This Little Light of Mine

Although you've probably rarely heard of him unless you like watching the cotton-candy hair changes of Jan Crouch on Trinity Broadcasting Nework, Benny Hinn is one of the most prominent modern faith healers. Most sensible people write him off as a sham and modern carpet bagger, and you can even find many Christian websites warning devotees of Hinn's errant teachings.

You can take Hinn about as seriously as you do Pat Robertson. Their predictions are about as accurate. Robertson claimed several years ago that Orlando was about to be devestated by a hurricane. (I believe because said devestation would take place for a reason related to Disney hosting gay days.) You'd think that a fairly safe prediction would have come true by now, but hasn't.

Far better and bolder than this prediction, however is one made by Hinn on December 31, 1989, :

"The Lord also tells me to tell you in the mid 90's, about '94-'95, no later than that, God will destroy the homosexual community of America. [audience applauds] But He will not destroy it - with what many minds have thought Him to be, He will destroy it with fire. And many will turn and be saved, and many will rebel and be destroyed."

The prediction is laughable. It's so far-fetched, it's comical. I wish Mitt Romney and some others could see that not even the threat of gay marriage has brought down this fire. Although it's hard to claim victory against such a controversial and fringe element like Hinn, still, Cheers, queers, we're still here!

What is not so laughable is the audience clapping immediately after Hinn says God will destroy homosexuals. Although this happened on the last day of the 80's, it chills me to think that anybody who is supposed to be a follower of Christ would applaud the destruction of a people. (Although one has to wonder if God was going to destroy a particular community: the Castro? South Beach? Palm Springs? And will God be destroying gay Christians too? Or do we only get partially destroyed?)

Maybe I'm forgetting the part where Jesus said to nuke thy neighbor. Relgion doctrine aside, (ideally I should be asking "what, in spite of religious doctrine...") what causes humans to feel so deeply against other humans that they want them eradicated?

Racist thought has been driven underground. It's not socially acceptible to be racist; that's the good part. The bad part is racism is now more covert and insidious. Homophobia is going down the same path. Within the next decade we will likely have full civil marriage. We may have federal employment protection even. But we still have work to do with how people perceive us. We must continue to work to help people understand that being gay means you're like anybody else: different. Not better, not worse, just different. Let this extreme example remind us of the mainstream impact we have left to make.