You Know What Would Be Amazing?

If hypocrisy would just die and never return to life.

From obnoxious neighbors who crank up their music to "Ramones" level (watch Rock and Roll High School-- it's terrific!) and then insist that the complainants are actually the ones making noise, to bigoted anti-gay activists hiring male prostitutes and claiming they did it for rehabilitation (I mean, please, how very Nights of Cabiria), it's clear, however, that hypocrisy is alive and well.

I know it's an older story, but when I first heard about it a week ago, I thought it was best to let it fade. But a week later, we're still hearing about George Rekers, and, quite frankly, it bears constant reminding.

Why is Rekers so intent on making life miserable for people who, apparently, have more guts than he could ever hope? He helped found the Family Research Council, and it is because of people like him, the intellectual equivalent of Anita Bryant, that American civil rights are decades behind where they should be. But, in many ways, Anita Bryant was better than Rekers because Bryant didn't pretend to be anything she wasn't. (Well, knowingly, anyway. She pretended to be loving rather than hateful.) For all the talk there is about gay people wanting to destroy the kingdom of God and recruit children to their sinful ways, it is, in fact, just the opposite. God's kingdom is, from my humble understanding of faith, a kingdom of love for everyone. Men and women telling people they're evil and will go to Hell for it must be just as evil. Didn't Jesus say something about casting stones?

And, by the way, a note on the section of the Bible that most adamantly proclaims that man lying with man is sinful. It comes from Leviticus-- read it if you have doubts-- which is the book that also declares the eating of some animals-- including pigs and shellfish-- to be abomination. It's also the book that dictates the regulations for animal sacrifice. Hey, bigots-- when was the last time you morally refused to eat shrimp? Or when you slaughtered a lamb to the glory of God?