Conservative Christians may be corrupt — but that’s OK because liberal Christians are worse.
So suggests antigay activist Peter LaBarbera in a press release that is subtitled “Says ‘Greatest Corruption to Religion’ Comes from Left, Not Right.”
LaBarbera is an ally of Warren Throckmorton and Exodus, which promoted this press release. Politics do make for strange bedfellows: According to PFLAG Detroit and former exgay Wade Richards, LaBarbera has kept large volumes of gay pornography in his office and published graphic descriptions of fellatio, masturbation, and S&M in his antigay newsletter The Lambda Report.
Given his personal moral liabilities, it is surprising that LaBarbera so boldly indulges in moral relativity. He argues that it is the gay Catholic reform movement Rainbow Sash that “stoops to a new low by using the Sunday Mass as a platform for advancing a sinful lifestyle.” LaBarbera overstates his case for righteous moral relativism when he accuses Catholic parishioners of “disrupting church services” by merely wearing a rainbow-colored ribbon. And he falls again upon his own moral relativism when he calls the Rainbow Sash movement “left-wing.”
A more objective examination finds that Rainbow Sash is temperamentally conservative: It is hostile to Soulforce, it rejects progressive political entanglements, and it affirms the bulk of Catholic teaching.
LaBarbera’s press release runs out of pertinent but inaccurate accusations, and ventures off-topic to complain about the “homosexual activism” that is allegedly implicit in the mere existence of gay couples in the news and in schools.