Evangelical Conservatives Embrace 'Civility'

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I heard on NPR this morning an interesting inteview on civil debate. The discussion was between the founder of The Civility Project and the co-founder of Code Pink.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111801766

Caroline of GA 4:44PM August 12, 2009

Economic issues matter and marriage is an economic issue. Studies show that married people are slightly healthier (less costs) and wealthier (pay more taxes) than their single counterparts and this is true for gay people as well. Therefore, it is in the state's best economic interest to grant marriage equality. This is because there are thousands of rights and responsibilities that come with the legal contract of marriage (yes, marriage is a legal contract). Gay people deserve these rights and responsibilities.

boarderthom of CO 4:51PM July 27, 2009

Economic issues matter and marriage is an economic issue. Studies show that married people are slightly healthier (less costs) and wealthier (pay more taxes) than their single counterparts and this is true for gay people as well. Therefore, it is in the state's best economic interest to grant marriage equality. This is because there are thousands of rights and responsibilities that come with the legal contract of marriage (yes, marriage is a legal contract). Gay people deserve these rights and responsibilities.

boarderthom of CO 4:48PM July 27, 2009

That's exactly what they have always wanted: for us to simply accept that we should be able to discuss with them denying us equal rights with a smile. "Let's discuss in good faith and on fair terms how you do not deserve the same rights I have. Don't get upset or show your outrage as this will only prove my point--that you are not worthy of full human consideration." Perhaps afterward we could beg them to consider granting us some limited rights afterward--for which we should be lavishly grateful.

Lee of CO 4:35PM July 27, 2009

Citizens Project, a group in Colorado Springs that formed to counter evangelical influence on public school curriculum, tried to engage Focus on the Family and other evangelicals with the idea of hosting dinners where people with very different viewpoints could find common ground. Their reasoning: If we know each other, we will be more tolerant and civil in our discourse. (Lovely idea, less lovely outcome: At a dinner friends hosted, the evangelicals met every conversational overture with "You are a sinner.") So it's ironic that Focus on the Family wants to start a Civility Project and is acting as though it's a new idea. But hey, if it means their followers will be less hateful and less judgmental, then I'm all for it.

Used to Live in C. Springs of MD 3:24PM July 27, 2009

There is one and only one reason why the Religious 'fruitcakes' would ask for Civility. And that is money.
Fundamentalist Christian churches are losing LARGE numbers of their congregants due to their own messages of hate and division.
Now that these 'churches' and 'men of God' are starting to lose a lot of their TRUE God, which is to say, DOLLARS, we will start to see them turn their hatred into 'Civility' so that they can once again begin to save the souls of the wretched fools who are too stupid to realize that their importance to their 'church' is how much $$$ they drop into the collection plate on Sunday mornings. (And on Wednesday evenings for the especially clueless.)
If these folks feel it necessary to pay a 'stupid tax,' they should play the lottery instead. At least that way you've got 60 million to 1 odds of getting SOMETHING in return.

Chris of CA 2:11PM July 27, 2009

"Love the sinner, hate the sin" nonsense all over again. This is a public relations effort to put a happy face on the harshness of FoF's basic agenda as well as an oxymoron. There's nothing "civil" in the effort to block or expunge the civil rights of others. It's simply the KKK in a clown costume. Coffee won't salve FoF's ongoing crusade to deny the fundamental rights of gay people to marry and to adopt children. We will be full and open participants in the public sphere, FoF's ongoing and unChristian opposition notwithstanding.

torqueflite of CO 1:47PM July 27, 2009