I usually stay as far away from campus as I can during
the summer months, but I stepped foot
onto what I expected to be a barren collection of sleepy buildings with overachievers
clamoring to each other about differential calculus or the correct
interpretation of Smith’s “invisible hand” while summer student workers gently
gossip about interest rates doubling on their loans--not because they’re viscerally
concerned, but complaining about the economy helps to break up the monotony of
going through the motions as you await whatever special you found on
Omahanightlife.com. But that’s not at all what I saw. While I admit there were
a few tumbleweeds rolling across my path and I’m relatively certain I saw Sam
Elliot with a mug of sarsaparilla in the cafeteria, what I saw was a collection
of eager minds being led around campus. Maybe not necessarily eager for the
perceptively rigorous (although in reality meager) schedule of a first-year
student, but alive with a kind of momentum and lacking the general fatigue I
see in myself and my peers. An
impressionable, but invulnerable force is the open-mind of a student. After
this I experienced elation with education that had escaped me for much of my
collegiate tenure. A hope for the future, reason and learning, the powers that
have overcome every exploitative regime in the short written history of our
immense universe seemed endless and abundant.
That endorphin-laden idealistic Parthenon built in my
neurochemistry was soon reduced to being used to serve Greek yoghurt with a
note that says “please return container.” This campus, this place, this solace
for reason, cogent argument, sound discussion, and tolerance would soon host
the dogmatic regression and institutionalized hatred of Senior Pastor of
Dominion Covenant Church, Philip Kayser.
It seems that every presidential candidate in recent years
has had a controversial preacher haunting their trail. Not necessarily because
he or she blurred the line between Church and State, but rather the line
between moderate and fundamental extremist. Palin had a Kenyan witch hunter,
Obama had Reverend Wright, Rick Perry had Robert Jeffries and Rick Santorum
had, well, himself. Fundamentalism is only perpetuated under the publicly
disapproving, yet privately validating hand of the moderate. There is no
distinction in principle, only in practice. While Ron Paul supporters were
posting in the YouTube comments section, the what should have been a momentous
event for the Christian far-right as a Reverend who ironically both supports
“Promoting and enjoying the dominion of King Jesus over every area of life”
and restructuring society on principles
that will not be satisfied “until our views on education, politics, arts,
business, family, evangelism, journalism and every other area of life are
claimed for Jesus and founded on the Bible” and a libertarian candidate went
largely unnoticed. This, of course, because soon after touting the endorsement
of radical Reverend Kayser, notation of the endorsement was removed from Paul’s
website. The final straw was not in this
biblical jihadist mindset, but rather Kayser’s publicly candid stance on
homosexuality which surpasses even that of “gays cause natural disasters” Pam
Olsen or “gays cause horrible acting” Kirk Cameron. Even “gays are barbarians
that need to be educated” from Marcus Bachmann (who really just meant gays are
gladiators in the sack) is a hand-woven basket of kittens floating down a slow
stream and landing on the bank of Elysium compared to the stance of Philip
Kayser.
In a quote: “Difficulty in implementing Biblical law
does not make non-Biblical penology just. But as we have seen, while many
homosexuals would be executed, the threat of capital punishment can be
restorative. Biblical law would recognize as a matter of justice that even if
this law could be enforced today, homosexuals could not be prosecuted for
something that was done before.”
Ladies and gentleman, you heard that right. Hide yo’ kids,
Hide yo’ wife, cause Kayser’s snatchin’ yo’ people up. I wouldn’t bat an
eyelash at this sort of activity going on within the confines of some Harold
Camping cult meeting, but every Sunday, our silence and indifferent consent
allows his sort of hatred to be spewed at the William H. Thompson Alumni Center
near the University of Nebraska-Omaha campus.
Let’s avoid the
discussion on the separation of Church and State. Let’s avoid the discussion on
whether you’re audacious enough to believe your anterior insula knows more
about biology than hundreds of years of science culminating in the conclusion
of homosexuality being the farthest thing from a “choice” (unless you’re in a
frat, but it’s straight if you don’t make eye contact). Let’s even avoid
wasting our time bickering about whether two people of the same sex partaking
in an act over a billion years old and ubiquitous throughout the animal
kingdom is threatening an institution
that already has a 50% failure rate. Instead let’s put aside our differences on
this one issue of sadistic mania infiltrating our public institutions and
indoctrinating children into a culture of hate under the guise of God or Allah
or Carl Sagan’s love.
Think for a moment. You hear there is a Muslim resistance
movement holding weekly meetings on campus. In the meeting, they advocate the
killing of “infidels” to finally establish a supreme Muslim world. The
difference between this scenario and what’s going on at the Alumni Center is…
nothing. There is no difference, but you’d better believe if that were the case
Tom Short and the local Tea Partyers would ride their Medicare scooters filled
up with gas from their social security collection to wave their tiny little
flags that say “We Support The Troops” like not sending them to get murdered in
combat never could. It would never be allowed.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “In the end, we will
not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” This
detracts from that quote only in that this isn’t laissez-faire homophobia like
in the Michigan bullying laws, this is the direct advocacy of executing a group
of people in the imposition of religious agenda. Anyone who lives in Nebraska
knows that Omaha is different than the rest of the state. I wouldn’t dare say
“better,” but definitely more progressive. Although both Lincoln and Omaha
passed anti-discrimination measures, Governor Heineman wants to put the
protection of gays up for popular vote. In other words, have a majority vote on
the fate of a minority. What would have happened if women’s suffrage or
interracial marriage waited on popular vote?
So let’s be that radiant house on a hill. Let’s stop the
maintenance of hatred under the pretense of religious freedom and come together
with a message of hope, love, and understanding—aren’t those humanist causes
that we can agree on despite differences in religious ideology?
So e-mail Chancellor John Christensen.
Office Telephone: 402.554.2311
Fax: 402.554.3555
E-Mail: johnchristensen@unomaha.edu
E-mail CEO of the Alumni Association Lee
Denker.
Telephone:
402.554.2851
Email:
ldenker@unoalumni.org
End this hate.
No comments:
Post a Comment