Since last Saturday’s post about Ray Boltz’s coming out, I’ve been busy on the intertubes. To a certain extent, I took it upon myself to go to the blogs that were, shall we say, less than congratulatory to Mr. Boltz and give some sort of counterpoint to their finger-wagging and oh-so-disappointed rhetoric.

That was a bad decision. Very bad.

It’s bad because I knew better than to think I could change their minds. I learned a long time ago that if someone is convinced that they know better than my first-hand knowledge and lifetime of experience, there’s nothing I can say to un-convince them. They won’t trust anything I say because at best they think I’m just trying to make myself feel better, and at worst they think I’m the devil. (And yes, I’ve gotten that one.)

I had typed up a list of 21 hateful, idiotic, and embarrassingly anti-Christ comments I’ve seen in the last six days, but after sleeping on it, I realized that I was still missing the point.

The point is this: I can spend my energy railing at and correcting the bigots to no benefit, or I can choose to spend it talking to the people who either aren’t sure or who need a nudge to be more vocal with their church or governmental leaders.

My goal must not be to shout anybody down, but to inform and educate the people who are still reachable. Those are the people who will help change the world, not the bigots who want only to maintain their superior position in society.

Still drives me nuts, though.