Bluffin' With My Muffin

Homophobia and the Other

“The consequence of homophobia is to stereotype gay people and then to define them in negative ways, and once we do that, we are able to treat them negatively and brutally. Fear does terrible things to a society.” - Reverend Dr. Laurence C. Keene, Disciples of Christ

“When people are afraid they have to find scapegoats. And then they want to get rid of those people who are the bad guys.” - Reverend Dr. Mel White, Founder of Soulforce 

“The cheapest way of getting the feeling that we’re a group, a family, a something is to make an other, and it’s throughout history with all different groups: the Civils Rights with the Blacks, Anti-Semitism with Jews. To have an other, and unfortunately homosexuals are the new other.” - Brian Zachary Maher, Reform Rabbi

“There is something about human nature to always look for an outsider, something that is different. And something indeed that is different, we do have tremendous fear about it, and of course, ostensibly, we also have fear about it.” - Reverend Irene Monroe, Harvard Divinity School

“Fear of the other probably had survival value at one time. If you were living in small, nomadic tribes, you might have a fear of other people. That’s why we should, to some extent, have a sympathy for people who are prejudiced against others and see that it’s maybe a basically rational response to this deep in-built thing in us. So you don’t become equally prejudiced against the prejudiced; what you do is get them to see that their fear is now groundless.” - Right Reverend Richard Holloway

Excerpts from For the Bible Tells Me So