Dan Savage in new controversy for calling parts of Bible BS

Seattle sex columnist and gay rights advocate Dan Savage
is embroiled in a new controversy after calling parts of
the Bible
bull—t during a profanity-laced speech at a high school
journalism conference in Seattle.

“We can learn to ignore the bull—t in the Bible about
gay people the same way we have learned to ignore the
bull—t in the Bible about shellfish, about slavery,
about dinner, about farming, about menstruation, about
virginity, about masturbation. We ignore bull—t in the
Bible about all sorts of things,” Savage said.

Dozens of students walked out of the speech in opposition,
prompting
Savage to respond “It’s funny, as someone who’s on the
receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible,
how pansy-assed some people react when you push back.”

His speech and subsequent criticism has drawn sharp
criticism. The father of two students in attendance calls
Savage a coward and a hypocrite for attacking them for
standing up for their own beliefs, especially since the
speech was supposed to focus on anti-bullying and
tolerance.

“He waited until after they left the room because not only
is he a bully he’s a coward. He’s the one who uses any
position of power to beat down and the fact that he’s on a
presidential panel on anti-bullying he should be removed,”
Philip Naman, the father of two high school students from
Arrowhead Christian Academy in Redlands, CA. told Dori
Monson.

“Imagine a keynote speaker at a high school conference
telling gay kids that everything they believe is evil and
wrong that would never be tolerated so why would a
conference invite Dan Savage to stand up there and tell
Christian kids that everything they believe is evil and
wrong,” replied Dori.

Savage has apologized on his
blog for describing the
walkout as “pansy-assed.” But he’s not apologizing for
what he said.

“I didn’t call anyone’s religion bull—t. I did say
that there is bulls–t “untrue words or ideas” in the
Bible. That is being spun as an attack on Christianity.
Which is bullshhh, which is untrue. I was not attacking
the faith in which I was raised. I was attacking the
argument that gay people must be discriminated against-and
anti-bullying programs that address anti-gay bullying
should be blocked (or exceptions should be made for
bullying “motivated by faith”) because it says right there
in the Bible that being gay is wrong. Yet the same people
who make that claim choose to ignore what the Bible has to
say about a great deal else. I did not attack
Christianity. I attacked hypocrisy. My remarks can only be
read as an attack on all Christians if you believe that
all Christians are hypocrites. Which I don’t believe.

“I cannot believe that he was actually invited to speak to
a high school anything,” said Naman about the National
Scholastic Press Association, which sponsored the
convention.

In a statement, the organization called Savage
“inappropriate and offensive”. And it said the content
was unexpected.

“This is not what our organizations expected. In his
attempt to denounce bullying, Mr. Savage belittled the
faith of others – an action that we do not support.
Ridicule of others’ faith has no place in our programs,
any more than ridicule of the LGBT community would.”

Ross and Burbank co-host Luke Burbank says if you listen
to the content of the speech, it was actually very
thoughtful and well reasoned. But he says Savage
made a tactical error.

“In his attempt to be really clear and not dance around
the issue and not in any way seem like he’s being overly
delicate, he uses the word BS. The problem is if you’re
talking with someone who believes the Bible, the second
that you start referring to it as BS, you’ve lost the
ability to really have them hear what you are saying.”

Luke, who was raised a devout Christian as well, agrees
and says Savage raises a good point.

“There are so many things in the Bible that we as a modern
2012 group of people have realized, particularly stuff in
the Old Testament that we aren’t going to get
particularly hung up on anymore and he’s just trying to
say ‘why is the gay question…why is that the one thing
we hold on to?'”

Dave Ross says the offended students who walked out of the
speech have a much bigger problem.

“If this kind of speech shocks them, they’re going to have
trouble making it in journalism…You have to put the most
exciting, click producing stuff on the web that you can.
If they’re going to walk out on a story like this they’re
not going to go very far in their journalism career.”

But Naman says Savage began the speech with overtly sexual
comments about birth control and gay sex that were
completely inappropriate for a student audience regardless
of the controversial nature of his speech, and given his
history and reputation should never have been allowed to
speak to students in the first place.

“My daughter was there and this guy talks like this? What
is wrong with him!?”

By Josh Kerns, My Northwest.com Editor