A few days ago, pastor Sean Harris made headlines after he encouraged his parishioners to beat their children if they displayed any “gay” behavior. Needless to say, he found the attention less than desirable, and has since attempted to retract his statement. Unfortunately, like any homophobe caught in the act, his retraction is less than sincere:

“I apologize to anyone I have unintentionally offended,” Sean Harris, pastor of Berean Baptist Church wrote in a statement on his church’s website. “I did not say anything to intentionally offend anyone in the LGBT community.

He claims his speech was intended as a joke, but judging by all the “Amens” you hear during his speech, it’s clear the audience was rather receptive to his abusive message. His non-apology also rings hollow when statements like this are made:

Harris said in the sermon that same-sex couples are free to live together. He argued Tuesday that there was “not an ounce of hate being communicated in that,” but said in the sermon that such couples live together “in the most sick and ungodly way.”

It’s the whole: “I don’t hate you: God does” argument that gets old real fast. The fact Harris despises gay couples is undeniable, and any attempt not to look like a total asshole is impossible. What I find amusing in all of this is only a few days ago, Dan Savage delivered a speech to high school journalists condemning the Bible for promoting (among other things) homophobia. A few of the students walked out, and the religious right immediately screamed religious discrimination. Savage was essentially vindicated by the Harris’ sadistic and cruel comments, which demonstrated yet again the toxic effects of religious faith. Nice work, Danny-boy.

When you stop placating people and call them out on their bullshit, you’re bound to hurt their feelings. While some of us are comfortable with the idea of letting dumb or dangerous ideas thrive under the banner of “tolerance”, there are those brave few who cannot stay silent in the face of the injustices brought on by antiquated religious belief. When Dan Savage recently spoke to students at a High School Journalism Conference, he condemned the Bible for being used to justify not only bigotry, but slavery. This prompted a few of the students to walk out in protest, and one of them yelled “that’s bull!” (obviously, this young person, like most Christians, have never read this book). Enter this man, who echoes the sentiment of so many of his fellow believers who were shocked someone would be so incensed as to dare call these guys on their shit.

How does he justify this behavior? He makes a claim leveled by many by saying “there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong.” This is wrong on two counts. First, there are not “many people” doing anything even remotely like “gay bullying” and there is not one single account I have heard of where someone specifically used the Bible as their justification for bullying gays.

If you bury your head in the sand deep enough, that would explain why you’re totally unaware your fellow Christians bring up the Bible as a way of justifying their homophobia on a daily fucking basis. How can you even talk to someone who is that willfully ignorant? Does he not watch TV? Has he not heard one speech by the Pope, or that moron Bradlee Dean, or the countless other preachers continually quoting Leviticus?

It is a lesson about intolerant people claiming Christians are intolerant, bullying by those who claim to help the bullied, and hypocrisy from the same people who point the finger at others claiming they are hypocrites.

The irony here is a few days ago, another beautiful young man committed suicide because of the bullying he suffered at the hands of religious homophobes. His death coincided with a recent Southern Baptist Conference decrying the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act because it included provisions for LGBT victims of domestic abuse. Dan Savage’s response to these kinds of tragedies cuts through the bullshit: the majority of perpetrators of homophobia are unmistakably religious.

In the light of criticism, Christians have declared their religious freedoms are violated by any pro-gay legislation. This sort of tactic has been used before: Southern Baptists argued during the civil rights movement that laws designed to prevent discrimination against blacks violated their religious freedom (the Bible is pro-slavery, after all). In the face of constant pressure to conform, they eventually abandoned this strategy, although there are a few remnants of it here and there (bigotry does not disappear easily).

Dan Savage, as is the case with those who hate and do not understand Christianity, is simply ignorant. My task in educating my children will be to teach them how to deal with that ignorance, intolerance and oppression, simply because they are Christians.

What most Christians fail to understand is many non-believers and critics of the religion were themselves entangled in it at one time. Survey after survey proves our understanding of religious materials is superior to believers. That’s not very surprising. The more you uncover about faith, the more you realize it’s a smoke and mirror show. Ignorance, as it turns out, is the only way to remain a believer. They have a fancy word for it: they call it faith.