Orson Scott Card is a novelist, a screenwriter and a Mormon. And Orson Scott Card doesn’t support gay marriage. He does not hate homosexuals, is not afraid of them and works quite well with the many homosexual people he meets in the industry. But he doesn’t agree with homosexuality. Because of his religion.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, a “religion” is “the service and worship of God or the supernatural; commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance and/or a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.”
According to this definition, religion often defines an individual’s attitudes, beliefs and practices. It is often characterized by commitment or devotion.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
Freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Freedom.
This is a nation in which two men are legally allowed to enter into a romantic relationship with each other, because of freedom. This is also the nation in which a man may stand up and say he does not agree with them, because of freedom. That is what America is founded on, and it is the basis of her success.
Those obsessed with the idea of “tolerance,” however, are not allowing one of these actions to stand.
Card, author of the best-selling book Ender’s Game, is a talented writer who has never attacked or committed a crime against any homosexual. There is no record of him declining to offer a job to a homosexual or to avoid working with one.
In an article in Sunstone magazine, Card himself wrote these words:
“After a while I stopped being shocked to discover that someone I had known well, or whose talent I admired, was either moving into or already a part of the not-so-clandestine network of gay relationships. I learned that being homosexual does not destroy a person’s talent or deny those aspects of their character that I had already come to love and admire.”
Card goes on to describe how his religion—Mormonism—dictates he not accept homosexuality but still be completely kind and compassionate to each and every homosexual he comes in contact with. His failure to completely condone or, much less, champion homosexuality, however, is enough for groups from around America to begin attacking and condemning him.
Gay rights activists are now calling for DC Comics to fire Card, simply for what he believes. The groups that call daily for “a new age of tolerance” are failing to display their most-beloved trait in the face of Card. Would they truly deny a man a job because of his choice—just as they in they past had been discriminated against for theirs? Is this the America they have claimed to have “bettered”?
It seems like the same America, just with a different status quo and a different minority—one where those who stand against accepted opinions because of their deeper belief in a specific religion aren’t tolerated.
To read the full article about Card, DC Comics and the Ender’s Game movie coming out in November, follow this link to The Hollywood Reporter.
While Movieguide doesn’t have a review yet for the upcoming movie, we are hoping that it is family-appropriate so that the broadest audience possible can attend this movie in support of Card and his freedom to exercise his religion and exercise his right to speak.
A version of this story first appeared on The Hollywood Reporter website.
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