Does being a Bible-believing Christian make me a bigot?
Well, I mean, you know. You tell me.
Dear John: Because I am a Bible-believing Christian, I have no choice but to believe that homosexuality is a sin. I know that opinion wouldn’t make me popular in certain circles, and I’m OK with that. But here’s the thing: I’ve been told, twice now, just for believing what I do about gays and gay marriage, that I am a bigot. A bigot! That’s so crazy and wrong. Do you have any advice for how I should respond the next time someone calls me a bigot just because I choose to believe the word of God?
Answer: I share your desire for an increase in the civility of our public discourse; these days our “debates” are rarely anything but self-serving exercises in histrionic accusations and inflammatory hyperbole. (Whoo-hoo! My Word of the Day calendar is really paying off!)
Here’s to equal parts passion and compassion returning to fashion.
That said, I'm constrained to say that you are most definitely a bigot. Which I hate to say! But you’ve stated that you believe gay people are morally inferior (for to say “homosexuality is a sin” is to say exactly that), and that gay people should be denied the same civil rights enjoyed by all other Americans.
By definition those opinions make you, my friend, a bigot. If I said, “Black people are inferior, and should be denied their civil rights,” you wouldn’t wonder if I was a bigot. You’d have your proof that I am.
And a belief isn’t rendered any less bigoted because it’s embedded in a larger moral code — like, say, that of the Bible. No amount of religious fervor or tradition can make a wrong thing right.
Your choice is simple: Rethink (as millions of Christians before you have done, btw) the notion that God finds gay people morally repugnant, or simply accept that what you believe about gay people makes you, ipso facto, a bigot.
But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to get married AND that you’re not a bigot, the same as no one who is a card-carrying member of the KKK can (reasonably) claim that they’re not a racist.
Racists and bigots are as racists and bigots do. And racists and bigots believe that those who belong to a particular group of people are inherently inferior to the group of people to which they themselves belong. Which (alas!) is what you believe.
Now, of course, there’s believing, and there’s doing. It is to be hoped that you never show your bigotry. But that’s asking a lot, since it’s fairly impossible for someone who holds a conviction — especially one born of a religious belief — not to in some way live out that conviction. And of course that holds true for you, too.
If you give one penny, or any of your time, to a church or ministry which you know actively works to restrict or limit gay rights, then you are a bigot. If you speak in private or preach in public against homosexuality, then you are a bigot. If you refuse to provide the same professional service to gay people that you provide to straight people, then you are a bigot.
If you believe that gay people should not be allowed to live exactly as you would like to live if you were gay, then you are a bigot.
You can either accept that fact, or you can change it by (barely: do the research) adjusting your personal beliefs. It is my hope that through the adjustment of your beliefs you eradicate your anti-gay bigotry, since that is the only rational, kind, and just thing to do.
This is an example of Ask John, the advice column that I wrote for The Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper from 2016-2019. It’s here because I linked to it (from my post On the Edge of the Great Divide) as an example of the work I was doing at that time. That said, if you have a question you’d like me to answer here on my Substack site, you’re more than welcome to send it to me at john@johnshore.com