The Contraception Debate: Is Misogyny on the Rise?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 8 March 2012 2 Comments
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Question

A couple of weeks ago, we found two demonstrators across the street from the church as the 11:15 service ended.  They had a giant prop Bible, about six feet tall, on which was printed “The Holy Bible by Jesus.”  They also had their own PA system.  They had a variety of complaints: A Muslim as a guest in the pulpit; marriage equality; the ordination of women.  There was lots of talk of heresy and blasphemy, all delivered with a high degree of anger, venom – and volume.

As you have said, the defense of bigotry is never rational and I wouldn’t expect to be able to have a conversation with these people.  What I don’t understand is that their views on LGBT issues are not really different from those expressed by Kendall Harmon at TitusOneNine and others like him.  Harmon is obviously a highly educated man, with a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University.  His web site proclaims “a passionate commitment to the truth and a desire graciously to refute that which is contrary to it…..”  I’m not sure if a commitment to truth can ignore the witness of the LGBT faithful.  I know you no longer debate LGBT issues.  I don’t blame you.  But I wonder if you can shed any insight as to how both our ignorant demonstrators and many of our highly educated Episcopal/Anglican clergy can hold the same views.

Answer

Dear Bruce,

When prejudices are dying, the last holdouts become more and more angry.  In a nation that honors free speech, I celebrate their right to demonstrate.  I grieve that in the name of Jesus or “biblical truth” anger is normally rampant and rudeness abounds.  However, those are the tactics of the losers.  Kendall Harmon has long been one of the acolytes of a former Southern bishop, now retired, who was probably the most emotional, homophobic bishop I have ever known.  He too has a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford, but was a bitter man prior to his retirement and a destructive person in his retirement.  Both of them are now well past retirement age. Educational achievement does not guarantee either rationality or emotional equilibrium.  I certainly knew people whose racism was off the charts, despite being well educated and competent in every other area of their lives.  They were not capable of change, but when they died their children adapted to a world that their parents could never have embraced.

I worry most about those religious people who believe that “Truth” is somehow their possession.  I see truth as ever unfolding.  Time not arguments will relegate homophobia to the dustbins of history. It is already well on its way there now.  Recall that well into the 20th century, various parts of the Christian Church were still tying the arms of left-handed children behind their backs in an attempt to make them “normal.”  Even today in the 21st century major parts of the Christian Church still treat women as “unfit” by their biology to be priests, bishops, cardinals, popes and pastors in their various congregations.

My advice is that you treat your protestors with kindness as befits a disciple of Jesus, but don’t engage them, even those who sport advanced degrees, for prejudice says more about the prejudiced ones than it says about their apparent grasp on reality.

~John Shelby Spong

 

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