Homophobicphobia
While I'm not sure I can get very far with this loaded phrase, I figured I'd give it a go. A radio station, which shall remain unnamed in order to protect the innocent offered this brief story as their hook this morning.
A "prominent...anti-gay marriage...evangelical leader" has resigned after allegations surfaced that he had paid money for the exact type of activities he apparently stood opposed to. I'd never heard of the man.
But this sort of news, true or not, is exceptionally ripe. It also plays into the popular sterotype that the most adament of "homophobes" are actually in the closet themselves, thus feeding those who suffer from homophobicphobia.
Of course we might dare to ask: does the extent to which Haggard may or may not have been a hypocrite, have any effect whatsoever on this point, as expressed in this AP story: Haggard said that he believed marriage is a union between a man and woman rooted in centuries of tradition, and that research shows it's the best family unit for children.?
I have long been a critic of how the media loves to attack those who take stands on self-proclaimed moral high ground. We just LOVE to see hyprocrisy amongst people we are not fond of...whether it is Al Gore driving an SUV (which of course got very little coverage) or Jimmy Swaggart going to a Prostitute (which got a great deal of coverage). Of course Christian clergy are a HUGE target - especially in the eyes of the media, and perhaps even most people, depending on where you live I suppose.
I think it makes us feel better for our own hypocrisy and it somehow excuses us from having to address the message since we have wiped out the messenger. If we can show that we are all miserable sinners, then we rationalize that there is no need for us to try and stop being miserable sinners. And whenever someone begins to speak about miserable sin, all we need do is point out their miserable sin and then comfortably get back to our own miserable sin - confident that there is no such thing as miserable sin.
It's all rather miserable. Clearly, Haggard - if guilty - has proven that we should allow gay marriage. Y'all clear on that logic? Good.
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Comments
Well, um, yeah. Duh.
Who, in fact, could be a hypocrite save he who has subscribed to some kind of concrete moral code? Certainly the secularist in his Lay-Z-Boy on Sunday morning is being perfectly consistent with his convictions, while the Christian who struggles with emotional availablity and the bottle is often quite contrary to what he professes (and begs God to make reality for him).
Nevertheless, I'll take being a hypocrite. The salvation's in the process of smoothing off rough edges--and there's a lot of time goes by where the scraping is happening, but that edge can still cut...