Anti-bullying speaker Dan Savage blasts Christian teens

Although I agree with him, I think he could have been more delicate with the issue. If his intent was to try and convince these Christian students that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, he failed miserably. Somehow I think he was directing it at everybody else though.

 

So the comments Dan Savage made on the Christians are the sort of cliche ones you hear thrown around, whether or not modern churches have nullified some of the rules in the old testament is besides the point.

The point is, there are many divisions amongst Christians on the points made in Leviticus. If he was trying to convince a group of Christian teens who do not agree that the anti-homosexual rules have been nullified amongst the others ones like shell-fish eating, a little comedian guy isn't going to be able to convince them of that.

Whether or not he was polite in this situation would have been completely irrelevant to those who chose to walked out and publicly show displeasure over the remarks made. Neither side were humble in this case, and their humility would've been irrelevant.

People simply seize the scene that was created and make news out of that. But I am sure that those who attended the lecture and who did not walk out got what they wanted out of it and therefore it was still not a useless endeavour.

 

The Daily Mail's description of Savage as "bashing Christian teens" is entirely inaccurate. Dan Savage was bashing the Bible, and the verses he was bashing, which are in there, deserve to be bashed. The Daily Mail, like so many others on both the right and the left, needs to learn to distinguish between basing the belief, and bashing the people who hold it. In this case Savage wasn't even bashing the belief, I doubt anyone in that room approved of slavery, and if they can't handle the plain truth that the Bible, in both the Old Testament and New, supports slavery, then they really need to rethink their religion.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with Dan. It really is amazing how people use Christian beliefs to bash on queers and justify their suppression, but when we tell you, "where did your hateful drivel come from? Oh right, it came from the holy book you so strongly identify with," all of a sudden it's a huge attack...

The thing is, these people are getting offended because it is a big attack on them. Their identity is based solely and entirely in hatred. At the same time, they believe themselves to be good people. So of course they feel attacked. It's just that I don't feel bad for them. Like, at all.

Edit: To anyone who wants to claim that sexism and heterosexism are somehow "contested" in Christian doctrines, I would say you have only two camps: the hateful, and the heretical. The ones who are hateful actually believe the books, and the ones who are humanistic but don't believe in the hateful crap in the Bible are heretics in that they have departed from the unchanging, eternal word of God.

 

As far as I'm concerned Christianity needs to be bashed more often. People really need to have their attention drawn to the fact that there are a lot of incredibly horrible things in that religion which most people seem to be ignorant of. If you're unwilling to let your beliefs be criticised then that's a pretty good indicator that they aren't going to stand up to those criticisms.

Ants have feelings too!!

 

The belief that the Bible is the unchanging, eternal word of God is neither a biblical doctrine nor an essential part of the fundamental Christian doctrine (the Nicene Creed). In almost all Christian theology, the word of God is Jesus Christ, the Bible just tells Christians about the Word.

 

Okay, I stand corrected. That's fine. But the distinction is lost not just on secularists like me, but a lot of Christian folks too, which is a large part of the problem.

 

As usual, FOX NEWS bends the truth to make them look like victims. Attendance was voluntary, and everyone knows what Savage is about, so they shouldn't have acted surprised. I'll bet those Christianists went with the intention to walk out in order to look like martyrs. They look smug, not outraged.

Funny how constantly calling gays "abominations that deserve to go to Hell" is "not bullying", but pointing out the inconsistencies and hypocrisies in your belief system is bullying, huh?

 

I think it's more the fact that he had to be publicly aggressive (and whether intentional or not, quite offensive) to get his point across. When we're trying to prove that we, as LGBT, really aren't that bad or that different from the average person, coming across like total dicks is not the way to go about it.

Also, obviously I wasn't there, but he's claiming his action as "the right to defend himself", when he was clearly in the position of power in that talk. It was an unnecessary way to go about it. You can give your opinion without ripping apart everyone else's. Doing so well, makes you no better than those "terrible Christians" who follow the Bible word for word.

 

This is exactly why I have no fucking respect for that asshole. He polarizes and polarizes and polarizes and expects a standing ovation just because he's a minority.
It's not acceptable from anyone, period. End of story.

 

Boo hoo. I think people took it too far, and people need to get over their own closed-mindedness. When he said this at my school (he more or less follows the same 'script', no one got up and left, and everyone laughed. You need to realize that this is who he is, if you can't accept it, then why comment?

Please note it's more addressing those on the comment board of the daily mail article on this. But it's also addressed to Budder and steel and anyone else who has these feelings. I'm sorry if you guys felt offended, but he still had every right to say what he did, and I in no way felt he was "attacking" he was stating fact. As for the "pansy-assed" comment, ok that I'll agree was a little much but same time I still sort of agree about that and even I most likely would've said the same thing because they were pansy-assed. I personally laughed when I saw the two girls leaving in tears. I realize I could be seen as a total a-hole for that, but I just felt they were being silly for crying over it. And then there was the one guy who smiled and almost gave the slight rocker symbol or whatever with the thumb and baby finger as if he were "cool" for walking out.

That's just my thoughts, I apologize for any offence, I'm just critiquing it. Budder and steel, I apologize should you feel offended too. I in no way am saying YOU are pansy-assed, I'm just saying I think you're taking it too harshly.

 

Savage only addressed the "protesters" behavior as "pansy ass" near the end. That's the "bullying" that Faux Noise is "reporting". He called parts of the Bible "bullshit", and pointed out that most anti-gay Christianists cherry-pick which parts of the Bible to follow, especially those that back-up their anti-gay bias.

If you can't stand to hear people critize your faith, then don't go to see Dan Savage and act all butthurt when he calls you out on your hypocrisy. They weren't forced to go or stay, and teens have heard/said worse things than "bullshit", That's the major problem with Christianists - they want to make laws to keep us from marrying, adopting kids or be free from discrimination....but question their faith and they start screaming about persecution.

 

His rhetoric is pretty fiery, maybe too much so, but the point he's making is a valid one. To act like Christianity and the Bible specifically have not had a tremendous role to play in LGBT oppression is just grotesque.

 

He is rather....interesting.

From what I can tell from him, he doesn't care about educating or convincing people to accept homosexuality. He focuses more on the people who are already on "our side" and he goes for it. Not the approach that I would take, but in a way it does help and empower some people.

 

If you can't stand to hear people critize [sic] your sexuality, then don't go see Rick Santorum and act all butthurt when he calls you out on your perversion.
YOU are the hypocrite here, NOT Christian teens.

God, sometimes gay people can be just as fucking intolerant and closed-minded and hurtful as homophobes. You don't understand the damage you're doing.

 

Please don't pretend that there exists a moral equivalence between Christian homophobes and queer secularists. We don't kick our Christian children out of the house for being Christian, nor do we force them to go to ex-Christian camps. Our children are not afraid to come out as Christian. Also, queer secularists have like 0 oppressive power, while Christians have ALL the oppressive power.

 

Savage isn't interested in converting people. And that's okay. I may dislike the man, but that's not one of the reasons that I do. Sometimes you just have to accept that the door of the mind of the bigot opens outward, so the onrush of evidence only slams it more tightly shut.

To be clear, if I attend a Santorum rally, I expect my sexuality to be condemned. I'm not going to pretend to be surprised when he says I'm evil, and I'm not going to walk out on him. And y'know what? Savage didn't call Christians evil, he didn't condemn them. He just said that there are objectionable passages in the Bible, and that there's no reason to accept the objectionable passages about homosexuality and reject the objectionable ones about slavery.

 

Backing up Pret Allez.
I'm definitely intolerant - intolerant of intolerance. Christianity needs to be called out for being awful, and it should be plainly obvious that there isn't a parallel between us and them.
I wouldn't be a dick back to them if they weren't a dick in the first place, and I'll gladly stop once they stop being harmful. "Turn the other cheek" may be a Christian tenet, but luckily I'm not a Christian.