I remember eight years ago well. I remember four years ago much more vividly. It was the first time that the votes of others felt like a personal attack on me. As an LGBT person, there was much at stake. We anticipated, rightly so, that the fate of millions of same-sex relationships would be decided in some manner by the election. Even though it was ultimately the Supreme Court that decided marriage equality was the law of the land, the political climate was definitely influenced by the President.
When Obama was running against Romney, I didn’t think the division between conservatives and liberals could get any deeper. Four years later, we find ourselves as a nation at war with itself. Again. This time though, it feels as though we’re on the precipice of another civil war. A civil war between decency and filth. Integrity and dishonesty. Liberty and dictatorship.
What I find frustrating is the inconsistency of many of the conservatives I know. For years now, they’ve ran on the platform of Christian family values. To me it’s always seemed a little tongue-in-cheek since every week it seems one is involved in a sex scandal (often gay) or they’re prosecuted for crimes. But they talked the talk, even if they couldn’t walk the walk. Then as soon as a most un-Christlike man wins the GOP nomination, a man who has cheated on every wife he’s had (three to date), suddenly family values isn’t that important in a candidate. Apparently, neither is Christianity, since there isn’t a shred of evidence that Trump aspires to be a Christian.
Today I unfollowed a long-time friend of mine on Facebook. She and I went to high school together; she was one of my best friends. We each went off to a Christian college. She married a youth pastor and they have a few children. The other day, she posted an anti-Clinton article. This piqued my curiosity, so I looked back at all of her posts for the month of October. There were several denouncing Clinton (a Methodist who has been married to one man for many years), a couple of posts about supporting 3rd party candidates, but not one single post in criticism of Trump. Trump mocked a disabled man, bragged about sexually assaulting women, is going on trial for rape in December, cheated on every wife he’s had…none of that is deserving of a word of criticism? None of that raises the eyebrow of a pastor’s wife? She’s really more concerned about a non-existent email scandal?
This is my biggest issue of this election. Conservatives want to be viewed as the moral authority of this country. They believe that all United States citizens should adhere to their belief system, that our nation’s laws should reflect their beliefs. They want to repeal civil rights for gay and lesbian citizens because of their “sinful lifestyle.” And yet, they can’t even bring themselves to call out a racist sexual predator who mocks the disabled when he’s running for the highest office in the land.
Take a stand against sin, fine. But it had better be all sin, regardless of who commits it. Your picking and choosing the sins you speak out against to fit your agenda is reprehensible. I don’t have any respect for you. Your religion is a charade. You have no authority, moral or otherwise, to speak to me about sin because you have no integrity.
Words and Pictures 