March Column Winner

Filth is in the eye of the beholder

By Jeff Mullin, Enid News & Eagle

Filth. It’s a sobriquet you would expect to be attached to dirt, grime, garbage, excrement, ordure, sewage, slime, ooze or mire, not human beings.

Still, that is exactly the word Oklahoma State Sen. Tom Woods used to describe members of the LGBTQ+ community in the wake of the death of Owasso teenager Nex Benedict, who identified as nonbinary.

When asked about Benedict’s death during a recent public forum, Woods said his heart goes out to the teen’s family, but then added “I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma. We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma, because we are a religious state — we are a moral state. We want to lower taxes, and let people be able to live and work, and go to the faith they choose.”

Most Oklahomans, about 79% according to Pew Research Center, identify as Christian. All other religions comprise 2% of the population, with 18% of state residents identifying with no religion at all.

So in that sense, I suppose, Woods is right, Oklahoma is a religious state, a majority Christian state.

So why don’t we act like it?

Pinning a label like “filth” on any group of human beings is hardly Christian behavior. No matter your feelings on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary people, they are people and deserve respect and, from Christians especially, love.

I am far from a Bible scholar, but I’ve read it enough to know that, no matter the translation you use, Christ never condemned anyone as “filth,” not even when he upended the tables of the money-changers in the temple. He called them robbers, yes, but filth, no.

Christ wasn’t big on condemning people. In fact in John 3:17 he said “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world though Him.” That, of course, followed arguably the Bible’s most famous verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that who-ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

I don’t recall Christ referring to anyone as filth, not Judas who betrayed him, the soldiers who arrested him, the Sanhedrin that tried him, Pilate who sentenced him, the Roman warriors who whipped him, stripped him and nailed him to a cross.

Even as He hung in agony in the final moments of His life Jesus did not condemn, instead he cried out “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Jesus was quick to love, not to condemn. He told us to love everybody as we love ourselves. So perhaps Sen. Moore hates himself? If so he needs to talk to somebody about it.

Loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean condoning their actions. People who have a different view about human sexuality are certainly outside societal norms. But should that then render them a target for hate? No. It is nobody’s business how other people live their lives, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else or violating any laws.

Homosexuality used to be illegal in this country. It is still illegal in a number of nations around the world. Of course it hasn’t been that many years since love and marriage between people of different races was illegal in the United States. Times change, laws change.

Is being gay a sin? Some would say yes. But so is not caring for your fellow human beings, regardless of who or how they choose to love.

Christ laid out the two greatest commandments in Matthew 22:36-40 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

And who is your neighbor? Not only the people who live next door or across the street, but every person on the planet, on every street, behind every door, regardless of where and how they live, and love.

Sen. Moore is, as are we all, entitled to his opinion. And under the 1st Amendment, he is entitled to express his views freely. But perhaps he should take a moment to engage his brain before he puts his mouth in gear, and to search his soul about what it really means to be a Christian.