Things the Internet Gives Us
Feb. 6th, 2010 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tardis_stowawayMy mother likes sending me links to silly things online. Imagine my surprise when one day she sent me a link leading to An Archive of Our Own (AO3)! Had she discovered my fanfiction habit? Was she coming out of the closet about a fanfic habit of her own? No on both counts, thank heavens. The link was for Wait Wait Don't Eat Me, a fic about NPR's news quiz show, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me*, reporting on the zombie apocalypse. Let me say that again: National Public Radio fanfic, with zombies. It's utterly hilarious! The voices for all of the hosts and panelists are exactly right, and I cracked up at the news about what various politicians and other famous people were doing in response to the zombie hordes. A zombie calls in to be a listener contestant. The consequences of giving too little on the pledge drive are revealed.
Still curious about where on Earth my mother located this, I checked the Wait Wait website and found that they had linked to the fic on their twitter feed. I know that my mother uses Twitter to follow some people (our phone conversations frequently include discussing the latest news from Neil Gaiman as if he were a family friend), so I am choosing to assume that she found the story through that tweet.
God, I love the Internet! (Other awesome and COMPLETELY unrelated internet stuff: DW writer Paul Cornell's blog post the other day denouncing the perception encouraged by the media that to be Christian is to be homophobic. Well said, Paul! It bothers me that the most hateful strand of the Christian faith is so often the loudest, and it bothers me that the media discourse just amplifies these strident voices who do NOT speak for the Jesus I see in the Bible, nor do they speak for me. Like Paul, I'm a person of faith, and I am in favor of GLBT rights. Passionately so. I know many other Christians of various sorts who feel the same. As a more or less Quaker person, I might worship quietly, but I refuse to be silent in standing up for the rights of others. I don't feel the need to talk about my faith a whole lot in the secular world, but I do get tired of hearing atheists and agnostics who are allies on the political and social issues I care about assuming that intelligence, logic, compassion, open-mindedness, and progressivism are antithetical to belief in a higher power. Stop with the pigeonholing, people.)
*For those of you who aren't in the US or aren't public radio listeners, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is a weekly news quiz comedy show with a combination of listeners phoning in, regular panelists, and celebrity guests. It's well worth checking out the podcast if you aren't in an area where you can hear it broadcast. Even without zombie apocalpyse, it makes me laugh out loud every week. It helps that Peter Sagal, the host, is apparently a huge geek.
Still curious about where on Earth my mother located this, I checked the Wait Wait website and found that they had linked to the fic on their twitter feed. I know that my mother uses Twitter to follow some people (our phone conversations frequently include discussing the latest news from Neil Gaiman as if he were a family friend), so I am choosing to assume that she found the story through that tweet.
God, I love the Internet! (Other awesome and COMPLETELY unrelated internet stuff: DW writer Paul Cornell's blog post the other day denouncing the perception encouraged by the media that to be Christian is to be homophobic. Well said, Paul! It bothers me that the most hateful strand of the Christian faith is so often the loudest, and it bothers me that the media discourse just amplifies these strident voices who do NOT speak for the Jesus I see in the Bible, nor do they speak for me. Like Paul, I'm a person of faith, and I am in favor of GLBT rights. Passionately so. I know many other Christians of various sorts who feel the same. As a more or less Quaker person, I might worship quietly, but I refuse to be silent in standing up for the rights of others. I don't feel the need to talk about my faith a whole lot in the secular world, but I do get tired of hearing atheists and agnostics who are allies on the political and social issues I care about assuming that intelligence, logic, compassion, open-mindedness, and progressivism are antithetical to belief in a higher power. Stop with the pigeonholing, people.)
*For those of you who aren't in the US or aren't public radio listeners, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is a weekly news quiz comedy show with a combination of listeners phoning in, regular panelists, and celebrity guests. It's well worth checking out the podcast if you aren't in an area where you can hear it broadcast. Even without zombie apocalpyse, it makes me laugh out loud every week. It helps that Peter Sagal, the host, is apparently a huge geek.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-06 11:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-07 08:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-07 01:25 am (UTC)And, yeah, I find the homophobic pigeonholing rather annoying as well.
I'm different from you in that I don't agree with homosexuality, but I'm not homophobic. I love them and hope the best for them, even if I don't agree with their particular relationship paradigm. It frustrates me when people say I'm homophobic when I simply show an opinion different from theirs. If they're allowed to have their opinion, then I'm allowed to have mine. Enough with the double-standard, people!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-07 10:46 pm (UTC)This is a difficult issue to discuss. It's not something like a debate about how much to spend on a particular government program where most everyone acknowledges that reasonable people can have different opinions. I understand that people in opposition to homosexuality have deeply felt moral beliefs, and I understand the need to stand strong in defense of one's morals. However, as I see it, this is an issue of human rights. To accept less than 100% equality under the law is to support oppression, and that's wrong. Morally wrong.
Recognizing that there is a WORLD of difference between those who practice hate with their words or their fists and those like you, I still maintain that "disagreeing" with homosexuality is like "disagreeing" with someone being left-handed. People used to say being left-handed was wrong, too, and tried to train it out of children. It's not a choice, though; it's a fundamental aspect to how some people are. There is not a homosexual "particular relationship paradigm," because there are as many ways of having a relationship and/or being in love with someone of the same gender as there are with someone of the opposite gender.
In the USA, the right to free speech is protected, and I'm glad of that, even when it's protecting people saying things I disagree with to the depth of my soul. I can still be friends with people I disagree with. You are welcome to your opinion, and you are certainly allowed to express it. It's really good to hear opinions coming from a framework of love rather than the sort of venom spread by people like Pat Robertson or the Westboro Baptist Church. However, please ask yourself this question: if someone said, "I don't believe that black people and white people should marry each other, but I'm not racist," is that really possible? Homophobia, like racism and sexism, comes in a continuum. Falling at the gentler end of the continuum doesn't necessarily make someone a bad person. For people in a position of privilege, it's really hard to extinguish all traces of the -ism in question. Just please don't assume that refraining from using hurtful epithets means you aren't on that unfortunate continuum somewhere.
"Love the sinner but hate the sin" (the attitude I am gathering from your comment) is a hell of a lot better than hating the person. It is an attitude that allows a diverse society to function, and I am truly grateful for that. However, it still assumes that homosexuality is a sin. Sorry about the rant, but this is me following through with my statement in the entry that I will not be silent in defense of the rights of others, and that includes the right to be considered valid in the way that God created them to love.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-08 12:51 am (UTC)I was raised to believe (and continue to believe on my own terms) that homosexuality is wrong morally. Sexuality is one of those moral areas that I believe God is very specific about. He tells His people in no uncertain terms that it is not acceptable, and I'm willing to take Him at His word. Yes, it's in the Old Testament that He does this, but Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. Much of it is still valid today, except for laws regarding sacrifice, as Jesus rendered the need for sacrifice null and void.
In this way, I don't see homosexuality as synonymous with being left-handed or a different race. I see it synonymous with my propensity to lie or steal and every other sin I myself commit. I'm not a homophobe, because I cannot point the finger without having a million pointing right back at me. I'm just as guilty of sin as anyone else, however I accept that fact and am willing to own up to that.
I'm really not sure if I'm making sense with this explanation or not(And I find this more as an explanation of my viewpoint, as argument seems too antagonistic a term). And I'm willing to say that we simply don't agree in terms of homosexuality as a sin, but as I said before, you're welcome to your opinion and I'm welcome to mine, and we'll leave it at that.
And please don't think I'm mad at you in any way or anything like that. Because I'm not. =) *hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-07 03:51 pm (UTC)Oh god, if my stepmom did either, I would be traumatized for life. I'm glad it wasn't what your mother was about, either.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-07 08:56 pm (UTC)*shudder* Yes. Worlds of yes.
It's an odd situation, because I tell my mother about most things in my life, especially things I'm proud of. I'm proud of my Doctor Who stories, but I will not be sharing those with her. It would be far too weird.