{"id":9665,"date":"2015-03-28T10:04:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T14:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=9665"},"modified":"2015-03-28T10:04:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T14:04:09","slug":"hatred-cant-be-justified-by-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=9665","title":{"rendered":"Hatred can’t be justified by faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was wrong to use the word of God to discriminate 160 years ago, and it’s wrong now<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"UTMikeColLogo\"<\/a>We live in an increasingly extreme world. The Internet, for all of it\u2019s blessings, tends to confirm the fictional, outlandish and wacky as truths, when anything like a careful analysis of facts would shred them into little more than a cloud of dust.<\/p>\n

One day, you may hear from someone, despite clear scientific evidence to the contrary, that immunization is dangerous for children, that genetically-altered foods are hazardous or that global warming is a myth.<\/p>\n

Or that being gay is some sort of a lifestyle choice \u2014 like owning a time share or something.<\/p>\n

And while those rather nonsensical claims are taken as a matter of faith with some, it may be more concerning that religious faith is again being used as a reason to propagate hatred and discrimination and even killing, whether it be the bloody towns of northern Iraq where ISIL tortures and kills those unwilling to subscribe to an extreme form of Islam, to a state legislature and governor in Indiana legally endorsing discrimination against gay people and, now a local pastor, a man who should be a community leader, advocating against creation of a group to support gay students in the Coatesville Area School District.<\/p>\n

One can almost express little surprise in terms of Indiana, well, because it is Indiana.<\/p>\n

One might think though, that here in Chester County, cradle of the Underground Railroad, home to thriving African-American communities for hundreds of years, folks here would be wise enough, compassionate enough to know their history and how wrong it is to use religious faith as an excuse to discriminate against others.<\/p>\n

Maybe worst of all, it is the abject arrogance of claiming to divine the mind of God \u2014 to judge when The Bible makes it abundantly clear that is not the place of mortals to make such judgments.<\/p>\n

Such mortals claiming to know God\u2019s will have been using religion to justify hatred and worse for far too long now:<\/p>\n

“[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God…it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation…it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.”<\/span>\u2014Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, using religion to justify slavery.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAlmighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.\u201d<\/span>
\n\u2014 Judge Leon M. Bazile, January 6, 1959, using religion to justify segregation.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou really don\u2019t understand what decision you just made because God is not pleased,\u201d said Pastor Randall Harris<\/strong> said this week to the Coatesville Area School District Board of Education, after it approved the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance at Coatesville Area High School. According our Kyle Carrozza, Harris said that God punished Sodom and Gomorrah for their actions, so the board should take careful consideration of its vote. He asked the board to take the vote off the table.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seeing a real difference there? Me either.<\/p>\n

Folks in the city and school district are often afraid to speak out against a powerful man of God such as Pastor Harris, though, so such words of hate, wrapped in the veneer of religion, often go without comment. They shouldn\u2019t and they cannot.<\/p>\n

And make no mistake \u2014 I\u2019m in no way arguing that Harris isn\u2019t entitled to his point of view, his faith and to decide how he wants to live his life and even preach his word. I\u2019m not arrogant enough to claim to know the right answer, to know the mind of God \u2014 I know only enough to decide what\u2019s right for me and I choose love and acceptance of others.<\/p>\n

What I am arguing is that Harris has no right to insinuate faith \u2014 his version of faith \u2014 on everyone else. If he wants to make his case from the pulpit, so be it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s wrong legally: the freedom of religion phrase in the U.S. Constitution makes it clear that government doesn\u2019t get to sanction discrimination against gays because some Christians feel it is wrong, any more than it gets to ban hamburgers because Hindus feel eating beef is wrong.<\/p>\n

But the bigger argument is morality, to my mind. Discrimination is wrong \u2014 whether for color, creed or sexual orientation. We are all people and we all deserve love and support.<\/p>\n

In this case, a Gay Straight Alliance \u2014 as exists at many other Chester County high schools \u2014 is a refuge for teens struggling with basic identity issues. Many have been targeted for bullying and abuse, even by their own families. A GSA benefits both these teens and teaches straight kids to see people as individuals, not by some label, to learn and love and not judge. This is clearly a lesson that a lot of adults need to learn.<\/p>\n

I give the school district and Board of Education credit for standing up and voting to do the right thing, the thing that sends a message to all of its students that they are valued and cared for equally.<\/p>\n

Hate and discrimination? I have no tolerance for it \u2014 especially from those who should know better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was wrong to use the word of God to discriminate 160 years ago, and it’s wrong now By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times We live in an increasingly extreme world. The Internet, for all of it\u2019s blessings, tends to confirm the fictional, outlandish and wacky as truths, when anything like a careful analysis of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,7],"tags":[187,5263,5537,5627],"class_list":["post-9665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-coatesville-area-school-district","tag-discrimination","tag-gay-straight-alliance","tag-randall-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9667,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9665\/revisions\/9667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}