Laurie Higgins’ mixed-up crazy loony-toon topsy turvy notions about “biblical truths”

Timothy Kincaid

May 26th, 2010

Laurie Higgins is part of that small select number of anti-gay activist who dedicate their efforts to demeaning and denigrating gay men and women. This group, which includes such folk as Peter LaBarbera, Linda Harvey, and Matt Barber, all seem to believe that it is their Christian and civic duty to work against any measure of civil equality or minor decency that might be directed toward gay people.

At one point, even as recent as a few years ago, their job was relatively easy. Society at large, and Christianity in particular, shared a basic ignorance and mistrust of homosexuality. Lies were readily believed, fears were easily exploited, and it was not difficult at all to convince your audience that gay people were not really human or deserving of rights.

But visibility has changed that. More and more Americans have come to know and love their gay family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors and are find inflammatory denunciations inconsistent with the truth. Increasingly, Laurie and her buddies come off as shrill and ineffective and their extremism is rapidly placing them outside of mainstream Christianity.

And Laurie’s not taking it lightly.

Laurie believes that she’s been “called to activism” as her vocation (presumably by God) and this, in her mind, justifies any wackadoodle notion that tumbles out of her mouth, no matter how vile, offensive, or mean. She worships an angry, vengeful, and vituperative deity and as his acolyte she seeks to live up to expectations.

And further, she’s frightened that her angry god is becoming obsolete and that Christianity is coming to recognize the inherent worth of each individual. And as that’s not good for business (or her own moral certainty), she’s fighting back.

Her latest target is Dr. Warren Throckmorton, whom she believes is a traitor. Throckmorton used to be an advocate of ex-gay ministries until his observations (and his honesty) got in the way. And while Throckmorton endorses a conservative sexual ethic for same-sex attracted people, he had the nerve (such temerity) to oppose Ugandan legislation which would incarcerate or execute gay people for the heinous crime of being gay people (what she disingenuously calls “volitional homosexual acts”).

And even worse, Throckmorton did the unthinkable. He dared criticize those who are obsessed with waging culture war on the lives, freedoms, rights and dignity of gay people. Outrage! Heresy! He must be a homosexualist!

In her indignant wild-haired harangue against him (you can almost see the spittle flying), Higgins elevates her odious ranting to the level of the apostolic, equating herself with Paul and Dr. Martin Luther King. And using a twist of logic that surely makes sense only to her own select group, Higgins declares that opposing discrimination against gay people is the moral equivalent of supporting discrimination against black people.

In my estimation, there are far too few Christians who are willing to speak the truth in the public square. At different times in history, different biblical truths are attacked with particular ferocity. During the era of slavery and Jim Crow laws, biblical truth about the dignity and worth of African American women and men were attacked with special intensity. During those decades, an equally vigorous public response to the cultural lies that destroyed lives and families was necessary. Unfortunately, for far too many years, the white church failed to respond courageously.

Similarly, the church is failing now to respond with courage and vigor to the assault on biblical truth about sexuality, marriage, and the family from the mainstream news media, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, the music industry, and public education.

This was neither satire nor intended irony. It has never occurred to Higgins that the supporters of the civil rights movement in the 60’s were Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the music industry and that those who opposed civil equality railed against them in words almost identical to her own. And they probably attend her church today.

Poor sad deluded Laurie Higgins. It’s tragic how a gut full of hatred can twist your mind.

homer

May 26th, 2010

She really is pathetic, isn’t she? Bitter, Party of One, your table is waiting.

Craig L. Adams

May 26th, 2010

Ugh. What awful rhetoric. Thanks for keeping me abreast of what’s going on and being said.

David

May 26th, 2010

The thing is, even David Blankenhorn (that man cited by Maggie Gallagher and an expert witness for the pro-Prop 8 side) believes gay marriage supporters are similar to segregationists and those against inter-racial marriage (his book, The Future of Marriage, postulates that both groups attempt to change marriage to what it was never meant to be).

It’s not an isolated sentiment at all; it’s probably a reaction to the simple truth that no one likes to consider their opinions might be rooted in prejudice.

Lindoro Almaviva

May 26th, 2010

I really hope that someone tells her that MLK’s right hand man was a homosexual, and that MLK knew about this and didn’t care. When someone does, could you please bring a video camera?

Mint

May 26th, 2010

Forgive me if I don’t look it up right now, but isn’t there about exactly as much Biblical endorsement of slavery as there is Biblical condemnation of homosexuality? It’s mentioned in the Old Testament that it’s okay to enslave people from other nations, and then Paul tells slaves to obey their masters. She’s reading the Bible in a really blindsided way (as if we didn’t know that already), if she thinks it equally clearly condemns slavery and homosexuality.

Lynn David

May 26th, 2010

Biblical truth is often an oxymoron.

David

May 26th, 2010

The question remains

Will Throckmorton recognize that this attack on him by one of his ex-peers demonstrates how even his newish “conservative sexual ethic for same-sex attracted people” is wrong, that he hasn’t moved far enough away from “homosexuality is inferior”?

At some point, being targeted by people who share his basic lack of respect for GLBTQ relationships should tell him that prejudice itself is the problem, not the sex lives of GLBTQ people.

wister

May 27th, 2010

Mint: there’s actually more in favor of slavery. In particular the account in Genesis of Canaan whose curse came about when Ham, Canaan’s father, saw Noah, Ham’s father, drunk and naked. Instead of looking away and covering his father, Ham laughed at him. Hence the curse which caused Canaan’s hair to kink and his skin to darken and condemned him to serve his brothers and his children to serve his brothers’ children to the end of time. Because of stories like this the South chose to believe that slavery was mandated by God.

Paul in Canada

May 27th, 2010

I’m so tired of people who think that being gay is sexual in nature only!

Priya Lynn

May 27th, 2010

Paul said “I’m so tired of people who think that being gay is sexual in nature only!”.

I wonder how much they actually believe that. It could be that they know better but simply find that idea highly demeaning so they choose to promote it.

Tommy

May 27th, 2010

They absolutely know better. But it is a lot harder to get the population to oppress a loving couple of twenty years than it is to get them to oppress someone having back ally anonymous sex.

Chris McCoy

May 27th, 2010

Paul in Canada said:

I’m so tired of people who think that being gay is sexual in nature only!

I disagree. Being gay does not rely on any physical, emotional, social, cultural, or moral prerequisites. I think it is sexual in nature only, but I don’t think that is a bad thing.

Many of these people don’t have a problem with homosexuality. They have a problem with sexuality.

Priya Lynn

May 27th, 2010

Chris said “I think it is sexual in nature only,”.

Nonsense. Being gay entails romantic love and concern for one’s partner that is seperate from sex. You live a deeply impoverished life if being gay is only sexual for you.

Jon

May 27th, 2010

She’s right in noting that there were people who stood up for the religious, moral, and ethical truth that slavery and segregation were evils that should be ended and opposed in every way. But the descendants of those people (both religious and biological) make up the modern religious groups that are most likely to support full equality for GLBT people. The abolitionists and civil rights activists of the 19th and early 20th centuries are the forebears of the Quaker, Unitarian, Congregationalist, and United Church of Christ congregations that fully understand GLBT issues as civil rights issues.

Meanwhile, if you look at her religious ancestors, you’re more likely to find people who supported slavery or, at best, were silent about it because it just didn’t affect them. And for her to try to steal our history as her own makes me sick.

Chris McCoy

May 27th, 2010

Priya Lynn said:

Being gay entails romantic love and concern for one’s partner that is seperate from sex.

Romantic love and sex are inextricably linked. If they were not, infidelity would be a non-issue. Can you have sex without Romantic love? Yes. Can you have Romantic love without sex? Yes. Can you have Romantic love with one person while at the same time having a sexual relationship with someone else? Centuries of literature would suggest otherwise.

The opposition is to homo-sexuality. Not to homo-amority. No one is arguing that gays and lesbians are incapable of falling in love.

If the argument was that people of the same gender can never really love each other, than Mothers could never love their daughters, and Fathers could never love their sons.

So I would say, yes, being gay is about sex. And my reply is, so what?

CLS

May 27th, 2010

To be a fundamentalist not only requires that one overlook reality but ignore history. During the Abolitionist fight the orthodox, fundamentalists tended to side with the slavers. The opponents tended to be liberal Christians like Quacker and Unitarianism or individuals who had no apparent Christian beliefs at all. It may be useful to read a transcript of a speech Frederick Douglas, the former slave and abolitionist, gave on May 22, 1846:

“I have to inform you that the religion of the southern states, at this time, is the great supporter, the great sanctioner of the bloody atrocities to which I have referred. While America is printing tracts and Bibles; sending missionaries abroad to convert the heathen; expending her money in various ways for the promotion of the Gospel in foreign lands, the slave not only lies forgotten–uncared for, but is trampled under foot by the very churches of the land. What have we in America? Why we have slavery made part of the religion of the land. Yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender of this cursed institution, as it is called.”

Richard Rush

May 27th, 2010

If people such as Laurie Higgins and Linda Harvey ever expect to play in the major leagues of Super Christianity, they need to allow a little of the fun to creep back into fundamentalism. At least people such as Janet Folger Porter, Jan Crouch, and Cindy Jacobs are fun to watch.

It’s amusing how fundamentalism also contains “fund” as in “send us money,” and “mental” as in delusional, crazy, or just plain nuts.

paul j stein

May 27th, 2010

Sexual stimulation from interaction with a person of the same sex on a biological/hormonal level would best describe it. But then some guys can do it with anything!

Timothy Kincaid

May 27th, 2010

The opposition is to homo-sexuality. Not to homo-amority. No one is arguing that gays and lesbians are incapable of falling in love.

I think that if you closely review the writings of anti-gay activists you will find many that make exactly that argument. And for a long time they were quite successful at portraying gay people as furtive and sexually deviant, incapable of “real” love.

It is not only visibility that has led to increased freedom and equality for our community, but also what that visibility revealed. Neighbors Joe and Suzy don’t support your right to marry because they ever think about your sex life. They support you for the non-sex things that they see like love, commitment, care, and family bonds.

Brennin

May 29th, 2010

“…and then Paul tells slaves to obey their masters.”

Paul did not actually write Colossians, Ephesians, or the Pastoral Epistles.

Regan DuCasse

May 29th, 2010

I wondered if Dr. Throckmorton was going to be able to handle the opposition that would come his way if he actively DEFENDED gay people the way necessary. Many of those like him tend to side more with people like Higgins. Look at Alan Chambers for example.

I didn’t lump Dr. T in with Chambers, exactly, but Dr. T didn’t seem to be to forthcoming on how he could be EFFECTIVE in defending gay people at ALL.

By definition, he really couldn’t without being contradictory. Or at least more supportive of the closet.

However compassionate an ex gay person might be, they are de facto NEUTERED people.
At once rendered without the means to challenge the very reason we are all having this conversation.
That gay people are expected to NOT BE SEXUAL at all.

And with that, not be vocal defenders of being married, for example.
One might have good intentions, but whose life is still too close to the very reality wanted by Higgins and Co.

It’s like someone who has had breast augmentation, slamming plastic surgeons who provide it AND the small breasted all at the same time.
One’s credibility cancels itself out through one’s actions.

Things in Uganda are extreme, and very frightening for those gays and lesbians who live there. A LOT of people spoke out against what was happening and it will take all kinds of people of degrees of effectiveness to do something about it too.

Dr. Throckmorton has made himself a far more public life through extolling living ungay.
He chose to be so public, now come the lumps that go with it.
This is also part of the deal of actually going against a very strong tide.
He did what was right, but that was what he was SUPPOSED to do. And, he’s certainly not alone in doing it.

Priya Lynn

May 30th, 2010

Chris said “Romantic love and sex are inextricably linked. If they were not, infidelity would be a non-issue. Can you have sex without Romantic love? Yes. Can you have Romantic love without sex? Yes.”.

You just contradicted yourself. If you can have sex without romantic love and you cah have romantic love without sex then they are not inextricably linked.

Jason D

May 31st, 2010

Chris, I don’t know what anti-gay literature you’re reading, but Tim has it right on the money.

They do argue that what happens between two people of the same sex is NOT love. They usually argue this by suggesting that love is heterosexual by nature, or the fact that procreation is the source of love — hell, I’ve even seen it said that “men don’t love, it’s a woman who brings love the relationship.” or it has been suggested that a gay couple, spending 20 years are just really close friends, but NOT in love. They’ve said “why should we give benefits to a sexual relationship?” simultaneously denying that love is involved, AND that het marriage is “giving benefits to a sexual relationship”.

In the rare instance that you do get one that admits that gay couples do, in fact, love each other and that it is very much real — they always make the jump to “Well, I love my rose bush, too!” Never quite understanding that the rose bush doesn’t share those feelings and would really like them to stop calling and stop harassing them at work.

micheal

July 6th, 2010

she was right on the subject that churches aren’t speaking publicly about this topic anymore. God our Heavenly Father instructs us to speak the truth with love. Homosexuality is a sin just like any other sin, and it should be addressed in a respectful and Godly manner. by the way, Christianity will never be obselete; God will always be involved and loved whether people mock Him or love Him. i will guarantee this, when people really stop acknowledging God, He will return and everyone who was lost and had the chance to accept Him will be damned for eternity. People will be begging for a Bible when things really get bad. The BP oil spill is only a small part of Bible prophecy, mark my words! The end is near. Stop mocking Christianity, or answer to God.

Tommy

July 6th, 2010

Please give me chapter and verse where the BP oil spill is mentioned specifically Micheal.

Priya Lynn

July 6th, 2010

Michael said “Homosexuality is a sin just like any other sin”.

So gayness is just like murder. And christians like you wonder why no one takes you seriously.

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