I grew up among Christian fundamentalists, and they seemed to think all kinds of things were sinful—gambling, drinking, extra and premarital sex, short skirts, tight pants, cussing… But they weren’t really sticklers about much of it. They thought working on a Sunday was sinful, but they didn’t refrain from buying stuff on Sundays, and if you had a job that required you to work on Sunday, they’d say that God will understand. They didn’t try to force stores to stop selling beer. They didn’t shun family and friends who drank. They thought smoking was sinful. My parents thought smoking was sinful, and yet they both smoked. My parents and my aunt and uncle smoked right in front of my grandmother who was the most pious member of the family. They even smoked in her house.
Harsh condemnation was usually reserved for people they didn’t like—uppity blacks, trashy whites, slutty women, rebellious teenagers and queers. Nearly everyone else was given some slack. The fundamentalists of southern West Virginia regularly used their religion to justify their prejudices.
That’s why I have little patience with the idea that those who judge and want the legal right to discriminate against LGBTs today are just doing what they think is right. I’ve seen this kind of thing before many times, and in my opinion, it has little to do with “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
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