Just Say Yes to Bullying?

For crying out loud what is with the homosexual ideology talk? What is that, anyway? I’ll have to have a chat with my uncle-in-law* next month at the lake as to if he and his partner can share some of their recruiting stories with me. I bet they’re a hoot. I wonder what their slogan is “Tired of not being looked down upon? Fed up with a lack of discrimination? Sick of your family not alienating or disowning you? Choose to join us and feel the difference that being gay in America can make in your life”

Seriously, I have actual trouble understanding how they believe this. I wonder if its’ their own evangelical nature.

*and knowing two monogamous gay men has not detrimentally affected the relationship between my wife and I

I really wish I could say “that’s unbelieveable“, but alas, it isn’t.

It’s entirely believeable.

Although I never thought I would see the word ‘evil’ associated with anti-bullying legislation.

indoctrination of North Carolina’s children with homosexual ideology.

Riiiiiiigghht. Damn those gays and their agenda. They already got me with their insidious mayonaisse commercials.

it would create a domino effect that not only impacts education, but also employment, housing, anti-discrimination laws and potentially North Carolina’s marriage statutes since the state doesn’t define marriage in its Constitution.

Damn straight. Those bullies are the only thing holding back a big gay tide which threatens to sweep across the whole state.

Hate to break it to this asshat, but gender is not immutable. So I guess we are all free to be sexist pigs again!

Let our kids beat up gays or we’ll oppose this law!

Sometimes conservatives are their own worst enemies. This should alienate a few swing voters.

“backdoor approach” -heheh

(Sometimes this drivel can only be dealt with South Park fashion.)

These guys actually succeeded in getting the language about bullying based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. removed. If you click on the link Hemant provided you can see the change between the 3rd and 4th editions.

You know, its funny. I strongly support gay rights, but when I saw the mayonnaise commercial it sort of grossed me out. Strange, huh?

I’m with artificialhabitat. I’d love to say unbelievable but sadly it’s quite predictable.

That is just pathetic. How completely appalling.

Wow…

And so gender identity is not on the same category as “race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, physical appearance, mental, physical or sensory disability”. He shoud have tried a less politically correct language, as he himself included gender there. And the commonly accepted difference between saying gender and saying sex has to do with the social roles and identity on one side, and the physiological nature on the other.

SarahH

I agree in principal. However, you’re making the assumption that whoever interprets this particular statute finds that bullying occurred. The fact that they’re trying to actively change the definition of bullying means that they’re trying to give some stupid right wing judge room to say, “oh that’s not bullying, besides it’s not defined in the statute..”

Why do so many, many good Christians all over this country do absolutely nothing to denounce, oppose and defeat salesmen of hate like Creech who use their religion only for stolen credibility?

Christians: if you continue to tolerate these vile impostors who hijack your religion, be ready to tell your Maker why you failed to protect your brothers and sisters. Were you afraid to stand up to the bullies? Surely that would not stop you if you had the faith you pretend to have.

Are you going to let the atheists show more courage and compassion than you do?

And you see, that’s what’s amazing about his logic: gender is protected, but transgender students aren’t… what? Clearly he has no understanding of the subject.
And as some of you previously mentioned, even if being gay is a choice, so are any number of things like religion that can not be shown to be universally right or wrong, but as a result it would be justifiable to bully someone for their personal choices, so we could persecute them for being Christian (or what have you). Clear contradictions.

I think everyone missed what Creech and the rest of his fundamentalists are really all about. Or I missed it when I was reading through the comments. Creech and his band of losers need someone to hate. If they don’t have someone to hate then they have no reason to get up in the morning. Their entire identity is based on what they hate. They can’t say nigger (my kids), spick (my father), wop, bog irish (my mother), they can’t even say faggot anymore. So they search for new ways to hate. Without their hate backed up by their religion they have no identity. They are scared silly by a world that they are not smart enough to understand so they lash out at it. I was bullied for year in Jr and Sr high schools. So I learned to fight. After I beat a couple of bullies to bloody pulps I was left alone. My son was bullied in grade school until I explained this to him. He beat a few bullies up and then he was allowed to be himself. Sometimes violence is the answer. And that sucks, you shouldn’t have to kick the crap out of someone just to be able to go to school. My 15 and 13 year old sons just can’t understand the uproar, they just don’t know why anyone cares, the say they would go to a wedding between two men and wish them well.

Why do so many, many good Christians all over this country do absolutely nothing to denounce, oppose and defeat salesmen of hate like Creech who use their religion only for stolen credibility?

Well, count me as a Christian in North Carolina who is denouncing and opposing the hate-mongers like Creech. I don’t have much of a platform to do it from, I have no public spotlight or popular blog, but whenever possible I tell others that those people DO NOT speak for me. What’s more, I think their attitudes completely contradict the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The one thing I cannot deliver on my own is defeating such people. Conservative Christianity has been the dominant “flavor” of Christianity for the past 50 years and their continued majority rule of the airwaves is no small source of distress in my life. Thankfully, their rule is nearing it’s end and people like Jim Wallace and Brian McLaren are leading millions of Christians in the fight against the Christian Right. Check out those guys and the people they claim among their own…that’s where you’ll find hope for defeating the “salesmen of hate like Creech”.

Erik,
I am grateful for your gracious good will and your willingness to fight back against hate addicts and their hate dealers, and for your brethren who are with you. Public spotlights you do have available are the local newspapers that publish letters to the editor. You write well. A letter no longer than your comment above would have a good effect if you included in your own words two statements to the effect:

“As a Christian, I must say out loud that bigots like Mark Creech don’t speak for me or for my faith as I practice it. I want to hear from other Christians right here in this paper who are also sick and tired of demagogues like him who only use our religion to justify their addiction to hate.”

Erik, I don’t presume to speak for you as a Christian either. This is only a suggestion. A message of protest is more effective if you say (1) this is wrong, and (2) those who agree with me please speak up too.

I am familiar with Jim Wallace and Brian McLaren through Mike Clawson and through references on “Off the Map” and I am encouraged by their work. If you attend church you might consider asking your clergy to address issues such as this to the congregation. Your spiritual guides, if they are good ones, will welcome input from their flock. Many good-hearted people will passively frown upon an injustice but will take no action because they lack one tiny thing, the impetus of a single, eloquent voice from within their midst.

Again, my thanks for your efforts.

What is often forgotten by people with responses like this is that the issue here is not bullying based on sexual orientation, but on perceived sexual orientation.

What Mouse said is right. That was me in grade school and Jr. high school. Perceived as “queer” because I was more of an artist and bookworm, kind of a loner, had a number of imaginary friends, and was terrible at sports.

Once I was introduced to friends of my parents and grandparents who were gay, I knew what the word “queer” meant before the people calling me that name.

Having been mistaken for that orientation, I knew better than most what they faced. Gay rights became a very important political issue for me later in life. I was quite a bit ahead of that curve from every one of my straight friends.

They all came around eventually.

How clever! This bill is not so much about protecting “all of God’s children,” as Rep. [Rick] Glazier has framed it, but it’s actually a backdoor approach to the indoctrination of North Carolina’s children with homosexual ideology.

It is amazing to me that Christians think that it is okay for them to indoctrinate children in THEIR ideology. But if anybody else tries to speak up, well, we can’t have that, now can we?

If you attend church you might consider asking your clergy to address issues such as this to the congregation.

Richard…I uh, already did that for Erik. 😉 I e-mailed his pastor with the link to the news story, the link to this post, and your first comment as a challenge to both him AND his congregation, asking what they’re going to do about it.

I was really pleased with his response, but of course I’ll ask his permission before I post it here.

Actually…Hemant if you’re reading this – can we turn Richard’s comment into a new post? I think it’ll stir up some good conversation. You could even make it atheist-related by asking how we could help liberal Christians “rise up” and squash things like this, and eventually (hopefully) the whole conservative movement.

This reminds me of the time I was playing cards in Perkins late into the night with my bottomless pot of coffee. One of the late night drunks at a nearby table called a friend at our table a “limp-wristed faggot.”

His response: “Fuck off before I take this limp wrist and beat you to death with it.”

I’m thinking it’s time the bullied adjusted their attitudes and join forces to kick the bullies’ asses. Strength in numbers. Sure, nobody should have to put up with bullying. But since bullying policies are generally so ineffective, maybe the only way to get through to these aggressive little shits is to communicate in ways they understand: using fists.

Nine times out of ten, they won’t change. No matter how logical you are with them or how many times you zing them, they won’t change.

Of course, maybe that remaining 10% is worth fighting for…

This has been a great post. I am encouraged to see that there are christians who don’t subscribe to hate. That is a nice change. Mr. Meador, maybe we can’t change their minds but we can make it shameful for them to voice their hate in public. Only the most extreme nutjobs will voice ethnic slurs in public anymore and they can’t get elected to office. We can do the same with this. Make it so shameful and embarassing that the fools will keep their hate speach to themselves.

Wow–it’s a backdoor approach to protecting kids from assault, intimidation and the like. Well-spotted!

They certainly should be able to recognize a backdoor approach when they see one: look at these “academic freedom” (to teach creationism as science) bills they push.

In fact … Hmmm …

For a bunch of rabid homophobes they seem awfully fond of watching and using the backdoor approach.

I’m just saying, is all.