It’s amazing how audience dictates the comment section of a blog and how each handle discourse. I posted my Dan Savage blog post on this blog and on my Times Union blog. Interestingly, I posted my blog post on Facebook. On Facebook, the conversation was civil, exchanged differing views, offer opposing ideas, and generally mild. On this blog, there were no comments about the post.
On my Times Union blog, it was a different story with over 55 comments. Most of the posts were critical of the fact that I spoke out against Dan Savage. Most of the commenters thinking revolved around the fact that Savage represented a community who has been unfairly oppressed by religious conservatives. Thus, my critique of Savage’s comments about the Bible being ‘bullshit’ and how he misunderstood slavery in the Bible were not apropos. Despite the fact that I deplored gay-bashing and Bible beating any group, it seems that many commenters believed Savage’s comments were just and called for. Many of the blog comments were attacks against Christianity in general, how religion is narrow-minded, and even some personally attacked me.
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield (author, radio and TV talk show host), led a Q&A for the Washington Post, commented on Dan Savage. The Rabbi wrote “You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism” and offers some important insight when he commented on a reader’s question/statement on the Dan Savage story:
So your premise is that because others are doing worse, Savage gets a pass? I don’t think so. That is pretty much the opposite of ethical behavior, and avoids taking responsibility for one’s actions, which is what bullies do all the time.
That said, you are certainly right about the relative dangers and difficulties faced by gay people compared with straight. And that has nothing to do with where one stands on gay sex, public policy related to gay people, etc. It’s about keeping people safe, regardless of their sexuality, and that MUST be something we can all agree on.
These comments come at a time when a Baptist preacher in North Carolina went on a hate speech on children who do not fit strict gender roles. The pastor stated that parent should use violence to correct the behavior. It’s embarrassing and wrong that another Christian, let alone a pastor, would say such things. This type of hate talk is not Gospel centered and does not fulfill Jesus’ mission to the marginalized and oppressed. Even the pastor’s ‘clarification’ was a horrible justification and not an apology. A number of pastors and lay people commented on blogger Tripp Hudgin’s Facebook post on the matter, all civil.
It seems my call condemning such ugly behavior was lost in my disappointment in Dan Savage’s comments on the Bible and his misinterpretation of scripture (e.g. slavery). Rabbi Hirschfield’s comments help us to separate two facts: one, everyone has a responsibility for one’s actions/words and two, we can all agree that gay bashing is wrong. Why can’t we hold those two ideas? Why must one get lost in the other?
Blogging on a public news website and posting the blog on Facebook, a community mostly made up of friends and acquaintances, will attract different people for different reasons. Some come with an agenda and others come with an open mind. As a blogger, you have to be ready for any comment and disapprove the comments that are hateful.
In a world where truth is relative, there are still some things we can agree on: The basics of decency, respect, and civility. Let’s not allow our differences let civility go out the window.
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