An Open Letter to Mike Huckabee

So, Mike Huckabee, ever the victim is out spreading his lies again about gay people.  He’s got his knickers all in a wad over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act/s in some of the more backward states, and the fact that suddenly Americans stood up and said, “Nope, we’re not going back to Jim Crow like laws for anyone, so just stop it.” The Krazy Kristian Kooks can’t seem to figure out how to respond, now that it all blew up in their face.

[callout]It should be noted that the Family Research Council has its origins as a white supremacist mailing list illegally purchased by Tony Perkins from KKK Grand Dragon, David Duke, some years back. Perkins has also been the featured at a number of meetings of white supremacist groups.[/callout]Huckabee had to go on Tony Perkins’ FRC radio show to say “It won’t stop until there are no more churches, until there are no more people who are spreading the Gospel, and I’m talking now about the unabridged, unapologetic gospel that is really God’s truth.”

So I’d like to drop him a little note.

Dear Mike:

I understand you and your “christian” friends are butt-hurt that LGBT people just might actually get some of the same rights you have enjoyed all your life. You’ve made it clear by fighting against us your entire career in some very nasty and evil ways. And now that you realize history is passing you by, you are fighting back like a cornered animal, trying to throw every lie and misconception at the issue. Let me discuss some of your concerns.

First, you and your ilk have tried to claim that the original Indiana and Arkansas bills were just the same as a federal religious freedom restoration act signed by Bill Clinton in 1993. First, let’s just get this out there, a lot has changed in the past 20 years, despite your best efforts to prevent those changes. But more important, the two recent bills are NOT like the federal law. The bill uses a broader definition of who/what can claim religious exemptions by including for-profit businesses. It also broadens the definition of the burden required to just the possibility that a person’s religious freedom might be infringed. People a lot smarter than me have done some analysis at this site, and that even includes one of the federal bills original sponsors. So Mike, click the link and understand it. In the meantime, quit lying about it, there’s something in that book you call Holy about dishonesty.

I know it will surprise you to learn, Mike, that there are a lot of LGBT Christians out in the real world. People who likely mirror God’s grace far more accurately than the hateful, vengeful god you seem to project. I used to be one of those, but thanks to a hateful and unwelcoming Pastor at my long-time church, and all the escalating rhetoric from bigots like you, I’m now one of the “dones.” At least for a while, I’m off-duty from Christianity. People like you, Mike, made me embarrassed to say I was a Christian. Folks like you have made it such a dismal and vile place, who would want to join. But of course, you don’t believe that LGBT people could be “real Christians.” You put the disclaimer in your statement with the, “and I’m talking now about the unabridged, unapologetic gospel that is really God’s truth.” I know that dog whistle. That means anyone who doesn’t believe exactly as you do, is just wrong, and not really a Christian. Sorry, you aren’t the one who gets to decide Mike.

Then there is the ever-present claim that gay people want to destroy the church and kill Christians (yes, a lot of your friends have said that), and silence people of faith. It just might surprise you to learn that mostly we could give 2 shits about you and your church. Trust me when I tell you that we’d rather never have to cross paths with you, and we’d prefer to never have to fight with some little old lady florist claiming to be Christian who has chosen to deny us service in her establishment…someone who has done everything but hang a sign that says “White Christians Only.” What we would like to do is live our lives in peace; raise our children; care for our family members; pay the bills; keep our jobs; and know that, just like you, we can walk into any establishment, and get the same service you get.

But Mike, if you stand up and claim that you deserve special rights, and that LGBT people deserve less rights, you are indeed painting a metaphorical target on yourself. And if you do that in the name of your “religion,” (because you’re not doing it in the name of God…he would have none of people like you) you paint that same target on your religion. So, if your church is what you use to deny me my rights, expect me to take a dim view of your church.

After seeing some of your friends embarrassed on some real news shows, you ran home to Faux News, where you went on to say:

“I’ve never seen anything so utterly off the mark in my life, trying to say that the RFRA law is actually discrimination. It is most certainly not. Discrimination is when someone comes into the pizza place, they are turned away because they are black, or because they female, or because they are gay, ordering a pizza doesn’t give any clue if someone is gay. If you want me to show up and deliver a cake with two men on top of it, because I’m a Christian, then I’m not gonna be able to do that. That’s not discrimination, that’s discretion.”

No Mike, it is not discretion to deny service to someone. Cakes, despite what you all are now trying to claim, are not speech. They are a product. If you are a business that bakes wedding cakes, then that is your product. As a cake baker, you are providing a product. I suppose that might include a delivery service, but that’s it. It is not unlike the manufacturer of the tuxedo I might wear on my big fat gay wedding day. It is not unlike the manufacturer of the car I will ride in to the venue. You are “participating” in the service no more than Ford or the Men’s Warehouse is. I don’t want the cake baker solemnizing the wedding. I don’t want them walking down the aisle to give me away. They are employees or manufacturers doing a job.

Mike, I realize it is hard to see your white male anglo-saxon protestant domination of the culture slipping away. I also realize that your version of religion requires an enemy, and that you’ve chosen LGBT people. You know, something to scare people into your flock, because it is easier to motivate with fear and not love and trust, but it’s just not working like in the good old days, and the sooner you understand that Mike. The better.

But at the end of the day, with or without these RFRA laws, you still have the same religious freedoms you have had since the Republic was founded. You can pray to whatever God you choose, or you can choose to not pray. You can go to whatever house of worship you wish on whatever day you’d like, and you can crawl into the pulpit and preach the ugliest and nastiest things your sad little heart can drum up about people you don’t like. So Mike, stop with the lying about the need for these laws. The only thing you’re trying to do is get special rights to take your particular from of hatred and bigotry into the public square, and you’re finding that Americans are finally less and less tolerant of your intolerance. I know it’s hard to take now, but in the end, America, and even you, will be better for it.