Andrew Sullivan and Damon Linker wonder what makes Rod Dreher so fixated on gays…

Damon Linker challenges Dreher’s fixation with gays:

Why, given the myriad ways that our society and culture diverge from the long list of archaic norms, practices, and beliefs upheld in the Bible, does homosexuality inspire such anxiety, even panic? What are you afraid of?

It’s a good question.

Well here’s a simple answer: he’s a bigot.  I know…I know…saying someone is a bigot is supposed to be nothing more then ad hominim name calling designed to shut down debate.  Kinda like the way calling someone a Nazi invokes Goodwin’s Law and the argument is over.  But the problem with Goodwin’s law is that it makes it impossible to identify facisim when its staring you in the face, and the same goes for this notion that ‘bigot’ is merely the equivalent of a grade school taunt.  It isn’t.  It’s a good old fashioned English word and it has a real meaning.  People like Dreher fall into that meaning exactly.  Why?  Because his mindset when it comes to gay people springs from a deeply rooted animus that will not suffer examination or question.  He cannot see the people for the homosexuals. 

That animus will reliably outrank any higher consciousness the man has, assuming he still has any left.  Case in point: his recent brouhaha about that family in East Texas who were killed in a violent home invasion.  Dreher, you may recall, was shocked, shocked, not at the deaths, but at one offhanded statement by the grieving father, that bisexuality was ‘hip’ in his little East Texas town…

UPDATE: To clarify: I’m not saying that the teenage culture of bisexuality is worse morally than murder, for heaven’s sake. Obviously murder — and murder of one’s own family — is about the worst thing imaginable.. I’m simply saying that I was more shocked by this tidbit about the decadent teenage culture in a tiny Texas town than I was by the foul crime itself. Big difference.

He really believes there is a "big difference" there.   He just doesn’t notice, is not capable of noticing, the wildly disproportionate response to the vicious murder of an entire family, verses one offhanded statement by a father probably crazy with grief that bisexuality is cool among the teenagers in his town.  Dreher sees nothing unusual in his own shocked response to the idea of bisexuality in an East Texas town, verses his offhanded notice of the killings.  Yes, yes…they were all killed…but OhMyGod bisexuality is becoming cool in East Texas!!!

He doesn’t see the problem here.  He can’t.  He’s a bigot.  The homosexual will always loom larger in his consciousness, then any brutal crime of violence, because his animus sees nothing other then The Homosexual.  The Homosexual is the burr under his saddle.  The Homosexual is the devil in the darkness.  The Homosexual is the monster knocking on the door.  Never mind the man’s family was butchered, just look at what kids are saying about bisexuality in East Texas!  This is how bigots think.

Linker, like a lot of people, simply cannot believe that is all there is to it…

I find this especially perplexing in Rod’s case because he denies so strenuously that his views flow from anti-gay animus. As he puts it in a recent post, 

Gay-rights supporters typically believe people like me hold to our opposition to gay marriage and so forth because of some animosity towards gays. I know that it’s true for a lot of conservatives, but in my case — and in the case of most people I know who share my views — it’s not an emotional matter. We have gay friends, are comfortable around gay people, and simply don’t share that visceral reaction that used to be commonplace in American life, and (regrettably) still is in many quarters.

Yet the visceral reaction was there for all to see when he posted about the murders in East Texas…er…sorry…the Bisexuality in East Texas.  And we know, and acknowledge in the law, that murder can be hot blooded or cold blooded.  Yet cold blooded bigotry seems to completely baffle people.  Why, some of my best friends are… after all.  I quit one job I held years ago, when I overheard the owner state flatly that he’d hire a black man, but only if he shinned his shoes and called him Massah.  And it wasn’t with any rage or passion he said it.  He was simply stating a fact.  Like the weather, or the time of day.  If Dreher has any gay friends, it’s because they shine his shoes and call him Massah.

Linker asks Dreher a few questions in a desperate attempt to find something, anything, rational at the bottom of Dreher’s little corner of the human gutter…

Why, given the myriad ways that our society and culture diverge from the long list of archaic norms, practices, and beliefs upheld in the Bible, does homosexuality inspire such anxiety, even panic? What are you afraid of? Is it that you fear that if orthodox religious communities stop denouncing gay marriage (to the faces of married gays, which seems to be what you’d like them to do) the human race will stop reproducing itself?  Or is it that you worry that if your children aren’t taught in church that homosexuality is an abomination they’ll shack up with same-sex partners when they grow up? But isn’t the decision to do something like that far more a product of nature than culture? I don’t know about you, but no amount of pro-gay propaganda could tempt me to sleep with a man — because I’m by nature sexually attracted to women. Some of what you write about homosexuality leads me to believe you worry that naturally straight men and women will be seduced into being gay by watching too many episodes of Project Runway. But you can’t seriously believe that. Can you?

Here’s the problem.  For Dreher, and bigots like him, this isn’t about what they believe.  It’s a knee that jerks first and justifies itself later.  Any excuse will do, even if it is transparently self serving and utterly unconvincing.  He doesn’t have to convince you of anything Linker, he just has to dig in his heels and not be moved.  If you can’t make him admit that his prejudices are irrational he wins the argument.  It really is that simple.

And not only can you not make a bigot admit their prejudices are irrational, you can’t make them take responsibility for them either.  It’s not his fault that he has to go on the warpath against gay people…it’s the gay’s fault.  They’re Making him do it, every time they Flaunt themselves in his face thereby provoking him to act.  If we stop denouncing homosexuality then the entire human race will cease reproducing and become extinct.  Yes, it’s a staggeringly irrational argument.  But understand this if you understand nothing else about it: the point isn’t that it’s a good argument, the point is that it puts the blame on gay people for his hostile behavior toward them.  Homosexuality is a threat to our very survival…I Have to do this to them…I am Forced to confront the Homosexual Menace…

Homosexuals molest children.  Homosexuals spread disease.  Homosexuals have caused the fall of every great civilization…  The Homosexual is a threat we must confront…  Homosexuals are tortured souls…sexually addicted…unable to function normally in society…desperate to be freed from the bondage of their homosexuality…We Must Help Them…We Must Save Them From Themselves…  The Homosexual needs our salvation…  These aren’t arguments that withstand the slightest critical glance.  But they don’t have to be.  They’re not offered as reasons…they’re excuses.  Excuses to blame gay people, for the bigot’s hostile behavior toward them.

And if Dreher can’t blame gay people for his cheapshit bar stool prejudices, he has one other trump card he can play: he can blame God…

I suspect that Rod’s first instinct will be to respond that the issue isn’t really homosexuality at all. It’s "authority." Rod, after all, believes

that you simply can’t discard a teaching on which the Bible — in both testaments — and (for Catholics and Orthodox) authoritative church tradition could not be more clear, simply because it doesn’t suit contemporary mores. 

And that’s all well and good until Linker comes to the obvious point that Dreher, like every other bigot making this argument, picks and chooses his religious beliefs to suit himself.  God is not the reason.  God is the excuse.

Does Rod have any non-question-begging answer to this question? An answer that doesn’t just amount to saying, "because the church says so"? 

Yes.  I hate them.