Thursday, April 09, 2009

Defending 'Truth' By Telling Lies, Part 5

Sadly, I could make this a daily series if I had the time and the energy to devote to it, but fortunately there are other bloggers who are willing to undertake the massive task of keeping up with all of the religious right's disingenuous claims.

Maggie Gallagher is certainly no stranger to making bizarre arguments, but while incoherence isn't a sin, it shouldn't be unreasonable to hope that someone claiming to speak on God's behalf would still consider honesty a virtue. Granted, her new television ad is savvy enough to stay out of the realm of legally prosecutable lies, but it is blatantly dishonest all the same, as Jim Burroway has documented.

It's not unreasonable to express concern that growing acceptance of gay marriage could someday lead to government encroachment on religious freedom where the two issues intersect; our government's track record is far from perfect when it comes to respecting the constitutional rights of its citizens. But blowing existing cases out of proportion (and out of context) is ultimately a counterproductive exercise, especially when accompanied by an attitude that shouts "We must oppress you so that you can't oppress us."

There are good reasons that so many gay individuals (and more than a few straight people) have left the evangelical church, none of which you're likely to ever hear in an evangelical setting. The title of this post holds a clue to one of those reasons...

Update: Not related to Gallagher's commercial, but Jason Kuznicki's post about Rick Warren's recent lie (and Gallagher's response) is relevant to the broader subject and worth reading...

2 comments:

Doorman-Priest said...

Isn't expediency a dangerous thing?

Eugene said...

It certainly is, especially for those claiming to speak in God's name...