Should Clint kill himself?

I read about the Facebook comments of a school board member in eastern Arkansas, and really people, all Christians should commit suicide. Being a Christian doesn't give him the right to ruin the rest of our lives. If he gets easily offended by being called a Christian, then he shouldn’t tell anyone he’s a Christian. He should keep that shit to himself. I don’t care how people decide to live their lives. They don’t bother me if they keep it to themselves. It pisses me off, though, that we make a special purple Christian day for them. I wish that Christians couldn’t procreate. I also hope that they often give each other AIDS and die.

Is that too extreme? Got a problem with that? Then take it up with the Clint McCance, a member of the Midland school board in Arkansas’ Independence County, who wrote on his Facebook page all of that about “fags”. I took what he said, corrected the spelling, fixed the grammar, changed “fag” to “Christian” and added a couple minor tweaks so it makes sense, all to make a point: Hate speech is hate speech, and it cannot be excused because he claims to be a Christian.

This started when Clint wrote on his Facebook page about the “Spirit Day” effort to get people to wear purple as part of an effort to bring attention to suicide among GLBT youths:

“Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide. The only way im [sic] wearin [sic] it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant [sic] believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves [sic] because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE.”

When a commenter wrote, “Because hatred is always right," McCance wrote what I rephrased above (except his had spelling and grammar errors, of course; follow the link to read the original, or go to Joe.My.God. to see the screen caps). He was further challenged, and responded:

“I would disown my kids they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off. Of course my kids will know better. My kids will have solid christian [sic] beliefs. See it infects everyone."

The point is not that Clint McCance is a raging homophobic bigot who spews hatred on Facebook. There are plenty of raging homophobic bigots spewing hatred all over the Internet. But this cretin is an official of a school district, responsible for young lives, and he’s telling some of those kids to go kill themselves. That makes him evil, not just stupid and wrong.

I highlight this particular hate-filled bigot for another reason, too: Mainstream, real Christians have got to understand the extent to which people like Clint are seen as representative of all Christians. The extremists are successfully framing their positions on issues, particularly in the Culture Wars, as being the only Christian viewpoint—and the newsmedia are buying it.

Real Christians who remain silent in the face of such evil not only condone it, they reinforce that growing image of Christianity as being hate-filled, bigoted and intolerant. Obviously I know that people like Clint are extremists and not representative of true Christianity, but I’m not the one who needs convincing.

So consider this not just a condemnation of bigotry, but also warning to my many Christian friends: People like Clint are walking billboards for atheism, driving thinking people away from Christianity. People like Clint are becoming the face of American Christianity. Whether that continues will depend not on secularists like me, but on people like you. I’ll continue to fight them in the halls of government, but only you can take them on within the church. Together, can we defeat them and their evil.

Update 28/10/10: The Associated Press reported that the Arkansas Department of Education is "dismayed" by Clint's remarks. I wonder if they're always so forceful in condemning raw hatred and bigotry?