See, this is why I keep telling Millennial Evangelicals that all the winsomeness in the world won’t make them love you. There is no way in the eyes of many LGBT folks and their allies to hold dissenting views in good faith. You may believe that it is wrong to reduce gay people to their sexual desires, and thus to dehumanize them, but many of them believe it is “justice” to reduce orthodox Christians and other moral traditionalists to their beliefs about homosexuality, and to judge them accordingly.
Slate‘s resident gay hysteric Mark Joseph Stern, who could find the homo-hate in a box of Raisinets, is glad the Mets lost the world series, because, yep, Ha-a-a-a-a-te!. The Mets’ Daniel Murphy is a Christian who does not morally approve of homosexuality, and once said so in a fairly modest, irenic way, quoted here by Stern:
I disagree with his lifestyle. I do disagree with the fact that Billy is a homosexual. That doesn’t mean I can’t still invest in him and get to know him. I don’t think the fact that someone is a homosexual should completely shut the door on investing in them in a relational aspect. Getting to know him. That, I would say, you can still accept them but I do disagree with the lifestyle, 100 percent.
… Maybe, as a Christian, that we haven’t been as articulate enough in describing what our actual stance is on homosexuality. We love the people. We disagree the lifestyle. That’s the way I would describe it for me. It’s the same way that there are aspects of my life that I’m trying to surrender to Christ in my own life. There’s a great deal of many things, like my pride.
Plainly, the Mets home run king is Babe Hitler.
Seriously, though, here is a Christian who has a moral objection to homosexuality, but who says nobody, least of all himself, is perfect, and he is willing to reach out and befriend gays. That’s not good enough for Stern, who demands that Murphy be punished. Why? Because he’s a killer. Stern remarks:
Every year, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gay and bisexual kids kill themselves precisely because they are pummeled with homophobic ideas like these. Some overdose on their parents’ pills; some slit their wrists; some hang themselves or put bullets in their brain. LGB kids are between two and four times more likely to try to kill themselves than straight kids. Every episode of LGB victimization, including verbal harassment, increases the likelihood of self-harm 2.5 times on average, according to the CDC.