Dear Christian Fundamentalist,

You fascinate me, you really do. You speak of love, and yet base your view of me, a gay person, on a text that calls for my death; and another that (you claim) indicates who I am is so evil that God annihilated an entire city over it. When I ask you why you don't follow the other prohibitions in the Old Testament, you tell me that those other prohibitions are no longer important because of the "New Covenant" of Christ. But when it comes to me, out comes Leviticus.

And then, when you're called on your special hate for gay folk, you claim that homosexuality is no worse than any other sin, but all must repent.

Now I'm going to ask you to stop a moment, forget you're talking with me, the antichrist incarnate, and just think honestly. You don't have to admit you're wrong, you don't have to tell me what you're thinking. But please, just take a few moments, and look honestly at your own thoughts.

If my "sin" is no different than any other, then why is it that Christian yobbos are out there attacking gay people over all others? Why are they so afraid to consider that homosexuality is not definable merely in terms of acts, but rather in terms of an orientation? Why, when scientific, medical and psychological evidence, as well as personal testimony of gay people - many of whom spend years unsuccessfully trying to change themselves and hurting themselves in the process - do bigoted Christians continue with the same, tired old repetitions about it being a choice?

And when a rare fundamentalist admits that perhaps a gay person did not in fact make a concious choice to be gay, out of pure rebelliousness and hate for Christ, do you assume the right to callously demand that they go without companionship or love?

Why do they tell lies about gay people, claiming that they "recruit children" (I know lots of gay people and do not know a single one who was "recruited."), that they are pedophiles? With all the evil in the world - murder, war, greed, avarice, racism, hate - why do people like Pat Robertson jump to blame gay people for every natural disaster they can? Do you think you're somehow different than the imams in Iran who said the recent earthquake there was because women weren't covering their heads enough?

Evidently lying about another and fomenting hate isn't as bad as loving someone of your own gender.

Why, if homosexuality is no different than any other sin, do fundamentalist Christian parents reject their own children, or send them to "correction" facilities that do nothing but damage them and cause them anguish? Why, in many cases, does it take a suicide to make these people wake up? Why are these people, who speak of love, so unwilling to act out of love until it's too late?

Why would fundamentalists rather see a man stay in the closet, live in a relationship that's a sham and lie to his wife and his community, than live honestly? Why are they so afraid of reality that they'll convince themselves that these people are telling the truth (until they eventually come out and admit it was all self-deception)?

Your Bible, but also plain old logic, says that we recognize a tree by its fruit.

Hateful behavior can only be the fruit of a hateful mind; a hateful soul. And only the most brainwashed, indoctrinated people could behave this way, and then claim to be acting in love. Only the most hateful people in the deepest denial could speak about love while basing their position on a passage that calls for stoning of a person for something he did not chose to be.

To paraphrase, though you speak in the tongues of men and angels, if you have not charity, you are as the tinkling brass. Your words are hollow doctrine, bereft of anything even remotely resembling love.

That gives me no reason - absolutely none - to find your travesty of a religion attractive in any way. I see no difference between you and the dogma you parrot, and the fundamentalist Muslim who lives down the street with his warnings that I'm going to hell because I haven't become Muslim yet, that my father is already crackling over the flames down there because he died before he had the chance to convert. Both of you claim you are right. Both of you offer no evidence other than a book that you claim is right, but seem unable to grasp the difference between saying "because God said that..." and actually giving evidence that He did. (Need I add that both of you, for some reason, seem strangely unable to spell or write a grammatical sentence?)

 And finally, both of you, for some reason, find the notion of a god who will bring unspeakable torture to those who don't accept your beliefs, attractive.

That tells me all about both of you that I need - or want - to know.