Shorter Amy Sullivan: Religious Conservatives Believe They Have a Right to Beat Up Gays
“[S]ocial conservatives believe that efforts to protect gays from assault, discrimination or bullying impinge on their religious freedom to express and act on their belief that homosexuality is an abomination. That’s stating it harshly, but it is the underlying belief,” Time religion reporter Amy Sullivan huffed in a November 4 Swampland blog post on the magazine’s website.
“[T]he Michigan legislature is doing its best to make me hang my head in shame,” Sullivan, a “transplanted Michigander” groused, explaining that:
On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled state senate passed an anti-bullying bill that manages to protect school bullies instead of those they victimize. It accomplishes this impressive feat by allowing students, teachers, and other school employees to claim that “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction” justifies their harassment.
Perhaps Sullivan envisions schoolyard bullies getting off scot-free after beating up gay students simply because the bully happens to be religious, something that is, of course, patently absurd.
The magazine’s religion writer insisted that one has to understand “that social conservatives consider themselves the real victims,” perhaps being unaware of the case two months ago of Fort Worth, Texas, teenager Dakota Ary.
Ary was briefly suspended for voicing in a classroom discussion his religious beliefs about homosexuality. The school system ultimately reversed itself, but the fact remains that Ary was treated by school officials as a bully for simply defending his religious convictions.
For good measure, Sullivan charged social conservatives with pettiness – arguing Christian conservatives have a “serious persecution complex to get worked up about” the law when Christians are dying martyrs’ deaths in Iran – and threw in the boilerplate charges of hypocrisy and Islamophobia, without, of course evidence of either:
The same religious conservatives who applaud the religious exemption in Michigan’s anti-bullying bill would be appalled if it protected a Muslim student in Dearborn who defended bullying a Christian classmate by saying he considered her an infidel.
“I’m not holding my breath” for the Michigan House of Representatives to remove the religious exemption from the bill, Sullivan wrote in closing, “But stranger things have happened.”
Yes, like a secular reporter hostile to conservatives of religious faith covering religion for a major news magazine.
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Comments
I'm an atheist (swear to God, as I say to people who hear me
Submitted by WhoIsJohnGalt on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 5:43pm.
claim that I'm atheist, and then ask me, "really?"), but even I can see that this woman is the last person on earth who should be their religion reporter. She is always hostile toward Christians.
By the way, most people don't get the irony of the "swear to god" line...they miss it altogether.
Truer Amy Sullivan: We Liberals Believe
Submitted by sherlock1 on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 5:50pm.
Truer Amy Sullivan: We Liberals Believe It's Okay to Bear False Witness against Conservatives.
"Transplanted" or "kicked out"? I vote for the latter.
Submitted by drsamherman on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 5:52pm.
Considering how nasty she is towards Christians, or anyone of faith for that matter, Michigan probably took her to the state line and told her not to come back. Wonder if that boot mark on her behind needed cosmetic surgery?
abomination
Submitted by Curly on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 5:54pm.
Homosexual acts are an abomination to God. Leviticus 18:22
Sorry Amy, but it is!
"For good measure, Sullivan
Submitted by redfish on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 6:30pm.
"For good measure, Sullivan charged social conservatives with pettiness – arguing Christian conservatives have a “serious persecution complex to get worked up about” the law when Christians are dying martyrs’ deaths in Iran – and threw in the boilerplate charges of hypocrisy and Islamophobia, without, of course evidence of either"
I'm sorry, if they have a persecution complex it isn't any different than saying gays have a persecution complex, since gays are being executed in Iran while in the West people are pretty tolerant and tend to be much more hostile to religious Christians than they are to gay people. There are also gay rights hypocrites who bully Christians.
Amy Sullivan is stuck on her ideological wheel.
Sigh...
Submitted by Kaleidoscopic God on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 6:38pm.
It's obvious that "journalists" CLEARLY failed to take logical fallacies 101. Classic example of strawman, right here.
This woman is an anti-Christ
Submitted by exLib on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 8:47pm.
The book of 1John states clearly that anyone who denies Jesus is the Christ, is AN anti-Christ. There is not just one.
Amy Sullivan is what Paul talked about in I think Thesssalonians, when he talks about black wholes or graves, maybe it's Peter.
This woman's sole is black as pitch. Every article she writes stokes hate for Christians and the devout.
I am so sad I read this, since it made me go to Time, was I expecting anyone to call her on her blasphemy? Of course there were one or two, but most were incoherent ramblings of projectionist psychopath athiests who trot out these lines that were likely given to them by their teachers that have no meaning.
I think this article on Newsbusters probably doubled Times viewership for that day.
The bar is so low for Bullying
Submitted by exLib on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 9:02pm.
So, the point here is that if we take the mirror image of Sullivan's article and stand it on it's head we actually get the heart of what the laws are trying to do.
#1 - Liberals want to be able to out law any kind of talk that says homosexuality is a sin.
Does anybody remember bullying being a problem even 5 years ago before DADT being repealed was a possiblity or gay marriage was even a conversataion, yet a law in a few states?
Nobody cared about the people being bullied or committing suicide, not in a real way, like it is today.
I for one spent a fair amount of my younger days getting bullied until I learned a little Karate and defended myself and then a little later in my teens was befriended by some tough kids who wanted to get into fights and agreed to be my bodyguards.
No, clearly bullying is front and center because it's all about gays.
Do I think someone should beat them up for it, absolutely not. They should be treated with the same love and respect anyone who sins should. That is do what Jesus did to the woman accused of adultery. Defend from violence, give grace and then say "Go and sin no more".
#2 - The bar for bullying is not getting beat up. It's saying something they don't like, which is "The Bible says it's a sin".
The gays want that struck from public utterance because it makes them feel bad.
I teach my kids, who are very young yet, not much about it. They seem to be developing healthy heterosexual tendencies.
I also know one gay guy who is married to a women for over 10 years and is very happy. I have met others but don't know them as well, but they are married to women and adamantly state it's not permanent and can be repented of.
But when they get old enough, I will tell them not to be rude, but if a teacher asks a direct question they should answer and if they get in trouble I will defend them.
So it's clear that legislation MUST be inacted in order to protect Christians from being persectued for even saying homosexuality is a sin.
There WILL come a day though, when Bibles wlll be sold that have all negative references removed. Not sure when, but eventually it will happen.
# 3 - In New Hampshire a bill was past legalizing either gay marriage or civil unions, can't remember which. But the original bill was Vetoed by a Democrat Gov because it allowed couples who approached conservative Christian churches to get married and were refused on the basis of their being gay, they could sue the church. It was passed back to the Congress and even a Republican went on record saying that the Gov was forcing discrimination into law.
The truth is, when gay marriage becomes the law of the land, gays will go to every church in the country and sue many out of existence or force them underground.
The anti-bullying stuff is another means to that end. The irony of it is that it will end with a repeat of first century rome when Christian were killed for sport. The anti-bullying will only change from those who were gay to those who believe the Bible and are Christians.
No, religious conservatives
Submitted by moderncommentaries83 on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 9:31pm.
No, religious conservatives believe we have a right to express our faith regardless of whether or not it hurts someone's "feelings." I know in a liberal's world, expressing contrary opinions that make liberals feel bad is the same as beating the cr@p out of someone, but in reality...not so much.
I don't remember
Submitted by cocodrie on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 9:43pm.
I don't remember any religious conservatives beating up homosexuals but I do remember Homos beating up an old lady in the Peoples Republic of California.
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
Liberals actually believe that anyone cares what they think.
Submitted by stage9 on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 9:46pm.
"Religious Conservatives Believe They Have a Right to Beat Up Gays"
Liberals continually invent delusional conspiracies to frighten folks into silence. But what they conveniently REFUSE to acknowledge is that homosexuality is a lifestyle replete with sexually transmitted diseases, mental illness, high rates of suicidality, and epidemic levels of promiscuity.
In effect it's liberals who ENABLE this behavior by excusing it rather than treating it. You want to blame homosexual suicides on something? Blame liberals and their politically correct agenda.
Studies indicate that the average male h o m o s e x u a l has hundreds of s e x partners in his lifetime. The median number of partners for h o m o s e x u a l s is four times higher than for heterosexuals. A study on the s e x u a l profiles of 2,583 older h o m o s e x u a l s, published in the Journal of S e x Research, found that only 2.7 percent claimed to have had s e x with one partner only. Research has also found that few h o m o s e x u a l relationships last longer than two years, with many men reporting hundreds of lifetime partners.”
The following. for example, was published in Lambada:
24 percent of g a y men had more than 100 partners.
43 percent of g a y men had more than 500 partners.
28 percent of g a y men had more than 1,000 partners.
Solid, irrefutable evidence proves that there are lethal consequences to engaging in the defining features of male h o m o s e x u a l i t y—that is, promiscuity. Active homosexuals are vulnerable to dozens of s e x u a l l y transmitted diseases. According to one report, the risk of a n a l cancer rises by an astounding 4,000 percent for those engaging in h o m o s e x u a l i n t e r c o u r s e and doubles again for those who are HIV positive.
AIDS remains the fifth leading cause of death among those aged 26 to 44, and 60 percent of new cases are contracted by men who have s e x with men. Despite the twenty-year “safe-s e x” campaign, the incidence of unsafe s e x u a l practices resulting in various diseases is on the rise. An estimated 30 percent of all 20-year-old h o m o s e x u a l men will be HIV positive or dead by the age of 30.
Studies have also found that while h o m o s e x u a l s may be trying to convince themselves that what they are doing is acceptable, they have serious doubts in their hearts. A Columbia University study on “internalized homophobia” among h o m o s e xu a l persons found that a significant percentage of h o m o s ex u a l s surveyed held negative attitudes toward their own h o m o s e x u a l i t y and toward other h o m o s e x u a l s.
http://www.massresistance.org/
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner." — Malcolm Muggeridge
Soon there will be an asterik
Submitted by JdfinCT on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 9:55pm.
Soon there will be an asterik next to the 1st amendment.....
D'yever notice
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 11:43pm.
that liberals feel free to make up quotes for conservatives at any time, but if you even summarize a lib in a way they don't like, you're "spinning"? If they can find so much as one synonym that has a more sinister sound that what the person actually said, then your "distorting" and being "dishonest", and you're being "unreasonable" as long as there is one possible more charitable meaning you could give to what was said.
I think it's "dog-whistle" invitation, saying "Come, act like an idiot, because that's all we do." Dog-whistle language pretty much says anything the listener wants it to say....because you can't actually hear it being said.