Pushing Back

Last night I Tweeted my pleasure at seeing the Olympic Men’s Diving, commenting on how sexy all the athletes were. A few seconds later, I received a flaming hate-Tweet from a homophobic Christian, preaching that God never intended for men to have sex with men.

I was curious to know why a stanch homophobic Christian would follow a proud and an openly gay Tweeter, so I checked out this guy’s profile, only to find that he is heavily tweeting about the current Chick-Fil-A controversy. He is virtually making a career out of vomiting his particular brand of hate across the Internet.

I admit my first reaction was to push back, to send an equally flaming Tweet, telling Mr. Homophob exactly what I thought of him and his religion. But as I unsuccessfully tried to think of some astute response, my thoughts shifted to the Chick-Fil-A issue.

Anyone who’s been on social media in the last few weeks knows there is a fierce battle of words being fought in cyberspace and in the media, a battle of Progressives vs. Christians. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that half the country is pushing back on these antiquated Christian “values”, and my anger drained away.

Only a dozen years ago, it was accepted that intolerant bigots could shout their judgments without reprisal. But those days are gone. Social media is allowing Progressives to organize and push back, shining a bright light on small-minded views. There is a national movement to push back on anyone who attacks the rights of others, and thank goodness for that.

I was reminded of a quote from Sir R. F. Burton: "The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man has never worshipped anything but himself.“

In the end, I could only feel a bit sorry for this self-righteous person.  I decided to simply block this person from my tweets so I don’t have to be bothered by him again.