Posted on 03/13/2018 6:22:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
Most of my conservative friends understand that the current war on so-called offensive speech poses a serious threat to the future of the republic. Many of them understand that it is particularly dangerous because hypocrites posing as classical liberals wage it in a selective manner. Thus, conservatives must be careful that they engage this war in a principled manner. Unfortunately, with their recent efforts to shut down a gay pride parade in my former home of Starkville, Mississippi, some conservatives have demonstrated a disturbing lack of principle. Accordingly, I wish to go on the record in support of Starkville Pride and in opposition to conservative residents who wish to censor them.
Those objecting to the issuance of a parade permit for Starkville Pride have registered at least two objections, both of which are fairly easy to rebut. First, there is the concern that Starkville Pride is seeking an endorsement from the City of Starkville, including actual monetary support for the event. Second, there is the concern that the gay pride parade will involve public exhibitions of lewd behavior.
If Starkville Pride is indeed seeking an endorsement or sponsorship for their parade, this cannot be used as a justification for denying them a permit altogether. Put simply, there are only three things a government can do when it comes to human behavior – it may prohibit, permit, or promote. When that behavior takes the form of assembling to advance a particular viewpoint, the only reasonable option is to permit it. The government has no business prohibiting lawful speech. Nor does the government have any business promoting particular viewpoints. This is simply common sense. That is why we issue things called “permits” instead of “promotes.”
The City of Starkville is under no legal or moral obligation to actively promote the Starkville Pride event – unless, of course, they have previously promoted speech that presents a point of view contrary to the one Starkville Pride participants wish to express in their parade. If they have, then they need to contribute an equal amount to the promotion of the present applicants’ point of view – and then in the future get out of the promotion and prohibition business altogether.
In a nutshell, Starkville should stick to issuing permits liberally and leave it to the individual groups to raise their own support entirely. This includes security fees for the cost of policing events, which should be low and fixed regardless of the general content and specific viewpoint of the groups seeking permits. None of these so-called promotion concerns are complicated.
But this leaves us with the remaining concern that Starkville Pride parade participants will engage in lewd behavior in a public setting if granted a parade permit. There are only two possibilities here – and neither one justifies the denial of a permit for Starkville Pride in advance of the parade.
The obvious first possibility is that no lewd behavior will be exhibited in the parade. If this possibility comes to pass then the matter is resolved. No further comment is required here. However, the second possibility raises questions that require a little more discernment – and perhaps a little more restraint.
What should Starkville residents do if the gay pride parade starts to devolve into one of those sad exhibitions we have seen in larger cities all across America? What should they do if men wearing assless chaps start parading up and down the streets doing pelvic thrusts and otherwise simulating sex in a public setting? Two things come to mind:
-First, the citizens of Starkville should use the high concentration of sexually broken people as an opportunity to minister to the sexually broken.
A woman objecting to the parade was quoted as saying that she did not want to turn Starkville into “sin city.” Has she ever considered turning it into “redemption city” by sharing the Gospel? Has she heard of the Great Commission? We should not allow a false sense of moral superiority to rob us of an opportunity to minister to those who are hurting themselves by pursuing a lie.
-Secondly, there is a political advantage to be gained from lewd exhibitions when they do occur. While I do support the First Amendment rights of Pride groups I must admit that I am irritated by some of their prideful comparisons. For example, many of their members have the unmitigated gall to compare themselves to the civil rights activists of the 1960s who marched up and down the streets of Mississippi being chased by attack dogs and sprayed with water hoses. To put it bluntly, the man wearing assless chaps and marching in front of an inflatable penis is a hedonistic narcissist – especially if he considers himself to be oppressed in the same way black people were in the 1960s.
If I were simply being pragmatic, I would never want to censor such a lewd individual. I would rather photograph his lewd march and contrast it with the experiences of legitimate civil rights marchers. In fact, I would use the contrasting pictures (the 2018 gay pride parade v. the 1960s civil rights march) to make signs that I would use in counter protests. But at no point would I censor a lie and thus deprive myself of a more effective means of expressing the truth. We must remember what John Stuart Mill said about censorship. It is wrong when it suppresses the truth. But it is also wrong when it suppresses a greater appreciation of the truth via its collision with falsity.
To the extent that we stay focused on the truth and not censorship, we can better help lead people out of darkness. That is the highest calling of men who are fortunate enough to live in a free society.
Author’s Note: Shortly after completing this column, the author attended a re-hearing of the permit issue at Starkville City Hall. The City reversed its ruling and issued the permit. Thanks to the conservative censors, the parade promises to be well attended.
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Queer pridefulness parade will lead us out of the darkness?
I did not know that.
I won't support a parade of decently dressed people in a gay parade but I can tolerate it and I would never be a part of such a parade and I will never pretend that homosexuality is normal, because it is not.
BUMP
Rock and a hard place, here. No indecent exposure or anything children shouldn’t see allowed.
Who’s going to be the exposure judge??
Mike seems to forget the proverb about the camel’s nose in the tent.
He calls this censorship? That’s incorrect. It’s just normal small town citizens expressing their wants and desires for their community.
He seems awfully cavalier about the public indecency endemic to these public celebrations of sexual perversity.
The more practical solution to the public lewdness issue is to enforce the existing laws against public lewdness. Fags don’t get free rein to violate the law just because they’re pol8tical pets at the moment.
He was pretty clear about the two possible outcomes...acceptable behavior vs. indecent behavior and using the indecent behavior (lemons) to make lemonade (educating the unaware to the true nature of the participants).
“Well attended” in Starkville means the parade will attract 10-12 participants. Probably the first pride event where members of the local LGBTQ community will drive tractors and cotton pickers.
Thanks for the ping.
My pleasure.
I’ve read; somewhere; that pride goes before a fall.
Now THERE's a concept little spoken of these days!!
Genesis 18:20-21
20. Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21. that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Genesis 19:4-7
4. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.
5. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7. and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
Leviticus niv
18:22 Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
20:13 If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Isaiah 3:9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.
2 Peter 2:13b Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
Ezekiel 16:49-50
49. "`Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
50. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
1. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
3. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
5. if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
6. if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men
8. (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)--
9. if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
10. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
11. yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
12. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
But there IS hope!!!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape...
That still means the public and possibly children would be exposed to the public indecency, and no one is going to be sticking out their neck to “educate” people as it is not politically correct. Heck, major Dem politicians regularly endorse the public indecency by marching in gay pride parades across the country, and no one ever educates based on them or calls out their contemptible behavior.
Wow. My estimate of Adams’ intelligence just dropped by 50 points. He’s now down there with the never-Trumpers.
Huh?
“I wish to go on the record in support of Starkville Pride and in opposition to conservative residents who wish to censor them.”
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