Michael nearly died in November during a nasty bout with pneumonia. He's doing much better now, thank you very much. So much better that he had a couple glasses of wine, and, something that's always dangerous, took to his Twitter account. Lots of swear words in Michael's Twitter comments, folks.
It seems that when Michael was really sick and there was a lot of publicity about, an outfit called "Christians for a Moral America," decided to be immoral Americans by praying for Michael's death.
You see, Michael is gay, and so he deserved to die, in the so-called minds of this Christianist group.
Notice I'm calling them Christianists, not Christians. As George Michael himself points out in his messages, the huge, vast majority of Christians are nice, moral, normal people just trying to live a good life according to their religious beliefs. Which is as it should be.
But a subgroup of allegedly Christians are now widely called "Christianists" It appears (relatively) conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan coined, or at least popularized the term about nine years ago. He said back then:
"I have a new term for those on the fringes of the religious right who have used the Gospels to perpetuate their own aspirations for power, control and oppression: Christianists. They are as anathema to true Christians as the Islamists are to true Islam."[
Anyway, these Christianists, the Christians for a Moral America, said this while Michael was sick:
"Apparently George Michael has AIDS. Figures since he's a homosexual and it goes with the territory. Another sodomite bites the dust?"
And this: "Pray for George Michael's demise. He has chosen a satanic lifestyle and must meet an appropriate end."
So you can see why George Michael was a bit annoyed. For the record, Michael doesn't have AIDS, he said, but no matter.
I know Christians for a Moral America are just a pesky fringe group, But I'm fascinated by such train wrecks, because there seems to be so many of them. What leads these people and groups to bend the Bible into something hateful?
Yeah, I respect the right of Christians to not really accept gay people even as I totally disagree with that position. Just as long as they don't intrude on the lives of people who disagree with them.
But to call for the deaths of people they don't like is just as bad as any other fundamentalist extremism. True, Christians for a Moral America have not actually gone out and killed anyone. But it seems they are encouraging it.
Terrorism is terrorism. I don't care what religion you represent, if your hate means somebody dies, you don't deserve to be around.
Our focus on Islamic extremists is a good idea. But we need to keep an eye out for all extremists. It's a small step from hoping for the death of somebody the Christianists don't like to actually going out and killing them.
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