Perhaps, most importantly, the exposure this Christian right leader or that one as a hypocrite seems to have little effect at all on the Christian right's political strength. I remember all the TV preacher scandals from the 1980s. At most , this lead to the fall of particular Christian right leaders, but did not weaken the Christian right itself politically.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Christian right leader takes vacation with rent boy Date: Tue, 04 May 2010 14:54:03 -0500
The problem is the false judgment of homswxuality of the "Christian Right." What does the minister's hypocrisy have to do with this?
My answer, is nothing at all. As follows.
First, _given_ the (false) view of homosexuality as a sin.
"Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue."*
The minister is a sinner (in this context). Nevertheless he honors virtue (heterosexuality). His sin is his own problem. His public actions (attacking sin) are not affected by this.
Second,_given_ our (true) view of homosexuality as a legitimate form of sexuality, it is incorrect to expose or pass on the exposure of any gay person. It is politically toothless because a minister's hypocrisy does not in itself call in doubt his political position. Hence no political point has been made but a gay person has been caused additional misery with no benefit accruing to the cause of gay liberation.
Carrol
*If you google this you will find several rebuttals of it. ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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