Anti-Christian Bullying Not Part of “Anti-Bullying” Efforts

The problem of bullying in schools is real. And we must swiftly deal with it. Bullying for any reason is reprehensible, and lawmakers should take aggressive steps to empower schools at the local level to be able to take strong actions against bullies and protect all students from violence.

But there are those who want to exploit the issue of bullying to promote their personal interests.

Enter Dan Savage, a homosexual activist who claims to be working to combat bullying by promoting lesbian, "gay," bisexual and transgender (LGBT) "rights." His 2010 "It Gets Better" campaign has been highly praised.

Support for Savage has come from many sources. Hollywood, of course, has been key. The highly acclaimed Pixar Animation Studios produced a short film for it. His "Savage U" show giving sex "advice" to kids is heavily promoted on MTV. Sports figures and teams have support him - the San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays, and the Philadelphia Phillies baseball teams, for example. Internet giant Google was perhaps the biggest sponsor, with its Google Chrome browser. And even policymakers: Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, and yes, even President Obama recorded messages in support of his "anti-bullying" efforts, saying, "It Gets Better."

But apparently it gets better only for LGBT youth.

As far as Savage is concerned, it most certainly should not get better for Bible-believing Christians. He is actually leading the way in the bullying of Christians, as evidenced once again by his recent speech at the National High School Journalism Conference.

In a very telling display of classic bullying, Savage attacked Christians (or, as Savage called them, "Bible guys") calling them "pansy-a**ed."

Savage lived up to his name on his treatment of the student's deeply held religious beliefs, to the point where they had to walk out of the auditorium. Once he had shamed them because of their faith, he said:

You can tell the Bible guys in the hall they can come back now because I'm done beating up the Bible. It's funny to someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible how "pansy-**s" people react when you push back.

To Savage, it is deplorable for anyone to bully LGBT youth. But Christians? That's another story. He humiliated those who believe in the Bible in front of a very large group of students and felt really proud about it.

He would not apologize for his remarks, even though he tried, as every bully does, to qualify them. "I was not attacking the faith," he said.

Right. You see, we just misunderstood the part where he called the Bible "bulls**t."

Anyway, those high school students present disagreed with him. And most definitely those he offended. The Blaze reports one teacher said:

If he was doing this with a bunch of college journalism kids, that would be a different story - that's more rough and tumble. How many of the kids who didn't walk out felt backed into a corner? To me, that's bullying behavior. It has all the symptoms, as far as I'm concerned.

This is not unusual for Mr. Savage. He became infamous for his vicious attacks on former Senator and Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum and his faith. And he actually attacked Concerned Women for America's (CWA) President and CEO Penny Nance because she dared question the wisdom of promoting LGBT "rights" during a family show on television where small children including her own young son were in the viewing audience.

In a rant full of obscenities and vulgarities, he asked, "A fourth grader who 'doesn't know' about heterosexual sex? Is she raising that kid in a skinner box in her basement and only letting him out to watch American Idol?"

But Savage not only went against her, he went after her son also, again exposing his willingness to bully Christian kids for the LGBT cause. "Nance's son was always our target demo," he proudly asserted. He said that her son needed to know, "that the adult world isn't entirely populated by hateful sh**s like his mother."

But Savage is not the issue. He will certainly reap what he sows.

The issue is what is to be done moving forward with speakers like him. There is no question that his type of attack should not be sponsored by any respectable organization or school. Yet in a statement, the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association, who sponsored the event, said only that they did not have a prior transcript of the speech and wished he had stayed more "on target."

That's just simply not enough. All those who have proudly associated with this man, should distance themselves from him, for if not, they will be passively approving of his bullying of Christians.

Such an anemic response is yet more evidence that there is a growing anti-Christian, anti-conservative sentiment that taints the liberal elite. You will most certainly not hear much about this incident in the evening news. And it goes without saying that if the tables were turned and a Christian speaker called LGBT students "pansy-a**ed," the outcry would have been deafening.

This double standard and hypocrisy is not confined to speeches and the media. We have exposed efforts on Capitol Hill before to stop "bullying" by protecting LGBT youth alone and elevating their status above others. Such efforts are going on at the state level all over the country.

The result of such misguided policies is the attitude displayed by Dan Savage. An attitude that says it is okay to bully Christian kids in the name of preventing bullying against LGBT youth. Policies that say if you hold on to the traditional or Biblical definition of marriage, you are a bigot. Policies that say we must respect other people's beliefs, unless they are Christian conservatives.

I hope this incident helps us wake up to these shenanigans.

Again, all bullying is reprehensible and efforts against it should be aimed against all bullies to protect all victims.

In this case, they should work against Dan Savage to protect Christian students.