A True Foundation: On Christianity, Equality, and Tammy Bruce
On March 18, upon my invitation, pro-choice, lesbian, feminist radio host Tammy Bruce lectured at Wabash. Those first three adjectives were not easy ones for me to overlook. I am a nondenominational, Protestant Christian. I did not learn that “fundamentalist” was a bad word until I came to Wabash, but in a certain sense, I still consider myself one. I believe that the Bible is God’s word and that it is true. I believe that life is God’s precious gift, which begins in mother’s womb, and should not be taken from innocent, unborn children. I believe that men and women were created for each other, and that homosexuality is sinful. My beliefs, by the standards of many at Wabash, are fairly extreme. If God were to deliver bad political predictions to me each year, there would be precious little to separate me from Pat Robertson.
But Tammy Bruce, despite all my disagreements with her, articulated something that rang very true. I began my research on Ms. Bruce after I attended a lecture by transsexual Wabash alumnus Andrea James, whose talk, I felt, was unnecessarily anti-religion. In my research, I found an interview with Ms. Bruce which perked my interest. When asked why she voted for President Bush, she gave this reply:
“For me as a pro-choice, lesbian feminist, I have a remarkable life in this country. And it has been given to me by people of faith, interestingly enough—by a nation that has been built on principles that are astounding, that even though we can disagree on issues, and even on some moral issues, that there is no other place on earth where I can live the remarkable life I live here. And it’s due to the faith and to the values of people like George Bush.”
Tammy Bruce is right. As she made clear repeatedly during her visit to Wabash, she does not agree with most of the moral positions that social conservatives hold, but she respects their faith, and understands their importance in our society. Too often, religious conservatives allow themselves to be labeled as “hateful” and “intolerant” for their views on homosexuality. While those words could probably be used to describe a small minority of religious conservatives, for most of them, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, without Christianity, the ideas equality and tolerance would have no true intellectual foundation.
The argument for why conservative Christians are hateful and intolerant toward homosexuals takes a couple of different paths. First, it is often argued that homosexuality is a biological trait which is very natural, and therefore by calling it sinful, Christians are hating people “for who they are.” First of all, whether or not homosexuality is “natural” is a moot point. Sin occurs quite naturally in our fallen world. It is also very “natural” for a heterosexual male to lust over an attractive woman, but Christ himself warned of the sinfulness of that. In the Christian view, everyone is equally and inescapably sinful—hence the equal need for a Savior. That Christ died for the sins of all people, Jew and Gentile, respectable citizen and despicable murder, is the very foundation of the Western idea of equality.
The issue of marriage is also used as proof that Christians are out to deny equality. But as Ms. Bruce pointed out, marriage as we know it is a religious tradition. That government is involved with it at all is the problem. The question of what constitutes marriage should not be a question of the state, but a question of the church. Now, Ms. Bruce believes that any attempt to change the Constitution should be resisted, but I would argue this: As long as government has its hands in a religious tradition, it has no business redefining that tradition to encompass behaviors that the tradition’s keepers view as sinful. As long as government is in the business of defining marriage, conservative Christians have every right to fight for a traditional definition.
Tammy Bruce may disagree with conservative Christians, but she understands and respects them. Others should follow her lead—because the path of attacking Christianity is too dangerous. Outside of Christianity, there is no real intellectual justification for equality other than “we made it up.” And that is a shaky justification indeed. Christianity is not just a positive force in our society. It is the foundation of our society. Those who seek to limit Christianity’s influence operate within that framework—not the other way around. And those who chip away at that foundation do so at their own peril.
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