Those pesky religious freedom laws in North Carolina and Mississippi are bumming out a lot of folks, gay and otherwise. From big business to rock stars, opponents are canceling corporate expansions and concerts. Even a major adult site (with a really creepy name) is blocking North Carolinians from viewing its porn…pulling out of North Carolina, so to speak, leaving North Carolina quite frustrated, I’m sure.
But let’s keep this in perspective. Let’s remember that homosexuality was considered a mental disorder until 1973 by the American Psychiatric Association and “sexual orientation disturbance” was a diagnosis until 1987. Personally, the only sexual orientation disturbance I’ve ever experienced is watching Rachel Maddow. (She’s sexy as all get out, and that is all I’m going to say about that.) Let’s remember that a poll by the Los Angeles Times in 1985 found that 51% of Americans favored quarantine for AIDS patients, 45% supported testing job applicants for AIDS antibodies, and 15% said those patients should be tattooed. (That was back when a tattoo would have been noticed.) Let’s remember that it wasn’t until 2003 that the sodomy laws were struck down by the Supreme Court, making all that dirty stuff legal for straights and gays alike. We’ve come a long way, baby, even if we don’t have our own cigarette. (Ask someone over 50 if you didn’t get that reference.)
So now we have deal with this so-called “religious freedom” issue, which is basically using individual religious belief as a means of persecuting LGBT folks. And, Lord knows, there’s nothing new about using religion as a tool for oppression. But when I think about religious freedom, I think of the Amish. They seem to have carved out the freedom they need to practice their religion without intruding on the rest of the world, and certainly without insisting on other’s rights being denied. You see, the Amish are not of this world; they are just in it. They seem to understand (too well, I might argue) what Romans 12:2 means when Christians are admonished to “be not conformed to this world.” (Gosh, it feels good to quote scripture again.) They don’t get involved in “issues”…political or otherwise. They’re too busy living without most modern conveniences, like tractors. Which is real dedication when you’re a farmer.
By contrast, the put-upon “Christians” are just a bit too much “of” this world. Just a wee bit too “I shouldn’t have to”…”I should have the right to”…”I don’t want the government to make me”…Do you get the picture? I’m an old heathen, I admit it, and I’ve often joked about being a hip-swinging Disciple of Satan. (That’s code for gay men with too much style and too much sashay.) But, really, you know that “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (I John 5:19), right? You know that “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (I John 2:15). So it seems logical to me that you should be less concerned about the goings on in this world and more focused on what really matters. Unless what really matters to you is “of” this world, like whose marriages you approve and whose gender identity and sexual orientation you condone. In which case, the Bible indicates you’ve got a much bigger problem than baking a cake for a gay wedding.
Oh, and by the way, as for worrying about which bathrooms transgendered people use? Take a page from the Amish. About 30% of them don’t even use flush toilets.
