As he worked to rally evangelical voters a week before North Carolina’s March 15 primary, Ted Cruz gave a speech at a church in the Charlotte suburb of Kannapolis, where he was joined by a trio of prominent local social conservative supporters: Charlotte pastor and congressional candidate Mark Harris and the Benham brothers, the telegenic real estate entrepreneurs whose house-flipping show on HGTV was canceled in 2014 when their history of anti-gay activism came to light. At the event, Cruz thanked Harris for “calling the nation to revival,” and called David and Jason Benham “an extraordinary voice for the Christian faith.”
If your “fame” stems from your prominent anti-gay activism, it might be a good time to reflect on your purpose in life. If people know you because of who you hate…well, I don’t know how else to say it, but you suck at life. Not only that, but your obsession with the sexuality of others whose lives have no impact whatsoever on your own might trigger reasonable speculation about what it is you’re so afraid of.
You don’t have to like or even approve of homosexuality. If being gay isn’t for you, then the obvious solution is to not schtup anyone with the same physical plumbing that you carry through life. Here’s the thing, though: You don’t get to enforce your narrow, fear-based, homophobia on those who happen to think, believe, live and/or love differently than you.
I’m not going to speculate about what it is that drives the Bentham brothers to be the hateful, bigoted homophobes they unapologetically are. That anyone could seriously believe their prejudice and fear is worthy of being given the force of law based on “sincerely held religious beliefs” only betrays their willingness to bastardize their faith for their own selfish ends.
To refer to the Bentham brothers as “an extraordinary voice for the Christian faith” only demonstrates a lack of commitment to the actual teachings of Jesus Christ, which are all about love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion.
What’s happening in North Carolina- and in Mississippi and perhaps soon in Tennessee- has nothing to do with Christianity or even with protecting the “sanctity” of public restrooms. Those are merely cheap rationalizations employed to justify fear, bigotry, and the unjustifiable hatred and fear of a minority class of people who more than anyone just want to be left alone and allowed to live their lives as authentically as possible.
The Benthams in no way represent “an extraordinary voice for the Christian faith”…because their “faith” isn’t at all representative of Christianity. Unfortunately, for too many Evangelicals like the Benthams, their obsession with the sexuality of others is as unseemly and hateful as it is unChristian. If they’re so concerned about sexual predators preying on women and child, that passion would carry far more credibility if they were working to pass laws intended to deal with pedophile Catholic priests.
If you believe that your religion allows- nay, requires- you to discriminate against those who think, believe, live, and or love in a manner you find personally repulsive, you have no religion. Evangelical luminaries can refer to the Benthams as “an extraordinary voice for the Christian faith” as much as they’d like, but the reality doesn’t change. I’m not certain what you could reasonably call it, but it’s not “religion.”
This isn’t about Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ. It’s about hatred, homophobia, bigotry, and the belief that your religion grants you the right to provide your prejudice with the rule of law. That’s not Christianity; that’s just plain pathetic.
