I'd like to give my two cents on the accusations that Daggar is a homophobe and/or "religious zealot." He has already promised that he won't respond to any of these threads, so I thought I would at least try and take a go at this while he hides in the ABC throne room.
Here is the original post made by Daggar back in August:
First of all, here's my personal opinion of the subject at hand, just so you can see where I'm coming from: I was raised in a very conservative Christian household, that loosened up over time as my parents stopped attending church and I got older. However, many values have stuck around and are still present within my family, that I do not necessarily agree with, but am constantly surrounded by. The idea that homosexuality is wrong , or "a sin" is by no means a minority belief. Our society is becoming more tolerable for sure, but the vast majority of people in America claim to be "Christian". Along with that, for most people that prescribe to a denomination or set of doctrinal or dogmatic statements, comes a strong stance against homosexuality. So for Daggar to admit that it is against his religious convictions, yet to claim he is "open about all types of lifestyles choices" and has "no major problem with gays" is already well-beyond what you'd expect from most Christians, or rather conservative faiths of any sort.
So he starts by saying he really has no issues with "gays". I'm not a fan of the term, as it sounds more like an accusation than a "lifestyle choice". To me, it's almost like calling somebody a "******" to describe that they are African-American. Now, I'm an English major, and have no real issue with certain words, and am mature enough to not be offended by those types of slang descriptions. However, I still feel them to be a bit harsh when not used in an appropriate context. But, as we're not here to debate that, I'll just move on... He says there is a difference between "being tolerant and what you allow in your house". This is, in itself, a controversial statement. Many will say being gay is not a choice, while others claim it is. THere isn't scientific proof to back up either statement to a legitimate extent, or we wouldn't even be arguing about this, so I'm going to move on from it. At the very least, he should re-check his definition of the word "tolerance".
The point he's trying to make, basically, is that while he doesn't have a problem with "gays" he would feel incredibly uncomfortable if his son was a homosexual. I don't intrinsically agree with that, on a moral level, but I can understand it. I think the phrase "I would perceive it as me failing as both a father and a man if my son in this scenario ended up being gay" is a little harsh, but I think people are blowing it out of proportion to try and score points in this debate. If you go back to that actual thread, nobody even picks up on this because they're too busy hating FSWWE for being about 100x worse than Daggar ever has been. You have to understand where he is coming from. You can't look at this through your own perceptions of reality, because he may have a different set of beliefs than you. I don't think homosexuality is morally "wrong" or unacceptable in any way, and I was very much raised in a Christian home. I have grown to be accepting of it, and have many gay friends that I care about very much. To me, there is no difference socially between my straight friends and my gay friends, except that the gay ones usually have better hair...
But if he has modern, conservative Christian principles, it's likely that on a moral scale he does see homosexuality as wrong. You may disagree with him, but understand that the church has held this stance for thousands of years. You're fighting a very uphill battle... That being said, a "good" Christian would probably see having a gay son as somewhat of a failure. Not only because of their own convictions, but because they would probably be cast out of the church. Their family would be ostracized, and the kid will lead a difficult life growing up. There's a lot to reconcile, especially if you have religious beliefs that run deep in your family.
Look, I don't agree with Daggar's convictions, but I do very much support his right to have them. And, I'm not out to slit his throat, so I'm willing to try and see this from his perspective instead of making him out to be this evil, gay-bashing terrorist. Furthermore, when you really look at it, none of this issue has anything to do with his role as a moderator. He joined the thread, left a thought-out post containing his opinion, and left soon after. Not a big deal. Honestly, I don't care who you vote for. Coco's pretty much got it in the bag from my perspective anyways, so at this point I'm just trying to help out and see things a little more objectively. Let's try and finish up this election with a bit more class. Lots of people hate Daggar. Great. We got it. Let's move on.
