As a Christian, I think it is expected of me to oppose the legalization of gay marriage. It is an inaccurate expectation, but I have learned to live with it. As a Christian, I have also learned that people, Christians included (especially), speak one thing and often do another.
The It Gets Better Project has been a source of hope to bullied Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual teens since it’s inception in September of 2010. The It Gets Better Project is, itself, about hope. It is about providing a source of light to dark situations in young peoples’ lives.
How sad it is, then, for the founder of It Gets Better Project, Dan Savage, to resort to the same tactics that his Christian critics resort to. I feel like when you believe in something so much that you create a worldwide organization, you have no choice but to follow it’s founding principals to a tee. It’s like a politician running on the “family values” ticket, that politician cannot be out cheating on their spouse. If they do, then they are (usually) cast out of the political circle in shame.
Mr. Savage brings up some solid points, and quite a few flimsy ones in his speech. I’m not writing tonight to debate gay marriage. I am writing because of the very end of the video. He calls out the “pansy-assed” “Bible people” who walked out, and states that he has a right to defend himself. Most certainly he has that very right, however, with his words he has set himself in a position of weakness, because he defies what his organization is about. Not only has he, the founder of an anti-bullying organization, become a bully, he does something even more hurtful to his cause: He creates more of a division by his hostility. Instead of seeking to bridge the divide he wedges us further apart.
There is no question that church is full of hypocrites. There is no question that the church is full of people who claim to love, but have no love for anyone but themselves. Do I expect everyone to hold a higher standard than they? No. I am saddened by the fact that they cannot meet the standard they…we…claim to have. Mr. Savage unfortunately has equally failed to meet his own standard. In pointing out the hypocrisy of others, he has revealed his own.
I suppose the conclusion I draw from this is rather bleak. Here we have a hero for the peace, but from his new-found position of power he derides the peace that he seeks. And that is how it is going to be. Sure, we’ll have our Ghandis, Mother Teresas, and Dr. Martin Luther Kings, but for every one of them, how many Dan Savages and Pat Robertons are going to undermine every good thing that they have done?
I am called to love, and I strive to in everything I do. Isn’t it a pity that two of the main people groups who claim to be so much about love can be so passionately hateful toward each other?
