I’ve seen a couple of different articles in the last day or so that, while serious in nature, made me chuckle just a bit, and also shake my head in disgust… Probably a combination of both at the same time. Apparently a “Christian” couple from Iowa is hoping to have 1,000 billboards (pictured left) put up across America (they’ve got one so far…) They have a “Help us spread our hate!” account to raise the money for the billboards that has made a whopping $156 so far! Here’s why I find this both a little funny and very disgusting.

Here’s the funny part: These people claim to be Christian and it is well known that Christians believe god to be all powerful, all seeing, and all knowing… Yet for some odd reason, god “needs our help” to stop gay marriage? If god is “all-powerful” then why in the world can’t he just make gay marriage a non-issue on his own? Why does he need the help of fundamentalists? Apparently, in their opinion, the “Gay Mafia” (as some right-wingers like to put it), has so much more power than god that he has to ask far right-wing fundamentalists to help him defeat it. In addition to being funny, it’s also frighteningly arrogant that these people think that they can speak for a god (whether the Christian one or not.)

Here’s the disgusting part: What I find disgusting, is that people like this couple still don’t understand why those that don’t share their flavor of faith (and even some that do) think that this sort of thing is hateful. With this sign, what they’re saying boils down to is: “Please! Help us force our religious beliefs on those heathens that don’t share them! Help us make laws that place our religion over all others because ours is right and theirs is wrong! Oh and by the way, if you don’t you’re all going to Hell! Come on people! We can’t share this country with people that aren’t Christian!”

The thing about these fundamentalist types is that they can’t seem to say how gay marriage affects them in any way, other than the fact that they’ll have to live in a society where gay people can get married. They don’t have to marry a gay person. At worst they’ll possibly have to sell a cake or something at their business, that they already sell regularly! But, again, they don’t even want to have to see gay people, much less sell them one of their products. Again, they can’t even explain how selling a product to a gay couple somehow violates their religion, but selling a cake to a couple getting married for the second time doesn’t.

They also can’t explain how Jesus could supposedly feed free bread and fish to 5,000 people, regularly dine with prostitutes, thieves, and liars (all of them sinners according to the Bible), yet for some bizarre reason they can’t sell something that their business offers without supposedly violating their religious beliefs (which they claim are based on the teachings of Jesus… Even though their Bible says he did the exact opposite…) None of this nonsense makes any sense. I have to hope that before long these types of beliefs will be looked at like the beliefs of those that opposed interracial marriage and segregation. Or even better, that they just fade away all together, never to be seen or heard again.

James Garcia – 8/5/2015