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WHEN LESBIANS ATTACK! Christianity — and Gay-Rights — Discredited?

I had to double-check this one — confirm it wasn’t some internet satirical piece mistaken for actual news. Upon investigation? Sho ’nuff, it actually happened. 

The U.K. Daily Mail tastefully relates the distasteful details: “Annette Kielhurn of St. Petersburg was in the presence of a police officer when during an argument with [her partner] Gamze Capaner-Ridley she pulled out [a] sex toy and slapped her in the face.” 

Now, if my reasoning habits mimic those of many — not all, mind you, but many — anti-Christian firebrands, I’ve gotta conclude the violent falling out of these two more-than-gal-pals means every aspect of the “gay rights” movement, every permutation of homosexual experience, certainly every brief for “same-sex marriage”, is irredeemably bogus. 

Just like: when not recurring to the “Judge not” meme — wherein people who largely spit on the authority of the Bible quote the Bible to authoritatively repudiate what the rest of the Bible teaches; (whew! got that?) — not a few antagonistic atheists point to an actual or alleged misdeed by some Christian, sometime, somewhere to signal all of Christianity is snake-oil. 

The Crusades? A much more layered historical episode than the Sunday-funnies version peddled by Christ-haters, but no matter — these military campaigns commissioned by the Middle Ages’ church prove everything Jesus came to accomplish was a farce. 

Jim Bakker? Jimmy Swaggert? These TV preachers’ squalid former foibles work out to a comprehensive refutation of the luminous words of Christ they so brashly proclaim otherwise.

The church-going gossip at the office? The obnoxious proselytizer who won’t pay back that sawbuck he owes you? The clueless clod with the fish symbol affixed to his Ford Focus’ bumper who nearly drove you off the road today? Proof positive nothing about the Scriptures matters — all the wonder and wisdom contained therein are nullified; no one needs pay any attention to any of it. 

The above? Just a smattering of the type of swipes against “faith” favored  by legions of glib unbelievers. 

Well, turn around is fair play, so: in the universe of those who cogitate at that level, a lesbian relationship gone lampoonishly bad simply has to mean the homosexual “cause” is invalidated. “Gay” must go! No other evidence needed.

Come to that, this lifestyle hermeneutic could apply to the recent case of Detroit-area cancer doctor Farid Fata,   sentenced to forty-five years in prison for his soulless, insurance-bilking scheme which prescribed needless treatments for hundreds of patients, damaging  their health.  If one execrable evangelist or curdled Christian or sour saint undercuts the Redeemer’s entire program, then I suppose every hospital, emergency clinic, and medical practitioner of any kind must also bite the ideological dust in the wake of this disgraced oncologist’s revolting malfeasance. 

“But,” some demur, “hospitals do and have done much good! Medication regularly and demonstrably works! Modern healing arts on balance, have improved the world’s condition”

Tut-tut; meaningless; all of it; because — DR. FATA! He committed an incontrovertibly evil act while plying his professional trade. Doing the polemical math preferred by many today when cursing Christianity, that means medical science has no value; it must be, point of  fact, an active force for evil among humankind. I’m afraid what’s good for the Scripture-spouting goose is applicable to the physician’s gander. 

Unless, that is, one opts for the more rationally defensible approach to evaluating any thought-system or human movement: Whatever the shortcomings of its acolytes, is it saying something worthwhile?

For those confronted with the Bible’s claims and declarations, for instance, the pre-eminent question shouldn’t be: Has every alleged Christian impeccably conducted himself in line with them? But rather: Are they true? And if so, what will I do with them? 

Six hundred years ago Thomas a Kempis sagely counseled, “Don’t ask, ‘Who said so?’ Pay attention to what’s said.”

In a recent column, Ann Coulter observed, within any massive enough group of people “everything will happen eventually.” The tally of those on the planet who fall, in some manner, within the classification “Christian”? Reportedly, in the ballpark of 2.3 billion. Pretty much guaranteed, then: Occasional, sordid doings of every disillusioning stripe will be unearthed among the masses who claim belief in Jesus. That, happily, has precious little to do with the trustworthiness of the One who denounces sordid doings and summons His followers to a higher, better reality. 

Imagine a particularly unpleasant, slovenly dolt declaiming on the reality of gravity. Does his personal doltishness mean everyone else can jump off rooftops with impunity and expect to avoid broken bones? Apropos of that, the bigoted Baptist or cantankerous Catholic no more disproves the worthiness of the Old and New Testaments than Drs. Mengele and Gosnell delegitimize the study of biology, utility of surgery or effectiveness of antibiotics.

Nah, it’s evident what’s eating at lots — a majority? — of militant God-scoffers is a rabid need  that Christianity not be genuine; to convince themselves they’re off the hook; no Creator exists to whom they must yield control. In the bungling believer and often faltering, work-in-progress church they believe they’ve found a much-yearned-for “out”: proof that God and Christ are merely a deluding fantasy. Yipee!

The relatively impious Mark Twain admitted, ” It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” 

The decidedly more reverent Chesterton seconded Twain, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

The capacity of mankind for self-deception, for believing what he/she wants, is bottomless. The rebellious bristle at the notion of bending the knee to their Maker. If piggybacking on the “Salem Witch Trials”, child-molesting priests or tomcatting televangelists provide a self-serving escape from duty to God?  Hey, all the better. 

“Now it is our preference that decides against Christianity,” conceded nihilist Friedrich Nietzsche, “not argument.”

If “bad Christians” disqualify faith in Jesus, then what about “bad” Lesbians” and their cause? “Bad” physicians? “Bad” butchers, bakers, candlestick-makers? If men and women’s badness or goodness is the sole, definitive benchmark, nothing associated with people makes the cut.

Unwelcome news for the religiously devout. And for gay-rights true-believers.

Image: http://lewismct.wikispaces.com/Vocabulary+3+4B

Steve Pauwels

Steve Pauwels is pastor of Church of the King, Londonderry, NH and host of Striker Radio with Steve Pauwels on the Red State Talk Radio Network. He's also husband to the lovely Maureen and proud father of three fine sons: Mike, Sam and Jake.

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