name-redacted:

anedumacation:

dionthesocialist:

anedumacation:

thusspakekate:

If I weren’t so busy laughing, I’d be very curious how to how golden-notebook proposes that one church singularly gets “mainstream christianity to be less homophobic.” I’d also like to know how you can tell by this billboard that MissionGathering Christian Church doesn’t attempt to rally their troops in support of  LGBTQ rights? It took me 5 minutes of research to find out they attended multiple anti-Prop 8 rallies and organized a candlelight vigil in protest of its passing. Surely protesting is the sort of political action we tumblarinas approve of, isn’t it? Maybe if they had just tried harder they could have actually changed the outcome of the election, but instead they let us all down with their hopey-changing wishy-washy nonsense. 

I mean, there is absolutely no actual good that could come from a Christian organization making a very bold and public show of solidarity with the LGBTQ community, is there?

Especially not in a city where a local pastor says the “solution” to queer people isto lock them inside electrified fences and wait until they died out. I can’t possibly imagine why queer people in this region might be heartened, might be relieved, might even feel a little safer, when they see a conversation about religion and homosexuality that doesn’t threaten violence or eternal damnation. I don’t live that far from Charlotte and I know the state highways around the area very well. Most billboards that mention God around here? They take a more hostile tone. But feeling a little bit safer in your own community, that’s not real enough change, is it?

How dare these people passive-aggresively challenge the dominant discourse on the relationship between Christianity and homosexuality. Why can’t they just make all the other christians less homophobic already! 

EVERYTHING KATE SAID

EVERYTHING

I’m not sure who in this discussion is/isn’t queer, and I certainly hope I’m not overstepping my bounds as a straight person by contributing to this conversation, but the sign does feel a bit like self-promotion on the part of the church, and (again, I don’t know if golden-notebook or Kate is queer, so I’m apologizing again in advance) I can totally see how this might come off as passive-aggressive to queer people. It’s like “Look at us! We’re Christians, but we totally support the gays. Look at how cool we are!” 

Ehhhhh. You can’t be a part of a structure that is actively causing the discrimination and death of LGBT* people and start buying Billboards to advertise (keep in mind, this is an advertisement for their church) how accepting you are.

Kate’s queer, I don’t know about golden-notebook.

Christianity and the church ain’t going anywhere, especially in a place like Charlotte. I fucking love that there are people who want to make the church more inclusive.

Like, I think there’s a perspective issue here; imagine being a queer person who was raised in the church, who comes from a conservative christian background; who has heard their whole lives that homosexuality is a sin; that showing liberal views towards homosexuality is the mark of a degenerate society, and that holding fast and firm against queer people is one of the only ways to DEFEND Christian America against decay. 

When you live in a place, when you come from a culture that has, in the last forty years, revitalized itself by doubling down on gays and women and liberals — when you live in a place where you and people like you are constantly under attack, when you have family members calling you up to tell you that you’re going to hell, when whole parts of your community have cut you off because of who you are, when you’ve lost that spirit of communion, that feeling of connection to your fellow church-goers because they no longer wish to associate with you….  

when you live in such a repressive, soul-deadening place…

and you find a group of people that can give you back something of what you lost, without requesting that you deny who you are, as price of admission

how is that not something to celebrate??

Jesus, not every queer person wants to throw everything from the past away. Not every queer person is radical. Christianity may be an institutionally repressive, inherently fucked ideology — there are plenty of liberal-minded people who don’t give a shit, and just want to find comfort in the church. The pain of being rejected is that much more poignant if you still love elements of the old religious environment you used to have — this offers those people a chance to reclaim something that they loved.

I mean, I’m not a Christian, and I’m from an extremely liberal family. More than that; I was raised in the Northeast, where its rude to talk about religion in public, and where most religious people I know are ardently pro-gay rights. (And most religious people I know aren’t Christian, to think of it). I wasn’t raised religious, and part of the reason why I wasn’t raised a Hindu was because my family felt alienated by the conservative worldview of most in our community. If we found a temple that embraced those who are different? That made a space for queer Hindus? That didn’t spend all its time hating on Muslims and Christians? That might draw us back in, man.

And like, if you’re queer, and this sign pisses you off……. oh well! It makes a difference to other queer people, and that means something. 

I don’t know. I just don’t get why this is an issue, tbh. The minor sin of loud, brash self-promotion (and I don’t see why that’s wrong) is so massively outweighed by the good these people are doing. *shrug*

Ok wait … let me get this straight.

So, JC Penney publish an ad showing two handsome, white, able bodied men playing with two good looking (mixed race) kids in every magazine and on every billboard nation wide to flog their shitty fathers day socks and tie sets, and that’s a beautiful, tear jerking moment of queer equality.

A Church puts up a handful of signs in their local area, directly - and publicly - offering their condolences to the queer community in general and that’s just horrible, tacky self promotion. Hell, they’re not even really offering their condolences, they’re apologising on behalf of their own kind. If you’ll notice, the largest word on that billboard is SORRY, while the churches name is one of the smallest bits of writing on the billboard.

And at no point are they distancing themselves from Christianity or other churches, they specifically acknowledge that it was narrow minded religious bigots who passed the law. That’s more than many within the Queer community are doing.

Furthermore, there was and still is a general sentiment of “Fuck, my home state betrayed me,” amongst the Queer Community here in NC the night the amendment passed, especially in those who are also Christian. So, I see this ad trying to genuinely reach out to those who may feel like there’s no place left within the Christian Community and the place a lot of us thought of as home.

Let’s be real, judging by the results of the Amendment One vote, one church’s actions weren’t going to change a damn thing, the vote passed by a significant margin, but at least this church is trying to do something. Publicly announcing their support for the community and renouncing those who use their religion as reason to deny others rights is a huge fucking deal for anyone in NC right now.