Hateful Speech and Bigotry

Ladies and gentlemen, comrades, brothers and sisters... I write for a small but prestigious student newspaper at San Diego State University. I love journalism and appreciate opportunities to take advantage of my freedom of speech via the occasional opinion column. Recently (Really recently. Yesterday, in fact.), I was extremely proud to work on the student paper. Our Valentine's Day issue came out, and it was all about promoting equal rights for people in the LGBT community. I wrote a little essay about the AFA's attempt to get JC Penney to fire Ellen Degeneres. If you haven't heard the story, it's equally sad and inspirational. It's sad that a hate group like the AFA would attempt to impose it's religious agenda on our nation through attempts to bully or intimidate businesses who support LGBT rights, but the story was inspirational because JC Penney refused to be intimidated and stood by their decision to keep Degeneres as a spokesperson.

After the paper was published, this message was (anonymously) sent to the offices of the newspaper:

Hi,

I was just wondering where I could complain to about the Valentines day issue? I'm sure you get tons of bigots complaining, but if you could forward this to someone who cares, I'd appreciate it :)

Here are some responses to the bigoted, hateful attack on Christians and their beliefs:

"The greatest form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal" - Aristotle's Axiom

Calling sin "love" doesn't make it love. Nor does calling gay marriage a "basic human right" make it a basic human right. I'm an ISCOR major, I know human rights. Marriage isn't even a "human right" its a God-given right. And any deviation from the way God has set up marriage is not "marriage". Read Galatians 5.

"Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter." Isaiah 5:20

Why won't those bigoted, hyper-conservative, narrow minded, hateful Christians just stop hating on the "inevitable overturn of traditional marriage" and stop trying to push their religious beliefs on others and just realize that Jesus' message was one of love and we need to embrace the perversion of others (oops I mean "love") and support gay marriage?
Here's why. http://www.sdrock.com/messages/2008-02-10/

What's really sickening to me about the attack of the Daily Aztec is that its on Saint Valentine's day. If you know the history behind this day, you'll realize how ironic this attack on Christians is. Here's a summary of what happened to Bishop Valentine: "Valentinus was arrested again for continuing to serve Jesus and was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to lead Claudius to Jesus, whereupon Claudius refused and condemned Valentinus to death. Commanding that Valentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs, and beheaded. Valentinus refused and Claudius' command was executed outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14, 269."

The legend goes that he married Christian couples, which was a crime to help any of those "insane" Christians who believed in such absurd things as absolute morality and that marriage is between one man and one woman only. Such absurd notions were not to be tolerated in the Roman empire, and many Christians died for their faith. That's where we get the modern holiday of Valentines day from.

Anybody else see the Ironic parallel? In these days in the Roman empire, marriage was under attack in the same way it is today. and Christians stood for "traditional" (which is another word for"biblical" in this case) marriage, and were persecuted for it. Christians in the Roman days refused to recognize homosexual marriage as well, and were attacked for it.

That's what I find disgusting about this issue. On the day named for Christians who died for their beliefs, the Daily Aztec has the bigoted ignorance to insult and degrade Christians for their beliefs. These kinds of people are the modern, civilized equivalent of the people who beat the early Christians to death for the exact same beliefs.
Nothings changed since the 4th century. Christians are still the only ones going against the grain and calling sin what it is- sin. And Christians are still persecuted and hated (which is ironic because that is exactly what they accuse Christians of doing) for it, only in a less violent way.

Thanks for reading,
A liberal SDSU student who doesn't buy into the stereotypical college ultra-liberal hate speech against Christians

Here is my response:

A response to a concerned reader…

I’m sorry that you were so offended by the Valentine’s Day issue. Perhaps you aren’t aware that the student body at SDSU is highly diverse, and that there are many people who do not share your Bible-based viewpoints.

First of all, your insistence that homosexuality is a “sin” and that sin doesn’t equal “love” is noted. Your Bible is absolutely clear on the topic of homosexuality, and condemns it repeatedly. Unfortunately, most human beings do not recognize the authority of your Bible, or the monopoly that you have on the correct interpretation of scripture. Your instruction to read Galatians 5 is going to seem pretty egocentric and ridiculous to students who don’t share your faith. Like I said, this is a diverse student body.

The gay community exists in contradiction to your assertion that sin doesn’t equal love. Maybe a quick look at the dictionary can give us a definition of love to work with:

love [luhv]: noun. A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

You know, I think that I can safely say that there are a lot of gay people who fit this description.

As far as Aristotle’s axiom goes, I think we can assume that the inverse is also true. It’s a great injustice to attempt to make equal things unequal. I’m sure that you can agree. Basing the decision to deny marriage rights to citizens based on religious discrimination is not only immoral and unethical, but it’s illegal. You may have heard the wheels of progress rolling along in recent legal decisions regarding Prop 8. Marriage is a human-rights issue. It is an issue (Now pay attention here. I don’t want to lose you.) relating to the rights of humans. Hence, human-rights issue. I hope you followed me there. If not, re-read it a few times and we’ll be on the same page.

Here, I’ll wait while you re-read it.

All caught up? Okay, let’s continue.

It’s interesting that you insist that the writers and editors at The Daily Aztec are bigoted. Bigotry insinuates intolerance towards others and a stubborn adherence to one’s own prejudices. The staff of The Daily Aztec isn’t doing that. We are collectively celebrating the inherent beauty that is present in the multiplicity of ideas and practices related to the expression of love between human beings. You will not find anyone on the staff of The Daily Aztec who would attempt to take away another human being’s rights for any reason. You should be more aware of your word choices.

Nobody is saying that you, in your closed-minded religious fervor, have an obligation to embrace anyone’s lifestyle choices. All we are doing is exercising our right to celebrate what we see as a form of human solidarity and excellence.

It is highly ironic that you would bring up Saint Valentine, who allegedly died for his belief that people should be free to get married no matter what the current government might have to say about it.

You keep mentioning “biblical” or “traditional” marriage. I wrote a column about “traditional” values. You should read it. It’s brilliant and insightful. Also, Leonardo’s story was pretty fantastic. I digress. I thought that the following infograph might help to clarify any misconceptions about “biblical” marriage values.

Your inflammatory claim that the writers at The Daily Aztec are the “modern, civilized equivalent of the people who beat the early Christians to death” is frankly one of the stupidest things that I have ever read. You must be a special kind of simpleton to equate the publishing of a few articles and images you don’t like with being stoned to death. Fortunately, things have changed since the 4^th century. Nobody will stone you to death for making “heretical” claims, and journalists will defend your right to freedom of speech, enabling you to continue making idiotic, baseless claims against good and decent people.

In conclusion, the Valentine’s Day edition of The Daily Aztec did not oppress or persecute you in any way, shape, or form. Furthermore, while you do have every right to express your indignation, it is important for you to recognize one important, indisputable truth: It is within our rights to offend you, and I am proud of my fellow writers, editors, photographers, and graphic designers for the fantastic work that they did on today’s paper.

Best,

Kenneth Leonard

Staff Writer (ultra-liberal, Bible-bashing, gay-loving bigot)

The Daily Aztec