Posted May 8th, 2012 by John M. Becker
As Evan
mentioned last week, Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage
Discrimination challenged Dan Savage to a duel in a revealing moment of compensatory bravado. Brown’s challenge, written in a breathless
blog post, came in response to a
speech
Savage made last month to attendees at a high school journalism
convention in which he said that the Bible contains “bull***t. . . about
gay people.” He noted (correctly) that Christianity’s holy book is
chock full of authoritative pronouncements on a plethora of other topics
(shellfish, dinner, farming, menstruation, virginity, masturbation. .
.) that are emphatically rejected by every person, Christian or
otherwise, living in the 21st century as opposed to the Stone Age.
Savage also accurately pointed out that turning to the Bible for
questions of morality is a dubious exercise at best, due to the
fact that the Bible is “a radically pro-slavery document” that “got the easiest moral question that humanity has ever faced
wrong.”
Savage’s point — just in case it isn’t already abundantly obvious —
is that it’s absurd to suggest that the Bible is infallible on the issue
of homosexuality when it is so demonstrably fallible on a host of other
issues. And he made that point, without disrespecting or slandering any
religion, by
simply describing what the Bible actually says.
According to Brown, though, accurately describing what the Bible says is tantamount to bullying. And he
won’t stand for it:
Let me lay down a public challenge to Dan Savage right
here and now: You want to savage the Bible? Christian morality?
Traditional marriage? Pope Benedict? I’m here, you name the time and the
place and let’s see what a big man you are in a debate with someone who
can talk back. It’s easy to make high-school girls cry by picking on
them. Let’s pick on someone our own size!
. . . I’m here, any time, any place you name, Dan Savage. You will
find out out how venal and ridiculous your views of these things are if
you dare to accept a challenge.
So yeah. Brown is man, hear him roar. Blah blah blah. Incidentally,
if you’re currently unoccupied and have a couple minutes to spare, read
Brown’s
post in its
entirety. It’s rather entertaining — what starts off as an indignant
letter to NOM’s “marriage supporters” ends up reading, by the time the
screed concludes, like a half-hearted mélange of great moments in
presidential speeches: “With charity towards all, with malice towards
none, we will fight for the right, as God gives us the power to see
what’s right. God bless you and may God bless America.” I can’t tell if
Brownie intended to re-purpose Lincoln’s Second Inaugural or deliver the
State of the Union Address. . .
But anyway, lo and behold, last Friday Savage
responded. His message to Brown? It’s on.
I will name the time and the place, per your offer, as soon as possible. Looking forward to it, NOMnuts.
Color me thrilled. As an LGBT activist and media-consuming American, I’ve seen a lot of both Dan Savage
and Brian Brown
on TV, YouTube, and the like. As such, I’m more than a little surprised
that Brown challenged Savage in the first place, since I’m willing to
bet NOM’s Bigot-in-Chief would get his you-know-what handed to him in
any serious debate. Perhaps Brown, too, recognizes this: as of this
writing, he’s made nary a peep in public about Savage accepting his
offer. Stay tuned, folks; we’ll see what develops.
Oh, and in case either Dan or Brian happen to be reading: consider
this my formal request for two front-row seats. I don’t want to miss a
thing.
Tags:
Bible,
Biblical infallibility,
bigots,
Brian Brown,
bullying,
Dan Savage,
delusional bigots,
John Becker,
religion-based bigotry,
Savage/Brown
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee today ordered all state agencies to officially recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions. 
