Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Southern Baptist Convention Still Has a Hard on For Gays

I really wonder about the emotional/mental health of Christianists like the SBC's Richard Land (pictured at left) who have an absolute obsession with LGBT citizens and seem Hell bent to deprive us of civil rights and benefits that other Americans receive. Perhaps Land - like a number of the hysterical homophobes of the Christian Right - needs to hire himself a hot male escort and satisfy his inner yearnings. Seriously, the man needs to get over the fact that God made some people gay. End of story. Land's latest screed against gays appears in the Baptist Press where he has his panties in a knot over gay couples receiving employee benefits like married heterosexuals. He ludicrously claims the provision of benefits discriminates against voluntarily unmarried heterosexuals while ignoring the fact that due to the efforts of bigots like himself, gays in most states do not have the luxury of deciding not to marry. Here are some highlights of SBC's whining:
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WASHINGTON (BP)--Same-sex domestic partners legislation forwarded to the U.S. House of Representatives undermines the federal protection of traditional marriage and promotes financial irresponsibility, critics say.
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The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act would extend benefits now reserved for the spouses of federal employees to the same-sex, domestic partners of such workers. The bill, H.R. 2517, would bestow on homosexual partners of federal employees such benefits as health insurance, retirement and disability benefits, group life insurance, and family and medical leave.
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Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land criticized the proposal both before and after the committee's vote. "Most Southern Baptists believe that the only relationship that should be defined by its sexual nature and should have special benefits accrued to it is heterosexual marriage," said Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Nov. 25. "Thus, we oppose granting domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples, as well as heterosexual couples who are living together outside of marriage. This bill discriminates against heterosexual couples living together outside of wedlock in that it only grants domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples. We have made it clear we are opposed to both."
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Under the bill, Land told Issa, "the federal government would in effect take a step toward implementing same-sex marriage nationwide." It "would also force taxpayers to fund relationships to which millions object based on deeply held religious convictions," Land said in the letter.
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Towns said, "Providing gay and lesbian federal workers with the same family benefits that their married co-workers receive will ensure that the federal government maintains its role as a model employer in the United States, and it will foster an inclusive workplace so that we can attract the best and brightest Americans to federal service."

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Land - like the majority of Christianists - just cannot grasps that we are talking about a civil government providing benefits for civil employees. Mr. Land' "deeply held religious beliefs" are irrelevant under the U.S. Constitution. Federal benefits should NOT be controlled by one set of bigoted religious beliefs.

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