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The Devil Made Me Do It
By Carlos
Santoscoy
Christian
fundamentalists are suggesting gays and lesbians are to blame for Wall Street's
woes, a frequently made charge in the wake of national
calamities.
In a
September 25th blog post titled The Nation Will Right Itself If It Fixes Sex,
Christian Civil League of Maine Executive Director Michael Heath writes that the
financial crisis facing Wall Street is a symptom of America's sinful sexual
culture, including the acceptance of gay unions.
"Our crisis
is a symptom, not the cause," writes Michael Heath. "I am not saying I know
whether this financial crisis is God's judgment or not. It is not for me to know
that definitively."
Heath goes
on to list policy changes that would make God "crack a smile," including: End
abortion rights and defund non-profit groups supporting it, amend state
constitutions to ban gay marriage and eliminate domestic partnerships and civil
unions for gay and lesbian couples, and end discrimination against private
religious schools and homeschools.
A related
post by Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian at the
National Review's website pushes a similar theme, this time focusing on Friday's
failure of WaMu.
Krikorian
suggests the big bank failed because it was too accommodating to minorities,
including gays, African-Americans and Hispanics.
In his
September 26th post titled Cause and Effect?, Krikorian writes, "I really
thought this was a joke, but it's not. WaMu's final press release, before it
sank beneath the waves."
The press
release lists the general accomplishments of WaMu in diversifying its workforce,
including earning a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate
Equality Index – a rating indicative of the gay-friendliness of a company's
official policies.
"Diversity
is an integral part of cultivating a welcoming, innovative and dynamic workplace
here at WaMu," the release reads. "We are proud to be recognized for the
opportunities and benefits we offer to all our employees, including the specific
efforts we have made to engage Hispanics and the GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender] community."
Blaming
gays and lesbians for disasters big and small is nothing
new.
Fred
Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, blamed gays and lesbians for
hurricane Katrina, the deadliest and costliest hurricane in U.S. history that
led to years of dystopia in New Orleans. "New Orleans, symbol of America, seen
for what it is: a putrid, toxic, stinking cesspool of fag fecal matter. ... Pray
for more dead bodies floating on the fag-semen-rancid waters of New
Orleans."
And in 2001
televangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blamed terrorists attacks on New
York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon (the 9/11 attacks) at least in part
on gays and lesbians.
