I just met a really good person despite the Bush sticker on her car.

[Wcross]

Typical "Church lady", the kind who are common here in the bible belt. I was at the Vet getting shots for my guys and she pulled up with her 97 year old mother and a puppy. I was thinking "Oh, fundie bought a puppy" but I try to be nice to everyone so I started chatting with her mother who was holding the pup. Long story short, she found the pup abandoned by the railroad tracks. She was going to give her a good home. That warmed my heart but then she surprised me, she has eight other dogs at home ALL dumped & rescued by her. I can't dislike a person like that no matter what. I can disagree but I can't dislike them as a person. As I left I told her thank you for giving the girl a home.

[alphafemale]

1. Yeah. Some of them are just deceived and deluded. nt

[Aristus]

2. I agree.

Most of the people at my wife's fundie church are like that; not hateful, spiteful, or evil in any way. Just deluded.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. yeah i wish they had that kind of empathy towards gay people as they do to dogs nt

[Wcross]

4. It would be more in keeping with what they claim to believe.

I have always wondered about that. How can you claim to follow the bible yet hate gay people? You have a valid point.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. yup nt.

[hippywife]

6. Me, too, Pri.

Don't lose heart, tho. There are some fine Christians, even here in Tulsa, that welcome and accept gays according to the heart of Christianity as it should be.

[SacredCow]

10. sometimes they're just in the dark....

I changed a flat for an elderly woman in a mall parking lot a year or so ago. She had a marriage = man + woman sticker on her car, but she was obviously in need of help and I was ready, willing, and able to do so. When I was finished and staunchly refused her offer of payment, she said something to the effect of "Your wife is a very lucky woman." I kind of smiled sadly and told her that I wasn't allowed to have a spouse, legally speaking. She didn't quite understand, so I laid it out for her (paraphrased as best as I can recall):

"Yes, ma'am- I am gay. And as you have clearly observed, I don't fit any of the usual stereotypes- I'm not effiminate, I don't wear womens' clothes, I'm pretty good at changing a tire, and I'm not some fire-breathing demon from hell. I'm a person just like you, that has a job, a house, family, friends, pets, loves, hates, and everything inbetween. The only difference is who I have fallen in love with. I see from your sticker that you don't care for that, and that's OK- we're all entitled to an opinion. But I hope that today, perhaps in some way I've given you a human face to gay people and that you think of that instead of what you hear from religious fundamentalists and republican politicians. That's really all I can ask."

She was speechless for a moment, but she then confessed that she had never really interacted (knowingly) with a gay person. And she promised that the sticker was coming off as soon as she got home. I don't know if that actually happened, and I've not seen her since. But hopefully, if she ever hears someone ragging on the gays maybe she'll tell her story of the fairy that changed her tire!

[GardeningGal]

11. Wow - good for you.

I'm sure you got her thinking and hopefully she opened her eyes (and heart) a bit.

[abq e streeter]

7. Like I've said here before, some of the sweetest, nicest people I know

are fundie republicans, who somehow can't see how much harm is being done by the very people they choose to believe in . I occasionally wrestle with the question of whether I am compromising my own morality and beliefs by not cutting these people (and thankfully, and intentionally, its only a few) out of my life. But whenever I come close to making the decision to do that, these people's humanity trumps everything else. But it does sadden me greatly to see good, decent, loving people embrace evil, indecent and hateful people as their chosen leaders. I occasionally try to help them open their own eyes, but with limited ( at best) success.

[JohnnyLib2]

8. Yup, it's possible.

Hell, I'm related to some like that.

The bottom line seems to be that they believed the hype about Bush, and largely because their preachers did as well in 2000. Sigh.

[mitchum]

9. Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting With Jesus" is a really good examination...

of this befuddling disconnect.
I highly recommend it.