Don't Create Right-Wing "Victims"

People who display right-wing bigotry just LOVE to play the victim. I found another example of it in this column by Sandy Rios, a host on WYLL, a Christian talk radio station in Chicago. She had condemned the San Diego Padres allowing the San Diego Pride organization to have a block of tickets on the same night as a family event, "Floppy Hat NIght," was scheduled. It was not billed as a "Gay Pride" event like Ms. Rios erroneously stated in her column.

Anyway, she received some negative comments.....and relished every word of them.

Please do us all a favor … get raped and then killed. You rancid, filthy ___.” That’s a direct quote from an e-mail I received after appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

“You are a shameful disgrace and hate monger,” penned another in response to my statement that homosexuality is an unhealthy, life-shortening lifestyle that should not be promoted by the Padres to children.

This woman appears to be a pure homophobe, subscribing to the narrow-minded view that acknowledging the existence of gays and lesbians in "promoting them to the children." Homophobes love being able to portray themselves as victims of those supporting, wait for it, "the homosexual agenda."

Ms. Rios' received further attention for her remarks and went into full martyr mode:

For such “hate” I was named runner up for the “Worst Person in the World” by MSNBC’s Keith Olberman. This kind of vulgarity, exaggeration and the not-so-veiled threats are nothing new to those of us who dare speak the truth to a world turned upside down. Homosexual activists have propagated their deceptive message so effectively that their own community tragically believes they cannot change, they have no choice—and that people who oppose their “choice” hate them.

While I will never enjoy death threats and vulgar accusations, I know they can, at times, be the natural response of evil to truth. Committed Christ-followers for centuries gave their lives rather than be silenced. Can we not bear these comparatively little consequences in our own lost generation? Yes, we can.

You see, responding to these people with hate is like throwing gasoline on a fire. It energizes them and gives them an excuse to claim to the moral high ground. As you can see from Ms. Rios' comments, she spins the situation into her just trying to help save people, but some ingrates were very mean to her.

She also writes:

What does God hate? Religious phonies … liars … deceivers. Jesus drove them from the temple with a whip. He reserved his harshest comments for false teachers … calling them “blind guides … hypocrites … open-throated graves.”

She wrote this about Fred Phelps, but in my opinion it clearly applies to those who preach the type of judgement and condemnation toward the GLBT community that she spews herself.

Please don't e-mail her and tell her that though. It will just encourage her.

Instead, tell GLBT people you know or their friends and/or families who don't accept them as they are that those hateful, bigoted words are not of God, they are from people. God has a place for the GLBT person in His kingdom, and they don't have to stop being GLBT to get there.

Pastor Brenda has taught me that you will not win an arguement with someone like Sandy Rios. Her mind appears to be shut tight on that issue. Don't waste your time with her--save it for someone who needs to hear the true message of God's love and would benefit by receiving it.