the Jewish bible (Torah) and if you'd ask any Jew on the street what they think about homosexuals being stoned to death, etc., they'd tell you something like this: "Jesus [so to speak}, why do you people go on about that crap? We don't follow it; our rabbis finessed that away because it was a stupid rule written down 2,500 years ago in a different world. The only reason it's still in the Torah is because we don't take anything out. But we're not stupid enough to think we have to follow everything that's there. Apparently you people are."

Posted by sarah70 on January 11, 2013 at 5:50 PM

benedictus interruptus.

Posted by scary tyler moore

on January 11, 2013 at 5:02 PM

The message of FRC "THINK ABOUT GAY SEX! TAKE THE TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT!"

Posted by Pick1 on January 11, 2013 at 3:56 PM

Doesn't anyone at the White House know how to Google? You think they would have learned their lesson after the Rick Warren mess.

Posted by CJ Hogan on January 11, 2013 at 3:51 PM

If you don't have time for the whole thing. Skip to the 3:45 mark on the video. That smackdown made me laugh so damn hard.

Posted by Pick1 on January 11, 2013 at 3:48 PM

What the Bible hate mongers don't understand is that they are free to hate and hate and hate in their homes and places of worship until they drop over. But are going to be challenged when they start calling American citizens enemies of the state or destroyers of family. The old days are gone.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn on January 11, 2013 at 3:43 PM

PS to @11 - and I understand that the native cultures, both mainland and island, had no problem with the occasional same-sex attraction in the tribe - no biggie, move on, nothing to see here.

Posted by Jaymz on January 11, 2013 at 3:39 PM

@11 You are so right!

Posted by Pope Peabrain on January 11, 2013 at 3:39 PM

I would like to see a Native American tribal elder do a blessing, full out with chanting and smoke and everything. Or maybe a Native Hawaiian ceremonial opening - considering our President's birthplace. Getting away from the Muslim-Christian-Jewish tension would be a good way to start the new presidency.

Posted by Jaymz on January 11, 2013 at 3:37 PM

"Louie Giglio is free think gays have a malfunction that he can cure. And we’re free to tell him to take a hike."

Can I get an AMEN!! Freedom of speech for everyone! "I hate you and I hope you die" is legal to say, but it can be darn rude and does not merit a come-to-the-White-House.

Posted by DRF on January 11, 2013 at 3:25 PM

As I see it, these guys are so zealous about homos in the bible because homos give them boners. Sounds high schoolish? It is. They just can't grow the fuck up about their own feelings.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on January 11, 2013 at 3:23 PM

The bible as a whole, and Leviticus in particular, spends waaaaaaay more time on mildew than on gay sex. Two chapters.

Posted by IPJ on January 11, 2013 at 3:22 PM

Ya know...if you want to avoid courting controversy in your choice of who gives the benediction at your inauguration, you could always just not have a benediction at your inauguration.

(I do realize that choice would itself send some folks off the handle. But is it really so radical to propose that a secular ceremony be...you know...secular?)

Posted by bleedingheartlibertarian on January 11, 2013 at 3:21 PM

I was wondering when awareness of this would rise above the bubbling murk. And I'm guessing Sullivan deliberately chose "lynchpin" over "linchpin."

Posted by rob!

on January 11, 2013 at 3:06 PM

Actually the far more disturbing bit is that no one on team Obama has learned a goddamn thing in four years. After the Warren dust-up last time, shouldn't the third or fourth thing on the inauguration planning list have been, "Don't do something that fucking stupid again"? Or perhaps "Fully vet the invitees before 1) inviting them and 2) announcing them"?

Posted by usagi on January 11, 2013 at 3:04 PM

Thanks for this, Dan. Amazing article..

Posted by Velvetbabe on January 11, 2013 at 3:00 PM

So there's an opening in the inaugural ceremony. Is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright available?

Posted by Big Matt G on January 11, 2013 at 2:52 PM

Just watched the video. Why credibility of that magnitude is given to hateful, religious zealotry is beyond me. The news anchor even called out Sprigg for his hateful rhetoric but was given almost equal billing.

Where's the debate on White Supremacy? Where's the debate on anti-semitism? Like Wayne said - if this was about ANY OTHER minority group, this interview would never have taken place.

Posted by TreGibbs on January 11, 2013 at 2:49 PM

So fucking rich. Dan, why exactly would you cite the eugenics-supporting Andrew Sullivan in an article about anti-oppression? Sullivan's history of supporting whacked-out racist shit has been evident for decades: http://nsfwcorp.co/dcie9s

Posted by trstr on January 11, 2013 at 2:43 PM