religion

Why do straights hate gays?

By Larry Kramer
March 20, 2007
DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE,
Why do you hate gay people so much?
Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column. This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace’s bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us.

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The Secret, Oprah, and the idea of “magical thinking”

Somewaterytart at Shakespeare’s Sister tackles the subject of the new DVD/Book “The Secret” that Oprah’s been touting. I’m inclined to agree with much of what she says.
I first heard about the book from my mom, who works for Barnes and Noble, where the book is apparently flying off the shelves, so I resisted blurting out “That sounds nuts!” but that’s pretty much what crossed my mind when I heard it described. Then later Stephanie watched the DVD with some friends. She thought it was over the top, but an interesting exercise in positive-thinking.
I’m in favor of optimism, but as tart points out, there’s also quite a bit of blame that gets thrown at people who don’t come from privileged backgrounds for their less than desirable circumstances, and this book does seem to play into that – it outright says that if something bad happens to you, it’s because you attracted it into your life. That’s quite a case of blaming the victim, there.
And the anti-intellectualism/anti-science is pretty annoying, too:
“”I don’t know how electricity works, do you?” Uh, yes, I do, thanks. That’s what science fair was for.

Continue ReadingThe Secret, Oprah, and the idea of “magical thinking”

Atrios discussing religion

Atrios on The Sincerity Privilege:

Whether or not this applies specifically to Amanda I’m not really sure either, but I do agree that questioning the sincerity of peoples’ faith does anger them. On the other hand, appealing to the sincerity of their beliefs is a way of privileging them, to put them in the realm of privileged discourse, as well as removing the person’s responsibility. I don’t really care if the desire to discriminate against gay people, or turn the uterus into state property, is motivated by sincere religious conviction. I don’t think religious conviction, sincere or otherwise, makes your beliefs somehow special. If you think your misogyny or homophobia is sanctioned by God, it doesn’t make you not a misogynist or homophobe.
I’ve had this conversation with anti-choice progressives, who think it’s important for me to understand that their anti-choice views come from a sincere religious belief. The thing is, I just don’t care. The fact that your political beliefs are motivated by your religion doesn’t make them special to me.

Exactly – it’s great you have firm convictions about your religious beliefs, but I don’t share them, and it doesn’t make you any less wrong when you try to impose them on my life.

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Exclusion For Religious Schools Struck From Iowa Gay Bully Bill

Do they not realize, when they say these things, how bad it sounds? Like it’s your religion to beat up gay people?

(Des Moines, Iowa) The Iowa Senate has passed legislation aimed at curbing bullying of LGBT students and other minority groups in schools.
Language in the House version that passed lack week but which excluded religious schools was removed in the Senate. The bill now returns to the House. Democrats control both houses in the legislature and House leadership has agreed to pass the Senate version.
The issue of excluding religious schools prompted heated debate in the Senate with Republicans pressing to have the House version passed without amendment.
“There is the potential for a chilling effect on the teaching of religious doctrine through the filing of lawsuits, because of the way the bill is worded,” warned Sen. Jeff Angelo (R).
“You people have consistently raised these arguments that just don’t hold up,” shot back Sen. Mike Connolly (D) adding that in the 29 states that have passed similar anti-bullying legislation there have been few lawsuits.
Connolly reminded Republicans that the state and federal constitutions already grant private schools the right to teach religious doctrine and that the bully law would not interfere with statements of faith.

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Melissa Resigns Too

Damn it, this sucks. Melissa’s McEwan’s statement:

I regret to say that I have also resigned from the Edwards campaign. In spite of what was widely reported, I was not hired as a blogger, but a part-time technical advisor, which is the role I am vacating.
I would like to make very clear that the campaign did not push me out, nor was my resignation the back-end of some arrangement made last week. This was a decision I made, with the campaign’s reluctant support, because my remaining the focus of sustained ideological attacks was inevitably making me a liability to the campaign, and making me increasingly uncomfortable with my and my family’s level of exposure.
I understand that there will be progressive bloggers who feel I am making the wrong decision, and I offer my sincerest apologies to them. One of the hardest parts of this decision was feeling as though I’m letting down my peers, who have been so supportive.
There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation, but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. It is not right-wing bloggers, nor people like Bill Donohue or Bill O’Reilly, who prompted nor deserve credit for my resignation, no matter how much they want it, but individuals who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation.
This is a win for no one.

This blows that a fringe nutjob like Bill Donohue can even get on television in the first place, let alone speak for the entire Catholic church, let alone unleash vicious attacks on people by distorting and manipulating what they’ve said in the past. And that they can lose their jobs over statements they made long before they were ever hired blows, too.

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Edwards Blogger Resigns

Although John Edwards decided against firing the two bloggers from his campaign that were under attack by notorious homophobe and anti-semite Bill Donohoe, one of them, Amanda Marcotte, has decided to resign anyway.

Days after Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards decided against firing two liberal bloggers with a history of inflammatory writing, one resigned last night with a blast at “right wing shills” for driving her out of the campaign.

Amanda Marcotte, whose writings were assailed as anti-Catholic, wrote yesterday on her blog that the Edwards camp had accepted her resignation. She blamed her most vocal critic, Bill Donohoe, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, writing that he “and his calvacade of right wing shills don’t respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills, and pretended that John Edwards had to be held accountable for some of my personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics,” which Marcotte described as being “anti-theocracy.”

I have to say, if I were receiving mail from Catholics like this, I would resign in order to respond to it as well:

From my mailbag:

I pray that I had some small part to play in your “resigning” from the Edwards campaign you libelous fraud!

—
Catholics are concerned about killing unborn children, you stupid bitch. Chop away if it suits you, but we don’t have to accept that as moral. That’s why it’s called a religion. Look into it.

—
Amanda,
after reading your vile screed against Catholics and the Holy Spirit, I just had to see what you looked like. (I envisioned you eyebrow-less, with no visible pupils, and a blank, dead stare.) I see I was correct about the blank, dead stare, but other than that you’re not too bad. I then thought maybe you were mad at God (and by proxy Catholics) for making you ugly, but now I’m figuring you’re just mad at him for making you a woman.

—
Andy Driggers from Dallas, TX:
Problem with women like you, you just need a good fucking from a real man! Living in Texas myself, I know you haven’t found that real Texan yet. But once your liberal pro feminist ass gets a real good fucking, you might see the light. Until then, enjoy your battery operated toys b/c most real men wouldn’t want to give you the fucking you deserve b/c the shit that would come out of you ears.

—
From Paul Bernard of Scottsdale, AZ:
i like the way you trash talk i don’t particularly want to have sex with you but i would like a blow job.

—
Bud Phelps, another person who opposes “bigotry”:
It’s just too bad your mother didn’t abort you. You are nothing more than a filthy mouth slut. I bet a couple of years in Iraq being raped and beaten daily would help you appreciate America a little. Need a plane ticket ?

I linked above to some choice quotes by “Catholic League” president and anti-semite Bill Donohue, but here’s new one that will make your eyes pop. You can watch the video of him saying it at this link.

DONOHUE: Look, just hold on here. You had your time. Look, the kid’s a phony and here’s why. I dealt with him earlier today on an MSNBC show, and I said we could hypothesize that there’d be a Columbia University ping-pong team made of Asians, and somebody goes out there and says “All gooks go home.” So I — I asked him about my gook joke. And guess what? Andy’s — Andy’s sense of humor just collapsed. He found that offensive. You see what you are? You’re a phony. You’re a typical Ivy League little brat who thinks it’s OK to dump on Catholics, but you don’t like my gook joke. Now, what’s wrong with a gook joke?

Continue ReadingEdwards Blogger Resigns

Melissa gets to keep her job

I mentioned yesterday that there was some question about whether blogger Melissa McEwan, aka Shakespeare’s Sister at the site of the same name, would get to keep her job with the John Edwards campaign after complaints from the nutty rightwing blowhards over things she’s said in the past on her personal blog.

Turns out that she does get to keep her job.

That part is really cool. I wasn’t thrilled with the wishy-washy support that Edwards gave her, though.

I can’t believe that people who are certifiably crazy get to shake the trees and get a response like this from Edwards.

Continue ReadingMelissa gets to keep her job

How Islam Rationalizes Prostitution

A bizarre sexual practice sanctioned by Islam that has re-emerged in Iraq because we invaded, according the the Washington Post:

Temporary ‘Enjoyment Marriages’ In Vogue Again With Some Iraqis
BAGHDAD — Fatima Ali was a 24-year-old divorcee with no high school diploma and no job. Shawket al-Rubae was a 34-year-old Shiite sheik with a pregnant wife who, he said, could not have sex with him. If people are looking for filing for divorce in Virginia, then they can get some help from here.

Ali wanted someone to take care of her. Rubae wanted a companion. People can hire fathers rights lawyers from here, during or before a divorce.

They met one afternoon in May at the house he shares with his wife, in the room where he accepts visitors seeking his religious counsel. He had a proposal. Would Ali be his temporary wife? He would pay her 5,000 Iraqi dinars upfront — about $4 — in addition to her monthly expenses. About twice a week over the next eight months, he would summon her to a house he would rent.
The negotiations took an hour and ended with an unwritten agreement, the couple recalled. Thus began their “mutaa,” or enjoyment marriage, a temporary union believed by Shiite Muslims to be sanctioned by Islamic law. If you need help with divorce law, family law lawyers for hire can be checked out before things get out of hand.

The Shiite practice began 1,400 years ago, in what is now Iraq and other parts of the region, as a way to provide for war widows. Banned by President Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led government, it has regained popularity since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq brought the majority Shiites to power, said clerics, women’s rights activists and mutaa spouses.

“It’s a cover for prostitution,” said Um Akram, a women’s rights activist in Baghdad. “Some women, because they don’t want to be prostitutes, they think that this is legal because it’s got some kind of religious cover. But it is wrong, and they’re still prostitutes from the society’s point of view.” Um Akram, like the mutaa spouses interviewed, asked that only parts of her name be published.

Boy, anything can be rationalized if you just write it into your religion. We’re certainly improving things over there.

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The Catholic Church Has a New Policy on Gay People

This happened earlier in the week, but I haven’t had time to address it before now. If you know me, you know I grew up Catholic and have had somethings to say in the past about the Catholic Church and their behavior towards gay people.

Catholic Bishops have officially approved new guidelines concerning ministry to gay people that basically say gays are sort of okay within the church, just as long as their sexual orientation is in no way sexual.

The guidelines state that while the Church teaches that homosexual acts are immoral, there is a distinction between engaging in homosexual acts and having a homosexual orientation. “While the former is always sinful, the latter is not.”

“It is crucially important to understand that saying a person has a particular inclination that is disordered is not to say that the person as a whole is disordered. Nor does it mean that one has been rejected by God or the Church.”

In other words, it’s okay if I’m gay, but I have to be celibate. And there are some other conditions, too:

  • Persons who experience same-sex attraction and yet are living in accord with Church teaching should be encouraged to take an active role in the life of the faith community. However, the Church has a right to deny roles of service to those whose behavior violates her teaching.
  • The Christian life is a progressive journey toward a deepening of one’s discipleship of Christ…Those who stumble along the way should be encouraged to remain in the community and to continue to strive for holiness. In this regard, frequent reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is of great importance.
  • The Church does not support so-called same-sex “marriages” or any semblance thereof, including civil unions that give the appearance of a marriage. Church ministers may not bless such unions or promote them in any way, directly or indirectly.
  • Similarly, the Church does not support the adoption of children by homosexual couples since homosexual unions are contrary to the divine plan. For this reason, Baptism of children adopted by such couples presents a pastoral concern. Nevertheless, the Church does not refuse the Sacrament of Baptism to these children, but there must be a well founded hope that the children will be brought up in the Catholic religion.

So I get to be a part of the church, but I have to be a sexless second class citizen within it. Oh lucky fucking me.

Yay! Here’s what I think about that:

let me laugh even harder.

Honey, no.

Continue ReadingThe Catholic Church Has a New Policy on Gay People

Soulforce urges people to write compassionate letters to Haggard

Soulforce is urging gay people to write compassionate letters to Ted Haggard now that he’s being targeted for “spiritual restoration.”

In response to the news that Rev. Ted Haggard has been dismissed by New Life Church and resigned as President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Soulforce has urged the gay community to respond compassionately.
We acknowledge that many in our community feel legitimate anger toward Haggard and the NAE for their history of religion-based bigotry.
However, Haggard has now been referred to the same “spiritual restoration” therapy that has threatened the mental and spiritual wellbeing of so many gay men and lesbians.
Don’t let the voices of spiritual violence and intolerance be the only voices that he hears in this time of personal, familial, and professional crisis.
We urge you to write to Ted Haggard in a spirit of empathy and welcoming. Let him know that there are alternatives to ex-gay therapy, and that LGBT people can live loving, honest, and purposeful lives.

Continue ReadingSoulforce urges people to write compassionate letters to Haggard