Christian love strikes again in California

21 12 2008

Is there any appellation more Orwellian—nay, oxymoronic—than “loving Christian?” A coalition of loving Christians, clearly of the view that Proposition 8 did not constitute a decisive enough victory over a despised outgroup, now wants the marriages that were performed during the California marriage statute’s brief dalliance with (the manifestly unChristian virtues of) humanity and acceptance to be annulled:

Referendum proponents known as the “Protect Marriage” coalition on Friday took their campaign one step further, petitioning the Supreme Court to annul the gay marriages officiated so far in California.

“Proposition 8’s brevity is matched by its clarity,” the group said in its legal brief. “There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions, or exclusions: ‘Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.'”

Show me the individual who describes himself as a “loving Christian,” and who in the same breath advocates such naked mean-spiritedness as evinced by the self-styled marriage defenders in California, and I’ll show you a liar, a fraud, a phony, a bullshit-artist, a spinmeister, a prevaricator, a con-artist, a deluder, a dissimulator, a false witness. He is “loving” in the same regard as a “loving father” who lovingly beats his kids, or a “loving husband” who lovingly beats his wife.





Things they’d have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City XV

25 05 2008

The week in fundie . . .

Image via Haiku Circus

  1. Presidential candidate John McCain has dumped Christian Zionist Pastor John Hagee from his campaign, after it came to the light that the latter had claimed in a sermon that God sent Hitler to persuade the Jews to move to Israel. (via Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion)
  2. My old buddy Malott has made it onto Fundies Say The Darndest Things with a post claiming that God gave Senator Ted Kennedy cancer because of his support for abortion, TEH GAY AGENDA and the separation of church and state. Good work!
  3. Of course, there’s much worse in store for humanity if TEH EEEEEEEEEEVIL GAY AGENDA is carried through to its fruition. If that erstwhile paper of record WorldNetDaily is to be believed (and is there any reason why it shouldn’t?), God sent the Flood because people in Noah’s time practiced same-sex marriage. And considering that “4,000 out of 5,000 prophecies have already occurred exactly as the Bible predicted they would, you might want to pay attention to the rest.” For God so loves the world that he’s prepared to drown the lot of us, men, women and children, if we dare give those filthy sodomites equality before the law. It’s a good thing the Australian Government is heeding the warning, huh? (Via Fundies Say The Darndest Things)
  4. Regarding the whole gay marriage –> end of the world thing, we’re also fortunate enough to have the President of Gambia on the case. He’s promising to cut off the head of any homosexual found in his country. (Via Fundies Say the Darndest Things)
  5. The Jamaican Prime Minister is a bleeding-heart liberal by comparison. He simply doesn’t want gay people to play a role in any Cabinet in his country. (Jamaica Observer)
  6. Two stories on the Abrahamic internecine warfare front. The first concerns Orthodox Jewish youths in Israel burning hundreds of New Testaments that had been distributed by missionaries. (AP)
  7. The second concerns retired Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who in the nineties took a leading role in encouraging the Catholic Church to face up to its responsibilities regarding sexual abuse. He’s currently on a speaking tour in the United States in support of his recent book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, and has been denied permission by the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony, from speaking on church property in his territory. Cardinal Mahony has previously been caught telling lies about his awareness of sexual abuse within the Church. (Via The Religion Report)




International Day Against Homophobia

17 05 2008

  1. The loving Christian news website OneNewsNow claims, on the authority of Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, that the Nazis were ruled by a clique of “masculine homosexuals,” ergo gay = Nazi, Nazi = gay, gay gay Nazi, Nazi Nazi gay, gay gay paedophile Nazi, Nazi Nazi paedophile paedophile gay gay.
  2. In California, loving Christian conservative groups the National Organization for Marriage and the Alliance Defense Fund are gearing up to fight the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling legalising same-sex marriage. (AP)
  3. In Moldova, a gay pride parade was thwarted by an alliance of (and I’m sorry to harp on this) loving Christians and neo-fascists, who surrounded and stormed a bus of Pride marchers and shouted “Beat them to death!” and “Don’t let them escape!” while the police stood by and did fuck-all about it. The marchers were trapped inside the bus for hours. (Pink News, Tiraspol Times)
  4. A Canadian study suggests that gay men in Vancouver are “twice as likely as straight men to be victims of violent crime.” (AOL News)
  5. John Heard, self-styled spokesperson for the nation’s gay and lesbian community, asserts that gays want to be discriminated against in marriage law. (Melbourne Herald Sun.) Via An Onymous Lefty
  6. Meanwhile, Jim Wallace of the Australian (loving) Christian Lobby is celebrating the ACT Government’s decision, in the face of Rudd Government bullying, to water down its civil partnerships legislation. (ABC News Online)

By the bye, homosexuality remains a crime throughout the Islamic world, and is punishable by death in Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. It also incurs the death penalty in Bangladesh.

How homophobic are you?





This cloud may have a silver lining (updated twice)

29 04 2008

This is far from being an ideal outcome, but at least it’s a start:

The Federal Government says it will begin introducing legislation next month to remove same-sex discrimination from 100 Commonwealth laws.

The Government says the amendments to end discrimination against same-sex couples will make practical differences, but will not sanction changes to marriage laws.

The move will cover areas like superannuation, tax, health, employment entitlements and aged care.

But Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland says it will not extend to marriage.

“The government believes that marriage is between a man and a woman so it won’t amend the marriage act,” he said.

The government’s position is manifestly unjust, and simply nonsensical in the absence of some appeal to religious dogma (which, this being a secular liberal democracy with a secular liberal democratic constitution, it has no business appealing to). Its moves to end discrimination in other areas of Federal law only serves to highlight how unjust and nonsensical its policy of maintaining discrimination against same-sex couples in marriage laws really is.

Which means, I think, that the days of such discrimination are numbered. Read the rest of this entry »





Same sex civil unions: A dialogue between Nicola Roxon and Robert McLelland

7 02 2008

Then . . .

[Nicola Roxon:] The Howard Government’s announcement that they will overturn the ACT Civil Unions Act is a slap in the face to the voters of the ACT and same sex couples. [. . .] Other than pure arrogance, there is no reason for federal intervention in this case.

Now . . .

[Robert McLelland:] We think a civil unions register along the lines of Tasmania is appropriate[. . . .] The ceremonial aspects of the ACT model were inappropriate.

Federal Labor wants to remove a section of the ACT Government’s Civil Partnership Bill that allows gay couples to celebrate their union in public (the horror!). Why this is so, apart from pure arrogance and sheer bigotry, is an absolute mystery.

(Could it be the ugly side of Faith in Politics?)