His entire piece is worth reading. Throckmorton has been evolving in the past couple of years as he has done honest research and come face to face with the fact that his erstwhile ideological allies are craven liars. This section is particularly interesting:
The more I have researched these claims [from the SPLC’s list of myths perpetuated about homosexuality by hate groups], the more disillusioned I have become with the credibility of the groups recently placed on the list. Even though I agree with some positions held by some of the groups on some issues (e.g., pro-life), I now investigate any factual claims for myself and accept nothing at face value.
Ultimately, this is a real problem for American Christianity. One should be able to trust Christian groups to provide accurate information and nuanced analysis. However, on issues relating to sexual orientation, I cannot trust them. For me, this lack of trust spills over to other domains as well, creating a significant problem with credibility. I hope my fellow believers will not defend these claims simply because those making them are Christians.
This is a truth I’ve noted for some time. It only takes a minute of research to realize that most everything said by Family Research Council, American Family Association, National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, and all the others, are flat out lies. Meanwhile, the majority of the people who support those organizations are, I believe, essentially well-meaning people, but because they have been trained to believe that their fellow Christians are more credible than the rest of the population, they NEVER QUESTION what those groups say, and indeed have been convinced to write off anything said by scientists, researchers, grown-ups, etc. But yet if they just Googled for sixty seconds, they’d get a taste of what Throckmorton has been realizing for some time: Fundamentalist leaders lie about gay people without remorse. It is that simple.
I don’t agree with Warren Throckmorton on many things, but he’s on the right track here.
