On Sunday, the New York Times featured a chilling article on how fundamentalist Christians stalked, harassed and ultimately murdered Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, who they taunted with the nickname, "Tiller the Baby Killer."
The lone gunman, who used the e-mail name "ServantofMessiah", shot Tiller while he ushered at Reformation Lutheran Church, where he and his wife were active members. Prior to Tiller's assassination, the "loving" faithful had put bullets in his arms and bombed his clinic.
Unfortunately, with Tiller's controversial clinic finally out of business, the lesson for the loony may be that lethal force is more effective than lobbying. In the Times article, Mark Geitzen, chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life, expressed this sentiment when he said during a phone conversation, "God has his own way... but you can't say our prayers weren't answered."
Tiller's death vividly illustrates the danger posed by the violent language and imagery used by fanatics, who believe they are personally entrusted to enforce God's will. What concerns me is that the aggressive tactics used against abortion providers are slowly seeping into the anti-gay movement.
As the wider culture becomes more accepting, homophobes are growing increasingly frustrated, which has led to bolder and more confrontational actions. Are anti-gay leaders egging on unstable followers to attack gay people or provoking gays to defend themselves so they can manufacture martyrdom and justify retaliation?
At the Dore Alley Fair in San Francisco last weekend, a number of muscular Christians wearing Jesus shirts reportedly tried to march through the event thumping Bibles and waving signs.
In Charlotte, Dr. Michael Brown, (pictured left) the founder of the Coalition of Conscience, organized several hundred followers in red shirts to descend like uninvited locusts on Charlotte Pride last week under the banner, "God Has a Better Way."
Aside from the pompous name of their demonstration, the protesters confronted gay people and browbeat them with cherry picked Bible verses. Brown's ostensible reason for marshaling the troops was to introduce Pride attendees to his angry version of God.
But, of course, the notion that gay people in conservative North Carolina needed Brown to educate them about religious fundamentalism was farcical. Indeed, many of the people at Pride had only found personal acceptance after long journeys to reconcile their spirituality and sexuality.
No, Brown was really there to besiege Charlotte's gay residents with his hostile hordes. His group's in-your-face presence was designed to disrupt peaceful assembly and make Pride attendees feel guilty and uncomfortable so that they might skip future gay events.
Fortunately, the pious proselytizers were on their best behavior after the militant writings and actions of Brown came under intense scrutiny by local Q-Notes editor Matt Comer. In his research, Comer found that Brown started his FIRE School of Ministry to "raise up a holy army of uncompromising spirit-filled radicals who will shake an entire generation with the gospel of Jesus by life or death."
In a vacuum, such religious language may be viewed as a relatively benign rhetorical flourish. However, when followers are portrayed as holy warriors in a life and death struggle against a minority group that is falsely accused of working to undermine freedom of religion, the seeds of potential disaster are intentionally being sown.
In advertising his rally, Brown proclaimed that the "hour is urgent" and that Christians must "turn back the tide of homosexual activism." In a written statement following his intolerance invasion of Pride, Brown wrote, "Enough is enough to the destructive goals of gay activism... We say it stops in Charlotte."
Most alarming are these charlatans' deliberate perpetuation of paranoia by trumpeting alleged religious persecution that exists only in their warped minds. For example, in his statement Brown accused gay people of "trying to put Christians in the closet." And, he capped it off by saying that gay people are "tampering with the foundations of human society."
Brown tries to cover his tracks by sprinkling his apocalyptic rhetoric with calls for non-violence. Good orators, however, understand the principle of "layering" messages. If in one sentence you speak of violence and in the next of non-violence, the listener will almost always embrace the words that support his or her belief system.
Dr. Brown isn't naive and surely understands that the LGBT masses will not retreat into the closet unless events conspire to make coming out a blood sport. Short of extreme bullying and brutality he'll never accomplish his lost cause of "stopping" progress on gay rights in Charlotte.
Brown, of course, doesn't actually have to make an overt pitch for mayhem. Simply by inciting his flock he is setting the stage for future tragedy. It is time for Brown and his comrades to abort their increasingly hostile and combative tactics before it leads to more wanton death in the name of abundant life.
Follow Wayne Besen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Truthwinout
so whenever i do go out (and PROUDLY) to any gay event, i'll be sure to not only be more aware of my surroundings, but bring along a camera and phone just in case i feel threatened...
we can let these cowards shy away from the light or the truth!
His Christian audience is totally familiar with the terms he uses, and he has actually written a lot about non-violence and following the same Jesus pattern that Gandhi and Martin Luther King used. Besen apparently got spooked because he can't distinguish between the Salvation Army and the Taliban.
Check out Brown's statement of apology to GLBT's in Charlotte: http://askdrbrown.org//media/albums/COC/OfficialStatements/Statement%20to%20the%20Gay%20and%20Lesbian%20Community.pdf.
Do you think he's sincere? There's some interesting interaction between Besen and Brown on Besen's website: http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/setting-the-stage-for-tragedy/.
I guess the big thing that got my attention was Besen's claims that this group was violent, which it is not, and it concerns me that he could be scaring people about the wrong thing. Brown is against LGBT rights, and that's where the focus should be.
It is a known fact that many in the LGBT community are anti-Christian, some are atheist and others are anarchist like the group ; Bash Back which entered a church in 2008 and terrorized its members. http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-2302-gay-anarchist-action-hits-church.html
It is not therefore surprising to read articles like this which takes statements out of context and bends the force of logic to make baseless and inflammatory charges.
On the other hand, Besen's fears about a backlash against gay activism and forces opposed to the traditional definition of marriage i.e., it is a union between a man and a woman, are not unfounded.
I think he raises a valid point about the fear that a backlash against gays may erupt from the current anti-Obama, anti-reform, tea- bagger, PUMA-like, Birther, Obama is an undocumented ailien movement.
Nevertheless, Besen's attempt to conflate the legitimate concerns and fears among Christians about our legitimate right to exercise free speech and practice our faith without having our services invaded and our faith smeared and deligitimized by domestic gay marriage supporting terrorist and atheists with efforts to provoke physical confrontations with gays is unfounded and renders his argument less credible.
People are getting more sophisticated in this stuff, your kind will die out once everyone does.
Perez Hilton does not represent the gay community just as he does not represent mankind. Your thinking is flawed.
And thank The Invisible Man in the Sky for THAT!
For over a quarter of a century i have lived a life free of guilt and shame.
I would NEVER go back in the closet again.
No matter what they do.
In other words, 11 states now extend to their gay citizens all of the substantive rights, privileges, and benefits of marriage at the state level, and another four states have gone part of the way. All of this occurred within the course of one decade -- while progress can be maddenly slow, this is not bad at all!
What is particularly noteworthy is the fact that the most recent developments include decisions by state legislatures (in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire) to legalize gay marriage (as opposed to state supreme courts forcing this issue). Gone forever is the ability of homophobic bigots to dismiss gay marriage as something forced upon the states by "judicial usurpation of the will of the people" imposed by "black-robed tyrants" (and the usual rubbish about "unelected judges"). This issue now resonates with legislative bodies.
Yes, there will be violence. But the die is cast. We have won. It is now only a matter of time before we attain full parity and equal justice under law.
PHILIP CHANDLER
I agree that tax-exempt status is a luxury that should be yanked whenever a so-called-non profit organization uses their members for political/social purposes. What a way to balance our budget and increase government revenue. We punish bad businesses with financial penalties, why not these hate-groups. Let's start with the Phelps and the God-Hates-Everyone organization (although they are a lost cause, I mean, protesting at military funerals? c'mon).
I do think, however, that you may be correct. The radical right has been more and more unhinged the further we trudge into this new millennium. It seems to me that overall religious fervor is on the downswing and the really scary fundamentalists are making up for it by ratcheting up the rhetoric. And that kind of rhetoric can easily lead to violence. (I certainly hope it doesn't, but it can ....)
While more and more people are coming to realize that gay rights won't negatively affect their lives, all the religious right needs is one nut with a gun. As long as the mainstream, including politicians, continue to condone anti-gay beliefs by doing things like refuse to repeal DADT or DOMA, those who want to do violence to us will only be encouraged.
What's ironic is I've come to believe that these people don't truly believe in God, they only use Him, or their idea of Him, as an excuse for their own hatred. If they truly believed in God, they wouldn't question His creation, i.e. gays and lesbians. To assume the right to judge, condemn, and even kill, what God has created is to question His plan and His existence.