Multi Medium

Selective Lone-Nuttery

Stanley Fish had a nice column in yesterday’s NYT pointing out the cynical inconsistency of right-wing reaction to terrorist attacks, depending on the perpetrator:

In the brief period between the bombing and the emergence of McVeigh, speculation had centered on Arab terrorists and the culture of violence that was said to be woven into the fabric of the religion of Islam.

But when it turned out that a white guy (with the help of a few of his friends) had done it, talk of “culture” suddenly ceased and was replaced by the vocabulary and mantras of individualism: each of us is a single, free agent; blaming something called “culture” was just a way of off-loading responsibility for the deeds we commit; in America, individuals, not groups, act; and individuals, not groups, should be held accountable. McVeigh may have looked like a whole lot of other guys who dressed up in camouflage and carried guns and marched in the woods, but, we were told by the same people who had been mouthing off about Islam earlier, he was just a lone nut, a kook, and generalizations about some “militia” culture alive and flourishing in the heartland were entirely unwarranted.

(…)

It is wrong, we hear, to regard the proposed mosque or community center as an ordinary exercise of free enterprise and freedom of religion by the private owners of a piece of property. It is, rather, a thumb in the eye or a slap in the face of the 9/11 victims and their families, a potential clearinghouse for international terrorist activities, a “victory mosque” memorializing a great triumph of jihad and a monument to the religion in whose name and by whose adherents the dreadful deed was done.

But according to the same folks who oppose the mosque because of what it stands for, Michael Enright’s act doesn’t stand for anything and is certainly not the product of what Time magazine calls a growing “American strain of Islamophobia.” Instead, The New York Post declares, the stabbing is “the act of a disturbed individual who is now in custody,” and across the fold of the page columnist Jonah Goldberg says that “one assault doesn’t a national trend make” and insists that “we shouldn’t let anyone suggest that this criminal reflects anybody but himself.”

The formula is simple and foolproof (although those who deploy it so facilely seem to think we are all fools): If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on or is in the air (he came from nowhere) and characterize him as a one-off, non-generalizable, sui generis phenomenon.

How many violent homicidal right-wing crazies do we have to see before we see some conservatives start to admit that maybe, just maybe, that DHS report was right about the dangers of right-wing extremism, not to mention all the provocative teabagger rhetoric about 2nd Amendment remedies and watering the tree of liberty?  Or are murder and incitement okay as long as you pretend that they’re motivated by patriotism?

Add comment August 31st, 2010 at 07:48am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity may in fact be in need of a green card…

Add comment August 29th, 2010 at 01:38pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity totally aces his psych eval:

Mainly because he has absolutely no anger issues at all.

Add comment August 8th, 2010 at 04:53pm Posted by Eli

Nooo They Be Takin’ My Jesus

That’s what Republican congressional candidate Ed Martin says, anyway.  He doesn’t explain how exactly, but why would he lie?

One thing I like to say is: America is great, not because of our genetics. We’re great because we created a place and space where people can be free. And they can choose Christ, they can choose to be faithful.  They can worship, and they find their way to the Lord. And — or some of them don’t. We sure want them all to, but some of them don’t.

And part of that freedom — when you take a government and you impose, and take away all your choices. One of the choices you take away is to find the Lord.  And find your savior.

And that’s one of the things that’s most destructive about the growth of government. It’s this taking away that freedom. The freedom — the ultimate freedom, to find your salvation, to get your salvation. And to find Christ, for me and you.

And I think that’s one of the things that we have to be very, very aware of that the Obama Administration and Congressman Carnahan are doing to us.

Scary!  Obama’s anti-religious policies must be stopped!  Uh, whatever they are.

Add comment July 13th, 2010 at 07:17am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

How does a young Deity escape from Null & Void into the World Of Things & Stuff?

I love the scrapbook…

Add comment July 4th, 2010 at 12:39pm Posted by Eli

Pope Mad That Belgium Treats Sex Abuse As A Crime

How dare the Belgians act as if predator priests are some kind of criminals!

Pope Benedict XVI had harsh words for Belgian police Sunday, calling their raids investigating priestly sex abuse last week “surprising and deplorable.”

Police conducted the June 24 raids during the monthly meeting of the Belgian Bishops Conference, detaining the nine members for hours and confiscating their cell phones.

They searched two main church offices and the home of former Archbishop Godfried Danneels, seizing computers and files, and opened a tomb, prompting outrage from the Vatican.

“The Secretariat of State expresses its deep shock over the way some of the searches were carried out…and its indignation over the violation” of the tomb, the Vatican said in a statement Friday.

Speaking out for the first time since the raids, the pope issued a letter to the head of the Belgian Bishops Conference Sunday. “At this sad time, I wish to express … my closeness and solidarity for the surprising and deplorable ways in which the searches were carried out,” he wrote.

“I hope that justice takes its course, guaranteeing the fundamental rights of people and institutions with respect to the victims, recognizing without prejudice all those who are committed to collaborating with justice and refuting all that which seeks to obscure its noble goals.”

I’ve always been mystified by this country’s willingness to just let the Catholic Church handle sex abuse cases in-house, as if our own criminal and legal system has no jurisdiction over them.  But obviously the Church believes that to be the natural order of things.

UPDATE: Then again…

Add comment June 28th, 2010 at 07:20am Posted by Eli

Co-Wanker Of The Day (Part 1)

Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle:

As Talking Points Memo’s Justin Elliott described in a June 15, 2010 story, Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle was a member of the Independent American Party of Nevada during the 1990’s, from 1992 to 1997, during which time the IAPN engaged in bizarre anti-gay agitation and campaigns to legalize discrimination against homosexuality. Describes Elliott,

The small party attracted considerable controversy in 1994 when it took out a newspaper ad titled “Consequences of Sodomy: Ruin of a Nation,” which suggested HIV could spread through the water.

It wasn’t a fluke. As Elliott’s TPM story goes on to detail,

During the period that Angle was a member, the party bought a red, white, and blue 16-page advertising insert in several Nevada newspapers to promote an effort to add a clause to the state constitution stating that “objection to homosexuality is a liberty and right of conscience and shall not be considered discrimination relating to civil rights,” according to a 1994 article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The so-called Minority Status and Child Protection Act would have explicitly allowed discrimination against gay people in jobs and housing.The party then picketed a newspaper, the Reno Gazette-Journal, that refused to run the ad.

Angle apologists will no doubt try to claim that Sharron Angle’s stance towards homosexuality and gay rights has changed since the 1990’s, but that’s not going to be so easy given that, according to Angle’s current official biography, “She is proud of her past chairwomanship of We the People Nevada PAC that sponsored the Property Tax Restraint Initiative.”

The We The People PAC had a web presence from 2003 to 2007, during which time its statement of principles web site page declared, “The radical homosexual movement and other groups seek to destroy the traditional family structure which is the underpinning of society. Their agenda should be opposed.”

I’m always kind of mystified by any claims about the existence of a vast gay conspiracy in a country where only a few gay people can get married, where they can be legally discriminated against, and where they’re not allowed to serve openly in the military or even donate blood.

Least. Effective. Conspiracy. Ever.

Also, Sharron Angle is a despicable fanatic.

Add comment June 18th, 2010 at 07:16am Posted by Eli

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Bad enough that Chris Hedges paints a terrifying picture of just how insane and evil and dangerous the Christian right is, but he also points out how the fecklessness and corruption of the Democratic establishment has enabled it by doing so little to push back against the out-of-control corporations that have destroyed our environment and economy.

I think he probably overstates just how numerous and powerful the truly crazy right-wing Christians are, but they clearly do have enough influence on American policy and discourse to be very, very scary.

Add comment June 8th, 2010 at 11:31am Posted by Eli

Monday Media Blogging

I’m pretty sure this is exactly how the whole Abraham-and-Isaac thing went down…

On the fifth day He invented the birds and the fish, and today He’s invented me murdering my son.  Another winner, Lord!

Add comment May 17th, 2010 at 11:18am Posted by Eli

What I Would Say If I Knew What I Was Talking About

It has always really, really bugged me how Republicans claim the mantle of being the Christian party, even though their policies and demeanor are pretty much the exact opposite of everything Jesus stood for, but not having much of a religious background I can’t really be much more specific than referring to me general impression that Jesus stood for things like peace, love, charity and compassion.

Well, Mike Lux can, and the result is pretty awesome.  You should check it out.

Add comment May 12th, 2010 at 08:02am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Jesus finds a loophole.

I don’t think he was ever particularly keen that whole crucifixion deal.

Add comment April 18th, 2010 at 01:06pm Posted by Eli

In My Vatican There Is Problem…

Well, this certainly explains a lot:

Last week, retired Bishop Giacomo Babini of the Italian town of Grosseto told the Catholic Pontifex website that the Catholic pedophile scandal is being orchestrated by the “eternal enemies of Catholicism, namely the freemasons and the Jews, whose mutual entanglements are not always easy to see through… I think that it is primarily a Zionist attack, in view of its power and refinement. They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God-killers.”

You might think that the 81-year-old Babini had already said more than enough for one day, but once some people “pop,” they just can’t stop. “The Holocaust was a shame for all of humanity,” the good bishop told the world, “but now we have to look at it without rhetoric and with open eyes. Don’t believe that Hitler was merely crazy. The truth is that the Nazis’ criminal fury was provoked by the Jews’ economic embezzlement, by which they choked the German economy.” He concluded that the Jews’ “guilt is graver than what Christ predicted would happen to them, saying ‘do not cry for me, but for your own children.’”

(…)

This latest scapegoating attempt came out not only in the days around Holocaust Remembrance Day but also on the heels of the latest alarmist report by Tel Aviv University announcing a drastic increase in anti-Semitic activity around the globe, and with historian Robert Wistrich saying that “We are in an era once again where the Jews are facing genocidal threats as a people.”

Ah yes, of course.  Obviously the Jews used the same mind-control rays that we used to take over Hollywood and the world banking system to force those poor Catholic priests to molest children against their will, and then force their bishops and cardinals to cover it up!  It’s all so obvious now!

For a religion that emphasizes confession, the Catholic Church sure is doing an awful lot of finger-pointing.

(h/t WT)

Add comment April 13th, 2010 at 11:41am Posted by Eli

Poor Persecuted Pope

Those damn liberals are trying to silence the Pope for political reasons!

“The pope defends life and the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different” agenda, Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the disciplinary commission for Holy See officials, said on the radio.

(…)

Also arguing that Benedict’s promotion of conservative family models had provoked the so-called attacks was the Vatican’s dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano.

“By now, it’s a cultural contrast,” Sodano told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. “The pope embodies moral truths that aren’t accepted, and so, the shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church.”

Italian Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, who heads the Vatican City State’s governing apparatus, also defended Benedict.

The pope “has done all that he could have” against sex abuse by clergy of minors, Lajolo said on Vatican radio, decrying what he described as a campaign of “hatred against the Catholic church.”

First they came for the pedophiles, and I did not speak up, because I am not a pedophile…

(h/t WT for the cartoon)

Add comment April 7th, 2010 at 07:30am Posted by Eli

The Catholocaust

Yes, yet another wanker has compared reaping the consequences of wrongdoing to the Holocaust. This time it’s a senior Vatican priest comparing the “violent” persecution of the Catholic Church to the persecution of the Jews.

I guess that’s because the Jews protected pedophiles in their midst for decades, right?

And that’s what pisses me off so much about these wankers comparing their comeuppance to the Holocaust. Not only does it trivialize one of history’s most terrible tragedies, but it implies that the Jews brought it on themselves.

Please, if you’re going to compare your suffering to that of the Jews, at least have the decency for it to be equally undeserved.

1 comment April 3rd, 2010 at 11:22am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity tries to nip the whole Science thing in the bud.

Remember when we talked to that Einstein guy about how E = MC Hammer?

Add comment March 28th, 2010 at 06:19pm Posted by Eli

Lament Of The Day

If the Catholic Church were as tolerant and protective toward gays as they are toward pedophiles, same-sex marriage would be legal in every state by now.

And if it were as committed to peace and compassion as it is to outlawing abortions, we probably wouldn’t have invaded Iraq, and the healthcare reform bill would have contained a public option at the very least.

1 comment March 27th, 2010 at 11:08am Posted by Eli

Purity

Perhaps I’m just imagining it, but the enemies of womens’ choice seem to be a lot more universally opposed to the Nelson “compromise” in the Senate bill than liberal healthcare advocates are to its lack of a public option.  Despite the fact that Nelson is a lot closer to Stupak than No Public Option is to Public Option, and the fact that reconciliation could be used to pass the public option, but not to pass Stupak.

At any rate, I certainly don’t see a whole lot of bishops or Blue Dogs saying, “Come on!  This is a historic once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to roll back women’s rights!  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!”

I really really hated having to choose between choice and the public option, but choosing between choice and forcing people to buy crappy private insurance policies they probably can’t afford to use isn’t very difficult at all.  But one that, amazingly, Obama and the Democrats are still on the brink of getting wrong.

It’s a double epic fail.  Like saying that everyone has to give up their bathroom privileges in exchange for mandatory shit sandwich lunches every day (”But look! Now everyone gets a lunch! Isn’t that awesome?”).

Add comment March 18th, 2010 at 07:25am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Yet another reason why it sucks to be Jesus.

We’re going to need a lot more Jesus.

Add comment March 14th, 2010 at 06:18pm Posted by Eli

Desmond Tutu Is Awesome.

Tutu says what desperately needed to be said, and not just to Africa.  I usually try not to quote an entire column, but, well…

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity — or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

It is time to stand up against another wrong.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God’s family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

Uganda’s parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.

These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.

Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.

And they are living in hiding — away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said “Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones.” Gay people, too, are made in my God’s image. I would never worship a homophobic God.

“But they are sinners,” I can hear the preachers and politicians say. “They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished.” My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?

The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.

More Tutus, fewer Hagees.  And Warrens.  And Dobsons.  And…

9 comments March 13th, 2010 at 12:36pm Posted by Eli

News Flash For The Vatican

Condom machines don’t encourage teenagers to have sex.

Being teenagers encourages teenagers to have sex.

Add comment March 12th, 2010 at 07:10am Posted by Eli

Were You Aware Of It?

Apparently all Protestants are rich white guys.

Who knew?

Add comment March 11th, 2010 at 09:54pm Posted by Eli

Juxtaposition Of The Day

Today’s NYT Op-Ed page:

It is not unusual for members of Congress to arrange group rentals in Washington to share housing costs…. What is highly unusual, and unjustifiable, is the tax-exempt status as a religious institution enjoyed by a boarding house called the C Street Center that caters to conservative Christian lawmakers.

The $1.8 million townhouse came to public notice last year when three recent tenants — Senator John Ensign; Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor and former congressman; and former Representative Charles Pickering Jr. — were embroiled in marital infidelity scandals. Mr. Pickering was accused by his estranged wife of entertaining a mistress at the house.

The center soon lost most of its city tax exemption, after District of Columbia officials decided it was a residence, not a church. And now a coalition of mainline Christian ministers is demanding that the Internal Revenue Service end the center’s federal tax exemption and its shield of nontransparency. The coalition is rightly concerned that the center is exploiting, and thereby cheapening, the constitutional protections guaranteed legitimate religious institutions.

The Week profile of Joseph Stack:

Why was Stack so furious at the IRS?
He was apparently busted in the 1980s for claiming his home was a church to avoid taxation — a protest scheme he says cost him “$40,000+” and “10 years of my life.”

Not that I’m trying to compare conservative Republicans to a crazy man who hated taxes so much that he flew his plane into an IRS building, of course.  That would be uncivil.

Add comment March 1st, 2010 at 06:57pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Diety Blogging

Lunch with John The Baptist: Apparently not a whole lot of fun.

Add comment February 28th, 2010 at 04:33pm Posted by Eli

Miss Beverly Hills Achieves The Impossible

…She makes Carrie Prejean look good:

Ashley told Fox News that not only is she against same-sex marriage, but that she thinks it is divine law that gays should be put to death because “the Bible is pretty black and white“:

Carrie Prejean isn’t the only beauty queen open to expressing her objection to same-sex marriage. Miss Beverly Hills 2010 Lauren Ashley is also speaking out in support of traditional nuptials.

“The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman. In Leviticus it says, ‘If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.’ The Bible is pretty black and white,” Ashley told Pop Tarts.

“I feel like God himself created mankind and he loves everyone, and he has the best for everyone. If he says that having sex with someone of your same gender is going to bring death upon you, that’s a pretty stern warning, and he knows more than we do about life.”

Despite her strong words about homosexuality, Ashley also told Fox that she “has a lot of friends that are gay,” and that there’s “no hate between [her] and anyone.”

Why is it that I never hear any gays or minorities saying that some of their best friends are bigots?  I mean, there are more than enough bigots claiming to be friends with them…

2 comments February 25th, 2010 at 07:18am Posted by Eli

Texas School Board: Mission Accomplished!

Looks like all that hard work on shaping textbook content is really paying off:

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

(…)

• 38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”

• Asked about the origin and development of life on earth without injecting humans into the discussion, and 53 percent said it evolved over time, “with a guiding hand from God.” They were joined by 15 percent who agreed on the evolution part, but “with no guidance from God.” About a fifth — 22 percent — said life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time.

• Most of the Texans in the survey — 51 percent — disagree with the statement, “human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.” Thirty-five percent agreed with that statement, and 15 percent said they don’t know.

• Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don’t know.

That’ll do, Texas School Board.  That’ll do.

(h/t WT)

2 comments February 17th, 2010 at 09:29pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity is Confronted By Paradox.

Add comment February 14th, 2010 at 05:27pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Apparently the human brain isn’t upgradable.  Shame about the flash memory being so expensive; if Mr. D could have just waited a few more years…

Add comment January 17th, 2010 at 12:45pm Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Month

Pat Robertson is an inhuman monster:

Today on his 700 Club television show, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson highlighted the tragedy and said that his network will be there “to help the people.” However, he then tried to offer an explanation for the earthquake, blaming Haiti’s own people for once making a “pact to the devil”:

ROBERTSON: [S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.

(…)

This is the same person who said that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had a stroke in 2006 because he was “dividing God’s land” and claimed that God sent Hurricane Katrina as punishment for the country’s sins, such as legalized abortion.

…And, of course, the same person who couldn’t agree with Jerry Falwell fast enough when he blamed 9/11 on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays… and the ACLU”.  So apparently his first response to a great tragedy is not compassion for the victims, but rather to try to figure out who God must be punishing.

Can someone point me to the chapter of the Bible where Jesus reacts to some human tragedy by saying, “Nyah nyah, they brought it on themselves”?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Anyone?

I also like the little “True story” he threw in there about how the Haitians “got together and swore a pact to the devil.”  So either he was there, or he has really old videotape of it, or Satan bragged to him about it personally.  Or perhaps he just doesn’t distinguish between voodoo rituals and Satanic pacts.

In any case… yeah.  What a horrible, horrible un-Christian little man.

If you would rather throw the Haitians some help instead of blame, you can give via Save the Children, Unicef, TransAfrica, the AFL-CIO, Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti, and of course, the Red Cross.  And in what I believe is a brand new technological innovation, the latter two actually allow you to make small quick donations via text message: If you text “Yele” to 501501 or “HAITI” to 90999, $5 or $10 (respectively) will be charged to your phone bill to contribute to the relief effort.

Add comment January 13th, 2010 at 09:40pm Posted by Eli

Uganda Reveals Christian Right’s True Colors

You may think Prop 8 was a huge triumph for the fundie homophobic right, but it appears that they view it as a consolation prize compared to how they really want to deal with “the gay agenda”:

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

(…)

One month after the conference, a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result, has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.

Donor countries, including the United States, are demanding that Uganda’s government drop the proposed law, saying it violates human rights, though Uganda’s minister of ethics and integrity (who previously tried to ban miniskirts) recently said, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights.”

The Ugandan government, facing the prospect of losing millions in foreign aid, is now indicating that it will back down, slightly, and change the death penalty provision to life in prison for some homosexuals. But the battle is far from over.

Instead, Uganda seems to have become a far-flung front line in the American culture wars, with American groups on both sides, the Christian right and gay activists, pouring in support and money as they get involved in the broader debate over homosexuality in Africa.

I can certainly understand gay activists doing everything they can to help fight against this, but it’s absolutely despicable that so-called Christians are sending money to support this kind of heartless evil.  Oh, but wait – it’s all just a big misunderstanding, they had no idea that the Ugandans would actually take them seriously, they totally love gay people:

The three Americans who spoke at the conference — Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several books against homosexuality, including “7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads “healing seminars”; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality” — are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.

“I feel duped,” Mr. Schmierer said, arguing that he had been invited to speak on “parenting skills” for families with gay children. He acknowledged telling audiences how homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals, but he said he had no idea some Ugandans were contemplating the death penalty for homosexuality.

“That’s horrible, absolutely horrible,” he said. “Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people.”

You see?  They may believe that gays are immoral pedophiles who want to convert children to their satanic lifestyle… but some of them are really very nice!  Well, I’m sure that makes all the difference in the world, and I look forward to some of these anti-gay fundamentalists going back over to Uganda to explain that executing or imprisoning people just for being gay just goes way too far… unless, of course, they think it’s a-okay.

Add comment January 5th, 2010 at 11:39am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging – Holiday Edition

Mr. Deity presents conclusive evidence that magic is real.

Add comment December 27th, 2009 at 11:15am Posted by Eli