Reply #59: The ex-gay movement is enormously hurtful, sometimes lethally so. [View All]

[femmedem]

I'm sure your wife went through hell, and I hope she's safely out the other side.

I, a straight woman, am deeply bothered by Obama's willingness to associate himself with that movement in any way. I won't be voting for him in the primary.

But this morning I am thinking of Dr. King who said, in his essay on Loving Your Enemies, "...that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath. the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of his acts are not quite representative of all that he is. We see him in a new light. We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God's image is ineffably etched in being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God's redemptive love."

He goes on to say, "we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding."

http://www.salsa.net/peace/conv/8weekconv4-2.html

I am myself an atheist, but otherwise I believe these words of King's wholeheartedly. And I think this is the heart of what Levgree is saying. It doesn't mean make nice. And it doesn't mean ignore or tolerate acts of homophobia or bigotry.

I hope I haven't offended you. (You are generally one of my DU heroes.) Another poster told me that because I'm straight, I'm out of line offering my two cents. Perhaps so.

Namaste.