What does the reprehensible behavior of a now-disgraced gay Republican congressman have to do with Christian conservatives?…
While much ado is being made about the Mark Foley scandal’s effect of the November elections, that’s not the central point. Of course Democrats, Progressives, and a lot of other people hope it breaks the stronghold the current Republican Administration has on the Religious Right, Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, values voters – whatever one calls the single issues Christian voting block. The cause celebre’ issues are Abortion, Homosexual Marriage, and Stem Cell research. The latter is really a non-issue, in that medical science will have a ready supply of stem cells from sources other than embryos soon. It’s only a matter of time. The Abortion issue is outside the jurisdiction of the Executive and Legislative branches of government and hinges only on "stacking" the court, specifically the Supreme Court. That leaves the Homosexual Marriage issue which is something of a quagmire. I, for one, don’t too much care one way or another about it. I certainly don’t care if Gays marry. And if they can’t, they’ll think of something.
What I do care about, however, is the banding together of Christians to oppose homosexuality itself, to brand homosexuality as a sin rather than a constitutional way of being. In my way of thinking, this causes Mark Foley. Mark Foley is a sexual predator. Were he heterosexual and preying on female Pages, sending them emails like the ones he sent young male Pages, he would have been busted a long time ago, and busted but good. One parent complaining to one Representative sponsor, and he’s have been called on the carpet and either expelled, or chased out of Congress.
By branding all homosexuality as sin, it becomes impossible to discriminate between abberent behavior and normal, acceptable behavior. All homosexuals are pushed towards hiding. By opposing Gay Marriage, they make it impossible for homosexuals to form lasting, legal unions – a move that seems to me to be progressive and downright law-abiding. Mark Foly slid between the cracks. Gay Staffers and Congressmen tried to confront him, but not publicly. Others, afraid of scandal, kept things quiet. Were there the simple legal acceptance of homosexuality as it actually is, gay criminals could be easily identified and dealt with in a proper fashion.
Who are these Christian demagogues to define homosexuality as sin? Just because they find a few references in the bible [actually, primarily in the Torah – Old Testament], what gives them the right to bring these archaic ideas into the halls of government? This country was founded with a Bill of Rights – personal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights should not be stripped by the majority, and when they are as was the case of African-Americans, the courts are empowered to over-rule the Majority. The courts are, in fact, intended to be a check on the potential mob-rule of a democracy.
So, in my opinion, the Christian Right, in its fervor has created the Mark Foley scandal and needs to step up to the plate and see what they’ve done. The very politicians that we’re upset with hid Foley’s problem, perpetuated it, because they didn’t want to deal with the Christian Right’s bigotry, or the Democrat’s cry of hypocrisy. The forces at work in our society were moving towards inclusion of the 2-3% of our population who are homosexual, to bring them into the mainstream of both acceptance and accountability. The Religious Right has insisted on keeping them outside of society, which does nothing for anyone. How could that ever be a good idea? Including Mark Foley in the population of well adapted homosexuals has served no one…
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