Janet Mefferd. I haven't mentioned her here yet, but she seems to be one of the more out-there bigots in a population known for its lack of acquaintance with rational thought. This little screed is so patently ridiculous that one begins to think she's doing satire -- except I suspect she doesn't understand satire at all.
The moral issue here, as far as I can see it, is the tendency to portray other human beings as abstractions, to remove their humanity so that one can safely treat them as objects. And the idea that anyone has a "right" not to have to see something that might be offensive -- which is a growing trend among self-styled "Christians," although seldom so baldly stated -- is ludicrous. It's part of the attempt to cast criticism of their nastiness as a violation of their right to free speech. Sorry -- no one has a right not to be offended.
The scary part is that people actually listen to her. Without laughing, I mean. What's even scarier is that some of them think this kind of word salad actually makes sense.
Oh, and Ms. Mefferd? "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out."
“Everything is so upside down in our society now and right and wrong have completely switched where what is really wrong is to say you shouldn’t have two boys allowed to go to the high school prom.
“Now we can get into a big issue of the public schools are morally bankrupt at this point and we all ought to exit and just let them, let them do their thing, and that may be the ultimate answer; on the other hand, I feel for these Christian kids who are in a prom or kids who are at this high school who say, ‘you know something, do we have to go down this road?’
She went on to suggest that some Christians would not want to see gay couples, and asked why gay rights should “trump” the rights of Christians not to have to, reports Right Wing Watch.
“Whether the homosexual activists like it or not, and I know this isn’t politically correct to say this, but not everybody wants to see that. I know that that’s offensive to the activist crowd, they want us all to see it, they want us all to approve of it, they want us all to call it blessed and okay and rejoice and have parties and throw confetti in the air over this whole thing. But the fact of the matter is it’s a moral issue.”
The moral issue here, as far as I can see it, is the tendency to portray other human beings as abstractions, to remove their humanity so that one can safely treat them as objects. And the idea that anyone has a "right" not to have to see something that might be offensive -- which is a growing trend among self-styled "Christians," although seldom so baldly stated -- is ludicrous. It's part of the attempt to cast criticism of their nastiness as a violation of their right to free speech. Sorry -- no one has a right not to be offended.
The scary part is that people actually listen to her. Without laughing, I mean. What's even scarier is that some of them think this kind of word salad actually makes sense.
Oh, and Ms. Mefferd? "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out."
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