Moral or not

So a quick little link I threw out about ways, if one were feeling inclined, of causing mischief with a right wing religious organization with a less than tolerant view of gay people caused a bit of noise. Helmut put it on her site and then contacted Gay Orbit who also had a small racket. Most say go ahead and screw over Focus on the Family.

I confess, when I first came across this link on Warren Ellis site my initial thought was "Well, let's cause some havoc, shall we?" Then my better angels (ie. Cathy) gave me pause. Just as I was getting ready to go and order the Chronicles of Narnia, she said she didn't want me to do that.

It's not that she likes Focus on the Family. She agrees with me that they're a pretty reprehensible organization. She just doesn't think it's right. Cathy doesn't think they're worthy of her time or being paid attention to. Or, by her way of looking at things, she wouldn't teach that kind of behavior to her kids. Trying to do malicious harm to an organization, just because you dislike or disagree with their morals or politics, is something she wouldn't do. Nor would she want her kids to do it.

I understand that argument. I really do. And part of me would like to aspire to the higher ground where you can just ignore groups that are not beneath you. But too often I see the kind of harm these groups do. And that isn't it better to try and remove their ability to harm others by taking it to them first?

I mean, let's take a group of people minding their own business, just trying to get by in life under difficult circumstances. That's when an outside organization swoops in and tells them that they're amoral, horrible people and to stop what they're doing immediately. Furthermore they preach this loudly to whoever will listen and lobby politicians to do something about you. And then, just to rub salt into the wound, launch a very effective fundraising campaign using you as the villain of the piece.

Now, am I talking about Focus on the Family and the way they treat gay people, or am I talking about the International Fund for Animal Welfare and they way they treat Newfoundlanders and sealers? And really, if this was IFAW giving away free stuff, I wouldn't even be thinking twice.

So I'm trying to go and be the better person and let this group beat their own path to hell by preaching morality while espousing hate. But it's very, very hard to not want to do my part to help speed their way onto hell.