Homophobia Gone Wild: The Two Faces Of Jonathan Merrit

Cross-posted @ the Atheist Oasis

Recall the Chick-fil-A nonsense? Of course you do – it wasn’t all that long ago.

Cathy told a North Carolina religious publication in July that he supports the biblical definition of marriage. Cathy also said during "The Ken Coleman Show" that "... we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,' and I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about."

Eating all that chicken must’ve clogged the arteries to that idiot’s brain, is what I say. It’s another addition to the list of stores I’ll never patronize (though I’d not heard of Chick-fil-A till the controversy). Not surprisingly, some religious clown named Jonathan Merrit actually defended eating at Chick’s with this rather milquetoast ‘hey, let’s just all get along’ article.

And then we all find out that he had a homosexual encounter.

Merritt, a culture writer for major newspapers and magazines and author of two books, told Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research that for a “couple of weeks” in 2009 he corresponded with a gay blogger by e-mail and text messages, some of them “inappropriate.” After meeting for dinner near a city where Merritt was traveling and while saying goodbye, he said, “we had physical contact that went beyond the bounds of friendship.”

Merritt said he planned to publicly discuss his “brokenness” at some point, but an unexpected turn of events forced him to do it now. On July 20, Merritt wrote an article for the Atlantic arguing against a boycott of Chick-fil-A over the company’s support of conservative groups that oppose gay marriage. Gay blogger Azariah Southworth, who was host of a show on Christian television before coming out of the closet in 2008, then alleged in a July 23 blog that Merritt is gay.

And hey, maybe he just kissed a guy once in 2009 – but if you watch the video, let me know if my ‘gaydar’ is off, because he sure seems that way to me.

And let me tell you something else for free: if you’re imposing YOUR religious beliefs on me via legislation, if you’re DEMANDING that I adhere to YOUR sense of esthetics, if you’re forcing YOUR ideologies down my throat, that’s just plain un-American. Pure and simple.

Because freedom OF religion is completely contingent on freedom FROM religion. Anyone who tells you otherwise, is blowing wind out their ass.

Till the next post, then.