maycocksean
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
That only works if you believe that coddling these people and allowing special leeway for their religious bigotry is going to magically transform them. I don't believe that is the case, so we may as well call a spade a spade.
I'm not arguing for coddling or allowing special leeway for anyone's bigotry. There is a big, and I believe, important, difference between calling someone's ideas bad and calling the person bad. What you're suggesting is that some people's minds can't be changed--and I think that is true--but there are many whose minds CAN be changed and calling them bigots won't help.
Look, I used to have what I would now classify as bigoted ideas about homosexuality. I changed. It wasn't because someone called a spade a spade. It was because of some personal experiences with people I care for deeply who are gay, because I realized that intellectually what I believed just wasn't adding up with what I was experiencing, and not least because Melon (someone who has been very clear about his impatience with homophobia in our society) took the time to understand my viewpoint as theologically conservative Christian and showed how someone like me could rectify an unbigoted view of homosexuality with scripture. Call it coddling if you want, but it worked.