Positive Liberty

This guy:

A gay man is suing two heavyweight Christian publishers, claiming their versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and have caused him emotional pain and mental instability.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., is seeking $60 million from Zondervan, based in Cascade Township, and $10 million from Nashville-based Thomas Nelson Publishing. . . .

Fowler, 39, alleges Zondervan’s Bibles referring to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of “demoralization, chaos and bewilderment.”

The intent of the publisher was to design a religious, sacred document to reflect an individual opinion or a group’s conclusion to cause “me or anyone who is a homosexual to endure verbal abuse, discrimination, episodes of hate, and physical violence … including murder,” Fowler wrote.

Fowler’s suit claims Zondervan’s text revisions from a 1980s version of the Bible included, and then deleted, a reference to homosexuality in 1 Corinthians without informing the public of the changes.

The other suit, against Thomas Nelson and its New King James Bible, mirrors the allegations made against Zondervan.

Boo freakin’ hoo. I’m sorry your feelings were hurt, but whatever sorrow I feel is completely erased by your choice of remedies. Complaining about the Bible being anti-gay is like complaining that a kosher cookbook doesn’t have any decent lobster recipes. Is the Bible anti-gay? Perhaps. That’s just life. Get over it.

Look, if these Bibles’ texts are accurate representations of God’s word, then you’re screwed anyway. There’s no real point in suing, because you’re going to fry in Hell for all eternity. But if they’re not accurate representations of God’s word, then at any rate they’re accurate representations of the opinions of some other people. And you have no right to sue over an opinion, even if it is a stupid and mistaken one. (And it is stupid and mistaken, on so many different levels.)

Yes, I know that various passages in the Bible have caused a lot of misery over the years, and a good deal of religious history consists of finding increasingly creative ways to get beyond the barbaric stuff in various holy books. But this isn’t the way to do it. In a society that values free speech, your only alternative is to write a better Bible. Or maybe just to grow up a little and stop whining about what other people think of you.