Sabbatical Blog

...chronicling some of my projects and learnings during this time apart from parish ministry

Monday, April 03, 2006

Bumper Stickers

Someone who regularly parks in my church parking lot (an employee of the child care center, I think) has a bumper sticker that says, "I support the Separation of Church and Hate."

It's almost too cute not to like, but I don't like it.

I assume that it refers to the issue of Gay Rights (as in another bumper sticker, which I did like, "Hate is not a Family Value." ) And while I'm all for Gay Rights, and against Hate Crimes and Hateful behavior, there's an important distinction to be drawn between being hateful and not agreeing. It is possible to be "not with the program" of Gay Rights, as many traditional religious people are not, without hating anyone. This bumper sticker is a "liberal" version of "If you're not for us, you're against us," and "America, Love it or Leave it." It's polarized thinking, and that's not liberal at all.