Sometimes what I read about in the news completely boggles my mind.
The latest example are the attacks in which Republican politicians are engaged in that are aimed at kids. It’s more than disturbing. It is disgusting.
(The same can be said about the assault on women’s reproductive rights taking place today, but my focus in this blog is America’s kids.)
The Republican moral police are on a crusade against elementary through high school kids whose sexual orientation or gender they believe is “unnatural.”
Specifically, states like Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia are passing laws and regulations that are denying gay and transgender kids access to healthcare, public facilities, or sports competition.
The message they are sending these kids is that they don’t belong, don’t fit into today’s America, don’t have a place among “normal” people. It’s an ugly message that at bottom is telling these kids they would be better off dead than to be who they are.
The word that comes to mind when I see what is going on is “evil,” which literally means “profoundly immoral.” Less provocative, but graphic enough to convey the horror of what is happening are words like “mean” and “cruel,” and, frankly, I’ve seen it before, of all places in the church.
In fact, I can honestly say that everything I need to know about this kind of toxic politics I learned in church.
Here are some things I learned that lead me to say that.
I learned that fear will cause people to say and do harmful things in the name of morality.
I learned that rule-makers are often the first ones to break them.
I learned that some people don’t know what they don’t know and don’t care.
I learned that truth scares some people to the point where falsehoods gives them comfort.
I learned that people who believe God is on their side don’t know that God has no sides.
These character traits are not the only ones I learned in church that help me understand the mean and cruel words and actions being used against children by conscience-less Republicans, but they will do.
Don’t get me wrong. Most of the people I have known in churches are good people, the kind you want for your neighbor. It’s the others, a minority, who seem determined to do as much harm as they can without missing a beat.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida seems to take special delight in singling out gay and transgender kids for sanctions and ridicule in school. Republican legislators are making his extremism worse by becoming willing participants with him in this attack on innocent children and teenagers.
The disheartening thing about DeSantis’s actions is that he was re-elected by 70% of Florida voters last November, which means that in the state of Florida a majority of people think mean and cruel words and actions hurting kids is just fine.
I have no doubt that many Floridians who still go to church are among DeSantis supporters and, thus, if not openly in favor of what he is doing, are certainly going along with it.
Honestly, it’s not all that surprising. What I learned in church is that fear, legalism, ignorance, falsehood, and self-righteousness always lead people to do mean and cruel things.
And make no mistake about it. It’s an ugly thing to see whether it’s in a church or in our nation’s politics.
The question we face is whether or not the majority of Americans will put an end to it or allow it to spread and hurt more and more of America’s kids.
linnposts.com 
I couldn’t agree more, Jan.
And I love the title.
Phil
Thanks, Phil, and I wondered how people would react to the title. Glad you liked it.
Spot on Jan!!
Thanks, Bill.
You make a good case to forego churches and religion altogether.
Guess all of us have to decide for ourselves. My experience is that toxic church members are a minority just as they are in our nation as a whole. Thanks for the comment.
Considering numbers of church going people who voted for Trump twice I’m not sure that so-called “toxic” church members are a minority. I guess it depends on where you draw that line. Religious people tend to tolerate extreme religiously claimed views because to call them out would invite the questioning of their own unfounded beliefs. Beliefs based on faith tend to be hard to refute or defend. Once faith is used as a defense of an idea or belief then the argument essentially ends.
The issue is not who voted or didn’t vote for Trump among church members. Instead, it is how many believe hurting children in the
way Republicans are doing is okay. My own experience is that a majority don’t. If I am wrong, then the situation is worse than I thought. The issue of a beliefs-based faith as opposed to a values-based faith does indeed lie at the root of the problem. I discuss this subject extensively in my book, “Unbinding Christianity: Choosing the Values of Jesus over the Beliefs of the church.” You might find it an interesting read.
I’m not an expert on your country’s constitution, but any family that falls into the snare that Republican legislators seek to erect should surely be able to say that under the terms of the 14th amendment, they have as much right to benefit from the use of civic amenities as anybody else? Even if the Supreme court has been packed by Trump supporters.
You are exactly right, Nigel, which is why I am confident these laws will ultimately be ruled unconstitutional. Those passing them know this as well, but they also know they can cause pain and suffering during the long judicial process that will be involved, mean and cruel as that is.
Thank you Jan. Just two weeks ago, one of the lessons read at our communion service at St Cuthberts Church, Portsmouth came from Mark Ch. 12 vv.28-31. Even a 5 year old ought to be able to see that treating homosexual or trans children as second-class citizens doesn’t boil down to loving God, let alone loving one’s neighbour.
Good thoughts. Good column! Happy St Pats Day
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Thanks, Gay. Hope you wore green today.
Details of your view are missing — 5 year olds don’t know “understand” differences in sex of persons, and will accept people as people anyway, without “knowing” any more than a person is a person. Drag parades done by adults at Library Story Hour for even 7 year olds is unnecessary. They prefer dinosaur stories. Would you want your 14-yr old daughter to share gym shower room changing with a person with male genetalia exposed? Those are some specifics of issues at question. Yielding to your response.
I can only respond briefly, otherwise I would have to write another blog to address in detail the questions you raise. That said, here
are a few thoughts.
You make reasonable points my side needs to hear, but let’s be clear about the issue. There are no drag parades at libraries. It is a program where drag queens read books to children that was started in 2015 in Canada. Here in the U.S. the programs (especially the Kirk Cameron Freedom Island Tour) are offered and parents attend with their children at their own discretion. No one is forced to do anything. Demonstrators who don’t want to attend and don’t want anyone else to have that choice are the source of the controversy, similar to people who want to ban books. Adding to the problem is the fact that radical-right radio jocks are telling stories that are outright lies about things happening their listeners believe and then get upset based on a falsehood and without trying to find out the truth. That is far worse than drag queen readings.
Regarding showers with transgender kids, parents and school officials have been and will continue to find solutions on which agreement can be found. The people who see only one solution – theirs – are once again the problem. The issue of showers is one about which schools have found solutions without anyone being forced into a situation they find objectionable.
A reoccurring theme is radicals trying to deny others the choice to decide for themselves how to deal with these issues. They want their way to be THE way for everyone. Further, once the issue is politicized, no compromise is possible, thus, no solution is possible. That’s why Barry Goldwater didn’t want evangelicals to get control of the Republican Party as they now have. They have no room for compromise that he believed was the only way government could work.
Passing laws is a political act that solves nothing, but can cause much harm and create even more problems. That is what my blog was about. The dehumanizing of gay and transgender kids is morally wrong and cannot be ignored. Parental decisions should be largely left to individual families. I don’t want political opportunists and Christian moralists passing laws that require everyone to live by their moral beliefs that I usually find are uninformed, legalistic, and in many instances childish and silly.
Jan,
Well said: Sad but so true.
Gene
Hi Gene. Thanks for your encouraging words, unsettling as the truth is.