@ASkepticAtheist.

Janet Mefferd is all manner upset over a protection in place for LGBT seniors living in long term care. Honestly, I would have thought this would have been too much, even for asshole Christians to target, but no. So many people walk this life in a quiet and often desperate quest for basic acceptance and respect. It’s not an awful thing to expect the barest acceptance and respect to at least be proffered at the end of life, but no, this is a major problem.

On yesterday’s episode of Janet Mefferd Live, Mefferd discussed an article published by The Daily Signal that claimed that the California bill violated the First Amendment rights of doctors and staff working with aging LGBTQ patients. Mefferd also claimed that the bill was offensive to Christians.

“When you consider that we are not to bear false witness as Christians, we cannot call people by the opposite pronoun that they really are,” Mefferd said. “We can’t. It’s lying. It’s engaging in a fiction that is dishonest, and the government cannot compel you to lie.”

Oh my oh my. All of a sudden, you just can’t bear false witness! When it comes to lying, you really have a hard time beating religious people of all types. Christians excel at lying, but of course, if you’re lying for Jesus, it’s okely dokely. Christians lie every damn day, it’s nearly part of the creed, along with stretching, twisting, and battering their own “biblical truths” on a regular basis. We won’t even get into the mass lies of creationists and ‘intelligent design’ proponents. Goodness me, you gotta refer to people by their pronoun of choice! The sky will fall down any moment now.

To be quite clear, using any given person’s pronouns of choice is not a lie. They have let you know who they are, that’s all. Think of it like infants – there’s a reason people ask about infants, you can’t really tell, and they prefer to be respectful. Why not be that way with all other ages? It’s no skin off your nose, and when you offer basic respect to others, you’re much more likely to get it back throughout your life, even when you find yourself in long term elder care. On the other hand, declaring other peoples’ lives to be a fiction is a poisonous evil, and one which should be stopped at every turn. Aged Reasoner has a post up in which it’s stated that you can’t truly know what goes on in someone else’s brain, and I agree with that. We do our best to communicate with others, but in the end, we have to take most people at face value, and go by not just words, but also actions. It is not up to Ms. Mefferd to blithely declare anyone else’s life a fiction; to determine that what happens in their brain to be a lie; to decide that a very person’s life is a lie. There is no attempt to deceive on the part of LGBT people, quite the contrary.

“The fact that they will make no religious exemptions shows the fury with which they view us,” Mefferd continued. “And that’s really not an overstatement, by the way.”

Sigh. No, it’s not fury. Rather the opposite, Ms. Mefferd, but christians aren’t exactly good at figuring out this whole respect toward others business, they think it’s something owed only to themselves. It’s always all about them, and their beliefs. And yes, that’s one fuck of an overstatement, Ms. Mefferd. You don’t get to opt out of the basic rules of a civil society when you like, and of course, that makes you about nuts with spiteful anger. You always want exceptions “give us an exemption!” Then you turn to your wailing and gnashing of teeth, claiming this, that, and the other is persecution. It’s not persecution. You’re simply expected to be inclusive and respectful, which I do realize is christian bane. Go off and create your perfect christian utopia, where you can treat all people like shit, and busy yourself with shoving your nose of judgment everywhere. You’d be happy, and so would everyone else to be shot of you all.

Via RWW.