I don’t usually post my own interviews… but this one is giving the religious right fits, so I’m making an exception. Also: I usually credit Sam Harris, author of Letter to a Christian Nation (and other books), when I go off about how the Bible got slavery wrong. Harris doesn’t connect that error to human sexuality in Letter, but the observation—if the authors of the Bible got the easiest moral question there is wrong, what else did they get wrong?—was his, and I cite it, and plug Sam’s book up, frequently when I speak at colleges. But somehow I brain farted it for the cameras.

84 replies on “Interview on WTTW”

  2. My favorite part on their freakout page? When they asked who was watching the kid while Dan and Terry had their 3-way.

    It always kills me how transparently stupid these kinds of attacks are–i.e that someone out there actually convinces his or herself that this is a reasonable argument. I mean c’mon, according to this argument, no adults with children should ever ever have sex of any kind because doing so, obviously, means child neglect! PLEASE.

    When was the last time any straight adult couple “confessed” their sexual “crimes” to their own children? Ball gags, hot tubs, threeways, porn, toys, oral sex, spanking, phone sex, or, hey, just good ol’ fashioned man-on-top-get-it-overwith-quick sex–No healthy adult ever discusses their sex lives with their children, let alone confess it as though the fact of a particular act implicitly damages them. Newsflash, sexphobes: the vast majority of sex acts are the same damn stuff, nothing’s new under the sun, so stop projecting your own fears and repressed desires onto your children, because that actually will damage them.

    In fact, I would argue that sexless marriages cause far more psychological harm to growing children than any private dalliances of happy and honest couples.

  4. My husband just happened to flip to Chicago Tonight when this originally aired, and we both stopped what we were doing and just watched the whole interview. We’re both already fans of your writing and the IGBP, but this was just a really, really nice interview. (And I usually am not thrilled by Phil Ponce).

    Thanks for the amazing things you’ve done in 2010, Dan. Happy New Year.

  5. Please stop dignifying these people by calling them Christians. They are nothing of the sort and we are in no way obligated to pretend their hatred is motivated by any kind of so-called religious belief. What horseshit. They hate because they enjoy hating – the “religion” is merely window dressing they wrap it in. And their leaders pander to them because it lines their greedy pockets.

    They are KKKristchens.

  6. From the “Truth” About Homosexuality website: Let WTTW know that it is hypocritical and shameful that they were so respectful toward a hate-filled, vulgar anti-religious homosexual extremist like Dan Savage. . . urge the station to balance their in-depth interview with the anti-Christian Savage with an extended interview with a pro-family leader opposed to mainstreaming homosexuality.

    People are going to have different reactions to a group that demonizes them — that claims how they feel and act is wrong and disgusting — and tries to prevent them from having equality in society. If I was gay, and had grown up with that kind of shit from Christian conservatives, I’m not sure how I’d react, but I suspect I’d have a lot of anger and hatred toward them. To love and/or forgive those who demonize and repress you, or to turn the other cheek, may mean you’re a better person, but it’s also not an easy thing to do.

    Although Dan’s “O They Will Know We Are Christians” posts on Slog can, I think, come across as an overly broad condemnation of Christians, I’m sure he understands there are liberal Christians who don’t have a problem with homosexuality and who feel that gays & lesbians should have full equality in society. Anti-Christian he’s not. Anti-Christian-bigotry he is.

    It’s so bizarre that these “pro-family” conservative Christians have such an obsession about homosexuality when they should be focused, instead, on straight people who, through things like abuse and cheating, destroy families every day.

  8. Dan, I would like it if you DID link all your interviews! You should maybe consider doing that. We’re all hear because we like what you have to say, why would we be against hearing more of it?

    I LOVE the fits! Especially the implications you somehow involve your child ‘WHO was babysitting during the illicit gay pervy three ways of sodomistic orgy sinning?’. Um, my guess would be a bored fourteen year old girl from down the street, like every other babysitter? They’re so convinced gay people can’t have normal lives or families.

  9. I can swear that I saw this interview weeks ago. And the AFT is just now getting wind of it?

    Or am I full of crap? When did this interview first air, Dan?

  12. Could you post your interviews somewhere? Like, say, one of those little frittered away corners of Slog that you sometimes reserve for extra responses to Savage Love questions and things that you could just link to once and those of us who want to could add the RSS feed to our Google Readers or whatever? I’m always trying to track your appearances down and I fail mostly.

  13. They still have their panties in a twist over this? Nearly a month of frothing at the mouth? I guess the “war on Christmas” wasn’t as consuming as they thought.

    I thought this was great when I first watched it nearly a month ago, and I think it is great now. And, I suppose freedom of opinion allows people to be offended, but I personally don’t think it is offensive. I think it is thought provoking, but considering that one’s compliance to scripture or church doctrine might be abusive to your fellow humans takes courages. Most people don’t want to risk learning that a monster lurks within them, they prefer to believe that they are good and pleasing. And, maybe it is easier to blame it on God and/or scripture when they act unethically than to take personal responsibility?

    Then again, just as I’m wary about an individuals testimony of a transcendental experience with God says anything about whether or not God exists, I’m also wary that scripture provides any relevance to our present quest to understand the universe and our part within it. It is hard to imagine that something comprised of ancient transcriptions of oral tradition covering ~2100 year period of history, gathered over a 1200 year period over 2000 years ago, before we began to understand the age and extent of the cosmos, before we understood that our minds are seated in our brains, before we understood our evolutionary relationship with the other animals within the animal kingdom, could/should be used as religious solutions or could/should be considered relevant to present quest for understanding about the universe and or place in it. At most it could provide us with a point of departure. In short, I am wary of the Bible’s relevance as a guide to understanding human sexuality and am prone to think that while it addresses human issues, some of which we still struggle with, it really offers us a glimpse into how an ancient culture with a different world-view saw life and not a divine mandate for acceptability. Just my $0.02, though.

  14. @46 We’ve admitted they got 25 things wrong so far. I’m not counting the 18th or 21st amendments because they cancel each other out, otherwise it would be 27.

  17. @44 You’re not responding to any of the points raised in the interview or anything that anybody in the GLBT community is asked for. Maybe if you paid attention or tried to understand what progressives are saying, you wouldn’t disagree so much.

    We want equal protection under the law. If bullies did what they did to an adult or a child of a Senator, they would have been charged with assault. Instead because it’s a gay kid they get to commit assault daily with no consequences.

    And your version of Darwinism may loosely apply to solitary lizards, but is far too simple-minded to apply to humans. All social animals contribute to more than their own survival. Mike Tyson could beat Albert Einstein in a fight, but who contributed most to the survival of humanity? Also, as it is now, gay kids have to be way more tough than straight kids. It’s not nanny statish to want an even playing field.

  18. As an ex-Seattleite turned Chicagoan, I already support WTTW through my donations to WFMT, their affiliated radio station. But seeing as they’re making the Xtianists all mad, I’ll have to give them even more this year. Thanks, Petey, for helping me decide to open up the ol’ checkbook!

    Anyone else inclined to help WTTW (or KCTS, or whatever your local station) based on this, please feel free to send in a check. And tell them it’s all thanks to Porno Petey!

  19. @44 God, where to start? First, your comment:

    “one of the main problems with todays kids is this single mommy raised mentalitys of these touchy ,feely pay attention to me attention whore kids.”

    Resisting the urge to edit, I will say that single parents don’t raise kids who are spoiled any more often than two parents do. The spoiled kids I know are all products of two parent families. Spoiled, “attention whore” kids are not necessarily the ones getting bullied, either. You make it sound as though they are babied at home, and so have no interest in defending themselves at school. I would suggest that you know remarkably little about bullying. Kids are bullied for being different. Different takes a lot of forms: Sometimes it’s being the awkward kid in a room full of athletes, sometimes it’s being a pretty girl who goes to a new school, sometimes it’s the gay kid in the conservative community. And while yes, everyone needs to learn to stand up for themselves, the bullying in today’s schools goes beyond that. Kids wouldn’t be killing themselves otherwise. These kids aren’t asking a lot, they just want to finish high school without being verbally and physically assaulted.

  22. I love how everywhere else you’re that “seattle columnist” but get in IL, and you’re suddenly tagged as the “chicago native”

    I understand you don’t want to post all your interviews, and really that’s not what your blog is for. but making us chase all over to find them is difficult 🙂 maybe put together a reference page or a youtube channel that collects them in one place? you sure do a lot of these, it’s always surprising to me when i stumble across yet another one.

  25. I wish you would post your interviews. The reason I come to your website is because I’m interested. That was really good. Thanks for a good column/webcast/blog and Happy New Year!

  26. Admitting that one’s compliance to homoliberal humanist dogma is murderously abusive to your fellow humans takes courages. Most people don’t want to risk learning that a monster lurks within them, they prefer to believe that they are good and pleasing. But killing a million babies a year wears on the soul after a while…..

  28. Awesome, awesome interview, Dan. Although I agree that maybe you could have phrased your bible criticism better (ie, just pointing out how evangelicans uselessly pick and choose verses), on the whole it was a mind-blowingly awesome interview.

    Just look: all the Stranger trolls are foaming at the mouth! The very incoherence of their replies is a joy to behold.

  29. Thanks for posting! I thought it was a great interview – well said, Dan. Using the link conveniently provided by the angry AFTAH man, I sent WTTW a letter or support for the interview. Hopefully their inbox will also be “balanced.”

  30. Thanks Dan, enjoyed this from beginning to end. I liked the story of Ann Lander’s desk — I knew you had it but I don’t think I’ve ever read/heard all the details. And Ann Lander’s influence on Slog — that’s very funny. I had no idea.

    And happy New Year, Slog! Except the trolls.

  31. @56 FTW.

    If Jesus came back today, I suspect he’d be appalled at how few people follow his teachings, and yet call themselves Christians.

  33. Aww, AfTAH used a ten-year-old picture, making you look all young and shit!

    @66: Fuck! I was so busy this year I didn’t get to sit down and check out FOX’s War on Christmas coverage! It’s always so heartwarming to see news stories about not privileging Christianity and/or secularizing legal holidays! I hope you’re right and I wasn’t missing much.

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