Recently, my little brother Joe found this picture on the Internet.
The guy with the sign that says, "Racism Makes God Barf" is my younger brother Mark. The charming woman to his right is his wife. The occasion for this protest was a number of years back (about twenty, to be exact), when the Aryan Nation was talking about moving its headquarters to Salt Lake City. Mark and some other BYU students decided to let the Aryans know what they thought about that.
Mark says he didn't come up with the sign. Somebody else prepared all the signs for the protest, and when it came time to pick a sign, nobody else would take the one with the goofy caption. Mark volunteered to carry the unwanted sign, which guaranteed his picture appearing in the local papers.
I wonder how God feels about homophobia.
God is homophilic (so I will be too).
ReplyDeleteThat you would say that makes me Billphilic. :)
ReplyDeletewhat an awesome photo but even more awesome because it's yer bro
ReplyDeletexo Betty T
God is allergic to homophobia. He gets hives.
ReplyDeleteJust as racism is "carefully taught" (i.e. "South Pacific" musical) so is homophobia... and it takes un-teaching. When I see "South Pacific", there is a huge sense in today's world of "what's the big deal???", but when it was written, it was a big deal - the blending of races. In our family blend, we have experiences various levels of racism in our own family, but for the most part, those feelings have vanished and are no longer a daily threat, even a yearly threat... The Church's racist views have come a long way as well,as the understanding that God loves ALL his children is embraced with more enthusiasm with each passing generation.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the shunning away of the uncomfortable things of life, make some still feel homophobic toward those things they don't understand. Am I guilty of homophobia when I don't stand up for my gay brothers and sisters because of the lock on my eternal / infernal closet, even though I hold the key to the lock?
We've got to be carefully un-taught!
Thank you for being a master teacher.
Betty - It is awesome that he's my bro. Hey, that's MY bro!
ReplyDeleteBeck - I too have become aware of everyday racism I would probably never have noticed if I were coupled with a white guy. For example, Göran's bags get searched every time we fly on an airplane. My bags are yet to show up in baggage claims with a little "TSA" notice. We also notice little things like how he gets treated differently in stores.