Mr Savage's
apology did not stop the outrage machine. Some seem to have taken particular
delight in hurling Mr Savage's epithets—bully and basher (of Christians and
Christianity, rather than gays)—back at him. The American Thinker harrumphs,
"Evidently, bullying is one of those things that is defined by the
'victim'." Well, yes: in fact it is. Bullying is the strong picking on the
weak, not the other way around (the other way around is satire). One could make
the argument that in the case of Mr Savage's speech, he was the strong one, and
the high-school students were "victims", but that would be weak tea
indeed. Mr Savage is one person, not a movement, and of course those students
whom he gave the vapours were free to leave. Not everyone has such freedom. Gay
teens, not Christian teens, kill themselves at higher rates than the general
populace. Nobody calls Christianity an abomination. One blogger accused Mr
Savage of "Christian-bashing" for pointing out the Bible's position
on slavery. A writer for a Focus on the Family site said that "using
profanity to deride the Bible...is obviously a form of bullying and
name-calling." In fact it is neither: Mr Savage, however intemperate his
language, was arguing, not name-calling. That is a crucial distinction, and one
that too often eludes the showily devout. If the Bible is in fact the word of
God it can survive a few arguments about context and application.
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