Phil Robertson DOES deserve wrath ["Rush: 'Mock outrage' behind 'Duck Dynasty' firing"] The right to free speech does not mean you have the right to freedom from derision, contempt and harsh comments if you say something stupid and contemptible .
I'm not gay myself , but I loathe bigotry against gay people. I don't give a rat's patoot what that stupid old book of ancient superstition and extremely questionable accounts of ancient Middle Eastern history, the Bible, says about homosexuality. It's NOT the basis of U.S. law and what it says does NOT excuse bigotry against anyone.
I'm a non-observant, secular, agnostic Jew and proud to be a liberal at a time when liberals are about as popular as pork in a Muslim bazaar. However, I don't want Robertson to be crucified in public and have him be censored and his show taken off the air because he said something that was idiotic and despicable. I believe in free speech, even for those who say things that I find abhorrent.
But I also demand for myself and others the right to condemn people who are guilty of bigotry against gay people in the harshest possible terms – and without being labeled as being an anti-Christian bigot for doing so, as so many Christians do when liberals condemn them for what they say and do. I'm NOT ""anti-Christian." Harsh criticism of Christians does not mean you are an anti-Christian bigot.
American Christians today can dish it out but they can't take it.
What I'm opposed to is Christians who think they have a monopoly on virtue and morality and demand that everyone else who does not share their religious beliefs and overall values be forced to live by THEIR standards – and who are determined to interfere with the private lives and violate the rights of others whose private behavior they happen to disapprove. They are determined to force the U.S. government to make stupid, unjust and unconstitutional laws that would violate the rights of others.
What if some liberal celebrity were to make the opposite kind of statements from Phil Robertson, condeming homophobia and the narrow-mindedness, intolerance and self-righteousness of Christians in America, calling for gay marriage, passing ENDA, repealing DOMA etc.? He or she would be condemned in the most uncertain terms as wicked, ungodly, an anti-Christian bigot, un-American, traitor to this nation, etc.
I don't "hate" Christians, and I don't condemn anyone merely for being a Christian. But I do dislike SOME Christians and condemn their arrogance, bigotry, narrrow-mindedness, intolerance and self-righteousness. Many Christians say they "love" the gay person but hate his or her "sin." Well, as a liberal, I love the Christian but hate his bigotry – not that all Christians are bigots.
And by the way, who appointed all these anti-gay Christian busybodies who think they have the right to stick their slimy little noses into other people's bedrooms, condemn them and demand they be denied rights merely because they happen to "disapprove" of what they do in private?
Robert Berger