@36 I too know what is preached in fundementalist settings having been raised and confirmed in a Missouri Synod Lutheran church. I honestly don't know how I survived, being a very sensitive kid myself. Perhaps the catatonic state brought on by the self-loathing and the thought that I must be evil and therefore killing myself would only speed my trip to hell kept me alive until I finally heard a message of true love and acceptance.

Other sensitive children were not so lucky. A friend of mine from a different fundementalist sect lost her brother to suicide at sixteen from this kind of preaching. And to add insult to injury, the talk of their congregation was, "well he must've been influenced by satan to do such a thing". I hope you, evangelical preacher, wouldn't hold that same sentiment and I would also hope you would see the church's complicity in the matter, but you are free to believe what you want.

I'm sorry you are feeling all trodden upon by all these militant unfeeling gays, as they express their true frustration against "real" oppression and the "real" effect it's had on their lives and psyches. Please remember, though, that it is based on the presupposition that being gay is inherently 'sinful' that gay marriage is illegal in most places, that gay people are not allowed the protection from discrimination that the religious have been enjoying all along, that in Uganda capital punishment for being gay is being seriously considered for a law, that in Montana there is still a law on the books that makes gay relationships illegal and punishable by jailtime and a fine.

Every time a politician passes a law that makes gays less equal, every time some group of thugs beats a gay to a pulp, or worse, the rationale always harkens back to the message of the church. So go ahead and whine about 'thought police' whenever we point out the harm that that message has brought us, but I would ask you, "what do you really expect us to do? be grateful that y'all even allow us to exist? Buck it up and say, 'thank you sir(s), may I have another'?"

I was the one whose comment got that "fairly conservative Evangelical Christian pastor's" panties in a wad because I said inregard to Marin's apology, "What I do know is that isn't what I think of as a sincere apology"
I guess I didn't explain my position clearly enough in regard to my take on Marin's so-called apology. Actually, in my opinion he and other evengelicals are quite entitled maintain their belief that gays are very sinful. They can even believe that we should all stand on our heads and wear pink tu-tus for all I care. I find the free exercise of religion and expression of opinion a truly beautiful thing about America and I would hate to think that anything I believe about this guy's sincerity should have any bearing on what he believes. Where I have a problem is the attempt to draw in the unsuspecting with this kind of obfuscation only to later tell them, "your behavior is still sinful; who you love and how you love is still abhorrent". My point is this, as a gay American, I just really am not not in a hurry to join a group that holds these kinds of opinions about my immutable self. Whether they are keeping it to themselves or shouting on the street corners like the Phelps clan, it just doesn't make me feel truly welcome, that's all. But hey, all you Biblical literalist, conservative, fundementalist, evangelicals out there, please do feel free to believe what you want and worship God in your own way to your hearts content, and I will do the same with a truly affirming church... they are out there.