My Response To Matt Barber’s An Open Letter To Homosexuals

Read Matt Barber's An Open Letter To Homosexuals here.

My Response To Matt Barber’s An Open Letter To Homosexuals

Mr. Barber,

The question as to whether or not there is a god has not been proven either way. Some people believe there is a god, while others do not. Some may point to various reasons as to why they believe what they do, but no one has presented the world with a conclusive argument that settles the issue. So it is ridiculous for you to claim that the theology on which you base your condemnation of homosexuality is objective when the very premise of your theology--there is a god--rests on tenuous ground. But even if it was proven there is a god, that would not necessarily validate your theology. You used the Christian Bible to back up your claim that your condemnation of homosexuality is objective and irrefutable, but whether or not the Christian Bible is the “Word of God” is actually a separate question, and like the god question itself, it is not a settled matter…even among those who identify as Christian. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say there is a god, and let’s say the Christian Bible is “the Word” of that god, there is still the matter of interpretation, and many people who identify as Christian would object to the way you interpret the Bible.  Some would even find it abhorrent.

Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but let’s keep in mind that your opinion is merely your opinion. It is a bit much for you to present yourself as a spokesperson for all of Christendom when the objective fact is you are not. And it is a bit much for you to claim you have perfect and irrefutable understanding of the god you worship--which may or may not be real.

You say you want my tribe to know that Christians do not hate us. Since I would never be so foolish as to lump all Christians in with you, I would never assume that they all hate us. But I am pretty sure that you, and extremists like you, do hate us, despite your protestations of love, for I have listened closely to what you have to say about me and people like me. Even in this letter in which you profess your love, you present a grotesque and distorted picture of my tribe.

It may be true that one in five men in America who identify as gay are HIV positive, but one can be gay, and one can even have gay sex, and never contract HIV. (After all, if 20% of us are HIV positive, that would mean 80% of us--an overwhelming majority--do not.) I grew up among “Bible believing Christians” such as yourself, and I know that a large percentage of them are pretty hefty, much in the same way you yourself are pretty hefty, and we know medical science tells us that being overweight puts a person at greater risk for all sorts of medical conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, but it would be absurd to suggest that being Christian cases obesity and illness. Correlation is not causation. One can be Christian and eat a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise. It’s just that some Christians, like you, do not. And by the same token, you can be gay and refrain from engaging in high risk behaviors that often lead to contracting HIV. Being gay doesn’t cause HIV, and, I believe, the fact that too many gay men are HIV positive suggests that LGBT youth are not given adequate instruction in regards to how to avoid HIV, and that young gay men often act recklessly because young men are generally full of hormones and gay young men have generally not received enough support from family, friends and society at large to instill in them a desire to take care of themselves.

You mentioned some psychological problems like depression and suicide, but just as in regard to HIV, being gay in and of itself doesn’t cause these things. LGBT people may very well be at greater risk of depression and suicide and the like, but I think that comes from the stigma associated with being LGBT, a stigma that people like you encourage and foster with abandon. And even though a number of LGBT people have or have had problems, the fact remains that many of us lead happy and productive lives. And I would point out that having grown up around so-called “Bible believing Christians” such as yourself, I know the smiling, Sunday morning church face doesn’t always accurately reflect the emotional health of conservative Christians. I know many of them are deeply troubled. But I would never be so silly as to claim being a Christian leads to depression and suicide.

Judging by your disclosures, it seems you were quite the hopped up whore in your youth. I’m sorry if your behavior and attitude led to feelings of despair, but it would be a mistake for you to assume that your vapid and misspent youth is comparable to being LGBT. I’m sure many LGBT people, just as many straight people, have made the mistake of dehumanizing their partners and turning an act that can create feelings of intimacy and comfort into something hollow and meaningless, just as I’m sure many LGBT people, along with their straight counterparts, abuse drugs and alcohol. But being LGBT doesn’t in an of itself cause one to use others as you admittedly used women in your youth, and being LGBT doesn’t mean you will necessarily become a lush. The fact that you believe being LGBT necessarily entails becoming the debauched slut that you were in your youth only indicates what a biased fool you’ve become. Rather than loving LGBT people, you can only see them through the eyes of your rigid dogma and your hate.

You insinuated that people of my tribe know deep down that we are unhappy, and you want us to conclude that being LGBT is the cause. Well, many people are unhappy at any given movement for a variety of reasons. That is the human condition. So it is rather slimy of you to use another human being’s vulnerability to try to convince them that your prejudices against them are correct. In my mind that’s an indication of just how vicious your bigotry really is.

As for your claim that homosexuality is unnatural, I beg to differ. Given that homosexuality is common among many other species and that our medical establishment has examined the issue over a period of many decades and concluded that homosexuality in human beings is a normal and expected variant in the spectrum of human sexuality and that it is not a disease or a disorder, I believe that it is quite natural. Just because your understanding of nature is limited, and this limitation confirms your prejudice in your mind, doesn’t mean that you actually understand nature in general or my nature or the nature of those like me. In any event, since when has human beings restricted themselves to what is natural? It could very well be argued that driving in cars, taking antibiotics, and using the computer are all unnatural acts, but not many would take the claim that these things are sinful very seriously.

You said that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled many of the organizations run by your friends as hate groups, and you suggested that this is because the SPLC has determined that mere religious condemnation of homosexuality is hateful. But the real reason SPLC classifies specific organizations as hate groups is because they lie, mislead and attempt to create an unfair negative perception of certain groups--such as LGBT people--in the minds of the public. The impression you give of homosexuals in your open letter to homosexuals and your comments about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s aims only strengthens SPLC’s case against you.

I don’t know if there’s a god or not, and I don’t claim to speak for any god. All I have to go on is my experience, reason and gut instincts, and they all lead me to believe, Mr. Barber, that you are not at all the sort of person I should look to for advice when it comes to ethical, philosophical or spiritual concerns. I find your utter lack of humility in regards to your claims that you know what your god wants and expects of me and people like me to be shameful, arrogant and prideful. And the lies you tell about us… And the way you have devoted so much of your life to denying us basic human rights and respect… It may surprise you to learn that I actually think Charles Manson is a more trustworthy person than you.

If I believed in hell, which I don’t, I might be tempted to conclude that you are really an apostle of hell. If I believed in the devil, which I do not, I might be tempted to conclude that you are really in league with the devil. If I believed in the Antichrist, which I do not, I might be tempted to conclude you were this entity or at least a devotee. If there is a god, I believe you actual do this god a disserve. And even though I’m not sure if Jesus was actually the son of a god, I believe--given that by all accounts he was a man of peace who wanted human beings to live in harmony--that you brutalize his memory on a daily basis.

Since I believe that you have acted out with great hostility and cruelty toward LGBT people, you might think that I want you to be punished or eliminated. Well, I won’t deny that I’m human and that you inspire negative feelings in me, but I suspect that you are not nearly as fulfilled and content as you let on, and I suspect that if you really were a happy person you wouldn’t devote so much of your life to causing trouble as you attempt to garner political power for nefarious reasons, so I’m going to hope that you, Mr. Barber, find happiness and joy. I hope you find so much of it that you forget your war against my tribe. And if there is a heaven, I hope you will be there regardless of how you conduct yourself in life or what you believe or claim to believe, and that’s because if there is a god, I would like to believe that god is not a vengeful, cruel god.

　

　

Sincerely,

Gary Cottle