Double Down on Damnation with the Benham Brothers

The radical Christian Right has a couple of telegenic new faces: twin blonds David and Jason Benham, home builders and businessmen from North Carolina, who were in negotiations with Home And Garden Television (HGTV, one of the most gay friendly networks that exists since it primarily showcases home building, gardening and decorating) to host their own show about house flipping for the poor called "Flip It Forward."

It actually sounded like a fun show that would help people, and who doesn't want to see a show with a couple of hot All-American Boys brandishing hammers?

Then the blog rightwingwatch.org, an airtight, dependable blog since it just posts the facts and links to sound bites and videos without comment (or hate filled Disqus reader rants), posted interviews with the Benhams saying all kind of extremely tacky things about gays, Muslims, abortion, you name it.

Depressingly clich� tools of the extreme right, these guys thump their Bibles loud enough to wake the neighbors. They compared failing to fight against gays to appeasing the Nazis. They insisted the US is a Christian nation that should be run by Biblical rules. They attacked an Islamic center near New York's Ground Zero as a "den of iniquity" and said, "The difference between Islam and Christianity: Islam takes life and enslaves it. Christianity lays its life down and sets you free." Never mind that radical Christianity has more inflexible rules than Scrabble.

At home in North Carolina, the brothers tried to put a stop to the Charlotte Pride celebration at a city council meeting, saying, "This is filth, this is vile and
should not be allowed in our city," adding that "We were not there to bash them." Can you feel the love yet?

They don't fall far from the tree: their father, a longtime right wing activist formerly associated with militant anti-abortion group "Operation Rescue," is now the leader of a non-denominational Christian organization called "Operation Save America," that says that Islam, abortion and homosexuality have "entered into a pact with death."

One can only imagine the dinner table conversation in this family.

HGTV, realizing that they had a matching set of religious fanatic rabble rousers on their hands, cancelled the show without comment. I wasn't in the conference room, but I'd guess it was probably not in the network's interest to promote a show showcasing a couple of guys who believe that some of the network's employees and viewers have entered into a pact with death.

Fox News' professional Christian victim Todd Starnes, who sees anti-Christian bigotry in his soup and who - surprise! - has a new book about the subject to promote, was the first to jump on the Benhams' bandwagon, writing that their cancellation resulted from "a firestorm of controversy from gay rights activists who accused the evangelical Christian hosts of being anti-gay and pro-life."

Starnes lies for a living and this is yet another whopper, as no one had accused the Benhams of anything; their own statements had done the deed. It all happened within 24 hours, so gay organizations hardly even knew about it, much less had time to organize a protest. It was HGTV's decision alone. And the Christian Right is filled with people who accuse you of defaming them by quoting them verbatim.

The victimized Benhams, acting just like the Winklevoss twins with matching head injuries, then made the rounds of conservative media, digging themselves into a deeper hole. They insisted they hate no one and they "love" gays, but they hate the "homosexual agenda" that seeks to "silence" them. In other words, they hate that gay people are demanding equality and succeeding in getting it. It's the typical "We love you, but please change or stay in the closet."

In an interview with Glenn Beck, who switches willy nilly between rational human to madman depending on his medication, they said, "It's not the homosexual community that's the enemy. It's God versus the Devil. There is a small minority of people in this world, heterosexual and homosexual, that buy into the idea of this agenda that wants to silence people...this polarized environment is because of a demonic agenda to suppress the truth."

So, the battle between the Christian Right and gay equality is between God and the Devil. Thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea I was in league with the Devil. I better watch "Rosemary's Baby" again to see what I should do next. This is getting so dramatic it would all make a great Lifetime TV movie. The Benhams could be played by the Bel Ami twin porn stars.

In Chris Hedges' fascinating and horrifying book "American Fascists - The Christian Right And The War On America" he writes:

"Debate with the radical Christian Right is useless. We cannot reach this movement. It does not want a dialogue. It is a movement based on emotion and cares nothing for rational thought and discussion. It is not mollified because John Kerry prays or Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school. Naive attempts to reach out to the movement, to assure them that we, too, are Christian or we, too, care about moral values, are doomed. This movement is bent on our destruction. The attempts by many liberals to make peace would be humorous if the stakes were not so deadly. These dominionists hate the liberal, enlightened world formed by the Constitution, a world they blame for the debacle of their lives. They have one goal- its destruction."

And this is their latest tactic: playing the victim and claiming they're being "persecuted for their faith" because the majority is finally telling them to shove their fanaticism up their ass. It's happening where state legislatures are attempting to pass "religious freedom" laws allowing Christians to refuse to do business with gays, and it's currently before the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case, where the Christian owners are refusing to provide contraception in
their health care plan as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

After accusing gays for years of wanting "special rights," now it's Christians who are seeking them.

The Benhams have become the most recent mouthpieces of a movement that
loves us yet seeks to destroy us. A movement that only wants people to get along yet compares us to Nazis, and that wants us to be happy even though we're tools of Satan. I'm relieved to know that the Benhams love me, even though my life is part of a demonic agenda to suppress the truth. I'll have to get moving on this demonic agenda right after I finish flossing.

But simply pointing out one's statements does not amount to "silencing." On the contrary, it is the Benhams and their cronies in the Christian Right that are trying to silence gays - by passing laws and electing politicians and judges that deny them equality, and if all else fails, by setting fires in bars or bashing them on the street.

The Benhams and their ilk just don't get it. Voices of reason are not trying to silence them. They're just trying to defeat them. And, ultimately, they will.