Miscellanea Agnostica

It seems the Vatican has run out of stuff to do, these days, in spite of things like the Vatileaks scandal and the worldwide clerical child-abuse scandal (which it has yet to deal with in any kind of contrite, meaningful way). Yes, the robed denizens of the Holy See, you see, are more than slightly miffed that measures permitting gay marriage passed in three US states this past Tuesday, and it’s becoming the law of the land in France, too. The AP reports via the Washington Post that they’ve gone on the offensive over the matter (WebCite cached article):

The Vatican is digging in after gay marriage initiatives scored big wins this week in the U.S. and Europe, vowing to never stop insisting that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

In a front-page article in Saturday’s Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the Holy See sought to frame itself as the lone voice of courage in opposing initiatives to give same-sex couples legal recognition. In a separate Vatican Radio editorial, the pope’s spokesman asked sarcastically why gay marriage proponents don’t now push for legal recognition for polygamous couples as well. …

The Vatican’s anti-gay marriage media blitz came after three U.S. states approved same-sex marriage by popular vote in the election that returned Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, Spain upheld its gay marriage law, and France pushed ahead with legislation that could see gay marriage legalized early next year.

The Vatican used expressed the raging paranoia typical of militant religionists:

The article insisted that Catholics were putting up a valiant fight to uphold church teaching in the face of “politically correct ideologies invading every culture of the world” that are backed by institutions like the United Nations, which last year passed a non-binding resolution condemning anti-gay discrimination.

“The church is called to present itself as the lone critic of modernity, the only check … to the breakup of the anthropological structures on which human society was founded,” it said.

Given that gay marriage is vehemently opposed by lots of people and groups … like the American Family Association and Focus on the Family in the US and other evangelical Christian ministries all over the world … the Vatican lies when it says it’s alone in this regard. The cold fact is that the R.C. Church is by no means alone in its effort to unravel the advancements we’ve made since the Enlightenment and yank humanity back to the Dark Ages.

Here’s a thought for those in the Vatican who think they should be able to moralize and tell humanity what it can and cannot do: Once you’ve purged your own Church of its criminals and miscreants; once you’ve handed over for prosecution every abusive cleric in your ranks and every bureaucrat and hierarch who covered up for them; once you’ve admitted your policies were focused more on protecting your own reputations and wealth than looking out for the welfare of children in your care; once you’ve explicitly conceded your organization is not above the criminal law of the countries in which you operate; once you’ve changed your policies to put children first and commit to operating more transparently; once every abusive priest, nun, brother, etc. and obstructionist bishop has confessed his/her crimes and begun their jail sentences; and once you’ve grown the fuck up and stopped blaming anything and everything but yourselves for what you did … THEN, and ONLY THEN, might you have anything coming close to the kind of moral authority that gives you any right to tell anyone else how to live. Until then, you should just shut your fucking mouths about the evils of gays, or of this horrible, rotten, insolent “secularism” you so passionately despise. They haven’t perpetrated anything close to the scope of crimes your own Church is guilty of worldwide.

Is that clear?

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: 2012 election, 2012 elections, catholic church, christianism, christianist, christianists, gay marriage, gays, holy see, homophobe, homophobes, homophobia, homosexual, homosexuality, l'osservatore romano, religionism, religionist, religionists, roman catholic, roman catholic church, secular, secularism, vatican, vatican city

This is a classic example of religionists presuming themselves the ability to do something to others, that they will not tolerate other people doing to them. In other words, they’re the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. The (UK) Guardian reports on Catholic outrage over a Scottish cardinal being condemned for having condemned gays (WebCite cached article):

Catholic leaders have reacted furiously after members of the gay rights group Stonewall named Cardinal Keith O’Brien “bigot of the year” for his vigorous attacks on gay marriage.

Stonewall said its 10,000 members had voted “decisively” to give the title to O’Brien, head of the Scottish Catholic church, after he described gay marriage as a “grotesque subversion” [cached] of the universal human right which defines marriage as solely heterosexual. …

A church spokesman said the award showed Stonewall was intolerant of its critics. “Stonewall and others have promoted terms like ‘bigot’ and ‘homophobe’ relentlessly, in order to intimidate and vilify anyone who dares oppose their agenda,” he said. …

Stonewall insisted the award was entirely justified since O’Brien had been consistently abusive and intolerant about gay marriage. The cardinal had likened it to relegalising slavery [cached], said it was an “aberration”, and claimed it might clear the way for polygamous marriages and would cause “further degeneration of society into immorality”.

So, Catholics, let me get this straight. It’s OK for your cardinals to bluster, fume, stamp, and rage about gays — comparing gay marriage to “relegalizing slavery” and calling them every vile name in the book — yet it’s somehow impermissible for anyone to call them “bigots”? Really??? Are you people sure you want to go with that? I’d be careful if I were you; after all, this is hypocrisy, and your own Jesus specifically ordered you never to be hypocritical. Keep it up, and your mortal souls might be in danger.

Here’s another thought: If you don’t want to be called names like “bigot,” how about not saying bigoted things? How about keeping your nasty, fucking hatred to your nasty, fucking selves? That way, you wouldn’t cause others to call you out for being the hateful pricks you really are.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Hat tip: Peter at Anti-Bible Project on Delphi Forums.

Tags: archbishop keith o'brien, archdiocese of saint andrews and edinburgh, bigot, bigotry, bigots, cardinal keith o'brien, catholic church, gay marriage, gays, great britain, homophobe, homosexual, homosexuality, homosexuals, hypocrisy, hypocrite, hypocrites, keith o'brien, roman catholic, roman catholic church, same-sex marriage, scotland, uk

I blogged a couple days ago about the “loving” Christian pastor Charles Worley who wants all the country’s gays rounded up and imprisoned within an electric fence, so they can die off, thereby — according to his own reasoning — causing “gayness” to die out in the US. His congregants are defending him, however, as CNN reports, and are angry at the uproar this has caused (WebCite cached article):

Just about everyone here [in Maiden, NC] is talking about the local pastor who made national headlines this week after a video that features him telling congregants how to “get rid of” gays went viral. …

Some church members, who declined to give their names, defended their pastor, saying his words had been taken out of context. “He said he would feed them!” some church members told CNN, referring to the Worley’s idea for rounding up gays.

Worley “takes a real firm stand on the Bible and what it says about different things,” said church member Joe Heffner. “Whether I like it or not or whether anybody else likes it.”

Another church member, who declined to give his name, said that “Being gay and lesbian or homosexual is wrong according to the Bible… it’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

You can see some of their reactions in CNN’s video:

Whew! I’m so glad to hear that Pastor Worley doesn’t object to feeding the gays he’d put inside an electrified fence! Why, that makes imprisoning them there just fine! Doesn’t it?

I mean that sarcastically, of course. It is most assuredly not fine to imprison people for merely being gay … and feeding them while they’re imprisoned, in no way makes imprisoning them morally acceptable. Obviously, this defense of Pastor Worley is not going to fly. Not with me, anyway.

I note another defense these “loving” Christians are leaning on, which is that their pastor is just saying what the Bible says, so tough shit if you disagree. That also is a flawed argument. I admit the Bible does appear to condemn homosexuality. The problem is, what the Bible says, very often has little or nothing to do with how we actually do things. The Bible discusses slavery, too; in places the Old Testament prescribes slavery as necessary (e.g. Dt 20:14), and in the New, it orders slaves to be obedient and accept their fate (e.g. Eph 6:5). But although this is what the Bible says about it, we don’t have slavery any more. The Bible’s messages about slavery no longer have any meaning to us. It’s irrelevant.

The reality of life in this world, is that gays exist. They aren’t going to go away just because Christians find their gayness unacceptable. They aren’t going to kill themselves off because Christians want them gone. They’re human beings — every bit as human as the Christians who so vehemently despise them — and have the same human rights that they do. That’s just the way it is — “whether they like it or not,” as Worley’s follower Mr Heffner put it. They should grow up, suck it up, and live with it.

Photo Credit: The Advocate.

Tags: bigot, bigotry, charles l worley, charles worley, christian, christian hatred, christian right, Christianity, christians, concentration camp, gay, gays, hate, hatred, homophobe, homosexual, homosexuality, homosexuals, maiden nc, pastor charles worley, providence road baptist church, religion of love, religious right

Christians love to claim that their religion makes them “moral” people, and that morality doesn’t exist outside of their religion. Unfortunately, this just isn’t true. Christianity has absolutely no power to force its adherents to behave. And Christians continually write themselves “permission slips” to misbehave whenever they wish.

The latest example of this was reported by WBBJ-TV in Jackson, TN, in an incident which is almost unbelievable (WebCite cached article):

A gay Gibson County couple said they were assaulted when they tried to attend church services at the Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland last Wednesday.

“I went over to take the keys out of the ignition and all the sudden I hear someone say ‘sick’em,’” said Gibson County resident, Jerry Pittman Jr.

While Christians attacking gay people is certainly not incredible — it happens a lot, sadly — what makes this story unusual is this:

Pittman said the attacked was prompted by the pastor of the church, Jerry Pittman, his father.

The attacking deacons included Pittman’s uncle, of all people. There were also a number of (presumably Christian) bystanders, who stood still and did nothing to help:

[The younger Pittman] said bystanders did not offer assistance. He said the deacon yelled derogatory homosexual slurs, even after officers arrived. He said the officers never intervened to stop the deacons from yelling the slurs.

Those accused have also gone to the unusual extreme of preemptively contacting the TV station and ordering them not to contact the elder Pittman:

Pastor Pittman’s attorney contacted ABC 7 Eyewitness News by phone and said she had no comment and demanded we not contact the pastor.

Wow. If that doesn’t scream “I’m guilty!”, I don’t know what does!

The station offered this video report:

It’s not mentioned in the story text, but in the video — at around the 1:40 mark — the sheriff implies that it might have been the gay couple that had been “making trouble,” not the deacons who attacked them. I’m impressed with what a class act Sheriff Chuck Arnold is. (Not!)

This is just another of numerous examples of demonstrable Christian hypocrisy — they claim to be upstanding, righteous people, but their actual behavior falls far short of that. Way to go, Christians! Well done. You must be so proud!

Hat tip: Apathetic Agnostic Church.

Photo credit: Termin8er.

Tags: attack on gays, christian, Christianity, christians, fruitland TN, gay, gibson county, gibson cty TN, grace fellowship church, homophobe, homophobes, homophobia, homosexual, jerry pittman, jerry pittman jr, jerry pittman sr

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights organization that began its life by litigating desegregation cases, has doggedly tracked “hate groups” around the country for a couple of decades. It’s best-known for having tracked white-supremacist groups, but recently, the SPLC applied its definition of “hate group” to some Religious Right organizations and churches. Here is their list, which includes specific reasons why they’ve designated each as “hate groups” (WebCite cached article). The full list of 18 is as follows:

1. Abiding Truth Ministries

2. American Family Association

3. Americans for Truth About Homosexuality

4. American Vision

5. Chalcedon Foundation

6. Christian Anti-Defamation Commission

7. Concerned Women for America

8. Coral Ridge Ministries

9. Dove World Outreach Center

10. Faithful Word Baptist Church

11. Family Research Council

12. Family Research Institute

13. Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment

14. Illinois Family Institute

15. Liberty Counsel

16. MassResistance

17. National Organization for Marriage

18. Traditional Values Coalition

Some of these are localized groups, but some others have a national presence and are politically influential — especially with the 2010 elections which will put the House of Representatives into the hands of a number of Congresspersons who’re basically automatons doing the work of these outfits. I’ve also blogged on the antics of some of these outfits; ordinarily I’d provide links to all of them, but they’re too numerous for me to do that (I blogged a half a dozen times or more on the Qur’an-burners at the Dove World Outreach Center alone).

The SPLC has basically thrown them into the same bin with a whole raft of other types of “hate groups” which most people would recognize as such: the Aryan Nations, Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, etc.

The Religious Right is, of course, outraged about this; see e.g. this Christian Post story (cached article). (As though that’s news … I mean, aren’t they always outraged over something? Their stock in trade is “outrage.” If they ever stopped being outraged, they’d cease to exist.)

Well, boo-fucking-hoo hoo, people. If the shoe fits — or in this case, if the definition of “hate group” applies — then wear it. In other words, if you don’t want to be condemned, then stop condemning other people. See how easy that is?

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.

Photo credit: Image Editor.

Tags: abiding truth ministries, afa, american family association, aryan nation, aryan nations, chalcedon foundation, christian identity, christian right, concerned women for america, coral ridge ministries, cwa, dove world outreach center, dwoc, family research council, family research institute, frc, fri, fwbc, gay, gays, hate, hate group, hate groups, homophobe, homophobes, homophobia, homosexual, homosexuality, homosexuals, ifi, illinois family institute, kkk, ku klux klan, liberty counsel, massresistance, neo-nazi, neo-nazis, neonazi, neonazis, religious right, right, southern poverty law center, splc, traditional values coalition, tvc

President Obama announced his latest choice for the US Supreme Court; it’s Solicitor General Elena Kagan [WebCite cached article]. The Religious Right — along with the rest of the country’s conservative faction — is going nuts about it. But the R.R.’s objection is not based on her qualifications or lack thereof. They object to her based on what they assume (not what they know) about her sexuality. Religion Dispatches covers some of the R.R.’s whining and bellyaching:

Focus on the Family, which previously signaled it would not support gay nominees because they lack the necessary “character” and “moral rectitude,” today opposes Kagan because of her “her emotional and legal commitment to the LGBT agenda.” And the American Family Association demands that the media ask Kagan if she’s a lesbian, because “no lesbian is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.”

The problem with all of this — aside from the fact that these people seem to think that any gay person is too deficient ever to have any kind of federal office in the first place, which is a ridiculous position — is that it’s not even known whether or not Kagan is gay! A blogger recently suggested she was, and CBS News foolishly relayed this unfounded claim as fact; the White House, however, says this is untrue, and it cannot safely be assumed that Kagan is gay. (The blogger who started the rumor is Ben Domenech, who was a Bush Junior operative. Needless to say, his credibility on the matter is very thin, if not nonexistent.)

At any rate, the Religious Right continues to denounce Kagan as a lesbian and whines about her nomination to the Supreme Court based on that … but they have no idea if she really is a lesbian in the first place.

This wouldn’t be the first time the R.R. has stamped and fumed childishly — and sanctimoniously — about something, without knowing the facts of the matter. And one can safely assume it won’t be the last. More’s the pity.

At any rate, Ms Kagan’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with whether or not she can serve as a Supreme Court Justice. I for one do not care whether she’s gay or not.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: anti-gay, barack obama, childish, christian right, elena kagan, gay, harvard law school, homophobe, homophobes, homophobia, homophobic, homosexual, immature, immaturity, juvenile, lesbian, lgbt, nomination, Religion, religious, religious right, scotus, solicitor general, supreme court, supreme court nomination, us supreme court, white house