Editorial February 1st, 2002
By Michael Paré, Toronto ON
Originally published on Toronto Digital Queeries
So which is the bigger oxymoron: a gay christian, or an intelligent open minded Christian? Amazingly neither. Sound strange? It certainly did to us, but not after the recent incident in Lynchburg, Va. Involving the Rev. Jerry Falwell a U.S.A., right wing preacher.
If you don't know who Falwell is, you're either uninformed or unmotivated to read the news every day because he's had his place pretty much reserved in the newspaper for the last 25 years. From bashing homosexuals to suing Hustler Magazine then befriending Larry Flynt, Falwell has been stirring the pot for some time now. Each and every time the conservative right, or as he calls them "The Moral Majority," needs a quote denouncing gay lifestyle, no one is quicker to jump on the pulpit than Falwell.
He'll use terms like "perverts" and "deviants" while pointing to the Good Book and trying not to froth at the mouth. But when you're 66 years old like Falwell, you start to realize people are tired of hearing the same rant, week after week, sermon on top of sermon.
So what did Falwell do? He took a step back for a moment, realized maybe that he didn't quite know what he was talking about when he said every homosexual wanted to melt down the morality or make the world a gayer place. Some of them even wanted to worship the same God Falwell does.
So he invited everyone into his church.. His old friend, the Rev. Mel White, a gay rights advocate, brought 200 gay men and lesbians to the service and something crazy happened. Everyone listened. Falwell talked about how, while he didn't agree with the lifestyle, he realized it just wasn't "Christian" to spew hate anymore. He was going to "love everyone." He was going to take a step forward because he said "evangelicals, Jerry Falwell included, have been too stringent in the condemnation of homosexuals."
So naturally, something else happened. It pissed off the Religious Right something serious. They denounced him, called him a sellout and labeled him "Jerry the Fairy." White also got labeled as a "sell-out" by some in the gay community for meeting with Falwell, which if one knows the history, isn't that far out there.
Jerry Falwell has said some nasty, dumb things in the past. Organized religion is not "a crutch for weak-minded people" as Jesse Ventura says, but religion has been responsible for some bad stuff over the years - namely keeping women and blacks down for as long as possible, or denouncing new ideas that don't fit into the Bible's outline.
But applaud Falwell for taking a small step and White for meeting him halfway. It's likely that Falwell and the rest of the Moral Majority will never become open-minded enough to completely accept people who choose that lifestyle, but at least Falwell is no longer underhandedly encouraging violence towards those who do.
You could argue he should be doing more, but compared to some, it’s a start. And frankly, it’s a long time coming.
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