Great article from the Alternapress

These were the articles that got me into the debate at Rod's -- one week apart by Julie Lyons, editor of the Dallas Observer. At her publication's blog, the woman who holds the top editorial position at the Village Voice Media's outlet in Dallas outs herself as having struggled with lesbianism and ends her story (even worse) by becoming a Pentecostal Christian who married after being born again. She underwent some kind of spiritual prayer-healing -- she's vague on the matter, and I know nothing of that side of Protestantism, but that won't prevent me from stating with certainty that it probably involved some snake-handling.

It's a brilliant piece, not the least because of the unexpected location of it (and don't think there isn't plenty of vituperation of her in the Observer blog; and elsewhere). The best line in the original piece, in my opinion, is this one:

The evangelical faith loses every bit of its meaning and power when it is separated from love, the eternal principle behind the gospel of Jesus Christ. But this love is not some squishy, infinitely malleable thing that exists apart from truth—the truth revealed in the Bible. It is a love that constrains: from hatred, and from sin.

"Love that constrains"?? How can unconditional acceptance "constrain"; constraint is denial??

To paraphrase the end of a recent George Will column, if you want to understand the real reason for the religiosity of Red America — read that sentence again. And then read the one next to it. And reflect on the differences in referents and the assumptions they both contain and cause. I'll give Lyons herself gets the last word, from the Front Burner blog, turning a favorite phrase of liberals back at them:

Last week when hostile comments starting flowing in to Unfair Park concerning Bible Girl, my husband ... wrote a very eloquent response ... I advised him not to post it, touched as I was by his concern for me. He ultimately made his own decision not to post. I told him this: Don't waste your breath on people who are unwilling to challenge their own prejudices, regardless of what you say and what you've gone through.

Preach it, sister.