During his speeches, people raise their hands to challenge his assertions that the Bible condemns homosexuality, but no Christians speak out to defend him. But after it is over, they will come over to talk to me and whisper in my ear, I agree with everything you said," says Sprigg, a spokesman for The Family Research Council, a powerful, conservative Christian lobbying group. Weve heard of the down-low gay person who keeps his or her sexual identity secret for fear of public scorn. But Sprigg and other evangelicals say changing attitudes toward homosexuality have created a new victim: closeted Christians who believe the Bible condemns homosexuality but will not say so publicly for fear of being labeled a hateful bigot.
Evangelical Christians say they are the new victims of intolerance - they're persecuted for condemning homosexuality.
As proof, Sprigg points to the backlash that ESPN commentator Chris Broussard sparked recently. Broussard was called a bigot and a purveyor of hate speech when he said an NBA player who had come out as gay was living in open rebellion to God. Broussard said the player, Jason Collins, was living in unrepentant sin because the Bible condemns homosexuality. In the current culture, it takes more courage for someone like Chris Broussard to speak out than for someone like Jason Collins to come out, says Sprigg, a former pastor. The media will hail someone who comes out of the closet as gay, but someone who simply expresses their personal religious views about homosexual conduct is attacked.
When is disagreement hate?
Bryan Litfin, a theology professor at Moody Bible Institute in Illinois, says Christians should be able to publicly say that God designed sex to take place within a marriage between a man and a woman. That isnt so outrageous, Litfin says. Nobody is expressing hate toward homosexuals by saying that. Since when is disagreement the same as hate?
But quoting the Bible doesn't inoculate anyone from becoming a bigot or hater, some scholars say. There's a point at which a Christian's opposition to homosexuality can become bigotry, and even hate speech, they say. Crossing such a line has happened many times in history. A literal reading of the Bible was used to justify all sorts of hatred: slavery, the subjugation of women and anti-Semitism, scholars and pastors say. Truly damaging speech cannot be excused just because it expresses genuine religious belief, says Mark D. Jordan, author of Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality. Some religious beliefs, sincerely held, are detestable. They cannot be spoken without disrupting social peace, says Jordan, a professor at the John Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University in St. Louis.
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When Christians become a 'hated minority' ? CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs
