Crossposted on Musings From Hedon

This is hard for me to write, seeing as the motivation for doing so is the loss of a friendship. I am a terminally honest person and I refuse to lie for any reason, even to spare someone's feelings. Unfortunately, when the truth hurts, you find out who your real friends are.

I know, as we all do, several Christians that complete pieces of shit. But I ALSO know, as I hope most do, several Christians who are good decent people who fight for equality right alongside us. These are PEOPLE, and they act based on their own religious choices.

Christianity itself is neither evil nor good. It has equal elements of both, but as a religious philosophy it is in itself nuetral. Evil or good taken FROM Christianity is the responsibility of each individual Christian, or the Churches that interpret it. Christianity itself CANNOT be good or evil, only what people choose to do with it.

So when a friend of mine today was blanket bashing Christianity as evil, and hurting and offending some of my Christian friends who fight for our equality, I stood up to her and took her to task for it.

Bigotry IS bigotry. Regardless of the source or the target. My friend assumed that being a Trans Woman who was forced into a trans version of a NARTH-like camp gave her impunity to bash all Christianity as ever she sees fit. This is utter bullshit. A bad experience NEVER gives you the right to shit on other people.

I myself have been hospitalized by a group of teenagers screaming that god hated my faggot tranny ass. I choose not to blame all Christianity for 7 idiots with an axe to grind.

So let me illustrate this point as bluntly as I can.

“I think homosexuality is evil but I don't hate all homosexuals!”

Sound familar? Of course it does. We hear it from NOM every day.

“Christianity is evil, but I don't hate every Christian.”

A quote from my Twitter friend. See the parallel there?

When I meet an idiot Christian bigot trying to condemn my existance, I calmly point out to them the facts about the Bible and Homosexuality, since the truth does not justify the bigotry. I don't blame the religion itself because some idiot read the Bible wrong and uses it to excuse their bigotry.

And by that same token, I won't stand by while someone uses a bad experience to justify bigotry TOWARDS Christianity. ALL bigotry is wrong.

Sadly my now former friend didn't want to believe she was being no better than Maggie Gallagher. Her own words proved her bigotry. She even acknowledged she knew she SOUNDED like a bigot but swore she wasn't. And just like Maggie, my friend resorted to calling me a liar and accusing me of libellous insults rather than believe even the possibility that she might have bigotry in her heart. She resorted to lamenting how I had surrendered to “insanity and delusion” by lying about her and defending the evil Christianity.

The delusion of course, is hers. And she was the only one lobbing insults. I expect the blunt honest truth from my friends and they know to expect such from me.

Bigotry is bigotry. When even the bigot has to acknowledge that what they say might SOUND like bigotry (but fer sure honest totally isn't, I swear!), it's a sad lack of a grip on reality to be in such deep denial of it.

This is why I attack what people like the NOM folks say and do, not their religious faith. I attack their ABUSE of faith, not the faith itself.

Bigotry is bigotry no matter what coat it wears, and all bigotry is wrong. And I will not back down or lie about it to spare someone's feelings. I'm sorry that bigots feel hurt and insulted when they are called bigots. I will NEVER be sorry for telling them truthfully that they ARE bigots.

Even if the truth hurts, lies hurt worse.