Smart people saying smart things (5.25)

The Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, “African Homophobes Are Politicians, Not Lunatics, Writer Says”

To think that the Africans are doing something that has never been heard of — it’s not fair. Don’t just see these things as happening out there. People are saying crazy things about gay people in your own country. The difference between [Ugandan anti-LGBT pastor] Martin Ssempa and [Americans] like Lou Engle or even Focus on the Family, is that here, you can counter their messages. You’re able to say, “No, that’s not what America stands for.” In Africa, unfortunately, there is no counter media, so the voice they hear is only the voice of Martin Ssempa. And when the American conservative media is also beaming in the same messages into Africa, there’s no counter messaging from anyone.

You can talk about Trinity Broadcasting, you can talk about CBN, there are many other conservative Christian networks beaming into Africa, and without anyone telling Africans that what you are hearing is not true. Africans give a lot of credibility to anything tagged “Christian.” When they hear about [the dangers of homosexuality], they say, “We heard it from this American pastor.”

Natalie Burris, “Evangelical gatekeepers, sexual abuse, and gay marriage”

The Gospel Coalition has been silent on the SGM lawsuit, because, in their own words, “[w]e are not in a place to adjudicate all the charges leveled against Sovereign Grace Ministries or the specific individuals named in the lawsuit.”

It’s interesting that many evangelical groups are quick to break ties with anyone who does not believe that being gay is a sin, yet are cautious and claim that it’s not their right to “adjudicate” when it comes to sexual abuse of children. Evangelical gatekeepers have made another thing clear: sexual abuse and the subsequent cover-up is acceptable within their tribe.

Heath Bradley, “Celibacy, Contraception, and the Church That Changes”

When you put yourself in the position of the Reformers, and you make the argument that clergy don’t have to be celibate because marriage shares an equal moral status with virginity, you are making an argument that goes against the church’s way of interpreting the teachings of Jesus (Matt 19:12, Luke 20:27-40) and Paul (1 Cor 7) for nearly 1500 years. But the Reformers did it, and now we Protestant Christians take it for granted. What was essentially the most radical shift in Christian sexual ethics up until that point we would now yawn over if we heard someone debate it.

Tom Boggioni, “I was the NRA”

I used to hunt and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the hell out of it. But I wouldn’t consider attempting it now, in an age where gun-owners lump AR-15′s in with sporting guns. Where a lousy shooter can disguise his inability to shoot with an extended clip that allows him to keep shooting until he finally hits something, anything. Where hunters feel the need for silencers for God knows what reason.

The NRA has killed off the sportsman with their neglect and replaced him with the gun nut who spends more money on more guns, not out of a desire to feed his family, but to stave off a mythical jack-booted government bogeyman coming to take away those guns. This paranoid vision of America  that the NRA sells is why we have the gun violence that we have today, because no sensible gun legislation can be passed because of what the father of one of Elliott Rodger’s victims described as “craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA.”

Joyce Arthur, “The Only Moral Abortion Is My Abortion”

“In 1990, in the Boston area, Operation Rescue and other groups were regularly blockading the clinics, and many of us went every Saturday morning for months to help women and staff get in. As a result, we knew many of the ‘antis’ by face. One morning, a woman who had been a regular ‘sidewalk counselor’ went into the clinic with a young woman who looked like she was 16-17, and obviously her daughter. When the mother came out about an hour later, I had to go up and ask her if her daughter’s situation had caused her to change her mind. ‘I don’t expect you to understand my daughter’s situation!’ she angrily replied. The following Saturday, she was back, pleading with women entering the clinic not to ‘murder their babies.'” (Clinic escort, Massachusetts)