Is Every Christian Who's Against Gay Marriage Necessarily a Bigot?

The call of today's anti-gay Christians is "Stop calling us bigots, everyone! Just because we believe what the Bible says about homosexuality does not make us bigots!"

So let's think about that.

Pertinent question number 1: When does the anti-gay Christian become irrefutably a bigot?

Answer: The moment he or she does anything to restrict the rights of any other person based solely upon the fact that that person is gay.

You, anti-gay Christian, have the God-given freedom and the American right to believe whatever you want, and to worship and congregate with anyone and everyone who shares your beliefs. What sane person would argue against that?

For all practical purposes (and for such concerns, what else matters?) it is not beliefs that make a bigot. It's actions.

If you vote against gay marriage or gay rights, you are a bigot, as surely as anyone who voted against civil rights in the '60s was a bigot. If you preach against gay rights, you are a bigot. If you write against gay rights, you are a bigot. If you give your money or time to any Christian church or ministry that you know actively works to restrict or limit gay rights in any way, you are a bigot. If, in private, you intimate to your dearest friend that you don't think gay people should be allowed to get married, you are a bigot.

No one wants to be a bigot, of course. Not even the most virulent KKK member will claim that repelling appellation for him- or herself. But bigot is as bigot does.

And since it's impossible for a person to hold a conviction -- especially one based on religious beliefs -- that they don't in some way live out, it is, alas, safe to claim that any and every Christian who believes that gay people shouldn't have every last moral and legal right they claim for themselves is a bigot.

You can't be in the KKK and claim that you're not a bigot; you can't be opposed to LGBT rights and claim that you're not a bigot. Well, you can, of course, but if you do, you are fooling no one, least of all God.

Pertinent question number 2: Does the Bible say that being gay is a sin?

Answer: No, it doesn't .