Todd Starnes Delivers Ignorance-Packed Sermon About the “War on Religious Liberty”

Over the weekend, at Abilene Baptist Church in Georgia, Fox News’ Todd Starnes gave a sermon about the War on Christianity. (I’m sure he’s already hard at work on his next speech all about the difficulties of being white…)

“There is a war on religious liberty!” he bellowed. “And this war is not targeting people of the Muslim faith or the Jewish faith or the Hindu faith. This war on religious liberty is targeting people of the Christian faith.”

…

Starnes was particularly outraged at that children were being taught about gender equality in Oregon.

“That there’s no such thing as male or female,” he said. “That you may wake up feeling like a boy, but by third period you might start feeling like a girl!”

“The time has come for all of us to stand together with one voice!” Starnes insisted. “They may demand to know the content of our prayers, they may try to shut down our bakeries, they may try to silence our voices, but we will not be silenced! We will not be intimidated!”

Since Starnes is incapable of telling the truth, let me do it for you: There’s no War against Christianity. He’s confusing that with the fact that conservative Christian bigotry is just no longer acceptable in civil society, and good people are finally pushing back.

While Southern Baptist churches can refuse to perform gay weddings, government officials cannot.

While evangelical churches can lie about the efficacy of abstinence-only sex education, our public schools ought to be teaching comprehensive sex education.

While Presidential candidates like Mike Huckabee can mischaracterize transgender people by saying he would have loved to call himself a woman in high school so he could shower with the girls after gym class, the rest of us will quickly point out that he’s an asshole who has no clue what he’s talking about.

That’s not a War on Christianity. That’s a war on stupidity and bigotry. That’s a war against Christians forcing their views on the rest of us. We’re tired of Bible-based bullshit getting a free pass in the marketplace of ideas.

No one’s coming after churches. No one’s saying Christians can’t worship any way they please. No one’s saying Christians can’t pray whenever they want to, or have their own TV shows, or run for public office.

Starnes may think it’s tough being a Christian, but if there was a way for him to switch places with an atheist or Muslim or Pagan or Hindu, I promise you he’d avoid it at all costs. Christians may not have the respect they once had, but saying you believe in Jesus will still open up waaaaay more doors for you in the United States than any of the alternatives. Saying that Christians are losing this hypothetical war makes as much sense as a billionaire complaining about an increase in minimum wage. Just because there’s some movement down below doesn’t mean you’re in any danger. Right now, Starnes is just too blinded by how good he has it.

As Jon Stewart famously said, “You have confused a war on religion with not always getting everything you want.”

But try telling that to the ignorant masses who applauded throughout Starnes’ speech.

(via Raw Story)