Mark Shea points to this video of a small group of peaceable Christians who had to be protected by a phalanx of San Francisco police as they walked through the gay Castro District in San Francisco. Otherwise, it's clear they would have been assaulted even worse than they were before the riot police arrived.
This is terrifying. This ought to be on the national news. If this were a Christian mob surrounding gay-rights campaigners, it certainly would be -- and should be, as no peaceful protester in this country should be subject to this threat. (And no, this wasn't a made- up thing: here's how a local SFO TV station covered it).
Watch this, and tell me these people [Update: by which I mean the enraged activist core, not all gays -- RD.] aren't going to come against churches full force once they have the civil rights laws on their side:
Tell me why Christians and others who oppose this mob don't have to fear. These people have no idea, no idea at all, what kind of response this kind of thing may call up. One of the members of the Christian group, which had been singing hymns in the street, tells of how they were assaulted with urine, and worse:
After just singing and worshiping God for a while, Roger decided that we should all hold hands in a circle and continue singing. So we did.Someone (Actually a person who came up and hugged and kissed some of us who he knew from the past) convinced some people that we were there to protest against the no on 8 campaign.
Then some guy who was dressed up like one of the sisters (The sisters of perpetual indulgence is a group of men who dress up like nuns and call themselves the spiritual authority of the Castro.) took a curtain-type thing (Which I think they use to curse people) and wrapped it around us.
Then a crowd started gathering. We began to sing "Amazing Grace", and basically sang that song the whole night. (At some points we also sang "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus" and "Oh the Blood of Jesus".) At first, they just shouted at us, using crude, rude, and foul language and calling us names like "haters" and "bigots". Since it was a long night, I can't even begin to remember all of the things that were shouted and/or chanted at us. Then, they started throwing hot coffee, soda and alcohol on us and spitting (and maybe even peeing) on us. Then, a group of guys surrounded us with whistles, and blasted them inches away from our ears continually. Then, they started getting violent and started shoving us. At one point a man tried to steal one of our Bibles. Chrisdene noticed, so she walked up to him and said "Hey, that's not yours, can you please give it back?". He responded by hitting her on the head with the Bible, shoving her to the ground, and kicking her. I called the cops, and when they got there, they pulled her out of the circle and asked her if she wanted to press charges. She said "No, tell him I forgive him."
Afterwards, she didn't rejoin us in the circle, but she made friends with one of the people in the crowd, and really connected heart to heart. Roger got death threats. As the leader of our group, people looked him in the eyes and said "I am going to kill you.", and they were serious. A cop heard one of them, and confronted him. (This part is kinda graphic, so you should skip the paragraph if you don't want to be offended.) It wasn't long before the violence turned to perversion. They were touching and grabbing me, and trying to shove things in my butt, and even trying to take off my pants - basically trying to molest me. I used one hand to hold my pants up, while I used the other arm to hold one of the girls. The guys huddled around all the girls, and protected them.
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This is stupid, their just as bad as each other. Gays use the bad points of one side to mean all and so do the others whn in most cases that's due to an individual, not an entire religion or organization. The trouble with an eye for an eye is that every ends up blind. I don't think all gays are bad, those who use peaceful protests for the right reason, but this eighboor hood, these individuals who have choosen to take the the path of violence, we have the perfect right to say they were wrong, just as gays have the right to say, this guy who shot that guy was wrong. But saying, oh all the gays are evil is wrong, and saying all the churches are evil is wrong, because it is the individuals who do it, not the organization itself.
In other news, Gay marriage protected by federal law will be enforced by nondescrimination laws if made a fundamental right, conflicting with the first amendment of free speech. I know no one will believe me when I say I did the research and can back it up with examples and past cases, but it is a fact, because it's being pushed as a fundamental right. Because of this, homosexuals will have the ability to sue any organization, practice, or school that discriminates or excludes them, just as a black person could do to their protection under nondescrimination law. Same sex marriage is a social behavior, and idea, and enforcing an idea, and a sexual lifestyle one at that is taking away the freedom of speech granted us by the 1st amendment.
I think the community, gay and strait alike) should address this, as if they are ignorent of it, then thats going to cause major problems in the future.
I disagree that this response of the gay community suggests how gays would "come against churches" if given special rights.
I disagree with "gay rights," but honesty demands an answer to one question: were these same gays bothering these Christians before the Christians went into the gay neighborhood? (No.)
The Christian media is portraying this as innocent Christians victimized by a mob. No, the Christians literally went in search of trouble by going where they are not welcome, making a scene with their religion, and then trouble appeared in response. Whose fault is that?
I'm unfortunately not very surprised. There's a developing anger in many Gay communities - a quite reasonable one, in my opinion. They are beginning to see themselves as a deliberately oppressed minority, which is true, and christians as their oppressors, which by and large is also true. I deplore this act of violence, but unless the anti-gay extremists stop trying to deny gays basic rights, I fear this may become much more common.
Well, for starters, it'd be nice if we stopped referring to basic human rights as special rights. And, y'know, if a white person goes into a majority black neighborhood and starts shouting racial epithets, it's not going to go well. You can't expect to go into a majority-gay neighborhood, start rubbing their faces in the very religious ideology that has made them second-class citizens (quite in the face of the First Amendment, I might add), and expect them to just stand around applauding you.
In short, you Christian conservatives have a lot of nerve. You deliberately go around provoking--and I don't mean wore-a-short-skirt provoking, I mean get-in-someone's-face-daring-them-to-hit-you provoking, and then you WHINE that they responded in kind. Here's a thought, why don't you do what Jesus actually told you to do and be kind to others and turn the other cheek. Imagine that, huh? You can't convert anyone anyway. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, and unless you're Him, I suggest you find a new hobby.
Well, how would you like a bunch of peaceful gays coming over into a nice christian neighborhood every day with picket signs & bull horns trying to convert all christians into homosexuals. I know one thing, you will be just as outraged as those gays were in that video.
You Christians spend lots of time and money going into gay neighborhoods and at gay pride events trying to convert. Then when something goes wrong, or something happens that you don't like, then you all are like "Woe is me". Then you call yourselves peaceful and "Just trying to spread the goodness of the lord." or "We are just trying to spread the gospel.", but you are there to protest against, and the gays are fed up and starting to fight back. Do you blame them? It's about time.
And, who got assaulted? From the title, I expected to see some gay guy pounding a Christian to the ground. Just looks like a bunch of gays protesting back, giving Christians a piece of their own medicine.
Most times at these sort of events, it's the Christians that usually get arrested. And till this day, the Christians have no idea why.
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