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I’m Christian, Unless You’re Gay


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I wanted to post this after the bulling thing. Though if she was fundie she would have lsot her son. As sexual orientation is more important then a child.

Hello Mr. Pearce,

I am the Christian mother of a 15 year old teenage boy and about a month ago he came home from school with a copy of your article “I’m Christian, unless you’re gayâ€. The teacher gave his class a homework assignment to read it and write a 500 word essay about “what it meant to themâ€.

He came home and showed me your article and asked me what I thought about it. I read just the title and became furious at his teacher and at you (even though I know you had nothing to do with her handing out the assignment). Anyway, I confiscated it from him and told him he wasn’t to do anything with it till I had a chance to read it first.

And then I got madder and madder as I read it as I felt like it was a direct attack against our beliefs and our Christian religion and that it was promoting homosexuality, a practice that around here is a huge “sinâ€.

I gave my son an earful about homosexuality and God and told him that he could tell his teacher that he would not be participating and if she had a problem, she could come talk to me and then I threw the article in the trash. My son didn’t say anything just walked into his room and shut the door.

Long story short, a couple hours later it was supper time and I still hadn’t seen him come out of his room. I didn’t expect it to be that big of a deal to him but I went and knocked and told him to come out, he didn’t answer so I opened his door and he wasn’t there, he had left the house and gone somewhere. Of course I got more mad and tried to call him but he sent it to voicemail. I sent him a text and told him he better get home and he was grounded.

This is the text he sent me in return: “I don’t care. I’m at my friends house writing that essay and I’m not coming home till you read it.â€

I think you would have seen steam coming out of my ears if you saw me. I started preparing to go talk to the school the next day. I sent a few angry texts to my son that he didn’t answer. I got the article out of the trash so I could take it into the school and get this teacher fired. My anger got a little out of control and while I was sitting there fuming and planning what to do, I got another text from my son that said “Just emailed it. Love, Jacob.â€

My son’s name is not Jacob, and it took me a minute to realize that he was talking about your friend Jacob in your article. And when I realized that I suddenly started shaking in fear and anger at what he might be telling me. I started out of control crying because I couldn’t handle having a gay son and what if that’s what he was trying to tell me? After a long time I finally got the courage to go look at my email and see what he had sent. And this is what he wrote.

I am gay and only my one friend knows so far. My mom doesn’t know yet. My dad doesn’t know yet. You didn’t know it when you gave us this homework. I am only 15 years old and I have never felt so alone. My mom and dad always are being angry about gay people and talking about how they are bad and going to hell and they also always talk about how all the gays should be shipped off to their own private island or something so that the rest of us could live God’s commandments in peace.

I have been so scared of them finding out that I’m gay because I know that they would hate me and would want me out of their life and at the same time I can’t keep this secret anymore because it is not something I asked for, never in a million years would I ask to be gay in a town like this where everybody would hate me. And anyways I can’t keep this secret anymore because I’m about to do something crazy like run away or hurt myself or something. I just want to be dead sometimes.

And then you gave us the assignment to write this essay for our homework and I read it like ten times I even skipped lunch and just kept reading it in the bathroom and by the time I went home I decided that maybe I am only 15 years old but maybe this town will change if I can be honest about who I am and maybe my family will change if I can be honest about who I am with them too. I don’t see why I don’t deserve love just like everyone else. I see some crazy stuff that so many people do and people still love them but for some reason everybody around here thinks its ok to hate gays and stuff. And I don’t know really I think I just realize that I don’t want to be Jacob in ten years and still live my life in secret and scared of being hated.

So I go home and I tell my mom to read this handout you gave us and she got so mad at me and started going crazy about how evil gays are and how all of this was just the devil spreading his work and everything else she said. But this time I just got mad myself and I got so mad because I suddenly realize that this is the woman that my whole life made me go to church where they talk about love just like the writer said but she and every other person I pretty much know just hate so many people especially gay people. So I got madder and madder and madder and then I snuck out and came to my friends house to write this essay because its time to stop letting people’s hate stop me from being happy. I mean should I really have to hate my life and want to die because other people are so hating?

And I don’t know what will happen but I am done playing like I’m something I’m not and if my parents don’t love me anymore because of this then I realize that’s not my problem and it will hurt but not as much as the way I hurt right now. I feel like if my mom and dad would just think about things they’d realize that what they always say and how they always hate gays is not what Jesus would do and maybe there is a chance that they will some day love me like Jesus would. I am their kid afterall.

Tonight I am going to send this to my mom and see what she says I guess. I don’t know what will happen but I know that I deserve to be loved just like everybody else does I just hope she thinks so too.

Obviously you can imagine the emotions and thoughts that were going through my head when I read that…

I started crying and couldn’t stop for the longest time. I don’t know why I was crying exactly, just so many emotions came over me. I didn’t know what to do or how to respond. I finally stopped and went and read your article once more only this time I tried to read it through my son’s eyes and the whole thing was so different than it was a couple hours before. By the time I finished I felt as big as an ant and I realized just how much hatred I have in my heart toward others.

You see, Mr. Pearce, you are right. It’s not about what other people do. It’s about whether or not we are loving them. Nothing else matters at all. And it took all of this for that to finally sink in.

I texted my son back that I loved him and left it at that. He came home that night and didn’t try to talk to me about it, I just told him I loved him at least ten times that night and made sure not to talk about anything else. My love for him was the only thing I wanted him to feel and I knew he’d talk to me about it when he was ready.

That was a month ago and in the last month my son and I (his dad lives three states away and still doesn’t know) have grown much closer than we ever were before. We have both stood up against hate several times when we hear it coming from the people around us. You see, where we live people really do have problems “being Christian unless…†But no longer in this home.

I’ve shared your article now with countless people. I have made my sisters read it. I talked about its message to my parents. I sent it to my friends and neighbors. And I’ve had some people get really upset by it, but a change is starting to happen around here and it’s because one teenage boy finally had the courage to stand against what he felt was wrong. He believed he could make a change. And I’ll tell you right now, it makes me happy to see him so happy. I never knew how unhappy he was until I could finally see how happy he could be.

So thank you. I know this is long, but I thought you’d like to know what your article has done in this little town we live in. And it’s just the beginning.

Sincerely yours, one proud mom.

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Guest Anonymous

It sounded fake as hell from the start, I don't buy it.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... -teen.html

**ETA: Snip from The Daily Beast article.

My first instinct: bullshit. The whole thing just read too clean, too easy. Are we really to believe that a woman with deeply-held ultra-conservative Christian beliefs (she wanted the gays shipped off to their own private island!) found out her son was gay, read a single blog post by a tolerant author, and voila? It took her less time to see the light than it would’ve to watch a couple reruns of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.â€

Plus, the writing is rejected-Hollywood-script cheesy—“a change is starting to happen around here and it’s because one teenage boy finally had the courage to stand against what he felt was wrong.†And OPM often comes across more as a caricature of a religious conservative than as a real one. “I got madder and madder as I read it as I felt like it was a direct attack against our beliefs and our Christian religion and that it was promoting homosexuality, a practice that around here is a huge ‘sin,’†she wrote, before explaining that she gave her son “an earful about homosexuality and God.â€

‘Everything just lined up too perfectly. And it just seemed to fall so neatly into this expected story of redemption.’

The son’s story doesn’t ring true either: “So I got madder and madder and madder [note the similar phrasing to OPM’s email] and then I snuck out and came to my friends house to write this essay because its time to stop letting people’s hate stop me from being happy. I mean should I really have to hate my life and want to die because other people are so hating?â€

Obviously, it’s possible this is all real. But I’m not the only one who is wondering about its authenticity.

I called Pearce and asked him to put me in touch with OPM and her son (on the blog, the son is represented by a stock photo of a blue-eyed, shaggy-haired teen). Pearce told me that would be impossible: The note was sent anonymously to his blog’s contact page, and he said his contact-form software doesn’t capture IP addresses.

Okay, but did he think it was real?

“I can’t speak to the veracity of what she wrote,†he said. “You know, it seemed legit to me when I posted it.â€

But since then, he said, some people have pointed out to him that “the voice of the mom and the son kind of seem the same,†and he has begun to have a “little nagging doubt that maybe I got duped.

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Guest Anonymous

I agree with you, Visionoyahweh - it would be nice and heartwarming if true. But as the not straight kid of homophobic fundie medium parents, I know that's not what would have gone down at my house.

No real names, anonymous submission to a popular blogger, red flags in the writing styles ... it's pinging as bullshit.

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I'm a queer, former-fundie-now-liberal Christian who had a ton of internalized homophobia for years, and really struggled with it. If it was so hard for me to accept my sexuality in the light of my faith, I'm not buying that a homophobic mother changed as quickly as that. It screams Fake Viral Email to me.

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I strongly agree. No way in hell a. the assignment would be set and b. mum would change that quickly overnight.

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I don't believe it's real but I love the sentiment and I hope with all my heart that there are parents out there that would have that sort of epiphany for the sake of their children.

My best friend is gay. I was with him when he finally told his very religious parents and grandmother. He was frightened and had been keeping it a secret for a long time. Finally, my father gave him a long lecture about the importance of being true to yourself and how he was lying not only to his family but himself.

MY BFF then went to his grandmother who responded rather dismissively, "Sure, and I'm a lesbian." He said it again and she just hugged him without another word. He told his parents who grilled him about whether he was sure. After that not another word was said. For him, thankfully, who he is as a person was more important to them and they never did anything but love him and his spouse deeply and truly.

Now, that's not to say there weren't speedbumps. They were convinced that he and I were meant to be married (hell, I even prayed for that and I'm an atheist). His grandmother would go out each morning and pray in the backyard, that Craig would be straight and marry me. Finally, one night we snuck in and draped pink chiffon scarves from the tree. She walked out the next morning, saw the scarves, called us (we shared an apt then) and said, "Very funny." She stopped bothering him about marrying me.

My point? Even those with outstandingly loving and supportive families (his mother is the epitome of unconditional love) can have a hard time getting the courage to come out. I can't imagine the pain of those with conditionally loving parents. So in that vein and in my wish that all gay children and teenagers and adults could be open and free with their lives without fear do I wish wholeheartedly that story is true.

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I think one of the problems with fundies is that they take the bible as fact when it is really metaphor and allegory. I tend to think of these viral things in the same light. The point is not: is this fact the point is: hating people because they are gay is wrong.

edited because - sounded more cogent and concise

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My best friend came out to me when I was still drinking the kool-aid in high school (see, my parents never should have sent me to the ebil public schools where I would meet boys and homuhsekshuels). I changed overnight like this, and it was one of my big steps out of fundy-ism. If this kid, the only one in my life who had offered unconditional acceptance, who was brilliant and talented, and basically the highest quality human being I'd met, was condemned to hell because of that, well, screw heaven.

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I don't trust anything I see on Dan's page anymore.

In my opinion, he attempted to bribe me into removing a thread about him on the old Yuku board. Between that experience and his dancing homeless people video, I have decided that Dan is not to be trusted and generally only seems to care about making himself look good or feel better.

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Screams fake to me.

Among other things, that homework assignment would be unnecessarily inflammatory and could possibly in and of itself violate the Establishment Clause, couldn't it? Freedom of religion goes for homophobes as well. I can see a teacher doing something stupid and/or illegal to enforce the status quo, but to go against it? I don't see it.

And then the mom's turn-around seems too pat and easy to me as well.

Now, that doesn't mean that the piece is totally worthless. If it makes people think, well, so much the better. There's nothing wrong with fiction. But there IS something wrong with passing fiction off as fact.

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I liked Dan's blog at first, but quickly concluded that much of its content was too slick, too pat--this piece in particular. I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote it himself.

In one confessional piece , he admitted,

"I once stole a box of money that was meant for a child with cancer. There was more than $150 inside. That was 12 years ago, and I still hate the person in me that did that."

Nice to know. He would have been a full-fledged adult when he did that. Did he ever make amends?

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