Journalist Jamila Bey asks a tough question at the National Press Club:
It’s almost worth sitting through 18 minutes of some ignorant, bigoted anti-gay marriage bullshit from a bunch of pastors at the National Press Club, in order to fully appreciate the hilarity of Jamila Bey’s eventual question.
Here’s the full video from C-SPAN. If you don’t feel like watching it all, let me sum it up for you: “Bla bla bla traditional marriage defined by God in the Bible. Bla bla bla being bigoted against gay people is somehow essential to the black experience. Bla bla bla praise Jesus.” ...
At minute 19:11, Jamila Bey asks her question:
“What is your position on polygamy?”
Owens pauses before saying “Well I think you know that this is not about polygamy, this is about same-sex marriage.”
“I need for you to define for me please the Biblical definition of marriage…”
Owens wags his finger and says “The Biblical definition of marriage is a marriage between a man and a woman and I’m not going to get on another track…”
“Talk to me about Abraham’s marriage.”
Long pause.
“Madame . . . next question. Next question.”
“What’s God’s position on polygamy?”
“NEXT QUESTION!”
“Reverend, what’s God’s position on slavery?”
“Are you going to stand there and just demand that I answer your question, this is not about polygamy…
“This is a press conference…”
“…this is about same-sex marriage and I will not do any different.”
“Reverend you said you’d answer questions about Biblical marriage…”
“Would you have this lady removed?”
There is nothing more ironic than African Americans using the Bible as an argument against granting civil rights to other people.
If you know anything about slavery, you'll know that Southern slave-owners used the Bible to justify it (reasonably, since the Bible does endorse slavery). The South was just as much the Bible belt then as it is now, and even churches owned slaves.
The Bible, in fact, was one of the biggest impediments to ending slavery. Of course, other Christians used the Bible to fight against slavery. For believers, the Bible says whatever they want it to say.
But using the Bible to endorse slavery and racial segregation is easy compared to using the Bible to support 'traditional' marriage. Jamila Bey points out just one of the reasons why that's so.
And as I say, it's really ironic to hear this from a bunch of African American pastors! How clueless can they be? Do they know nothing about American history?
Still, they can believe anything they want to believe. What they can't do is force their own religious beliefs on everyone else.
What the Bible says or doesn't say is immaterial. This is a free country. If you think that 'God' doesn't want you marrying someone of the same sex, don't marry someone of the same sex.
Problem solved.
A slight aside to this topic. Did you catch this latest round in the Chic-Fil-A gay/anti-gay war?
ReplyDeletehttp://now.msn.com/executive-loses-job-over-video-ambush-at-chick-fil-a/
On the surface, you naturally think "WTF?" This guy is mad at THE COMPANY for their anti-gay attitude. Okay, fine. But why rip into that drive-thru girl when she has nothing to do with the argument.
As I contemplated this, my bullshit alarm started to go off. To me, this isn't passing the smell test.
Question: Is there the possibility this guy was a "plant" to make the liberal side of the argument look bad? You know Faux "News" is going to be all over this.
The best I can come up with for now is "stay tuned..."
Jeff, don't ever think that the left doesn't have its share of jerks, idiots, and crazies. I've known 9/11 'Truthers' who are just as loony as their counterpart 'Birthers' on the other side.
DeleteDon't start going all conspiracy-mad on me! :)
Besides, Fox 'News' doesn't need this kind of thing. They can make up enough stuff on their own.