I have no words...

[autographedcat]

Speak up, and they'll knock you down. Don't speak up, and they'll still knock you down.

I know the people who need to hear this don't read my journal, but...This what your "family values" have wrought. Look closely, and tell me what your loving god would think of this. And don't you dare turn away. Don't you dare.

http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/conco04122003.htm
(link found via bikergeek)

UPDATE: Another account of the story, this time from the Boston globe.

Please bear in mind that when I talk above about "family values", I'm using the phrase to point at a very specific political group who use the phrase as a code-word. As I said, those people don't read my journal, but I do hold them responsible for the poison they spread and the hatred they breed.

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Regardless of the motive, I am disgusted.

But there's no more than a tenuous connection at the moment, regardless of the beliefs of those issuing the statement.

For now, outrage at the attack is enough.

Re:

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I'd love to find out they were wrong about the motive. I don't have that much faith, however.

*Do* I believe that a certain brand of zealotry masquerading as traditional old-fashioned principles has been poisoning our national conciousness? Yes, I do. And that's why I had the reaction I did.

Love,
-R

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

It ain't what *my* family's values have wrought, but I don't have to tell you that. In all fairness, I doubt it is what most of the supporters of "family values" would value either. Yes, it is partially a result of their attitudes, filtered through a deranged mind -- but the fact is that you can filter nearly *anything* through a deranged mind and come out with violence, and that isn't necessarily the fault of the original opinion. Somebody tried to kill the president when I was ten because he thought he was in love with a teenage movie actress. Somehow the two seemed connected in his mind. I still haven't figured out that one.

My father said once, in response to a critic who claimed that Martin Luther King encouraged violent militants because there were some in his entourage, "He was a leader, and leaders cannot always choose their followers." One would suppose that they can influence their followers, to an extent, and I agree with you that the 'family values' crowd would have to be a lot blinder than I believe of them in order not to realize that some of their followers see their views as reason to beat up innocent kids. I am bending over backwards here to be fair to people who may not deserve it -- but I need to see a *lot* of certainty before I will condemn for violence anyone who has neither personally committed it nor explicitly requested that others do so. Your mileage may vary and I don't think that's wrong of you, I just get a different answer.

Re:

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I realize that too. This was written, obviously, as an emotional reaction.

And like I said, the people who I wanted to say that to don't even read this journal. I'm not talking about average folks. I'm talking about a specific set of people who claim to be one thing and teach another. They're snakes, and they're poisionous, and they don't deserve to be apologized for.

Love,
-R

[(Anonymous)]

I think I have to agree with filkerdave. And with nrivkis. I deeply resent that my
family's values, very different in many ways from traditional values, are just not
thought of as "family values".

There was more in the Boston Globe coverage of this than in the Herald, things which
lead me to think a quick resolution may be forthcoming. I look forward to being proven
right when I see the morning paper.

Ann Onynous.

Re:

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Well, sure, and realize that when I said "family values" above, I was talking about a code word that has been very much in fashion amongst a specific set of people with specific political goals. I probalby should have set quote marks around it to make that clear, and in fact I think I'll edit this post to put them there.

I'd like to see more in depth coverage. I'd like to see whatever lowlife's did this get severely punished for it.

Love,
-R

[poltr1]

I'm trying hard to keep my demand for vengeance in check. As much as I'd like to clobber them with a club with the quote "Hate is not a family value" engraved on it.

Isaac Bonewits had a term for the people you speak of: The Religious Reich.

WWJD? He'd be saddened and angered, and ask "What the **** are you doing in MY NAME?!"

What Would God Say?

[kayshapero]

Assuming the assailant claimed to follow God, maybe something like what Jesus said in Luke 6:45-46 (my thanks to Bible Gateway www.biblegateway.com for the quick lookup of a verse I only vaguely remembered)

45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Come to think of it, anybody familiar with the parable of the good Samaritan would know better than that.

Re: What Would God Say?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

*nod* I hope it's clear that I *don't* believe that all Christians are part of the group I'm condemning above, only the set of people who call themselves Christian and yet behave in a manner that is antithetical to the teaching of that faith. The people who use the bible as a political bludgeon. The ones who tell you that their God is a loving God on one hand and then tell you that He hates gays and will send you to Hell for voting Democrat. That sort of thing.

I have many close friends who are Christian and able to discuss their faith with me in clear and nonprotelytizing conversations which show the depth of their commitment to the teachings of Jesus. I don't include them and people like them in my derision. On the other hand, I think there's a lot of people who, through lack of thought or examination, have let a group of Zealots pervert the church into a political movement, and it doesn't occur to them that this sort of thing is the eventual result. Those are the people I wish would look closely, and look in their hearts and actually consdier what Jesus WOULD do -- not repating a slogan, or what Pat Robertson said on TV last night about it, but consider the history and the narratives about their own religion and consider what a terrible sin has been committed in the name of God.

I seem to be rambling. Sorry, I tend to do that when something strikes me emotionally.

Love,
-R

Re: What Would God Say?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

(The comment on proselytizing up there does bother me just a bit - there IS a requirement to spread the gospel built right into the religion. It is not possible to practice the Christian religion without ever trying to interest others in it too.)

Sure, but you don't have be obnoxious about it, do you? I think most of my Christian friends who I admire for being "non-proselytizing" aren't so much refraining from promoting their religion as they are doing so by setting an example of how they live their life. They're happy to tell you about their faith, and offer advice from it's teaching when they find it appropriate, but also don't feel the need to browbeat people with it or tell them how they are going to hay-ell if they don't mend their ways.

There are things in the faith that I admire, and things I have serious reservations about. Parts of it I downright disagree with. I can make this statement every religous path I have ever encountered in my lifetime.

-R

Re: What Would God Say?

[kayshapero]

It's clear enough - one reason I figured an actual quote would fit into the discussion nicely. (The comment on proselytizing up there does bother me just a bit - there IS a requirement to spread the gospel built right into the religion. It is not possible to practice the Christian religion without ever trying to interest others in it too.) My opinion of this devil's bargain the "religious right" and the Republican party have gotten themselves into is pretty close to yours, however. Christianity works best the further it gets from the government. Or power structures of any sort - that sort of thing is distracting at best. One reason I prefer churches with no heirarchy above the local congregation; the more power positions you get, the more likely you are to have people in them who are interested in power, not what they're supposed to be doing.

Re: What Would God Say?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

By the way, do you read preachermanfeed? If not, I highly recommend it. It's on my must-read list.

-R

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I knew exactly what you meant.

But you know my views on and history with religion and 'family values'. There are doubtless plenty of people I was raised with who would say that girl deserved what she suffered.

A.
trembling

[almeda.livejournal.com]

If you can get your hands on the first-season DVDs of Six Feet Under, there's a wonderful, complex, nuanced gay subplot running through the whole thing. The last .... several eps, the gay very-repressed funeral director character keeps seeing the battered ghost of a boy killed in a gaybashing - who keeps talking to him, embodying the 'yes, but we're all going to hell, you know that. If you were strong enough, you could ask God to take your gayness away' logic, which the characte rin question half believes.

Actually,t here's several recurring ghosts in the series, being wise and enigmatic and never quite saying anything the characters don't already know, deep down inside.