{"id":668,"date":"2006-11-14T09:43:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-14T09:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/11\/elton-johns-hatred.html"},"modified":"2006-11-14T09:43:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-14T09:43:00","slug":"elton-johns-hatred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/11\/elton-johns-hatred.html","title":{"rendered":"Elton John’s Hatred"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read Kris Rasmussen’s blog piece<\/a> as well as the rest of Elton John\u2019s religion-bashing interview, which has been all over the media the past couple of days, and I was stunned at what he doesn’t realize about, well, himself.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve loved much of his music, especially the old stuff he resurrected for the Australia live concerts. But on this topic, E.J. doesn\u2019t realize how his hatred of religion is not only as deep as the hatred of some religious people towards gays, but that his hatred is actually even the same kind <\/span>of hatred. It is judgmental; it’s biased based on his own beliefs; and it’s largely uninformed.<\/p>\n

“I think religion has always tried to turn hatred toward gay people,” he says. “Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.”<\/p>\n

Now hear the same phrase as if posed from the other side:<\/p>\n

“I think gays have always tried to turn hatred towards religious people; the gay agenda promotes hatred and spite towards the religious.”<\/p>\n

Sounds like the same hatred to me.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we need Bernie Taupin to save him and write a smoother way for E.J.\u2019s compassion to shine forth\u2026 and perhaps he could also pen something for the churches who say they hate the sin but love the sinner. It\u2019s a nuanced thought that goes beyond clich\u00e9 for most, but the sentiment doesn’t seem to make it past the church walls.<\/p>\n

Until we all–even Sir Elton–can disagree without demonizing the other “side” of any spiritually-driven debate, we’ll never have meaningful dialogue, or the potential agreement and healing that comes after.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read Kris Rasmussen’s blog piece as well as the rest of Elton John\u2019s religion-bashing interview, which has been all over the media the past couple of days, and I was stunned at what he doesn’t realize about, well, himself. I\u2019ve loved much of his music, especially the old stuff he resurrected for the Australia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities"],"yoast_head":"\nElton John's Hatred<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/11\/elton-johns-hatred.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elton John's Hatred\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I read Kris Rasmussen’s blog piece as well as the rest of Elton John\u2019s religion-bashing interview, which has been all over the media the past couple of days, and I was stunned at what he doesn’t realize about, well, himself. I\u2019ve loved much of his music, especially the old stuff he resurrected for the Australia…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/11\/elton-johns-hatred.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-14T09:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Douglas Howe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Elton John's Hatred","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/11\/elton-johns-hatred.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Elton John's Hatred","og_description":"I read Kris Rasmussen’s blog piece as well as the rest of Elton John\u2019s religion-bashing interview, which has been all over the media the past couple of days, and I was stunned at what he doesn’t realize about, well, himself. 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