Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyDecember 10th, 2013
Those of you who have felt concern for the physical safety of Michael Glatze and his family can rest at ease. After some communication, it has become clear that Glatze either cannot or will not confirm that he has actually ever received a direct threat to his personal life or wellbeing.
He has read unkind things written about him on the internet and he’s hurt. And he does appear anguished that people may doubt that he loves his God.
I also believe that he genuinely does think that his testimony is relevant and challenging and that gay people want him dead. But the threats – as best I can tell – are amorphous and the fear seems otherwise based.
I wish Michael Glatze peace and healing. I think the kindest thing is to give him our best wishes and hope that his marriage and his life go well.
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TampaZeke
December 10th, 2013
The best I can give him is apathy.
Roger
December 10th, 2013
it really must be unsettling to be such an colossal amount of nothing.
Regan DuCasse
December 10th, 2013
I’m so over the ex gays who claim such profound conversion, treating anything short of fawning praise for it, a ‘threat’.
They need an exhausting amount of validation for it.
And THAT is not normal.
Affecting heterosexuality is hardly an accomplishment.
Everyone has a sexual orientation, big deal.
Being a gay person who is socially well adjusted despite the kinds of efforts that Glatze engages in creating a hostile, distrustful environment for gay people IS an accomplishment.
He couldn’t cut it as a gay man. He needs to own that and then go away.
I’m heterosexual myself, I don’t know why anyone would think that’s some kind of Holy Grail of existence.
It’s NOT.
Heterosexuals are common, not morally exceptional.
And that’s all.
Paul Douglas
December 11th, 2013
Once again Regan, you rock. Michael Glatze should just embrace his new found & obviously joyous heterosexual lifestyle and shut up. Man up Michael and be like most heterosexual guys and just live your own life. You have so much to look forward to! Why bother proselytizing the rest of us about it?
Christianist fundagelicals have embraced a martyrdom cult. They thrive on stories of overcoming satan, the culture, persecution and all kinds of opposition to their relationship with their god. Testimony Time is one of their favorite rituals and they subtly compete to present themselves as formerly the most despicable person one could imagine until their god came down and miraculously saved them. I imagine Michael’s “Testimony” will grow with time and repeated iteration. Fundagelical faith is based on emotion and subjective numinous experiences that they have allowed to be interpreted by a certain radical, activist segment of the christian religion (one that has been highly visible, political and on the ascendancy in the world over the past 40 years). They do not assess evidence the way most people do: any experience or information they receive has to be filtered through the lens of what their 2000+ year old hodge-podge collection of bible writings (might) say and of course how their flavor-of the-season “Pastor” explains it to them. The only way to escape this prison is for religionistas to start letting go of the assumptions they cling to, and to start to look at the events in their lives and the world around them based only evidence and parsimonious explanations. Not easy for humans in general but especially difficult when you’ve become addicted to the confirmation bias that religious dogma tends to inculcate in your thinking patterns.
I suspect Michael has a long struggle ahead to figure himself out. The emotional drug of religion makes it harder and harder to do that IMHO.
Full disclosure: I am an ex-christianist.
Victor
December 11th, 2013
It is too much effort even to say I don’t care.
Timothy Kincaid
December 11th, 2013
Paul,
I counted no fewer than three slurs. Your message gets lost in your name-calling.
Please don’t do that.
Kath
December 11th, 2013
Timothy, I have read Paul’s post several times and can find no slurs. What do you regard as a slur? Just curious
Timothy Kincaid
December 11th, 2013
Kath,
I was refering to “fundagelicals”, “religionistas”, and “christianist”.
These are all slang terms created to do nothing but indicate one’s contempt for others. In short, name calling.
They are similar to “homosexualits” and “Obamabots” and similar terms that are offensive and often used by those who oppose civil equality.
Calling names is fun in a childish sort of way and allows one to experience a shared hatred of ‘the other’, but it distracts from serious discussion or legitimate debate.
SharonB
December 12th, 2013
Not to digress, but I think the term “christianist” is a quite accurate and useful term for those who want to use the power of the state to impose their version of Christianity on the rest of us.
Timothy Kincaid
December 12th, 2013
SharonB,
Though it’s a bit better defined than the other two, unless you know someone who actually goes by that term or who accepts its meaning to include their efforts, it remains a slur and a phrase designed merely to express dislike. It is quite like “homosexualist” in that way.
And while it might be fun for Peter LaBarbera and I to sit some time and scream “homosexualist” and “christianist” at each other, it would be even more fun to use “poopie-head” and “booger-eater”.
iDavid
December 13th, 2013
Unfortunately, this video is the kind of Christ centered support Glatze missed out on in his life. And though the kid who stars in this video is partially disabled, gay and bisexual people do not fall into this category. Nonetheless, had Glatze had true authentic Christian support known only for a short time during and after Jesus departed the scene, his life struggles most likely would not have been nearly as difficult as he has chosen to make them out to be.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUhCucpRuX8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Kath
December 14th, 2013
Timothy
I take your point. However my understanding of those terms is not so much to create contempt (though of course they probably do) but to differentiate between Christians who are utterly unlike each other. You yourself have complained when people say things generalising about Christians and their beliefs, claiming this is unfair to most Christians who do not agree with the more extreme points of view. Hence people have tried to differentiate by I suppose creating a name for those vocal and powerful groups who claim to be speaking on behalf of all Christians, when they clearly do not.
How then do we refer to these people who seem to genuinely believe that their version of Christianity trumps all, unless we do recognise them as a sub class and give them a different name??
Timothy Kincaid
December 14th, 2013
Kath,
It is better to use clear language like “conservative Christians” or “social conservatives” or even if you want to make your point using strong language “theocrats” works.
When we get in the habit of making up names to call others, we have almost no hope of appealing to them.
How well do you respond to “homosexualist” or “homofacist” even when those who use those terms insist that they aren’t speaking about “all people who are struggling with same sex attraction”?
And it is my experience in reading the terms that no one is actually using “Christianist” as a means of distinction between two different camps of Christians. Rather, it is used in place of the wold “Christian”, always is used as a slur or term of contempt, and seldom – if ever – is used by anyone who considers themselves to be a Christian.
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