Dan Savage called out by NOM's Brian Brown for a debate; Savage says, "You're on, ..."

For those who may not have heard of him, Dan Savage is a gay rights activist - and an outspoken atheist. He engages in many talks around the country, and in the media, concerning gay rights; and since the fight against gays is almost always religious in nature, he tends to call out the contradictions and overall hostility within the Bible.

There's a pretty popular video of him speaking at a high school journalism convention the overall speech is about bullying, and gay bashing in particular. During this portion of the talk he calls out the hostility and stupidity of the Bible, specifically concerning homosexuals. As he begins this portion of his talk you can see quite a few (presumably xian) attendees walking out.

Well, this video seems to have pissed off one Brian Brown from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). Brown gets up on his high horse and tells Savage to "pick on someone your own size" (of course, I didn't hear Savage try to "pick" on anyone; he simply attacked the stupidity of the Bible, not a person). He calls out Savage in this blog post on the NOM Blog - he says:

Let me lay down a public challenge to Dan Savage right here and now: You want to savage the Bible? Christian morality? Traditional marriage? Pope Benedict? I'm here, you name the time and the place and let's see what a big man you are in a debate with someone who can talk back. It's easy to make high-school girls cry by picking on them. Let's pick on someone our own size!...I'm here, any time, any place you name, Dan Savage. You will find out out how venal and ridiculous your views of these things are if you dare to accept a challenge.

As I would have hoped, Dan Savage has enthusiastically accepted the challenge, has picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Brian Brown, and has stated rather succinctly, "You're on, motherf*ker", as reported in this article at The Raw Story.

I must admit I am really sick and tired of the Conservative Religious Right (because, let's face it, the overwhelming majority of the Conservative Right is Fundamentalist Christian) trying to impose their morality on everyone through laws. Prop 8 was horrible enough (I'm glad sanity prevailed and it was overturned), but it is going to get worse and worse.

While it is definitely the LGBT community that is catching hell right now, I definitely think the nonreligious are pretty up there as well. Atheists and the nonreligious are already marginalized in many areas of society, and I fear it is going to get worse before it gets better.  I'm very glad to see someone speak out against bullying and gay bashing, and doing it by attacking the root cause of it all - the Bible and the lunatics that use it to oppress the "other". And, let's face it, atheists and the nonreligious are definitely part of the "other".

I hope this Savage v. Brown debate happens (although I fear Brown is going to chicken out), and that it is televised. I would love to see it.

--Rock