Isn't it interesting

...that the words we use can morph and re-frame and change the "nature of the debate," to use an over-utilized buzz-phrase du jour (straight out of the box, off the rack, and mass produced). We need to start replacing our native phrase "conservative Christian" with the phrase "Christian extremists." This sort of thing is so hateful and so very, very wrong-headed - and this is not an issue of liberal and conservative. This is an issue of extremism and it is the agenda of every extremist who has ever tried to assert that the rest of humanity must submit and obey, regardless of the religion or ethnicity of the extremist at the time. I am a Christian. I have classical Christian values governing my life. I accept the sacramental view of Holy Communion, I obey the Church's "marriage laws" which govern my own sexuality, and by that same Christianity I am thereby obligated to love the people Jesus died for.

I am a white woman, and not a white supremacist. I am heterosexual and have homosexual friends and relatives (and wish that such a distinction between people never came up in conversation - or, at least, not any more frequently than other personal matters). I homeschooled my kids, but not because I wanted to keep them safe from the big, bad world. I homeschooled because I wanted my kids ready to take their places in this world of ours. Christians are not supposed to be conducting a culture war at all! Jesus, in case you are not a Christian and do not know this, wasn't the least bit metaphorical on this matter. He said it outright. "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom was of this world, then would my servants fight." We're not supposed to fight. We're suppose to love. To serve, like the Son of Man himself came to do. We are supposed to be disappearing like salt and leaven, quietly doing good work to the best of their abilities and in our own situations, praying and worshiping, loving and loving and loving. And Christian extremists are hideous parodies of Christianity, in their teaching if not in their personal lives. I apologize to the world on their behalf.