Gramley has called for overt discrimination before. The AFA-PA president previously suggested that universities not hire professors who are gay or lesbian. Not surprisingly, her message was carried by Wildmon’s Agape Press under the headline “Penn. Activist Cites Statistics, Arrest in Suggesting Ban on Homosexual Profs.”

The occasion for Ms. Gramley’s “suggestion” was the arrest of University of Pennsylvania professor Lawrence Scott Ward for possession of child pornography. No one sanctions child pornography, but condemning it was not what Gramley was doing. She was stereotyping and condemning all gay Americans, a common tactic employed by AFA-PA and similar organizations that use fear and bogus stereotypes to promote discrimination. (See “America’s New McCarthyism: Homosexual Stereotypes, Myths, and the Politics of Fear,” Popular Culture Review, 16:2 [August 2005], 83-115.)

Perhaps Ms. Gramley might want to take note of the five colleges and universities affiliated with the Baptist State Convention – Campbell University, Chowan University, Gardner-Webb University, Mars Hill College, and Wingate University – that are preparing to disaffiliate. Why? Because of the Convention’s anti-gay stance and the fact that its “restrictive rules … are preventing them from attracting the best students and faculty.”

Higher education was not AFA-PA’s only target. Ms. Gramley sent a letter to Ambridge Area School District’s Senior High School principal Alan Fritz urging him not to participate in diversity workshops offered by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educational Network.

GLSEN’s “stated goals include working to end discrimination and harassment against homosexuals.” That description of GLSEN’s supposedly nefarious purpose comes from the Agape Press story about Ms. Gramley’s “objection” to the workshops. Clearly, feeling safe is a prerequisite to students’ ability to learn in the classroom. Why would Gramley and the AFA-PA object to that obvious truth?

Hate blinds one to the obvious. Ms. Gramley makes that abundantly clear. And the “biblical worldview” advocated by some fundamentalist preachers blinds them to common decency and basic human rights.

Rev. Mark H. Creech is the executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc. He believes “universal health care … is another example of America’s departure from its strong Judeo-Christian roots.” Moreover, Rev. Creech believes universal healthcare would “perpetuate or construct dependence or reward sloth … while those who are indolent prosper.” Appropriately, Creech’s article was republished by American Family News Network after its initial run on WorldNetDaily (see NB below).

Aside from the fact that “Rev.” Creech is comfortable with – and encourages – the needless suffering of men, women and children in the name of his perverted version of Christianity, and aside from the fact that Jesus spoke of helping the needy and the poor, not stomping on them when they’re down, Creech’s schadenfreude remarks are blatantly insulting to millions of hard-working Americans.

Many of those Americans are called the “working poor.” They often work two jobs while simultaneously raising a family, but since their employers keep them on “part-time” status, they don’t qualify for healthcare benefits. How dare Creech call these parents slothful and indolent?

There’s another group of incredibly hard-working citizens that Creech deems slothful, indolent and unworthy of basic healthcare coverage. They’re America’s future leaders: today’s college students.

This is one of many, many similar messages I – and professor nationwide – receive from our students every semester: “I’ve been very sick this semester and I can’t go to the doctor because I don’t have health insurance. It's too expensive. … I have two jobs and I’ve been pushing myself to the limit just to make it by financially. …”

Does Rev. Creech believe this student and the tens of thousands like her are slothful? Indolent? And just for the record, this student’s cumulative grade point average is near 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.

Will there be abuses in universal healthcare? Of course. There are abuses now. Doctors and hospitals billing for services never rendered. Pharmaceutical companies gouging senior citizens on prescription drug costs while the Bush administration thwarts every effort to lower prices or allow citizens to buy their prescription drugs from neighboring countries that care more about their citizens than corporate profits.

But to argue against every citizen’s right to basic healthcare is as twisted and malevolent as Gramley’s argument against gays and lesbians being employed. In the hands self-righteous fanatics, “religion” in America has become of means to hurt people… and feel good about doing so.
------------
NB

According to its founder, editor and CEO, WorldNetDaily was conceived as “‘an Internet newspaper’ committed to the highest ideals of American journalism” [link added]. Mr. Farah once again demonstrated his strange view of “the highest ideals of American journalism” in a March 17, 2007 tirade against actor James Cromwell titled “Another ungrateful parasitic celebrity”:

I’ve got some advice for actor James Cromwell.

Please leave my country as quickly as possible and don’t come back.

Cromwell, best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as the quiet father figure to the sheep-herding pig “Babe,” is the latest Hollywood ingrate to blast his own country – you know, the one that permitted him to become rich and famous for hardly even working – while on foreign soil.

In the course of his rant, Mr. Farah referred to James Cromwell as a “spoiled lunatic,” a “lowlife,” a “creep” (that Farah wants deported), a “loathsome thespian,” and “a cheap, $2 whore.” Is such childish name-calling in any way, shape or form even remotely related to “the highest ideals of American journalism”?

Mr. Farah claimed that James Cromwell’s comments were “unforgivable – especially when we have American soldiers sacrificing their lives to defend our way of life, his way of life!” Aside from the exclamation point that any journalism professor would decry as inappropriate in serious journalism, this comment brought to mind those bumper stickers from the Vietnam era: “America: Love it or Leave It” and “My Country, Right or Wrong.”

What does “defending our way of life” mean? History is quite clear that it meant nothing in relation to the Vietnam fiasco. And history is increasingly clear that it means nothing in relation to Bush’s war in Iraq. The fact that American soldiers – and innocent civilians – are dying is another indictment of a megalomaniac president misleading the country.

And contrary to Mr. Farah’s way of “thinking,” when the country is headed in the wrong direction, it is the responsibility of conscientious citizens to speak out.
 

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: