Sympathy for the devil

It’s hard to laugh in the face of oppression, but sometimes the oppressor makes himself so ridiculous that he leaves you no choice. It seems even harder to feel sorry for him, but when his ineptitude becomes so apparent that it must inevitably end his reign — well, we may even find some sympathy for the Devil.

Case in point: a recent flap over the movie “End of the Spear,” made by evangelical film company Every Tribe Entertainment. It’s the inspirational true story of missionaries converting an indigenous Ecuadorian tribe to Christianity (in other words, destroying their culture, but that’s beside the point). The filmmakers have run into trouble with other evangelicals, however, over the casting of out actor and activist Chad Allen in a starring role.

A spokesman for Focus on Family, of all people, spoke out in support of the movie, recognizing that it is the film’s message that is important, not the personal lives of the actors. “[Do] we at Focus feel compelled to check on the sexual history of everyone in a movie?” he asks, “Did they have a D.U.I.? Did they pay their taxes?”

Argue if you will with his equating homosexuality with crime, but the man stands out as a voice of reason compared to his Christian fellows, along with director Jim Hanon, who said, “We disagree with Chad about homosexuality, but we loved him and worked with him, and we feel that’s a Biblical position.” If not exactly missionary.

On the other side of the argument and at the opposite extreme for reasonable thinking, we have Rev. Jason Janz of Red Rocks Baptist Church in Colorado, who compared the casting of Mr. Allen as a Christian to “Madonna playing the Virgin Mary.” And right there he could hardly be more wrong, simply on the basis that Mr. Allen can act.

More egregious is a blog entry by the president of a Baptist seminary, saying of the filmmakers, “[It] would probably be an overreaction to firebomb these men’s houses.” He doesn’t say he wouldn’t; only that it would be an overreaction, and evangelical Christians are famous for overreacting. If I were mister Hanon and his friends, I’d be checking the batteries in my smoke alarm.

A representative of the Southern Baptist Convention opined that Mr. Allen’s presence in the film might “cause some … to question Biblical views of homosexuality and every other sin.” This is perhaps the dumbest statement in the debate, ignoring the fact that belief and faith are only worth anything if they have been questioned and examined, and still found worthy.

But then, what these leaders want is blind faith (a.k.a. ignorance), which is so much more easily led than the real stuff. Can’t have people thinking for themselves, God knows. There’s more than one reason church congregations are referred to as “flocks” and “sheep.”

More numbskull oppression can be found — oh, so easily — in our government. Consistency in the hobgoblin of little minds, I know, but I wish the Feds would either go whole hog with their bigotry or (preferably) finally get over it.

Like that whole “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” thing. What is that? The right to be ordered to kill people you’ve never met seems like one of the last rights any sane, moral person would want, but if you’re going to discriminate about it, just go back to the old, honest days of complete exclusion. All DADT does is force military personnel to deny a major part of who they are, to not talk about it or act on it — to be, in fact, closet cases. In other words, hypocrites, which at least gives their Commander in Chief plenty of company.

And then there’s this, recently reported in the L.A. Times: A FEMA official was confronted with complaints that victims of Hurricane Katrina, all in very similar circumstances, were being granted different levels of government assistance. Not so, said the official, only to be confronted by a gay man who told how he and his partner had had their separate claims denied as fraudulent because FEMA’s records identified them as a couple. “Why is it that the government won’t let us get married, but FEMA considers us married when it comes to handing out money?” he asked. Good question. Is anyone surprised that he didn’t get an answer?

And there you have it — the feds have Brokeback Syndrome. Presented with a choice on homosexuality, they can’t decide, so they try for a little of this sometimes, and a little of that at other times, and everyone ends up unhappy.

Hilarious, isn’t it? And pitiful. Our two major sources of oppression, with their feet in their mouths, their heads up their asses, and their logic and compassion nowhere to be seen. Oh, but they’re a sorry, laughable sight. And yet somehow these heartless morons still have the upper hand. Sometimes it makes me laugh so hard, I cry.