The Bigotry Test

Like Joe Huffman with his "Jews in the Attic" test, for some years I've used a simple test to determine whether someone is busy making a bigoted (and thus, most likely despicable) statement.

The test is easy enough - take a statement that someone makes about a group of individuals, and substitute either a group you're actually a member of or a group that's generally acknowledged as having been selected out to put up with truly egregious amounts of crap, historically.

For me, variants of the phrase "gay" work. For others, words like "christian, white, muslim, heterosexual, etc" may provide the needed sting to burn through cultural assumptions.

Fortunately, the folks over at the The Oregonian (PortlandLive.com) and members of the Portland LGBT community have been gracious enough to provide us with a good demonstration.

Evangelical Mars Hill Church is scheduled to open its doors in Southeast Portland on Sept. 10

Ok, so far, pretty darned neutral. Mars Hill Church is, in fact, an evangelical set of congregations.

Southeast Portland’s Sunnyside neighborhood, one of the city’s most liberal districts, is bracing for a culture clash next week with the arrival of a conservative, evangelical church whose founder preaches against homosexuality and once said yoga is "demonic."

Last week, the Seattle-based Mars Hill Church bought a vacant, 106-year-old church building at 3210 S.E. Taylor St. for $1.25 million.

On Sept. 10, the congregation will meet its new neighbors, some of whom were trying to understand Thursday why an evangelical congregation would move into a neighborhood known more for its leftist politics than its devotion to church.

The man who sold the ornate stone building to Mars Hill doesn’t believe neighbors will warmly accept the new church. David Rinella, who previously lived in the basement of the church with his family, said Thursday that area residents never made him feel welcome.

“They do not want that to be a church,” said Rinella, who is the owner of Rinella Produce and hosted religious services at the church for years. “They would have been happy if that was a McMenamins (pub). I think there are a lot of hypocrites in that neighborhood.”

Again, the Oregonian and writer Steve Beaven are doing a great job reporting objectively. No meat here, yet.

But Reuben Deumling, president of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, said he’d like to have an amicable relationship with the church and develop a good neighbor agreement.

“This seems an odd fit,” Deumling said. “But I don’t know the people, and I would like to meet them.”

You wonder why Deumling would feel a need for a good neighbor agreement, but still no meat. The test has yet to show naughtiness.

A spokesman for Portland’s Q Center, which serves the LGBTQ community, said the organization would “extend an olive branch” to the Mars Hill congregation and invite them to the Q Center’s headquarters in North Portland.

“We’ll be respectful of them and try to make friends,” said the Q Center’s Logan Lynn.

Mars Hill Church was founded in 1996 by Pastor Mark Driscoll and operates nine campuses, mostly in Seattle, with three more on the way, including the one in Portland. Driscoll is a tech-savvy minister who preaches — often in jeans and baseball caps — against homosexuality and urges gays to turn from sin.

Ok, so far we're still exploring the wonderful world of fact (and good reporting on the part of The Oregonian). Darn it, surely there's got to be some meat here SOMEPLACE.

“A gay couple walks into your group, you’re supposed to tell them to repent,” Driscoll said in a sermon posted on the church website. “And if at any point you don’t tell them to repent, you’re not faithful to Biblical Christianity.”

There we go!! Let's try the test...

“A inter-racial couple walks into your group, you’re supposed to tell them to repent,” Driscoll said in a sermon posted on the church website. “And if at any point you don’t tell them to repent, you’re not faithful to Biblical Christianity.”

Hmmm. The thud you hear is the lead balloon hitting the ground. No, that *fails* the bigotry test. But to be fair, let's keep trundling through and see what passes or fails, shall we?

Suffice to say a whole bunch of background that you REALLY should read the article for (it's good perspective, I promise) before we get to our next test-worthy bit.

Regarding the Mars Hill Church:

“I’m not really down with them,” Baboi said. “But as long as they don’t spill it out in the street and put it in my face, it’s not going to bother me too much.”

What, you mean like a Pride Parade?

The faces and costumes change, but bigotry is fairly evenly distributed across every demographic you'd care to name. Based not only in fear and unfamiliarity, it's based in laziness - it's EASIER to just lump folks into a group and stick them under a set of labels and expected behaviors.

The problem with bigotry isn't only that it's "not nice" in so very many ways, but that it lays a cornerstone for a delusional view of reality. Whoever you are, try the "test"...and if you catch yourself or others *failing*, then wake up and rejoin reality.

Now, go read the article and even browse through the paper. The way the writer handled this article actually eroded, a tiny bit, my cynicism regarding the journalistic profession.