David Barton #fundie

David Barton #fundie rightwingwatch.org

Now discrimination today is always a bad word a hundred percent of the time, but it simply means making a choice between or making a difference between. And discrimination means I am going to discriminate and say I can tell a difference between a Christian and a non-Christian and therefore I only want Christians working on my church staff. I can tell the difference between someone who says they're homosexual and someone who says they're straight. A secular organization has a tough time discriminating, but a church needs to have the right to discriminate.

This is a biblical issue because Jesus has an entire parable in Matthew 20: 1-15 where he talks about a landowner who had a vineyard who went out to hire folks to work in his vineyard. And as he hired them he make a contract with them that said you'll work for this much or whatever and throughout the day he hired people and he made individual contracts with them and at the end of the day when he is paying them all off, the guy who got hired first said "wait a minute, that's not fair" and [the landowner] said "time out, we had a contract, didn't we? You agreed to work for a certain wage ... you should have gone down the street and found somebody else to work for that would have paid you different, but you agreed to work for that wage." And Jesus makes a great statement in Matthew 20: 15 where he says "don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?"

Now that's a great statement and that's a statement Jesus teaches to show the inviolability of contracts between employers and employees. That's why the government is not supposed to get involved in this stuff anyway. Government shouldn't be involved in employment contracts period.

47 comments

old comment by Skyknight

{sigh} Jesus wasn't talking about wages; he was talking about those who think they're entitled to greater glory/largesse because they've been lifelong followers, and not those who converted relatively late in life. He was taking aim at the "holier-than-thou" syndrome infecting many of the contemporaneous Pharisees (considering Rabbinical Judaism is an offshoot of Pharisaism, they definitely got better).

Basically, the initial workers weren't complaining about what they got, but the seeming unfairness that those who joined in the work late weren't paid equally less for their lesser amount of time worked. The closest economic analog I can think of would be that the earlier workers are complaining about minimum wage requirements.

old comment by Pule Thamex

"...a church needs to have the right to discriminate."

Too true. Not only that, but a true religious person, which means Christian, specially a true Christian, needs to discriminate sexually, racially, religiously, and in practically any other way they can think of, as long as it's to the detriment of others or someone. You have a holy duty to persecute. Your God-given mission is to be a bigot. God expects you to be a wanton savage and to glory in your ignorance. Amongst the most holy practices of holy practices you can ever do is to lie. Dishonesty brings you closer to God and Jesus. Also, if you're an employer, God wants you to mistreat employees as and when you you see fit, specially if you can save a penny or two. God so loves money, so it's best you keep on His good side, not that He has one. Do it. Or you'll be tortured for eternity.

old comment by Meisha

"A secular organization has a tough time discriminating, but a church needs to have the right to discriminate."

I see. So only churches should be allowed to discriminate against people who are "homosexuals"? It needs that right? Sure why not? Let's all just set our clocks back two thousand years, or six thousand so we can ride dinosaurs. Wing. Nut.

It also looks like you have a powerful Gaydar ability. You know, most people with Gaydar are gay, right? So it begs the question: If you are so against gays, is it because you too want to experience the joy of down-dirty-hair-pulling-loud-monkey sex with another man, David? Sure looks that way to me. Don't forget a condom, gays wouldn't want to get your "Straight" cooties. Ass. Hole.

old comment by Brendan Rizzo

WHY IS THIS FUNDIE INDEX SO LOW?! This should be in the Top 100! First, it David Barton, that blight on the United States, saying it. Second, he quotes a Biblical parable out of context to support his reactionary-cum-fascism. Third, he is justifying discrimination. The fundies just want to persecute gays, and after they succeed, persecute the blacks, and after they succeed, persecute the women, and so on and so forth. This country was founded on the principle of freedom for all. There is no place for any bigotry in government policy, to paraphrase Jefferson. Since Barton is single-handedly responsible for disseminating the lie that the Founders were fundamentalists, he is ruining their good name and making it even easier for the right-wingers to peddle their despicable lies. This country would have been a much better place if David Barton had never been born. Fuck him and anyone who even looks like him!

old comment by GodotIsWaiting4U

It's fine if you only want Christians working on your church staff. That makes sense. That's okay. Nobody's going to force you to hire non-Christians for your church staff. It's only unfair discrimination if the person's religious beliefs have no bearing on their ability to do the job in question.

Similarly, a director casting a movie who needs a black guy for a given role is allowed to only accept black people for the role. It's okay, because it's genuinely relevant to the person's ability to do the job in question.

Of course, the fact that you completely miss the point the parable was making there is HILARIOUS. I almost missed that. That's amazing.

old comment by Carlos

David Barton completely misses the point of the parable of the workers in the vineyard. This parable is meant to illustrate that no matter how late in life you convert to Christianity, you will still be welcomed as equal in heaven.

Barton demands that churches do and should have a right to pick their staff based on the prospective employees' sexuality.

The courts are unanimous on that issue:

Some courts have ruled that in accordance with the First Amendment employment for ministers is to be determined by the church alone. State or federal employment laws do not apply to church employees who perform a religious function.

This means that racist, homophobe, no-female-priesthood church has the right to tell a black, lesbian woman she doesn't get to be a minister, for exactly those reasons.

Does the freedom of clerical self-determination as outlined in the First Amendment take precedence over non-discrimination in employment as described in the Civil Rights Act (of 1964)?

Barton fears, that once homosexuals will be granted equal protection under the law, his church may not turn homosexuals down for a minister's job.

[Link: www.abpnews.com/content/view/5304/53/]

old comment by Wyzard

And as he hired them he make a contract with them that said you'll work for this much or whatever and throughout the day he hired people and he made individual contracts with them and at the end of the day when he is paying them all off, the guy who got hired first said "wait a minute, that's not fair" and [the landowner] said "time out, we had a contract, didn't we? You agreed to work for a certain wage ... you should have gone down the street and found somebody else to work for that would have paid you different, but you agreed to work for that wage." And Jesus makes a great statement in Matthew 20: 15 where he says "don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?"