SRM - Atheism

The Death of Matthew Shepard





While the loss of innocent life is always tragic, the recent uproar over the beating death of Matthew Shepard is more of a study in the homosexual political agenda of getting a federal ‘hate crimes’ law passed through congress, than sorrow about the event itself. (In support of the above, read the following article by Jeff Jacoby).

The Secular Web has jumped on the bandwagon by posting an article by William Edelen, which starts off with the comments:

Matthew Shepard died last Monday morning. A gay young man in the prime of his life brutally and horribly murdered. The insanity of it demands that a question be asked by every sensitive human being in America.

Who must assume responsibility for creating an environment that stimulates and promotes such ignorant and brutal violence?

Mr. Edelen doesn't waste any time letting us know who is at fault.

Fundamentalist preachers degrade their pulpits with inflammatory language about gays and lesbians. Fundamentalist preacherswho use radio and television, including the Rev. D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson even produce 'special'shows on homosexuality that lead indirectly to violence and to depression, self hatred, and suicide for sensitive young gay andlesbian human beings. They are the victims of this avalanche of hatred from 'Christian' pulpits and 'Christian' television.

They use the bible like it has been used in the past to support slavery from the pulpits and to discriminate against women. Theyaim isolated passages now at gays, even as Martin Luther and Hitler used the bible against Jews. To be an 'accomplice' or'accessories after the fact' in a murder is a crime as I understand it.

The hypocrisy of Mr. Edelen's words strains the very bounds of credulity, for he simply uses the very tactics he says he deplores. How much more "inflammatory" can one get than insinuating that D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson are "accomplices" in the murder of Matthew Shepard, and then linking their names with someone like Adolf Hitler. How ironic, that those who scream the loudest for tolerance, are often the least tolerant of all. William Edelen's article is simply a primer in "Christian bashing" and a self exercise of hatred directed at those with whom Mr. Edelen disagrees. Trying to draw parallels with "discrimination against women" and the issue of "slavery", is simply to replace a well thought out position with an attempt to gain support for the homosexual agenda, at all costs, by appealing to the lowest common base instinct in our human nature! One can simply turn Edelen's words around and say the attitude exhibited in his article is;

a cancer growing all through the cities, the political and religious left wing, as well as with "freethinkers" everywhere in America....

Let me be clear about one thing. The death of Matthew Shepard is a tragedy of the highest order. Those that perpetrated this crime need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. At the same time, the death of Mr. Shepard must be placed within the context of murder that occurs on a daily basis, and the mere fact that Shepard was a homosexual adds no more "tragedy" to this event than the hundreds of murders that occur yearly. For example, in a related article (off line) linked at the The Secular Web, Richard Cohen makes the following comments.

It is expected of me, I know, that I would use the murder of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, to lambaste political and religious conservatives for their homophobia. I will not disappoint....

Whatever the particulars of the Shepard case -- whether, in fact, he tried to pick up one of his alleged assailants and, by the way, so what? -- his murder is no unique event. In the most recent figures compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 21 persons were killed in 1996 on account of being gay or lesbian.

Notice Mr. Cohens words...it is expected of me...this is political correctness at its worst. And as sad as the deaths of these 21 people were, it simply pales at the 147,000 deaths (source N.Y. Times) that occur yearly against Christians world-wide, simply because they are Christians. Perhaps, William Edelen and Richard Cohen are as outraged about these murders as they are about the violence against homosexuals?

Finally, if as Edelen and Cohen insist, blame for this tragedy is to be placed at the feet of "religious and political conservatives" due to their "anti-gay rhetoric", then the liberal and homosexual activists need to examine their own use of "hate speech" against those same people, and in addition, must speak out against the far greater problem of violence directed against Christians. To not do so, shows them to be hypocrites of the worst kind, and all their supposed "outrage" to be a sham of the highest magnitude.


Solid Rock Ministries