Tip #35 Where NALT Belongs
Sep. 21st, 2015 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastNALT (accronym): Not All Like That
Credit: Dan Savage
Imagine two people come to you on behalf of their organization. The first person, who we'll call LT, calmly, even happily explains how it's such a travesty of justice that you are allowed to make your own decisions when you are not a member of the organization. In a just universe, his organization would take control of your life and make sure you don't do anything horribly evil, as you're likely to do. The good news is that his organization can change you so as to make you someone who isn't a complete mental and moral inferior.
After LT is done, the other person, N, quietly takes you aside and out of earshot in order to inform you that LT does not really represent the organization and that you shouldn't hold LT against the organization.
That may well be true. But, why didn't N interrupt in order to tell LT that?
Recently, Buzzfeedyellow put out a video, I'm a Christian, but...* In this video, self-identified Christians identify that they aren't anti-gay. They aren't exclusionary. They aren't jerks. That's all well and good.
Dan Savage coined the term NALT in response to the many Christians who sent him messages to inform him that not all Christians oppose homosexuality. That's all well and good.
Please, keep on Not being Like That.
And, when you talk to N, it's not that you don't appreciate that N isn't LT. You acknowledge that N acknowledges your mental and moral equality. And, that's all well and good. But, N telling you, without telling LT, tells you something about N. It tells you that N is more concerned with the organization looking good than doing good. Because, if the organization is to do good, at least good as N understands it, LT needs to be checked and fought hard and often.
This is a tip that applies more the more privilege your faith has in your community. In my community, that's Christianity. And, the LT folk get a lot of their credibility, within themselves individually and within their communities, from thinking that, indeed, they are All Like That and those that aren't aren't really members.
Ray Comfort, Hovind's both Eric and Kent, and Ken Ham all ply a manner of discourse that includes an assumption that Christian=Creationist, without any exceptions. And, I can only oppose them on the claims regarding science. As readily as I can tell them that non-Creationist Christians exist, they aren't likely to listen to me, because I'm not a Christian.
Huckabee, Santorum, and Perry all act and talk in a manner that assumes that Christian=opposes homosexuality. I can argue against the notion that their religion should have any baring on law. I can argue secular society. I can tell them that not all Christians agree with them, but they're not going to listen to me.
And, they probably won't easily listen to you. But, the people listening to them with the assumption that all Christians are anti-gay and Creationist might learn that the assumption is false and feel freer to learn and study, rather than believe on nothing more than "the bible says it, I believe it, that settles it."
This also applies to me in that I have a better view of a faith when its best members will fight its worst, rather than cozy up to them in the notion that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend".
You might not be Like That. The people who are Like That, however, are claiming ownership without much of a fight. They're claiming your religion. They're claiming your political party. They're claiming my nation. And, they're not shying away from the argument, not from you as a member of your faith or me as someone who believes being liberal isn't incompatable with being a patriot.
But, when we don't fight the people claiming our labels for their bigotries, their bigotries win, if only because others see us letting them win.
* https://youtu.be/5bWHSpmXEJs
(Edited: Correction, the name is Dan Savage, not Adam Savage. Got the wrong Savage.)
Credit: Dan Savage
Imagine two people come to you on behalf of their organization. The first person, who we'll call LT, calmly, even happily explains how it's such a travesty of justice that you are allowed to make your own decisions when you are not a member of the organization. In a just universe, his organization would take control of your life and make sure you don't do anything horribly evil, as you're likely to do. The good news is that his organization can change you so as to make you someone who isn't a complete mental and moral inferior.
After LT is done, the other person, N, quietly takes you aside and out of earshot in order to inform you that LT does not really represent the organization and that you shouldn't hold LT against the organization.
That may well be true. But, why didn't N interrupt in order to tell LT that?
Recently, Buzzfeedyellow put out a video, I'm a Christian, but...* In this video, self-identified Christians identify that they aren't anti-gay. They aren't exclusionary. They aren't jerks. That's all well and good.
Dan Savage coined the term NALT in response to the many Christians who sent him messages to inform him that not all Christians oppose homosexuality. That's all well and good.
Please, keep on Not being Like That.
And, when you talk to N, it's not that you don't appreciate that N isn't LT. You acknowledge that N acknowledges your mental and moral equality. And, that's all well and good. But, N telling you, without telling LT, tells you something about N. It tells you that N is more concerned with the organization looking good than doing good. Because, if the organization is to do good, at least good as N understands it, LT needs to be checked and fought hard and often.
This is a tip that applies more the more privilege your faith has in your community. In my community, that's Christianity. And, the LT folk get a lot of their credibility, within themselves individually and within their communities, from thinking that, indeed, they are All Like That and those that aren't aren't really members.
Ray Comfort, Hovind's both Eric and Kent, and Ken Ham all ply a manner of discourse that includes an assumption that Christian=Creationist, without any exceptions. And, I can only oppose them on the claims regarding science. As readily as I can tell them that non-Creationist Christians exist, they aren't likely to listen to me, because I'm not a Christian.
Huckabee, Santorum, and Perry all act and talk in a manner that assumes that Christian=opposes homosexuality. I can argue against the notion that their religion should have any baring on law. I can argue secular society. I can tell them that not all Christians agree with them, but they're not going to listen to me.
And, they probably won't easily listen to you. But, the people listening to them with the assumption that all Christians are anti-gay and Creationist might learn that the assumption is false and feel freer to learn and study, rather than believe on nothing more than "the bible says it, I believe it, that settles it."
This also applies to me in that I have a better view of a faith when its best members will fight its worst, rather than cozy up to them in the notion that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend".
You might not be Like That. The people who are Like That, however, are claiming ownership without much of a fight. They're claiming your religion. They're claiming your political party. They're claiming my nation. And, they're not shying away from the argument, not from you as a member of your faith or me as someone who believes being liberal isn't incompatable with being a patriot.
But, when we don't fight the people claiming our labels for their bigotries, their bigotries win, if only because others see us letting them win.
* https://youtu.be/5bWHSpmXEJs
(Edited: Correction, the name is Dan Savage, not Adam Savage. Got the wrong Savage.)
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Date: 2017-03-13 07:17 pm (UTC)