It'll Get Worse
I don’t know how I missed this when it was published last year.
You know Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign? Short videos by young people, celebrities, even the President of the United States, telling LGBT youth that no matter how bad things might seem at the moment, it’s about to get a whole lot better. Once you’re no longer under your parents’ roof, once you’ve graduated away from the bullies at school, once you get a little perspective, it gets better.
Who could argue with that? Who would want to? The suicide rate among teens in general is appalling, but among LGBT teens, it’s two to three times higher. (The numbers are admittedly fuzzy because it’s difficult to gather statistics from grief-stricken parents.) Surely anything that would help prevent even one teen suicide would be all to the good, wouldn’t it?
Not if your religion doesn’t approve. Not if your God hates fags. Not if your church believes that homosexual feeling and expression is an abomination or “gravely disordered.”
The church I grew up in, current Pope notwithstanding, was quite clear. Being homosexual was morally neutral. Acting upon that orientation was a mortal sin. If it wasn’t married heterosexual man-on-top-get-it-over-with-quick, it was a terrible sin, completely perverting the Divine Design.
But unmarried heterosexuals can at least date and have friends of the opposite sex. At some point they might very well marry, and any sins committed in the back seat of the Chevy will be utterly forgotten as the bride trails her virginal white veil down the aisle. Gay people are expected to be celibate and solitary as oysters, lest they be tempted into horrible sick and filthy sin.
The Catholic position was practically enlightened compared to some of the more fundamentalist Protestants. None of these people want to spread the message that “It gets better.” Oh, no.
It’ll Get Worse.
\
That’s the message of the conservative Christian magazine Salvo, All this acceptance and tolerance are going to make it worse for good Bible-believing Christians to lead their holy and blessed lives. The It Gets Better movement is nothing less than intolerance to Christian values, that’s what it is.
I don’t know if the text of their fake ad is legible, but here it is in all its heavy-handed glory. (“The Onion” they ain’t.)
“Many brainwashed Christian kids aren’t getting a clear idea of what their lives will be like as openly conservative religious adults. They don’t fully realize that their objections and concerns will be shouted down and that they’ll be ridiculed and bullied in the public square - called hater and bigot and anti-science no matter what they say or do. So let’s show them what their parents’ lives are like now, so they will know what the future has in store for them if they remain Christians.”
“The Pledge: No one deserves to be respected for having a Christian point of view or any other perspective that doesn’t fully embrace the gay ideology and abortion rights. To this end, I pledge to squash any religious ideas in children by giving them a taste of the public shaming and vitriol they will receive as God-fearing adults. I’ll shout down anyone who tries to stand up for traditional morals at school and at work - and I’ll encourage my friends, family, and neighbors to do the same. I’ll provide hopelessness to religiously minded youth by letting them know at a young age that ‘It’ll Get Worse.’”
Project much?
Nobody plays the poor, poor, pitiful me card as well as Christians, so I’m sure they won’t mind if I take them at their word. Yes, you’re completely right. Your benighted beliefs based on bronze-age Bible quotes do not deserve respect, certainly not in a secular republic such as ours. If you believe certain forms of sexual expression are off-limits, by all means, stop doing them. And stop paying rent boys and drug-dealing massage “therapists” to do them with you. I don’t really care if your self-imposed sense of sin and guilt make your life worse. For the rest of us, It’ll Get Better.
You know Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign? Short videos by young people, celebrities, even the President of the United States, telling LGBT youth that no matter how bad things might seem at the moment, it’s about to get a whole lot better. Once you’re no longer under your parents’ roof, once you’ve graduated away from the bullies at school, once you get a little perspective, it gets better.
Who could argue with that? Who would want to? The suicide rate among teens in general is appalling, but among LGBT teens, it’s two to three times higher. (The numbers are admittedly fuzzy because it’s difficult to gather statistics from grief-stricken parents.) Surely anything that would help prevent even one teen suicide would be all to the good, wouldn’t it?
Not if your religion doesn’t approve. Not if your God hates fags. Not if your church believes that homosexual feeling and expression is an abomination or “gravely disordered.”
The church I grew up in, current Pope notwithstanding, was quite clear. Being homosexual was morally neutral. Acting upon that orientation was a mortal sin. If it wasn’t married heterosexual man-on-top-get-it-over-with-quick, it was a terrible sin, completely perverting the Divine Design.
But unmarried heterosexuals can at least date and have friends of the opposite sex. At some point they might very well marry, and any sins committed in the back seat of the Chevy will be utterly forgotten as the bride trails her virginal white veil down the aisle. Gay people are expected to be celibate and solitary as oysters, lest they be tempted into horrible sick and filthy sin.
The Catholic position was practically enlightened compared to some of the more fundamentalist Protestants. None of these people want to spread the message that “It gets better.” Oh, no.
It’ll Get Worse.
\
That’s the message of the conservative Christian magazine Salvo, All this acceptance and tolerance are going to make it worse for good Bible-believing Christians to lead their holy and blessed lives. The It Gets Better movement is nothing less than intolerance to Christian values, that’s what it is.
I don’t know if the text of their fake ad is legible, but here it is in all its heavy-handed glory. (“The Onion” they ain’t.)
“Many brainwashed Christian kids aren’t getting a clear idea of what their lives will be like as openly conservative religious adults. They don’t fully realize that their objections and concerns will be shouted down and that they’ll be ridiculed and bullied in the public square - called hater and bigot and anti-science no matter what they say or do. So let’s show them what their parents’ lives are like now, so they will know what the future has in store for them if they remain Christians.”
“The Pledge: No one deserves to be respected for having a Christian point of view or any other perspective that doesn’t fully embrace the gay ideology and abortion rights. To this end, I pledge to squash any religious ideas in children by giving them a taste of the public shaming and vitriol they will receive as God-fearing adults. I’ll shout down anyone who tries to stand up for traditional morals at school and at work - and I’ll encourage my friends, family, and neighbors to do the same. I’ll provide hopelessness to religiously minded youth by letting them know at a young age that ‘It’ll Get Worse.’”
Project much?
Nobody plays the poor, poor, pitiful me card as well as Christians, so I’m sure they won’t mind if I take them at their word. Yes, you’re completely right. Your benighted beliefs based on bronze-age Bible quotes do not deserve respect, certainly not in a secular republic such as ours. If you believe certain forms of sexual expression are off-limits, by all means, stop doing them. And stop paying rent boys and drug-dealing massage “therapists” to do them with you. I don’t really care if your self-imposed sense of sin and guilt make your life worse. For the rest of us, It’ll Get Better.