Jim Wallace can’t you see how your words hurt?

I truly wish Jim Wallace could see how his words hurt.

Yesterday Jim Wallace from the Australian Christian Lobby sparked controversy once again when he compared the health statistics of homosexuality to smoking, saying that:

“I think we’re going to owe smokers a big apology when the homosexual community’s own statistics for its health – which it presents when it wants more money for health – are that is has higher rates of drug-taking, of suicide, it has the life of a male reduced by up to 20 years.”

“The life of smokers is reduced by something like seven to 10 years and yet we tell all our kids at school they shouldn’t smoke.”

Yes there are health issues faced by gay and lesbian individuals however they are not caused by being gay or lesbian.  They are caused by being discriminated against, denigrated and demeaned.  They are caused by the kind of comments spoken by Jim Wallace.  I truly wish Jim Wallace could see how his words hurt.

I wish how he could see how his support of discrimination hurts.  It’s the hurt he causes that is detrimental to the health of gays and lesbians.  He could do a lot for the health of homosexuals by supporting them and supporting equality, rather than denigrating and demeaning them.
And that would be the Christian thing to do.

The good news about these comments is that they finally drew a reaction from Prime Minister Julia Gillard.  She has cancelled her appearance at the ACL National Conference.

There is further good news in that everyday Christians are voicing their disagreement with Jim Wallace and exposing the Australian Christian Lobby as a fringe group, rather than representing Australians Christians.   Hopefully our elected representatives ignore them in future.