Haven't you considered that there are Christians who believe homosexual acts are wrong and do not want to be seen to be promoting that.
Considered it? I know it for a fact.
Maybe it is hatred and bigotry to be calling those people hateful and bigoted.
It's not. They're bigots. I define bigotry as the irrational and destructive mischaracterization of a demographic people because they belong to that demographic, such as gay, black, Jewish, etc.. That defines the athletes, but not my comment. The athletes' opinion is irrational (based in religious faith and not reason applied to evidence), it is hurtful and destructive, and it applies every homosexual person just for being homosexual. By contrast, my opinion is defensible, is constructive (attempts to remedy a problem), and applies only to people that hold and express those ideas.
Those players are just following their conscience and you do not know their personal feelings about homosexuals.
Irrelevant. As I've explained, they're vectors of hatred whether they feel the hatred or not, what I called cold bigotry, the bigotry of well-meaning condescension and lowered expectations.
We are not talking about people who have said that gay people are an abomination to the God. God does not consider homosexuals an abomination, He considers homosexual acts an abomination.
A distinction without a difference. The consequences for the homosexual community are the same.
Maybe the people of the Westboro Baptist Church are bigots.
From a gay person's perspective, how are those people different from the athletes apart from being more vulgar, and that they don't make the distinction between "God hates f*gs" and "God loves gays, but hates what they do"? Please think about that. Why should critics of either of these ideas consider one bigotry but not the other.
I understand why Christians who have been taught that homosexuality is sin don't want to be thought of as homophobes or even vectors for homophobia. But they perpetuate the bigotry whether they feel hatred or not. The secular community would like the Christian community to reconsider what it says and does, and if it is not interested, will be judged for that by humanist standards and values, not the Christian's.
While it would be nice if the religious community would voluntarily keep its homophobic values to itself if it can't transcend them, it is not expected. Since the present Christian message and its effect is not acceptable by the reckoning of enlightenment values, and since the secular community knows to expect no changes or concessions from the religious community, then the proper response is to publicly condemn and reject those values. What other choice is there but to be silent, which is off the table?
These are culture wars between incompatible worldviews. The church will continue to attempt to dictate societal mores, but now, they will have to do so in the modern milieu, where dissenting voices are at last being heard thanks to a variety of factors that have leveled the playing field. Now, Christian values are competing with humanist values. It's no surprise that what the one calls love, the other calls bigotry, nor that the one would object to that designation. It doesn't matter. Nor should it.
