Collateral Damage

Children of the Westboro Baptist church will lead abnormal lives. Homosexuals are still beaten to death strictly for their choice of romantic partner.

To moderate religious folks, these victims are simply collateral damage.

To spread nonviolent discrimination, you've gotta break some eggs.

I understand you genuinely believe that the collection of stories you frequently read are largely factual, but because they can't be proven, why not play it safe and purge the portions that result in the destruction of actual lives?

We're not talking about praying at a high school football game or publicly displaying a sign that reads, "Thou Shall Not Steal." We're talking about genuine lives.

Christians often debate whether non-violent Muslims contribute to terrorism by remaining silent. These same Christians never examine the roll their behavior plays in the persecution of homosexuals.

They're horrified when they see footage of folks jumping for joy in the streets of Pakistan after a terrorist attack kills scores of civilians. Then they curse American Muslims for failing to condemn both the attack and the exuberant celebration. But do they speak up after a hate crime is committed against the homosexual on their block? Or do they stay silent, only approaching the topic around people with whom they're comfortable joking, "Even though the Bible says homosexuality is wrong, I still wouldn't welcome a butcher of gays into my home... Not 'till he wiped the diseased blood off his shoes!"

Violence against homosexuals happens in every corner of the world, yet we rarely hear American Christians speak out against this particular form of global terrorism. American Christians also said nothing when the Pope argued that homosexuals are as great a threat to the planet as global warming.

Many Christians believe Muslims in Michigan wouldn't themselves slaughter infidels, yet consider blown up hotels in other parts of the world necessary to spread their faith. However I don't recall these same Christians marching down Main Street protesting the treatment of gays in notoriously homophobic Jamaica.

Everywhere homosexuals travel, they must be on guard due to a global anti-gay culture your religion promotes, whether by literature or silence.

Bullied male children who "act feminine" sometimes do the unthinkable because they can't bear another day of the same.

The stories are endless...

A school bus driver was arrested for calling a 10-year-old boy "gay" and then encouraging older students to chase the boy down after he got off the bus. The older kids followed the advice of their elder. Not satisfied with tiny fists, the bus driver joined in.

Brothers strolling down the street were beaten, one later died, because overeager homophobic murderers mistook them for a gay couple.

What's the difference between you and the Muslim who unemotionally sets down the newspaper after reading horrific details of a terrorist attack and then asks, "What's for dinner?"

Absolutely nothing; you both view the recently deceased as collateral damage.

If a fellow follower asks you, "Wasn't the most recent terrorist attack tragic?" do you respond, "It depends, what was the sexual orientation of the victims?"

I'm not saying all Christians and Muslims are insensitive louts. I am claiming, however, that only people without religion are guaranteed to loudly condemn every brutal act against the innocent. You all should do the same, regardless of what's written on the thin-pages of the book you've spent years coloring yellow. Occasionally you may want to read the words that don't make your insides feel warm and cozy, because those un-highlighted sections will keep brutality a part of our world forever.