Promote Traditional American Values

[Rick336]

There's a lot of conservative religious organizations out there that say they want to bring back traditional values in America and save our nation from moral decay. But when I searched the internet I found very little of what I consider to be traditional American values coming from conservative Christians.

What I found was intolerance, hate, disrespect, division, dishonesty, and bigotry. I found fear and scapegoating. I found hateful words like:

"Someone must not be afraid to say 'moral perversion is wrong'. If we do not act now, homosexuals will own America. If we do not speak now, the homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in it's way and our nation will pay a terrible price."

and...

"Gay sex is an act so heinous that it defies one's ability to describe it. It's an inherent evil that should never be tolerated. If the homosexuals continue to insist on fornicating, the state might have to use force to root out this evil once and for all."

and.....

"May God forgive this nation for the vile wickedness. Make no mistake about it. America is being seduced and decieved by the homosexual agenda. Our children are being indoctrinated and many are being infected with HIV. There is a calculated agenda out there. They're after you, but more importantly, they're after your children."


Those are traditional American values?

Words like those stir up feelings of hate and revenge and can lead to violence against members of the lesbian and gay community. Violence, hate and revenge are NOT traditional American values.

While looking at the web sites of many of the conservative religious organizations that I ran across, I did not find many of the following values mentioned:

Tolerance
Love
Brotherhood
Honesty
Trust
Unity
Equality
Freedom
Courtesy
Diversity
Compassion
Integrity
Including others
Forgivness
Humility
Helping others
Caring
Patience
Character
Respect
Self-esteem


Where are these traditional America values in the religious right's fight to save America? It seems that many of these values are absent. Maybe they don't want to talk about some of them because if they do, they might have to actually honor them.

That's why WE need to talk about them. We need to promote these American values to insure that this reamains a great country.

I believe that as gay and lesbian Christians we should challenge the religious right to stop their campaign of hate and intolerance and embrace the values of compassion, respect, brotherhood, diversity, love, honesty, and equality that most Americans cherish.

As Christians and as Americans I believe this is our responsibility.

Rick

[schoolboi]

I believe that as gay and lesbian Christians we should challenge the religious right to stop their campaign of hate and intolerance and embrace the values of compassion, respect, brotherhood, diversity, love, honesty, and equality that most Americans cherish.

As Christians and as Americans I believe this is our responsibility.

Interesting that you bring this up. Just last night I had dinner with a new friend whose opinion I already respect. He mentioned the idea of calling the religious right to repentance. When I heard this my heart jumped. I have been looking for a word that would convey a message to the right that they have left the faith and turned their backs on truth. Repent seems to be the word I am looking for! Why I did not see it before I don’t know.

For over a year I have been trying to explain to Mel and others this burning desire in my heart to tell the right how wrong they are. I have this image in my head of Jesus rebuking the Pharisees saying, “You hypocrites!” I think calling for repentance is really what I was trying to do.

Someone may say, “What good is it going to do? The right is not going to change.” Well they will not be our only audience. There is a group of well meaning Christians out there to do not fully identify with the right, but have not other option to identify with. If there was a voice that they could relate to saying firmly to the right you are wrong and need to repent I believe others would jump on the bandwagon. We need to stigmatize the rhetoric of the right as being sinful and unchristian. So our additional audience would be Christians who might not have thought of the right’s rhetoric as being sinful.

Now that I know what I want to say need to figure out how to say it.

[keltic63]

Interesting that you bring this up. Just last night I had dinner with a new friend whose opinion I already respect. He mentioned the idea of calling the religious right to repentance. When I heard this my heart jumped. I have been looking for a word that would convey a message to the right that they have left the faith and turned their backs on truth. Repent seems to be the word I am looking for! Why I did not see it before I don’t know.

For over a year I have been trying to explain to Mel and others this burning desire in my heart to tell the right how wrong they are. I have this image in my head of Jesus rebuking the Pharisees saying, “You hypocrites!” I think calling for repentance is really what I was trying to do.

Someone may say, “What good is it going to do? The right is not going to change.” Well they will not be our only audience. There is a group of well meaning Christians out there to do not fully identify with the right, but have not other option to identify with. If there was a voice that they could relate to saying firmly to the right you are wrong and need to repent I believe others would jump on the bandwagon. We need to stigmatize the rhetoric of the right as being sinful and unchristian. So our additional audience would be Christians who might not have thought of the right’s rhetoric as being sinful.

Now that I know what I want to say need to figure out how to say it.

You need to read Bruce Bawer's Stealing Jesus

oops, I see you already have. I like going back to look at it though, it certainly helps keep things clear.

[Rick336]

Here's a link to a national Christian organization that's challenging the religious right's bigotry. It's called The Christian Alliance for Progress:

http://www.christianalliance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEoG/b.592941/k.CB7C/Home.htm

[Zerbie]

Schoolboi is absolutely on to something - there needs to be something out there for folks to identify with other than the theocratic lunatic right.

Now Rick - I'm curious to know which quotes came from which websites. They seem familiar, but that second one almost incites genocide, or incarceration. I'd really like to know who said that. Can you point us to a source?

[keltic63]

Schoolboi is absolutely on to something - there needs to be something out there for folks to identify with other than the theocratic lunatic right.

Now Rick - I'm curious to know which quotes came from which websites. They seem familiar, but that second one almost incites genocide, or incarceration. I'd really like to know who said that. Can you point us to a source?

I believe it is attributed to Roy Moore: http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/documents/record2.html?record=1008

[Rick336]

Zerbie,

I've written down around 20 pages of quotes from web sites I've visited (some anti-gay, some pro-gay) but I didn't write down where each quote came from.

Among some of the conservative religious sites I visited were Focus on the Family, Citizens for Parents Rights, Operation Save America, Free Republic, The Illinois Family Institute, World Harvest Church, Reclaiming America for Christ, Christian Forums, The Christian Post, and many others.

However, the quote your asking about is from Judge Roy Moore. The one above it is from Jerry Falwell. And the third one is from a web site called Life Way:

http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0,1703,A%253D150154%2526M%253D50088,00.html

[Rick336]

I found one organization that encourages values that I believe are traditional American values. It's called The Foundation for a Better Life. It's a non-religious organization that promotes the values of honesty, integrity, tolerance, caring, love and diversity.

Here's the link:

http://www.forbetterlife.org/

Another web site I ran across is called The Traditional Values Coalition. But I found hardly any of the above values on this site. Instead, I found misinformation and scapegoating:

http://www.traditionalvalues.org/index.php

[Zerbie]

Thanks Rick for the citations and resources. Lotsa those I haven't heard of before.

I AM familiar with TVC however - surfed around their site some and all I have to say is: Hate Group. All that website needs is green slime oozing down the pages. Oh no, waita minute, I think they *do* have green slime oozing around on there after all!

Hard for me to believe there are so many malicious people around out there. It's so sad! :(

Now Roy Moore - there's a familiar name. Isn't he the judge dude from Alabama who is regarded by some as a christian "hero" over the 10 commandments dispute? I think that's where I knew the name from. Didn't know he was given to inciting violence against entire groups of people. :(