365Gay.com reports a bomb scare at a Lutheran school near Cleveland. It was evacuated after a caller threatened to blow up the school unless the pastor announced on TV that he supported gay marriage. No bomb was found.
A parent, understandably shaken but making a misguided generalization, spoke afterward:
“It’s a shame that if someone has a disagreement on doctrine, that they wouldn’t be more tolerant,” Linda Krecic, parent, says. “They would want tolerance on their end, and to threaten children is just unthinkable.”
Of course, she is right – terrorism, including threatening children, is unthinkable. But the “they” who work for tolerance and civil rights for glbt folks deplore terrorism, in the same fashion that pro-life Christians deplore murder.
My heart goes out to you, Ms. Krecic. I’m so glad your child is safe. Perhaps we can all pull together to make the world a safer place.
One might seriously cry for Ms. Krecic, subject of a fake bomb report from who knows who? For all one knows, the fake bomb report may have come from an anti-gay activist, in an attempt to smear gay people. There are so many of them….
One should really cry for those who are actually bashed in their public schools because they are, or are perceived to be, gay or lesbian, but whose stories are not collected by the federal government because Dr. Frist, head of the Radical Republicans in the US House of Representatives, refused to authorize collection of anti-gay bashings in public schools throughout the nation. Dr. Frist, he of the Hypocritical Oath.
I cry for Ms. Krecic’s predicament. I really do…not.
“They would want tolerance on their end, and to threaten children is just unthinkable.”
The accusation that those who advocate tolerance for gays and lesbians are somehow “intolerant” was a sort of buzz phrase that the dishonest right was pushing about a year ago. Several editorials, and letters to editors, appeared across the country with the idea, political discussion lists all of a sudden were places it showed up.
It ran something like this “Those who advocate tolerance are themselves guilty of being intolerant of those they disagree with. They want to force their tolerance on us.”
This idea, one the dishonest right was floating, had its little run and then disappeared. This seems to be a shadow of it. Perhaps this individual had read such editorials or letters to the editor, or the idea had shown up in a sermon.
Of course the problem is that no one is forcing anything on anyone — America remains a remarkably free country. One is not forced to believe any particular thing and one is allowed to worship, associate, and even (in the purely private realm and in private organizations) to discriminate, as one wishes. Futhermore those advocating tolerance are, in the vast majority of cases, using legitimate public means to do so. So this generatlization, as noted, is grossly unfair.
However, if I were reacting to a bomb threat to my children I would not be talking in abstract terms about the intolerance of those who advocate tolerance. It just strikes me as odd and I wonder why she choose to say this particular thing.
Mike says:But the “they” who work for tolerance and civil rights for glbt folks deplore terrorism, in the same fashion that pro-life Christians deplore murder.
Pro-life Christians oppose murder? Reallly? Guess I had thought that the Paul Hills of the movement had widespread support. Yet I am not aware of any gay male group that endorses violence. Which makes me very skeptical about this whole situation. Really suspect this is a blame the gays situation.
Many pro-life Catholics oppose capital punishment.
It is part of a seemless garment argument.
One should give credit where credit is due.
By the way there are also pro-life gays.
I didn’t say anything about pro-lifers deploring anything. Steve B. wrote the message. 🙂
But I agree with what Steve said, up to appoint: Pro-lifers do oppose murder. But all too often, pro-life political groups discard the pro-life ethic on issues such as capital punishment, violence against women, and violence in the schools.