Rage, rage against the dying of the light (of sanity)

Unfortunately, Pastor Charles Worley is not just the lunatic fringe. He may be one of the few crazy enough to publicly call for the murder (or as they see it, execution) of homosexuals; but that is the outcome that will undoubtedly be produced by giving more power to those who think religion should be the foundation of government.

Whatever you think of the Huffington Post, the following excerpt sums up what I've been having to point out more often recently.

"You can wrap your theological position in all the 'speaking the truth in love' or 'hate the sin, love the sinner' rhetoric you want, but if you hold the idea that affirming homosexuality will lead to the destruction of societal 'norms' then you had better claim the other side: anti-homosexuality rhetoric will lead to the death of human beings because they are gay."

I'm not crazy about Bruce Reyes-Chow's writing style, but his points are all valid. Among them, there will be those who do not necessarily believe in rounding up and killing gay people (at least not the ones THEY know and love), but they will not speak up against it; giving their consent through their silence.

Worse yet, there will be a lot of "the bible tells me so" types thinking Worley is on the right track. A recent chain of exchanges I had with one right-winger friend-of-a-friend here on Facebook made that abundantly clear.

The Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan: when you come right down to it, they all had the same root--religion as a weapon. In each case, the populace consented either outright, or by their silence.

America is not immune. In fact, the country is more vulnerable now to having angry, fearful people blindly following those who prey on that anger and fear than it has been since the 1950's. They will do it never looking beyond the campaign speeches to what the ultimate outcome of the policies they endorse will be.

To be clear, this is not an attack on the religious or Republicans. There is plenty of evidence you can be either (and perhaps even both) without being hateful or instigating violence. There is also plenty of evidence that you can be an atheist or Democrat, and still be an asshole.

This is a wake up call for those who thus far refused see where the right wing aims to take us as a nation. This is a call for those who believe in otherwise reasonable Republican ideology to speak up and demand that their candidates, clergy, talk show hosts, etc. not only distance themselves from the kind of venomous ideas Worley spews, but to condemn them.  All those with public voices who do not may be considered to endorse those ideas.