OFB Community Mailing Lists

[Aaron Patrick Lehmann]

On Tue, Oct 05, 2004 at 08:42:15PM -0400, Fred Miller wrote:
> On Monday October 4 2004 5:41 am, Don Parris wrote:
> > I certainly think we as Christians should make clear the distinction
> > between a differing viewpoint and homophobia. =A0For instance, should=
 I
>=20
> [snip]
>=20
> The legal definition of "homophobia," is to have a fear of homosexualit=
y or=20
> homosexuals. I don't know of one Christian who fears either. 'Must unde=
rstand=20
> that the term "homophobia" is one used freely and "liberally" by the le=
ft=20
> because it has a negative connotation. It's the liberal's mentality to =
NOT=20
> want to deal with the truth - especially God's word concerning any issu=
e and=20
> HONESTLY debate a Christian/conservative, but to just call us names. I'=
ve=20
> seen the same garbage come from some in the Episcopal church, Unitarian=
 (of=20
> course), and a few others here and there.=20

Look at the following result from dictionary.com:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=3Dhomophobia

All three definitions on this page, which come from reputable dictionarie=
s (
Miram-Webster Medical Dictionary, and others ), indicate that "homophobia=
"
involves contempt, aversion, or dislike of gays and lesbians, and two of =
three
indicate that it includes a behavioral component.  While fear is mentione=
d, it
appears to be optional.  I'll grant you that the root phobe would seem to
require fear, but it appears that in fact, the term is more inclusive the=
n
that.  Of course, one could read it to mean that homophobia is the fear o=
f
anything like the one doing fearing, but no one has had any difficulty
recognizing that that's not what the homo indicates.  I suppose that they=
 used
the term homophobia because they wanted people to think it was a subcateg=
ory of
xenophobia...  which is pretty similar.

Aaron Lehmann
>=20
> Fred
>=20
> --=20
> "Running Windows on a Pentium is like getting a Porsche but only being
> able to drive it in reverse with the handbrake on."
>=20
> _______________________________________________
> ChristianSource FSLUG mailing list
> Christiansource at ofb.biz
> http://cs.uninetsolutions.com

--=20
Sometimes you stay the course;
Sometimes the course stays you.