We all know the story — Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich was recently pressured to resign from his position as CEO of the company he helped create after word got out he donated $1,000 to a group supporting Proposition 8, the California measure that banned gay marriage in California, in 2008.
Since Eich’s ouster, a number of people, including some who support gay marriage, have denounced what has been called a “witch hunt,” warning that free speech and free thought is officially dead in America.
“The whole episode disgusts me — as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society,” wrote Andrew Sullivan, hardly a conservative icon. “If this is the gay rights movement today — hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else — then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us.”
But an op-ed posted Saturday at GOPUSA by Matt Barber goes even further and warns of a growing “homofascism” that seeks to ultimately criminalize conservative Christianity — the form of Christianity that adheres to the teaching that while God loves the sinner so much he sent his son to die on the cross for everyone, he abhors sin — all of it.
Barber acknowledges that many — even some who profess to be Christian — “think that I and others are using hyperbole when we refer to this sexual anarchist ‘LGBT’ movement as ‘homofascist’ or the ‘Gaystapo.'”
“I hope you’ll think again,” he wrote. “It’s time to wake up and smell the impending anti-Christian persecution. It’s fully at hand.”
Barber cited BarbWire contributor Laurie Higgins, who commented on a Washington Examiner story:
CEO and co-founder of Mozilla (and inventor of JavaScript) Brendan Eich is forced to resign because of his $1,000 donation to Prop 8 six years ago. So, I guess it’s semi-official: American citizens who believe marriage is inherently sexually complementary cannot work in America–not even in their own companies. First Amendment: R.I.P.
When asked if his religious beliefs about marriage should constitute a firing offense the way racism or sexism does, Eich told CNET no, the Examiner reported.
“I don’t believe that’s true, on the basis of what’s permissible to support or vote on in 2008,” he said. “It’s still permissible. Beliefs that are protected, that include political and religious speech, are generally not something that can be held against even a CEO. I understand there are people who disagree with me on this one.”
Of course, that was in 2008, when even Barack Obama and Joe Biden said they did not agree with gay marriage. No one, of course, suggested they resign or withdraw from the race for their views.
But times, apparently, have changed.
That, Barber noted, is the America we used to live in.
“That’s the America of our founding. Welcome to ‘Amerika,'” he added. “Homofascism is the order of the day and Christian ‘intolerance’ simply will not be tolerated. That was before we became the godless, wicked nation we are today. A once-great nation that now takes ‘pride’ in calling ‘evil good and good evil.’”
Barber went on to say Bible-believing Christians need to “buckle up.”
“Your whole world is about to change,” he wrote. “The Rainbowshirts are emboldened and they’ve broken out the long knives.”
“They smell blood in the water. I’ve often said that these folks want those who speak Biblical truth about human sexuality and legitimate marriage either 1) dead, 2) imprisoned or, if they can have neither of these, 3) marginalized to the point where they can’t even support their families,” he added.
Barber concluded with an even sterner warning.
“Freedom is hanging on by a thread, America, and it is those who worship the sin of Sodom that are determined to finish it off once and for all,” he said.
Related:
Yet Christian organizations have called for CEOs to be fired including Starbucks’ CEO for supporting marriage equality. Double standard much?
Tim,
I’d like to get a link on that one, and I’d write them myself to voice my opinion against it as well.
Actually, that all started when Starbucks announced that it didn’t want our business if we supported traditional marriage. Most of us just decided to give them what they wanted and boycotted Starbucks. If you don’t want me there, I’m most certainly not going to force myself on you.
Sorry Fran but that is incorrect. A fundamentalist Christian went to the meeting to complain about the company supporting marriage equality and how it was supposedly hurting the stock. The CEO pointed out that the stock was doing very well and if the gentleman felt he could do better on his investment than he was welcome to invest his money elsewhere. I thought Christians weren’t supposed to lie?
[…] Mozilla’s CEO resigns after a pummeling of pro-gay rights pressure because of his financial support of a proposition in California that supported traditional views of marriage. […]
I’ve heard almost the same sentiment voiced on this site with regard to adherence to Biblical creationism as opposed to Darwinian macroevolution theory. Apparently we are such a threat to the “advancement of society” we should be sidelined or criminalized also.
And in direct comment to this article, I see and hear it clearly, as all with eyes and ears should also. It is now breaking the law to exercise descrimination of service from your own business. So much for freedom. Remember the sign that used to be posted in businesses, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” That is the freedom that used to exist in this country. It is their business and your privilege to shop or receive service there, not your right. Private property and business almost do not exist anymore, now it’s the collectivist, socialist mentally that everything belongs to everyone, more or less. And guess who gets to dictate who gets what? The government regime, that’s who.
Everyone seems to get a pass except conservatives, and especially conservative Christians. I’m not really complaining, because that’s how my Lord, Jesus Christ, said it would be in this world. The apostles all counted it a great privilege to suffer in the name of Christ, and I’m praying that I will soon come to that heartfelt conviction. I believe that as Christians are suffering in most of the rest of the world, and some specifically because of the Obama administration’s foreign policies, we here in America are soon to experience some of that ourselves. And why should we be surprised, seeing as how the administration has encouraged it in the rest of the world. I heard a catholic bishop state that he was very concerned about Obama’s anti-christian policy decisions and that he, Obama, was pushing for a re-definition of “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship”. That may not sound much different, but in practice it will be harshly restrictive to the outworking of Christian faith and doctrine. Keep it inside the church building, otherwise shut up and get in line, will be the new standard. I think “buckle up” might be an appropriate warning.
Dennis,
Remember the signs that said No Blacks Allowed. This is a better analogy. You are not able to discriminate because of a person’s protected class.
That homosexuality has become a protected class based on behavior shows how far freedom has fallen in favor of special interest pressure and lack of biblical morality.
[…] Joe Newby Follow @jnewby1956 | Apr 6, 2014 | 5 Comments […]
[…] A number of people have uninstalled Firefox from their computers, and one op-ed warned Christians of persecution from “homofascists.” […]
There will always be two sides of any argument, and in our society, if there are more people on one side of the argument then that’s who wins. The CEO was not “forced” to step down by any LGBT organization – he chose to step down. Now whether Eich bowed to some external pressure is Eich’s business and you can take that up with him, but don’t say he was “forced.” America IS still a free country and there was no “force” involved in Eich’s resignation. Force would include guns and police actions which are not currently a part of American society.
There are both Christian groups who oppose same-sex marriage in violent ways and LGBT groups who want equality and will use violent means to achieve it, but neither of those factions are in the majority, neither are “America” in action, and neither are right to espouse violence.
If the tide of America’s choices, i.e. the majority of American voices and votes, are turning toward equality of freedom to marry for same-sex couples (and it clearly is) and if you find yourself in the minority, then you have the freedom to leave. That’s how this country was started and you are free to take the example of our pilgrim forefathers and mothers and scoot.
If laws are passed what do you think the police will come after the Christians with, a wet noodle. All government law is backed up by force, we’ve had plenty of deadly police force used in Spokane recently, or haven’t you noticed.
Majority rule is not what we’ve ever had as government here. Contrary to much mis-information, we are a constitutional republic, it’s why, up until lately, we didn’t believe in mob rule (democracy).
Does your last comment mean you’re taking the position of the oppressive, overtaxing British?
Generally speaking, when people who have been, or have felt, oppressed become empowered and find themselves in positions to exercise their new found ‘muscles’, they will. I applaud this article, not for the shock and awe language and sentiment but, for the reminder to use caution when stretching out my new found wings; that in enjoying new privileges and rights I don’t quash someone else’s.
Eich got criticized because he did something that opposed the civil rights of another group of human beings. He looked at a group of fellow human beings, a group of fellow Americans, and decided that they didn’t quite deserve to be treated as full human beings. That would not be (publicly) acceptable if he were saying such things about virtually any other group, but since it was with regard to gay people there have been countless people leaping to defend is blatantly bigoted views. Also, promoting him to CEO of Mozilla was not a good decision on a variety of levels, and he was literally 25th on their list of candidates. You mention how he invented JavaScript, which is legitimately an impressive accomplishment, but has nothing to do with whether he has the people skills and such to be a good CEO (he doesn’t).
Also, when you characterize anti-gay beliefs as “Christian,” you are, let’s say exaggerating your position. A huge swath of Christians are perfectly fine with gay marriage and such. This is a fact. The march of gay rights in the U.S. wouldn’t have gotten this far without the support of millions of Christians.
Finally, while some people were overly strident and cruel in their criticism of Eich, he hasn’t face anything like the opprobrium and violence that many gay people have had to deal with. His mere existence as who he is doesn’t make him massively more likely to be raped or murdered. The level of “persecution” that conservative Christians face in the U.S. (a country where their co-religionists are well over 99% of elected officials) is at its very worst still pretty trivial. I don’t condone the more vicious things that have been said about Eich, but the inventor of JavaScript isn’t going to want for work even with this kerfuffle, and I think he’ll survive the barrage of angry tweets he’s had to endure. Entirely too many people on the other side have had to deal with things that they didn’t survive.
Jesus said that there will be many on the day of His return who thought they were Christians, possibly some of this huge swath of people who put their own opinions above His revelation. The final decision will be His not ours, and no amount of immoral indignation will change His position.
Jesus Christ has called us who name His name to obedience to His Word, and submission to it. Yes, men and women are moral agents, fully responsible before God for every thought, word and deed set against His standard, not against our opinions of “justice”.
http://www.examiner.com/article/hypocrisy-okcupid-ceo-donated-to-candidate-opposed-to-gay-marriage
I just read this remarkable post, Joe, and it occurred to me that if your logic is correct then the era in which it was actually illegal to be gay, when gay people routinely got arrested, and fired from jobs if they were found out, the era in which they were subject to beatings by gang bangers, well that must have been an era of “heterofascism” wouldn’t you say?