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01/02/2009

'It takes a village' vs. 'It takes the one-sided teachings of a sole household'

by Jeremy Hooper

Speaking about the need for evangelicals to ditch public school "indoctrination" in favor of the dinosaur-denying, gay-shunning, debate-removing form of education that can only be obtained via evangelical homeschooling, Lt. Col. E. Ray Moore of something called the Exodus Mandate Project says the following:

" The real target of the liberals and the left has always been the children. And we can see in California where the conservatives won Proposition 8 -- the vote [was] 52 to 48 [percent] -- but...when Proposition 22 was voted on [in March 2000], they had a 61-percent margin of victory. So the culture is turning against Christianity and against the pro-family movement primarily because we've allowed our children to be educated in their schools, " ..." They're converting our children; we're not converting them. "

Okay, let's think about all this for a second. Mr. Moore is admitting that the culture is getting more supportive of our equality, which is refreshingly honest for a "pro-family" personality. But he's suggesting that this turn towards tolerance is a turn away from Christianity, as well as outright blaming this fall away from the "pro-family movement" on public schooling. And he's flat-out admitting that this "will you accept gays?" game is a battle of conversion, with their outside voices of queer rejection necessary in order to replenish their side of "culture war" soldiers. He's also fessing up about their team's need to recruit, even if he's saying that we need to do so as well. But as annoying as these ideas might be, we would suggest that all of these admissions are actually quite good for our side. Here's why:

(1) If they start suggesting more and more that becoming gay-friendly is a fall away from Christianity, they are going to piss off lots of people. For one, they're going to upset the queer-supportive people of the Christian faith who don't see a conflict between their support of LGBT human beings and their relationship for God. For another, they're going to tick off those from other faiths who are not fond of having their own religious views undermined by evangelicals. But even outside of religion, they're also going to open the entire population's eyes to just how fully they wish to govern with faith-based policies. This will only help us make our case against American citizens being free to use their personal faith views to limit the civil rights of others.

(2) By suggesting that kids need to converted in order to become anti-gay, they are helping to show how close-minded this form of bias truly is. Whereas the indoctrination they accuse us of fostering involves open and frank conversation, usually led by educated people (teachers, judges, etc.), they are pushing for a form of TRUE indoctrination that involves one person (whose most important training comes from their own, personal faith views) passing on those same exact views to another and then telling them not to question what they have learned. So essentially they're accusing us of recruiting children through our villages of diverse opinion and background, yet suggesting that the way to end that "indoctrination" is to limit those villages to only like-minded people. No objective person could look at that scenario and deem us the unfair ones!

(3) In suggesting that any sort of "conversion" is needed, they are showing how thoroughly unnatural it is to reject gay people. Sure, kids need guidance about the world and its inhabitants. However, no child is born with dislike for LGBT people. That viewpoint is the unfortunate product of heterosexist society. And by coming right out and saying that their side needs to step in and interject before the support for fairness takes hold, they are again showing just how fully they wish to rule via their own societal myopia.

So we say to Mr. Moore and others: Please, by all means, keep working these ideas. We are, quite unapologetically, trying to convert America's anti-fair conversation into a more pro-equality one. By pushing for an America and a world that is educated and governed by only one certain mindset, the evangelical set is connecting the dots much faster than we ever could.

Christians called to mass exodus from public schools [ONN]

Your thoughts

When I read that statement, I interpreted "them" as meaning us, as in "the pro-equality folk are converting our children, when we should be converting the gays and those who like them." That still shows the untenable position they occupy. GLBTs aren't in need of "fixing", but conversion. It also sort of implies that homosexuality (and pro-equality beliefs) and christianity are on equal footing, if mutually exclusive.

Posted by: JT | Jan 2, 2009 11:49:39 AM

What Mr. Moore doesn't understand (or doesn't want to understand) is that attitudes of our youth is not changing due to indoctrination. In fact the only premeditated attempt at indoctrination of children is coming from his side and his words are nothing less than a call to do just that. The reason younger people are so much more open to gay rights is because they have experienced the truth firsthand. As more and more people have come out, the lies of the Dobson's and LaBarberra's become increasingly difficult to pull off. My children and their friends know better than to believe that gay people are limp wristed, child molesting, perverts who hate God and family. When I was a kid, we didn't. My advice to Mr. Moore is that the trend will continue and your need to stop your lies. If you continue to lie to your children about us, they will see right through it. It will only compromise their trust in you and view of the church. I'm sure you will blame us as you already are, but if the church loses this generation, it will be because of how you compromised your principles to justify discrimination. Not any calculated attempt to indoctrinate people from the gay side.

Posted by: Steve - Geneva, IL | Jan 2, 2009 12:17:31 PM

Yea, I guess the "them" could be either us or the children. But yea, either way, it shows their desire to convert rather than accept.

Posted by: G-A-Y | Jan 2, 2009 12:17:35 PM

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