Why I love Christianity, but hate "Christians"

Scott Lemieux makes some useful observations on why we can't expect self-described "family values conservatives" to actually, you know, be for family values conservatism: to them, conserving families takes a back seat to "imposing burdens on other people to make oneself feel virtuous."

He gives the examples of abortions ("Bans on abortions don't seriously obstruct the ability of the affluent women Republicans represented to obtain safe abortions"), civil liberties ("Large homes in the suburbs are very unlikely to be subject to no-knock searches"), and, of course, gay rights ("there's not going to be a constitutional amendment to ban no-fault divorce").

Good stuff. But let's go a couple of levels deeper.

For me, the true moral majesty of Christianity—the reason it has so thrived as a philosophy for two thousand years, and the reason I personally respect it so much—is the radical notion that we are all sinners. It's a marvelous machine for enforcing human empathy—unless, of course, the notion is systematically distorted, as it is by so many contemporary "Christians," especially within the subset known as the "Christian right." Take gay rights. There are two reasons a Christian conservative would single out homosexuality as the preeminent sin, even thought it's obviously so harmless and such an infintesimal subset of Biblical morality.

The one is the reason we've lately become all too familiar with: that the conservative Christian in question feels same-sex longing, so that hating homosexuality because some weird Freudian defense mechanism.

The second reason is if anything more frightening, more morally bankrupt—and, in the true sense, the most anti-Christian. I speak of the conservative Christian who embraces homosexuality as the transcendent sin because he doesn't feel same-sex longing, and can't really imagine feeling same-sex longing. In that case, what better sin to despise above all others? It banishes the hard work of Christian empathy altogether.

Not usury: for you can imagine yourself someday indulging in usury.

Not thievery: for you can imagine yourself someday indulging in theivery.

Not violence: for you can imagine yourself someday indulging in violence.

Not lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride—because, well, who doesn't indulge those every day?

But I ain't ever going to want to have no cock in my mouth. So: bingo! That's the sin we'll pick up on as the worst. Wash away any danger of empathy in the blood, not of the lamb, but of the fag-bash. A radical other. People nothing like "you and me."