In which I get really pissed off at pz myers

Damn, damn, damn, damn! If only I hadn't clicked this link on skippy's blog. But how was I to know? After all, yesterday I clicked his link to Dan Savage's post about Garrison Keillor's ramblings against same-sex marriage on Salon.com, and thought Savage's criticisms were right on. Keillor's use of the most hackneyed stereotypes of gay people was downright embarrassing. But when I went to check out what PZ Myers had to say on the subject, I was met with this. However, this really isn't the first time Keillor has done this—he has a history of unthinking stereotyping and rejection of gays and atheists. He's an excellent example of why, when I see the Religious Right and the Religious Left, I don't think the problem is the Right or Left…it's the Religious. No, you want to know what the *real* problem is? It's people who stereotype, period. Come on, PZ, you respond to Keillor's "unthinking stereotyping and rejection of gays and atheists" with some of your own unthinking stereotyping of religious people? I would have thought your scientific mind could do better than that. And you go on to support that statement with more stupid remarks from the pen/keyboard of Garrison Keillor? You may be stunned to hear this, but he doesn't speak for all of us. Neither does Jim Wallis by the way. Kind of like Markos doesn't speak for the (yeah, right) political left. Yet recently for some reason, Wallis addressed Markos by name, having a bone to pick with him about the attitude of the "secular left". I watched this interchange with an odd mix of irony and annoyance. Part of me wanted to say something about how odd I found that particular "dialog"--the fact that most of us get to "overhear" that kind of discussion, but for all intents and purposes, we're not able to be active participants in it. But I couldn't think of a way to address that issue, without sounding like I was just sniping against the Big Boys of Blogging again. But, dammit, Myers' identification of "the Religious" as the problem just pushed this issue firmly *out* of Somebody Else's Problem territory. Raising my hand. Over here. No, here. Yes, waaay in the back. I am a religious person who does not stereotype GLBT individuals. And I am appalled when people treat atheists as if they are the one group it is all right to discriminate against. There are plenty of others like me, and we do *not* sit idly by in the face of injustice and bigotry of *any* kind. Yet, again and again, I have heard the (presumably rhetorical) question, "But *why* don't we ever hear the religious left or middle speaking out against these things?" For the millionth time: 1. We *are* speaking out. 2. You don't *hear* us, because we don't have access to the freaking MICROPHONE! Update: Apparently Garrison Keillor offered a "clarification" here.