Look, If Muslims Can Stone Someone To Death, At Least Christians Ought To Be Able To Push A Gay Kid Around A Little

Frequent reader(s) of this blog know the path to enlightenment leads through the valley of disillusionment to the high plains of resignation and ends on the banks of the river folly...erm...we mean know that we earn our daily bread as deacons in the church of reason. As a result of this career path we have become imbued with certain outlooks over the years, one of which is that policies that protect the young acolytes, especially from each other, are to be favored.

This is why we have generally applauded when legislators took time off from destroying collective bargaining, or throwing whole classes of people to the economic wolves to pass anti-bullying bills, although we must admit passing a law against bullying takes the same sort of forward looking clear eyed leadership as passing a law that says it's illegal for dogs to drive speed boats on the sidewalk.

Well, anyway all this is by way of introduction to the fact that as simple and straight forward as anti-bullying laws seem, apparently there is a theological argument against them. But first a little background:

A decade ago the Southern Poverty Law Center launched “Mix It Up” to get kids to spend time with classmates of different backgrounds. Although the suggested activities for Mix It Up at Lunch Day do not expressly address gay and lesbian students, the law center itself promotes equal treatment for gays and lesbians and that philosophy then informs the school program.

Well, like we said, policies that get the little spit-waders to interact with each other in a less wedgie dominant way is probably a good thing, plus "equal treatment"--who can argue with that?

American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, who sees in it what he seems to see in everything, a stealth gay plot.

But, Mr. Fischer, what can you possibly see wrong with equal treatment? You know, do unto others as you would have them do unto you and stuff.

“Anti-bullying legislation is exactly the same,” Mr. Fischer said. “It’s just another thinly veiled attempt to promote the homosexual agenda. No one is in favor of anyone getting bullied for any reason, but these anti-bullying policies become a mechanism for punishing Christian students who believe that homosexual behavior is not something that should be normalized.

OK, that paragraph has given us a case of rhetorical whiplash. It seems to say that no one should be bullied, but if anti-bullying legislation is passed, then christian students will be punished for...what? Well, since it's an anti-bullying law, we guess...being bullies?

Admittedly there were times in catechism that we were less than attentive to the words of our instructor, but we think we'd remember if someone told us the only way good christian men and women could interact with LGBT students was to punch them.

Like we implied at the outset though, we're not theologians, so there must be a scriptural justification for Mr. Fischer's position which our admittedly heathen outlook is unable to fathom, otherwise it would appear he's just using his faith as a mask for his bigotry and prejudice, and that wouldn't be a very christian thing to do, now would it?