Diana Butler Bass is one of my favorite Christian authors (her book A People’s History of Christianity is a great read on what following Jesus has actually meant historically) and a former Arizonan. On her Facebook page this morning, she posted a letter to Jan Brewer regarding our current legislative fiasco.
As far as I’m concerned, her perspective is far more Christlike than what Cathi Herrod is trying to sell:
Dear Governor Brewer,
I love Arizona. I grew up there, a proud honors graduate of Saguaro High School, where I was president of the Teen-Age Republicans. Indeed, I was such a good teen-age Republican that in 1976 Sen Goldwater named me Arizona State Teen-Age Republican of the Year. I still have his letter.
Not only do I love Arizona, but I love religion. That might sound odd. But I hold three advanced degrees in the subject: a college minor, a seminary MA, and a Ph.D. in the History of Christianity from Duke University. I have spent my adult life as a professor of religious studies, a best-selling author of eight books in the field, and an internationally-known expert in religious trends. And, more humbly, I hope, I am a serious, practicing Christian. I was confirmed in faith at Scottsdale United Methodist Church on Miller Road when I was 14 years old.
It pains me to say it, but I am now ashamed to read the words, “Arizona” and “religion” in the same sentence regarding HB2153, the legislation making its way to your desk under the guise of protecting religious freedom. One of the things Christianity teaches me is that God is love, and the God of Love loves everybody, even when we struggle to do the same. Yes, our religious denominations teach many different things about what is sin or what is sinful — and our Constitution gives each of us the right to practice our religion as we choose. But as children of God and citizens of a great nation, we should not legally aid discriminatory or hateful acts against those whom we might not want to embrace. As I read HB2153, it seems to care more about protecting exclusion than about creating a society where all citizens have equal rights under the law. I make not like someone or approve of their choices on the basis of my religious faith, but we all must understand that faith also demands that every human being is treated with respect and dignity (that’s actually in my church’s baptism vows).
Please veto this bill. I no longer live in Arizona. But I am a daughter of the beautiful state in the desert, a person whose own journey was deeply shaped by living in a place where God is present in every sunrise and sunset. My native friends taught me that the Great Spirit lives in us all. I pray that you would be strengthened by the God whose heart is ever-open, and the God who through all of human history has challenged us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Most sincerely yours,
Diana (Hochstedt) Butler Bass, Ph.D.
Saguaro High School, class of 1977
Student government officer and former TARS president
This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2014.
Arizona is already known for its racial profiling now it will add gay profiling to its list of sins. How are gays going to be identified? and does a business have to prove that the person they are denying service is indeed gay? and if so how? Will the tell be their walk, their speech, their hair or fashion sense, the company they keep? Maybe it’s time for the Arizona Republican legislature to consider a new law that all gay people must wear a pink triangle. It worked well for the other Nazis of the world and it will help keep religious people safe from these perverts. Another benefit would be it would be easy to identify gay people so that they can be beaten, humiliated, spit up, stoned or otherwise ostracized. the legislature might even look into diverting funds to build concentration camps to further protect the religious freedoms of its chosen people
hb 1062
It is HB2153, SB1062
Certainly, religious freedom guarantees the right of an individual to follow the dictates of their conscience. However, that right was never meant to be paid for with the rights of one’s fellow citizens. The inherent responsibility of those rights is in recognizing that they end, where the next person’s begins. If I fail to value the freedom of my neighbor as I do my own, then neither one of us are free. How can so many fail to grasp a concept that is so self evident?
Michael Allen Powers asks:
“How can so many fail to grasp a concept that is so self evident?”
Simple. Fill your heart (if you can find it) with hate. Then nothing else will matter.