Did this prevent churches of the Southern Baptist Convention from having their greeters intercept blacks approaching their churches and redirecting them to the AME church down the block? No it didn’t.

Over thirty years later, just over a decade ago, the Southern Baptist Convention apologized for the prejudice and discrimination they had promoted against blacks, asked their forgiveness and promised to never do so again.

So now too, no matter how the vote on Prop 8 and 102 and 2 come out, churches will be able to preach their prejudices and promote discrimination against members of the GLBT community, that’s a given. The idea that their freedom of religious expression is in jeopardy is just nonsense. They are still free to be as irrational and hateful as before.

When the SBC made its apology to blacks, I wondered how long it might be before they made the same apology for their mistreatment of gays. I’m 66 years old. Not in my lifetime, I’m afraid.

The Yes on 8 folks have saturated the airwaves, both radio and television, with their Public Scare Announcements and listening to them, they are effective. How many times can an average non-homosexual listen to “THEY’RE GOING TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN AND ATTACK YOUR CHURCH” until it starts to sink in?

The Yes on 8 people may just win this thing because they have fear, prejudice, divisiveness, and ignorance on their side. To me, that’s a winning strategy in the United States. Look at the last 8 years of Bush.

It should also be noted that when we stop to think about the tactics these people use in the name of religion, I don’t see how any of us can possibly forget what they’ve done or ever come to hold an ounce of respect for them or their brand of religious intolerance.

I say that only because there are some of us who still think we need to treat these people with respect…they deserve none and they’ll get none from me.