I looked at the two pictures below within minutes of each other as I enjoyed my daily morning ritual of reading the paper. I literally didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
On the left is a group of Ugandan children showing support for the country's horrific new anti-gay legislation. On the right is NBA player Jason Collins entering play with the Brooklyn Nets for the first time since declaring his sexual orientation.
On the left is a group of Ugandan children showing support for the country's horrific new anti-gay legislation. On the right is NBA player Jason Collins entering play with the Brooklyn Nets for the first time since declaring his sexual orientation.
Now it could be that in Arizona (and Putin's Russia) the laughter would have been for the kids on the left. Many Arizonians appear to share the Ugandan revulsion for what they deem "unnatural acts". While the legislature in Arizona only wanted to shun gays, make them second class citizens, and push them to the margins, it didn't propose that they be placed behind bars for life--not bars of steel at any rate. But their difference with Uganda is one of degree, not kind. In both cases, a certain orientation, a certain behaviour, has been singled out from all others for treatment that Canadians (and I dare say most Americans) would consider beyond belief. It is to my country's credit that our political leaders have roundly condemned Uganda's law.
In Arizona, proponents of anti-gay legislation lump such attitudes in with other "sacred beliefs". Can this position genuinely be defended on biblical grounds? That's what I propose to evaluate. I just can't seem to get at it for all of these breaking events.
A former president of my old employer, Trinity Western University, once remarked, "God gets blamed for a lot of things." Where does our heavenly father come down on the pictures above?
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