Way to go Mississippi

[ArenaBoy]

Fake proms.

This is despicable. Basically there was a fake prom held because of a student's sexual orientation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candac..._b_527280.html

[smileyeagle1021]

for those wondering...

Pictures from the secret real prom, you know the one for the good Christians to go to, have surfaced on the internet.
They are quite enlightening

Hypochristians indeed.

[insertNameHere]

Pictures from the secret real prom, you know the one for the good Christians to go to, have surfaced on the internet.
They are quite enlightening

Hypochristians indeed.

Anyone else notice the two girls kissing in the bottom image? I'm not saying that her classmates have to like her and even be friends. If they want to hold a private party and exclude her because she is different that is fine, but denying her from attending prom which is a major event of being in high school, is just pathetic.
I know the spin on the "fake" prom is that it will have in fact be the real prom. And none of the other students wanted to attend it, of course attendance isn't helped when you have a more fun place to be.

[Talon]

Absurd and petulant. Here's a terrific dressing-down:

Fulton, Mississippi: Segregationist, Heterosupremacist Hellhole

[Hyena Dandy]

When you say "the church" do you mean the particular church in that town, the particular denomination for the church in that town, or all of Christianity? Because all of Christianity doesn't behave like that.

But that's not what's important.

And nobody has a RIGHT to be a bigot. Although I suspect there was a misunderstanding in your previous religious dealings (the church community may have accepted you, but their money goes to an organization, and the organization didn't accept you) But in any case. You have a right to feel betrayed, and even, if you want, to hate the people who have betrayed you. But no matter what you've gone through, you don't have a right to be a bigot against people who haven't harmed you.

You also, obviously, have the right to dislike the people who committed this act. But being betrayed by the United Methodist Church does not give you the right to call all Christians homophobic bigots.

Then again, you have the right to your opinions, and you obviously have the right to call someone a bigot.

What I'm trying to get across here is.

Bigotry doesn't become acceptable if you've been persecuted.

That's what I feel strongly about in this post. The rest of it is me rambling to try to get the point across.

[Rapscallion]

When you say "the church" do you mean the particular church in that town, the particular denomination for the church in that town, or all of Christianity? Because all of Christianity doesn't behave like that.

It's not my subsection of that particular voluntary grouping, so it's not me doing it?

Rapscallion

[AdminAssistant]

And, quite frankly, it's not a religious thing as much as it's cultural. My brother-in-law is not religious at all and he's very homophobic (and a bit racist). A hatred of "others" has become so ingrained in people and it's going to take a while to get over it. While fundamentalist churches fuel the fire, you'll find that a lot of these people hold these opinions because that's the way everyone around them thinks and they either don't want to stand out or they just don't know any better.

[BookstoreEscapee]

And nobody has a RIGHT to be a bigot.

I disagree. You have every right to be as bigoted as you like. What you don't have the right to do is legislate or otherwise officially enforce your bigotry. (Which is not to say it doesn't happen.) You can believe whatever you want.

I also have the right to think you're a complete asshole because of it.

[Nyoibo]

As someone said before if you don't want your beliefs tarred with the same brush as the bigoted sections then you need to stop being part of the "silent majority" who don't hold those beliefs. "All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing" saying it's the minority responsible for the bad things means nothing if you stand by and let it happen, which seems to have been Smileys experiences.

[Greenday]

And if the Christian Church's stance on homosexuality is that it's wrong and you openly admit to following the Christian Church...why wouldn't the Church's stances reflect back on you?

[smileyeagle1021]

saying it's the minority responsible for the bad things means nothing if you stand by and let it happen, which seems to have been Smileys experiences.

exactly... I'm sorry, but you cannot say you oppose something and say it's just a minority and then stand by and do nothing... while you may not agree with it, if you do nothing it is clear that you don't disagree with it.

[KellyHabersham]

And, quite frankly, it's not a religious thing as much as it's cultural. My brother-in-law is not religious at all and he's very homophobic (and a bit racist). A hatred of "others" has become so ingrained in people and it's going to take a while to get over it. While fundamentalist churches fuel the fire, you'll find that a lot of these people hold these opinions because that's the way everyone around them thinks and they either don't want to stand out or they just don't know any better.

It's not just the fundamentalist churches who are like that......I've come across many so-called athiests and Satanists who were every bit as nasty/closed-minded/judgemental as fundamentalist Christians can be.

[Rapscallion]

And, quite frankly, it's not a religious thing as much as it's cultural. My brother-in-law is not religious at all and he's very homophobic (and a bit racist). A hatred of "others" has become so ingrained in people and it's going to take a while to get over it. While fundamentalist churches fuel the fire, you'll find that a lot of these people hold these opinions because that's the way everyone around them thinks and they either don't want to stand out or they just don't know any better.

Dunno, actually. Culture is a way of things handed down from your immediate ancestors. Religion is ... a way of things handed down generally from your immediate ancestors, though sometimes from outside sources. They're both shared values, beliefs, and common goals.

The difference is that religion provides justification for certain things, sometimes good and sometimes bad. This is generally based on what an invisible friend told some wild-eyed cave dweller in a far-off land, whereas cultural mores are based more on experiences of more local people.

I don't see much difference.

Rapscallion

[Boozy]

And, quite frankly, it's not a religious thing as much as it's cultural.

YES. Someone gets it.

AdminAssistant wins three internets!

I know a lot of Christians, many of whom support gay marriage, and NONE of whom would ever be so cruel to a gay teenager. Shit like that would get you ostracized in my neck of the woods.

Homophobes in Mississippi and Utah use Christianity to justify their bigotry. But they are not bigots because they are Christian.

As point of comparison: The 9/11 terrorists used Islam to justify their actions, but Islam did not cause them to do what they did.

We need to stop seeing these issues in such simplistic terms. It would be nice if bigotry were as easy to fix as switching churches, but it's not. We need to look at the bigger picture if we have any hope of treating the problem.

[Arcade Man D]

And if the Christian Church's stance on homosexuality is that it's wrong and you openly admit to following the Christian Church...why wouldn't the Church's stances reflect back on you?

Because there are so many different Christian Churches that, for example, the one I attend down't believe that homosexuality is wrong. In fact, there are entire highly populous sects that believe that homosexuality is an inborn quality, and is not sinful (so long as you're monogamous, but that goes for heterosexuals, too).

Saying that because some Christian churches teach that homosexuality is a sin, all of them do so, is like saying that because Wahabi Islam is virulently anti-American and supports the "70 virgins if you blow yourself up" stance, all of Islam does.