All engines stop

My father had a saying when I was younger. It was “make sure that the hill is worth dying on”; it was a more colorful way of telling me to pick my battles carefully. I don’t always take that advice as seriously as I should. You can ask my wife, I’ve been known to pick up the occasional lost cause from time to time.

I’m probably ignoring my father’s advice with this blog entry, but for whatever reason, I feel almost compelled to address this. In May, I had posted about an entry I found on “Blogs4Brownback“, which purports to be a blog that supports Sen. Brownback’s presidential campaign. I have previously stated that I like Brownie, he seems like a nice enough kind of fellow, but I don’t really think he’s electable. But, that’s cool, if you want to support him it’s no skin off my ass.

I guess I’m just behind the times, because in the last couple of days I discovered another pro-Brownback site, this one calling itself “Baptists4Brown2008“. While I feel like Blogs4Brownback is relatively harmless, the Baptists for Brownback is not only deeply offensive, but actually dangerous. I want to touch on both of those points, but I’ll start first with why this particular blog is so offensive.

I don’t really talk too much about my faith on this blog, namely because my faith isn’t really any of your business; conversely I don’t really care what or whom you choose to believe in. I’m a Christian – after growing up in a Christian house I’ve reached my set of beliefs through my own choices and experiences.

That is sort of what creates the nature of the offense. Despite that I’m not sure whether or not Baptists4Brownback is a parody, the site on its face purports to represent Baptists and “True Christians”. Because the site isn’t obviously parody, I don’t have to stretch my imagination to see someone stumbling across it and coming to a whole raft of wrong conclusions about Baptists, and Christians in general because of some of the postings on the site. It offends me because I am a Christian, and I don’t want to get lumped in with a bunch of assholes like that. Finally, it offends me because my grandfather, who is one of the kindest men I know, is a Baptist minister. He’s going on 90 next year, and has been in the ministry since his early 20’s. Just the fact that such a group of hateful people would dare associate themselves with someone like my grandfather causes my blood to boil.

The nature of why it offends me is pretty easy to understand; but there as I mentioned I also believe Baptists4Brownback to be pretty dangerous. It’s not because of their hate, but rather because of their “USE” campaign.

We have concluded that the acronym U.S.E. (Unplanned Sexual Event), when used regularly to replace the word “rape”, will remove the stigma associated with this sometimes unpleasant situation. It is our mission to protect the innocent lives of the babies that are part of His plan and eliminate the excuses given by many women when a precious baby just isn’t convienient.

Yeah. I’d imagine that you’re having about the same reaction I had, which is “what the hell”? It gets better, and although I’m not going to copy the entire entry into this blog, if you read I’ll hope that you have the same ultimate reaction that I did.

That’s the dangerous part of this. It actively discourages women who were raped from seeking counseling, and from going to the proper authorities if they are raped. A rape is a traumatic enough event without having a bunch of overly pious pseudo-Christians telling you that your “sexual event” is actually a gift from God.

Like I said, I’m not 100% convinced that Baptists4Brownback isn’t a parody site. It might be. If it is, well kudos for an excellent prank; however it wasn’t exactly what I’d call responsible. If it isn’t, well, shit. I just hope that no one who has been raped and is seeking spiritual guidance in their crisis ever finds that place.

If you have been raped, abused, or sexually assaulted and are looking for someone to talk to, please visit this link to find a counseling center nearest you.