The far right, including even educational establishments like Patrick Henry College, is now conjuring up visions of an America where the government banishes Christianity or criminalizes its free expression in all its many varieties. A Patrick Henry alum, David Sessions, objects here. It's a brave and nuanced piece. As the Christian right, in the Vatican and Colorado Springs and Uganda and Saddleback ratchet up the demonization of gay people, the following words seem particularly apt:
More disturbing is the willingness to take a bristling, irrational stance toward homosexuality, an issue that the churchwith a few notable exceptionshas already failed to address with any sort of grace. I have resisted the bullying characterization of all gay marriage opponents as bigoted yahoos, but to take a religiously conservative stand on the issue requires almost superhuman amounts of love, humility and nuance. The firebrand tone of these fundraising letters is exactly the opposite; it is openly comfortable with capitalizing financially on unfounded fear of the men and women next door. Regardless of where you stand on the politics of gay marriage, we can all agree that making up wild tales of a government-assisted invasion by people God has commanded you to love is an egregious perversion of the Christian gospel.