FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
NEW YORK (RNS) A new website aims to become a gathering place for Christians who are “Not All Like That” and want to distance themselves from others who oppose gay marriage.
The NALT Christians Project launched on Wednesday (Sept. 4) with the message that Not All (Christians are) Like That, and that many hold the “belief and conviction that there is nothing anti-biblical or at all inherently sinful about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.”
Inspired by sex advice columnist Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign for gay teens, the NALT project aims to be a platform for Christians who post videos in support. About 40 videos have been posted so far.
Supporters of the project include The Evangelical Network, Auburn Seminary and the gay Catholic group Dignity USA. The project is spearhead by Christian blogger John Shore and Wayne Besen, from Truth Wins Out, which was founded to “fight anti-gay religious extremism.”
“It’s time for us true NALT Christians — the ones who genuinely aren’t like that — to speak up and be heard, to affirm LGBT people as loudly and clearly as anti-LGBT Christians condemn them,” Shore said in his appeal. “We must eradicate the culturally inculcated moral underpinnings that serves to support such bullying.”
In his endorsement, Savage suggested that one problem with Christians has been their quiet support for gay marriage as vocal opponents like the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and the National Organization for Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher got the most attention.
“Yes, yes, NALTs — we know. You’re not all like that,” Savage said. “Don’t tell us. Tell Tony Perkins, tell the pope, tell Maggie Gallagher.”
Opponents say it’s love, not hate or homophobia, that motivates them to discourage people from engaging in same-sex activity or relationships, said the FRC’s Peter Sprigg.
“I fully agree that Christians should show unconditional love toward (that is, genuine regard for the well-being of) homosexuals and transgendered people,” Sprigg said in a statement. “It is the homosexual activists who are placing conditions — namely, that such love will not be accepted unless it is accompanied by an unquestioning endorsement of their entire political agenda.”
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
