Who's Offended Now?

Displaying tolerance in the face of bigotry is a trying if not impossible task.  Someone is always taking offense at something.  Recently, the Catholic Church has taken offense at an ad campaign started by the Italian fashion company, Benetton.  Their ad campaign shows various enemies kissing.  The fashion campaign is called UnHate.  The firm withdrew one faked image featuring Pope Benedict kissing Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb after the Vatican filed suit against Benetton. 


As a means of giving a little background to the following discussion of religious motivated bigotry, I want to clarify that I support the freedom of religion.

As a skeptic/non-believer, I want to support and protect the freedoms of religion and expression.  And I think the best protector of these freedoms is a secular government.

I agree that it isn't wise to provoke offense if you are trying to win over hearts and minds.  But you must also recognise that there are people who are dedicated enemies of the LGBT community.  And there is literally nothing gays could ever possibly do to win them over.  This fact, in part, explains the in-your-face attitude and the commonly seen slogan, "We're here, we're queer. Get used to it."  Part of reason gays "act out" is because people want them to feel ashamed of themselves.  In deed, it is perhaps the shamelessness of their behavior that makes it so offensive to some.  Liberating themselves means shedding the feeling of shame that has, for so long, kept them in the closet.

We never expect heterosexual people to feel ashamed of their sexual orientation nor apologize for their overt sexual behavior in public when it happens, but then again heterosexuals aren't persecuted because of their sexual orientation are they.

And like you, I think some LGBT activists go too far.  Homosexual nudity and displays of overt homosexual behavior should be kept in the privacy of a bedroom or perhaps, forgive me, a closet.  Those obnoxious activists should realize just how utterly offensive such overt behavior is to those who hate them.  Oh, yeah, I forgot.  They are aware.

Offense, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

I'm not saying that I think people should be allowed to act out sexually in public.  Little innocent kids, at least, should be protected form seeing it.  And there are existing laws against "lewd" behavior in public for just that reason.  And although, there is nothing inherently "wrong" in sexual behavior, I think it is right to enforce such laws to protect kids.

Atheists and the LGBT community actually have a lot in common.  They share a common enemy that is manifest in the ever so commonly encountered religious motivated bigotry.  Atheists also report having difficulties "coming out" to family and friends just like gays do.

There is a hazard in criticizing any particular belief system in an open forum.  I don't want to foster or spread religious bigotry.   When I criticize a particular religion in public I like to make sure that the criticism is as specific as possible.  It is easy to overgeneralize.  There always exceptions to  any generalization, so I try my best to narrow and qualify my statements.

My mentor in the area of skepticism is a virtual atheist named ZipZink, who has repeated warned me about labeling myself an atheist.  He says that the word is nearly always misunderstood and that it is almost always better to refer to oneself as an agnostic.  One of ZipZink's favorite saying is, "It is not what we believe but what we know that really matters."  He constantly warns me about overstating things especially when I approach a topic with feelings of certainty.   He's much wiser than I am.

If you are to believe the lies told by some "God fearing" Christians,  the gays are out to recruit your kids and Atheists have no morals because they hate and reject God.  Personally, I don't take offense at such expressions of ignorance but I do recognise how dangerous such nonsense can be.  I just hope that maintaining the freedom of speech will be enough to combat such stupidity.