VP Joe Biden, “Bigots,” and Secularism

In 2012, leading the charge for the administration, Vice President, Joe Biden, came out in favor of SSM:

• "I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties."

However, without any apparent concern that his rhetoric might be inflammatory and polarizing, he now refers to those who oppose SSM as “bigots.” While addressing one of the nation's leading homosexual activist groups on Friday in the nation's capital, he assured them:

• "We're never going to be able to eliminate the bigots. They're a small percentage of the population."

Evidently, there is nothing reprehensible about wanting “to eliminate the bigots.” Biden talked as if this concern was totally understandable and even laudable. Instead, he reassured his audience that the bigots will become less of a nuisance:

• "But make one thing absolutely clear, folks, they are an incredibly smaller and smaller minority. This country is changing."

It seems that if those who oppose SSM weren’t becoming “an incredibly smaller and smaller minority,” a move to “eliminate” us might be an option.

We can no longer think about our administration, not as long as they hate and want to remove us; not as long as they are using inflammatory rhetoric against our well-being. And removing us from any positions of influence is clearly a part of their agenda.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo had railed against those who had taken a stance against SSM:

• “Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” 

A decorated Navy chaplain, Lt. Commander Wes Modder, has been removed of his duties because he was targeted in a private counseling session and asked his views of sexuality. He offered his denominational stance on homosexuality and was brought up on charges.

Atlanta, Georgia Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran was fired because of a book he wrote reflecting his anti-SSM views. The mayor defends his move claiming that the chief cannot impartially manage his department.

Why cannot we bring the same accusation against Joe Biden! The fire chief has demonstrated no animus towards gays. However, Biden reduces half of this nation to the status of “bigots”- think “maggots.” Nor is there any indication that the chief had wanted to demote or penalize any gays. However, this is clearly the intention of the VP in labeling us “bigots.” We have been made fair-game. He has placed a target on our backs and a gun in the hands of the violent.

The secularism of our Founding Fathers bears little resemblance to the “secular” intolerance of today. The historian, Edwin Scott Gaustad, quotes perhaps our most secular Father to this effect:

• “Almighty God hath made the mind free.” It follows therefrom that mankind should do all that it can to keep minds unshackled and un-coerced. Let us consider, Jefferson noted, that if an all wise and powerful God restrained himself from coercing either the bodies or the minds of men and women, how utterly absurd it must be for “fallible and uninspired men” to arrogate to themselves the right to exercise “dominion over the faith of others…Be it enacted,” therefore, “that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.” One will suffer in no way for his or her religious opinions; on the contrary, all persons “shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion.” And whatever their opinions, this will in no way affect their citizenship or their rights. (A Religious History of America, 119).

The Founding Fathers understood that if we are to live together, we must be civil with one another – not a very profound insight. However, todays secularists believe that they can build the good society by eliminating the “bigots.” Evidently, they are the “good guys,” but good guys have always left a litter of mangled bodies in their wake.