On tolerance and the "persecution" of "traditional marriage" advocates.....

Ok, I want to address two different things in this post which are linked, but not the same.

First, I want to look at the supposed persecution of people advocating for "traditional marriage".  If you look at any number of right wing blogs, the National Organization for Marriage website, or any similar site, you will notice a plethora of posts or items about how advocates of "traditional marriage" lamenting how they are being "persecuted" for their beliefs by people who advocate for marriage equality (or, as they put it, "redefining marriage").

This is a bit of a tricky situation.  If someone is the public face of a company or group and they hold (and preach) beliefs that run counter to the beliefs of the company/group as a whole, then they should be let go because that creates a certain amount of dissonance in the organization.  If, however, the person is not the public face, then the situation is different.

I also want to say that if they think that is persecution, they should step in the shoes of members of the LBGTQIA community.  How many traditional marriage advocates are killed each year because of their beliefs?  How many are beaten?  How many are told that their sexuality means that they are "demonic"?  How many are declared illegal in countries around the world because of who they are?  How many of them are told that they want "to freely prey on little children sexually"?  And I could go on.  They ain't being persecuted.  The extreme rhetoric coming out of their mouths is landing them in hot water with people as attitudes are becoming more and more inclusive over time.

What really baffles me is that most of the people who preach these sorts of things claim to be Christians, yet they say that it is a good thing for gays to be stoned (here or here) or worse (such as supporting Uganda's law outlawing homosexuality).  Christianity is not a religion of hate, regardless of what these people make it seem like.  Christianity is truly a religion of love.  In fact, in 1 Corinthians 13, love is deemed the greatest virtue.  That is why I get so upset about this.  These people are twisting the religion I love all out of proportion and using it to advocate hate.

I do want to emphasize something (my second point), namely that not everyone who opposes marriage equality is advocating hate.  There are a lot of people out there who sincerely believe that marriage should only be between members of the opposite sex, but don't look to harm those who believe otherwise.  These people need to merely be educated and talked to.  While they may not agree with marriage equality, they are not necessarily active hostile to it either.  There is a difference between disagreeing with someone and hating them.  I am not saying they are never the same, but they are not always the same.

What we, as marriage equality advocates, need to do is to show them that we respect them and their beliefs, while making it clear that we think they are wrong.  It needs to be done lovingly and respectfully, even if they deny us the same.