GEORGE REKERS AND SOME ROOTS OF HOMOPHOBIA

UPDATE 5/7/10: A video by Rachel Maddow:

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One of the cofounders of the antigay Family Research Council, George Rekers may well, himself, be a gay man:

Antigay activist George Rekers is indeed gay, according to the male escort he hired for a 10-day trip across Europe.

The escort spoke to the Miami New Times at length Wednesday night, detailing his sexual exploits with Rekers, who had previously claimed the young man accompanied him to Europe to help haul his luggage.

[For the full article, see here.]

When it comes to the hypocrisy of strident homophobes, there is nothing new under the sun! However, I want to briefly comment on some of the roots of such hypocrisy, and link them to the homophobic rhetoric of most of the institutional Church.

We never really know what's going on in anyone else's mind or in their love lives! What the dynamics of Rekers' relationship are with his wife and/or what drives compelled him to hire a male prostitute (a career about which I have no objection), can't be inferred from what little we know about this story.

What we do know is that there must be such a high degree of self-loathing in a person like Rekers to the extent that he feels the need to suppress insistent or compulsive sexual drives and engage in the defense mechanism of Reaction Formation in order to deny to others, and perhaps even to himself, that he is a gay man.

Moreover, he might well not be a gay man, but engage in gay sex!

Being Gay does not merely encompass one's sexual activity, but also has within its rubric an emotional and romantic interest and/or attachment to certain people of the same sex. Hence, Rekers might well like occasionally having sex with men but truly, and perhaps correctly, believe that he is not a gay man.

So, if this scenario is correct, he might well love his wife but also love the excitement that having "forbidden" or "risky" sex with a man entails. Hence, his saying he is not Gay (much as did Ted Haggard some years ago) may well be the truth, if we understand being Gay as encompassing both the emotional as well as sexual interests and/or attachments one has to certain people of their own sex.

As I wrote several years ago in a post entitled, Rev. Ted Haggard: A Case Study of Repression, Suppression, and Cognitive Dissonance, about strident homophobe Rev. Ted Haggard's possible repression, suppression, and cognitive dissonance regarding his assertion that he is Straight, despite his being outed as frequenting a male prostitute:

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life," Haggard said. This was part of a statement he gave to his church and to the media.

I believe when he talks of "guilt," he's probably not referring to his unfaithfulness to his wife as much as to the fact that he believes gay sex is wrong. When he speaks of "sexual immorality," he, again, deeply believes it to be wrong, as, apparently does the governing board of the church he just stepped down from pastoring. When he talks about "the entire problem," again, I don't believe that he's referring as much to his duplicity to his wife and in his seeking to explain his actions to the media, as he is referring to the fact that he is either gay or bisexual and he feels that to be such is a sin. When he says, "I am a deceiver and a liar," he, undoubtedly, is referring to his deceiving his wife and family and the media by not acknowledging his sexual relationship(s).

Now, here's the main part that should be clearly understood in order to help understand the mind-set of virtually all people like Haggard, that has made him a repressed, self-loathing closet case and hypocrite: "There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my entire adult life." He sees same-sex affection, same-sex relationships, and, particularly, same-sex behavior as "repulsive and dark." By such a mind-set, that has been reinforced for decades by those with whom he has chosen to associate, listen to, and from whom he undoubtedly received this mind-set in the first place, he has lived with profound guilt about his sexual preference. Therefore, he has been "warring against it" for all of his adult life!

That "warring" has manifested itself in not only torturing him (and, perhaps, his wife and family) mentally, emotionally and, perhaps, even physically, but has manifested itself in the hypocrisy endemic to "Reaction Formation," whereby he assiduously condemned what he, himself, is, and what he has done. As I've so often written, whenever we hear anyone, clergy or not, vehemently and even venomously condemn the behavior of others, the first thing we should think about is that, perhaps, that condemnation is the result of his or her seeking to deflect "suspicion" about his/her own behaviors by seeking to lie to others, and perhaps lie to oneself, that one couldn't possibly be what he or she is so vigorously against.

That's why the Gospel is, in fact, Good News! The Gospel of grace has freed all of God's children from the legalistic requirements that mere human beings seek to place on us. However, by aligning oneself with those who preach and teach the false gospel of legalism and perfectionism, a preaching and teaching that can, in many cases, garner them great material and political benefits at the expense of that minority group that they feel is a relatively "safe" target to persecute, one condemns oneself to a life of self-loathing, guilt, and hypocrisy.

Haggard feels shame and self-loathing because of his sexual proclivities! If he really understood the Gospel message, he wouldn't feel those emotions of which he speaks. Those emotions largely, if not wholly, exist because he actively associated himself, and took an active part, with those who seek to hurt and oppress our LGBT sisters and brothers! Hopefully, one day God will open his eyes to feel those emotions because of his betrayal and damage he has helped cause LGBT people, and see that God made him to be "whole" in Jesus, sexual proclivities and orientation and all. Until that time, he will still have an incomplete, if not downright false, understanding of the Gospel of grace, and will not have learned anything from what God is undoubtedly trying to teach him. Unfortunately, most of the organized Church shares his mind-set, and, therein, lies most of the impetus behind the shame, self-loathing, suicides, bashings, and murders of LGBT people, who are both within and outside of the Church!

Moreover, I believe that God is now teaching all of those who profess to be Christians that it's high time they fish or cut bait! Either embrace Jesus, or continue to embrace "Caesar!" That is a choice all of God's children have to make, and the issue of Ted Haggard will, hopefully, enable many professing Christians to re-examine their prejudices and the choice that they have made and the choice now open to them: either choose the path of love or choose to nurture their own prejudices; continue to hang on to those prejudices, or follow the path of the God of inclusiveness, the Prince of Peace!

If, like Haggard, Rekers truly doesn't see himself as "gay," he is not merely telling the truth but, if this is not his first time with a man, is undoubtedly living such a life of desperation that that desperation impelled him to cofound a homophobic group!

Please know that I am not giving the Rekers and Haggards of the world a pass on this hypocrisy and cause of suffering of untold numbers of LGBT people!

What I am saying is that sexuality is so complex and so insistent, that our quickly putting people into neat dichotomous boxes doesn't do justice to empirical reality; doesn't do justice to our complexity as human beings.

One can have a romantic attachment to a person but not want sex with that person; one can want sex with a person but not have a romantic attachment to that person. These two scenarios do not necessarily denote one's sexuality that can be neatly placed in the boxes human beings have constructed; these constructions largely caused, aided, and abetted by the black and white, one-dimensional, ignorant homophobic rhetoric emanating from most of the institutional Church.

Therefore, there are hedonists who are Gay and hedonists who are Straight, and it is often the hedonism in both groups that trump the dichotomous sexual boxes one is placed in or places him/herself in.

When the institutional Church is given credibility in matters dealing with people's personal lives, and is given the right to be seen as arbiters of morality despite often ignorant pronouncements and even their own sexual scandals, the guilt that is felt by a Rekkers or a Haggard can't be underestimated.

As I wrote in an article entitled, Toxic Religion and Self-Loathing:

Toxic religion has most notably spawned generations of guilt-ridden people who are made to feel that God doesn't love them because they are Gay! Although nothing could be further from the truth, the big lie perpetrated by the perverters of the false gospel of legalism and perfectionism has so infused our culture that the psyches of virtually everyone, Gay and Straight, have been affected to the degree that even seemingly reasonable people have come to accept many clergy's preconceived prejudices having to do with a distorted view of love and sexuality, and their perverted theology of genital placement that seems to be the hub of the wheel that defines their own form of what they mistakenly call "Christianity."

Indeed, those homophobic messages, as well as the rhetoric regarding the "proper" comportment of men and women and their "appropriate" relationships, are so taken as being "the truth" that a person caught in the discrepancy between his self-defined sexuality and that sexuality as presented to the world on the one hand, and the publicly perceived and defined sexuality of that person on the other hand when he/she is found to be sexually acting in a way that is inconsistent with that person's Definition of the Situation of his/her sexuality, tremendous fear and even suicide can be the result.

Yes, toxic religion, homophobic rhetoric and actions emanating from most of the institutional Church, one-dimensional thinking regarding the complexity of human beings, and tempestuous unconscious and/or conscious forces driving cowardly people to help found organizations that are designed to deprive others of civil rights are just some of the results of ignorant people refusing to understand the complexity of human beings.

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LEGALLY PUNISHING ANTI-CHRISTIAN RHETORIC THAT IS FALSELY DEFINED AS BEING "CHRISTIAN"

Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.

The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Wokington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God....

The Public Order Act, which outlaws the unreasonable use of abusive language likely to cause distress, has been used to arrest religious people in a number of similar cases.

Harry Hammond, a pensioner, was convicted under Section 5 of the Act in 2002 for holding up a sign saying “Stop immorality. Stop Homosexuality. Stop Lesbianism. Jesus is Lord” while preaching in Bournemouth.

[For the full article, see here.]

Clearly, I am not against preaching the Gospel! However, what is being preached by all too many professing "Christian evangelists" and clergy is not the Gospel of Christ and, therefore, must not come, nor does it come, under the rubric of anything that has to do with Christianity!

One can't preach hate; deny the dignity of a given group of people; bear false witness against others; seek to deny civil rights to others; wittingly or unwittingly foment hate in others; encourage discrimination against others; even wittingly or unwittingly encourage aggressive acts against others and, when prevented from expressing his/her unChristian prejudices, claim religious discrimination.

It is downright irrational to claim lack of freedom of Christian expression when that very expression is unChristian!

So, what is "Christian expression" and what is "the Gospel" that is the very essence of Christianity, and with which Christianity is not only to be identified but which comprises all of Christianity and the Christian life?

The only Gospel to be found in Christianity is the Gospel of Grace (God's unmerited favor to all those who trust God over and above seen circumstances); Faith (trusting God over and above seen circumstances and it is through such faith that we appropriate God's grace); Love (putting others' interests and feelings ahead of our own regardless of how we feel); Peace; Reconciliation; Inclusiveness.

Christianity has nothing to do with exclusion, hateful rhetoric, advocacy of discrimination, discriminatory acts, bearing false witness against others, seeking to harm others in any way! Such behaviors betray not only unChristian sentiments and prejudices, but spit in the very face of God and Christ's Church (which is not to be confused with the institutionalized Church).

Christ's Church is made up of the "ecclesia," "the called out ones," called out by God from the foundation of the world (e.g., Ephesians 1:4) to be God's own possession and to be Jesus' disciples. God calls out God's own, and merely belonging to one of the denominations or churches within the institutional Church does not necessarily denote belonging to Christ's Church and being a called out disciple of Christ!

Therefore, I have no qualms at all when a person who preaches hate and discrimination in the name of God or of Christianity is arrested in Britain. I just wish "thug Christianity" that exists in the U.S. and elsewhere were also subject to that kind of legal redress!

There would be no such need to punish anti-Christian rhetoric that is done in the name of "Christianity" if the true disciples of Christ expressed outrage at this preaching of a false gospel that causes so much suffering to so many people; these disciples publicly confronted as heretical that hateful and discriminatory rhetoric that ignorantly and/or cynically passes itself off as being "Godly," "Christian," and "biblical."

But the resounding silence of most of those who call themselves "Christians" is palpably unChristian, unjust, and unGodly, and helps the purveyors of the false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, discrimination, and exclusion define "Christianity" for others, and continue to cause the untold suffering of LGBT people.

Therefore, if some of the disciples of Christ, and the clerical leaders of most denominations within the institutional Church, and all those thugs who vainly profess to be Christians, do not speak out against this perversion of Christianity, let the secular judiciary help lead the way in mitigating the suffering of LGBT people as they also did, under the same religious conditions of demagoguery and silence, regarding women's and African Americans' dignity and civil rights.

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LT. DAN CHOI SPEAKS AT HARVARD

Please watch this inspiring four part video of Lt. Dan Choi's speech at Harvard University.

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WE NEED ONE UMBRELLA LGBT CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION

Mike Signorile held a Town Hall Meeting with some LGBT rights organizational leaders that can be heard by clicking the link.

The panel at that meeting were National Gay & Lesbian Task Force executive director Rea Carey; Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese; National Center for Transgender Equality executive director Mara Keisling; Servicemembers Legal Defense Network executive director Aubrey Sarvis; political strategist, attorney and former Clinton White House advisor on gay rights Richard Socarides; and blogger and activist Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend.

Of course, you can and should form your own opinion, but it seems to me that there would be far more effectiveness if there were an umbrella LGBT Civil Rights organization that was comprised of the assorted organizations represented on that panel.

A lot of money would be saved: money that could go toward political lobbying, coordination of grassroots activism, and litigation in the courts that involve discrimination against LGBT people as well as the denial of full and equal rights for LGBT people.

Moreover, one LGBT Civil Rights voice, speaking for equal rights for all LGBT people, would be far more effective in society and in the political arena than these disparate voices, many of which either duplicate, or are ignorant of, the work of one or more other LGBT rights organizations.

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STOP DOING RESEARCH ON THE CAUSES OF HOMOSEXUALITY

California lawmakers have voted to modify a decades-old law that classifies gays as sexual deviants and calls for research on the causes of homosexuality...The bill, approved 62-0 Monday by the state Assembly, changes that law by removing all references to homosexuals in the provision that calls for research.

[For the full article, see here.]

I'm delighted that the whole idea of doing "research" regarding why some people are Gay is likely to be abolished in California.

Also, the very idea of doing such research by anyone in any state is homophobic on its face!

In this connection, a couple of years ago, I wrote an article entitled, The Homophobia Behind Studies of the Causes of Homosexuality, that deals with this very subject, and I'd like to reprint a slightly edited version of it here:

"Gay men and lesbians are more likely to be left-handed than heterosexuals. The preference for left-handedness isn’t huge. But it's distinct, and it might have a basis in human biology.

"So says Richard Lippa, a veteran Cal State Fullerton psychologist who has been poring over the sex, gender and behavioral data contained in a BBC Internet survey that involved more than 200,000 people. The 'Beeb' used the data as part of its highly praised 2005 documentary 'Secrets of the Sexes.' And it comes amid growing efforts by scientists to examine everything from the length of a person’s fingers to hair patterns for signs of sexual orientation."

[Reference: CSUF study says gays more likely than straights to be left-handed," article by Gary Robbins, "OC Register," April 6, 2007.]

In response to the above cited article, I wrote the following when it appeared:

Although I haven’t read the original study and checked the methodology, two factors must be addressed:

1. There is a big difference between correlation and causation. Just because two variables are correlated doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other.

2. The author of the study writes, "You have to look at large numbers of people to see statistically significant associations." That’s the real problem, in that, first of all, there is no indication that this is a random sample. Moreover, "statistical significance" is not necessarily the same as "theoretical significance" or "substantive significance." Also, statistical significance increases in proportion to sample size. The larger the sample size, the greater the "statistical significance," if I remember my methodology courses that I took about 45 years ago.

Moreover, as a sociologist and LGBT rights activist...beyond its academic interest, correlates or causes of being gay or lesbian are irrelevant to vitiating discrimination against LGBT people, as the recent remarks from Albert Mohler, President of a Southern Baptist seminary, attest, when he said that if being Gay was biologically caused, medical intervention on the fetus would be advisable and justified to change that fetus to heterosexual, as homosexuality is a symptom of "original sin."

More mileage would be gained by studying the causes of homophobia, and what motivates people who obsess over condemning others’ love and sex lives, than studying the purported causes of sexual orientation.

I continue to reiterate my objections to such studies, the most recent one appearing in the "Los Angeles Times" Health section entitled, "What does gay look like? Science keeps trying to figure that out."

The article by Regina Nuzzo briefly reviews some of the studies as to why some people are Gay, and she suggests, "Finding common biological traits -- things like hair growth patterns, penis size, family makeup -- might one day shed light on the origins of sexual orientation."

We must again ask why it's so important, beyond the intellectual issues involved, to seek to establish why some people are Gay? Why not study why some people are Straight? Why not study why some people like meat and others don't like meat? Why not study why some people love vegetables and others don't? Why not study why someone's favorite color is different from another person's favorite color? Well, you get the point!

The fact that sexual orientation is felt to be deserving of the appropriation of funds and expenditure of time and energy by scientists, as opposed to such questions as the above that any scientist would hardly deem likely to investigate, has far more to do with people's hang-ups regarding sex and sexual orientation than it has to do with the intrinsic importance of that subject.

I can certainly see the validity of studies as to why some people love war and others love peace; why some people are sadistic and others are not; why some people take advantage of others and others don't; why some people prey on others and others don't; why some people are homophobic and others are not, but I can't understand why studies of the causes of sexual orientation are viewed as being so important.

The only reason that I can see for its perceived importance, beyond the false belief that if one's sexual orientation can be shown to be beyond one's control there will be fewer reasons for discriminating against Gay people, it seems to me that many people (and scientists are by no means exempted) like to put people into neat boxes, and have people meet their expectations and their requirements within the parameters that they feel should comprise those boxes.

And if a group of people call into question those assumptions, expectations, and perceived requirements by their very existence, there is seen to be a pressing need to study "them" and find out why "they" are different from "normal" people; why "they" don't conform to "what I expect" and define as "normal."

A good deal of this interest in why some people are Gay has to do with the fact that being Gay has been considered to be part of one's core identity, both by homophobes, by many Straight people, and by many Gay people themselves. I fail to see why such need be the case!

Each of us is multidimensional, and our sexuality and emotional/romantic interests make up only a fraction of who we are as people. However, when one is historically and constantly discriminated against because of this one facet of a human being, that human being is virtually forced to see his or her sexual orientation as a core part of him/herself, if for no other reason than because that facet has been imposed on him/her as his/her essential essence as a human being. And, in order to seek to defend oneself from these attacks or potential attacks, a concept of self that affirms oneself amidst lack of affirmation by many, if not most, within the larger society, encourages the person to view that aspect that is the cause of one's ill treatment to be defended, if not asserted.

And the desire to both defend one's sexuality and to assert the normality of that sexuality is seemingly bolstered by the desired findings of studies that will "hopefully" show that being LGBT is beyond one's control, and is a normal variant that does not deserve to be in any way condemned; such findings will eliminate or greatly reduce externalized and internalized homophobia.

Clearly, heterosexuals who are sexually and emotionally intact will not condemn LGBT people, as same-sex love wouldn't repel them in any way. Why should it? If one is intact and content in his/her sexual life, what would be the motivation to condemn, or even make a veritable career out of condemning, the sexual/affectional life of another?

The fact that it is the sexually and/or emotionally dysfunctional people who condemn another's sexuality is highlighted by the patently specious and foolish reasons given by these self-styled arbiters of "morality" for their blatant hostility and discrimination against LGBT people.

So, appeal to the Bible, when the Bible does not condemn same-sex love and, actually, affirms it. Or the appeal to "tradition," where such an appeal could also be used to justify the institutions of slavery and segregation (which, of course, did, in fact, occur). Or the appeal that Gay people will prey on children, when the statistics clearly show that it is heterosexuals who are far more likely to be pedophiles than are Gay people. (In fact, pedophilia may well be seen to be a sexual orientation in and of itself that is distinct from either heterosexuality or homosexuality.) Or the appeal that same-sex parents will likely have more homosexual children when, in fact, virtually all Gay kids are raised by heterosexuals. Or the appeal that children do better when raised with both a mother and a father in the home when, in fact, what studies we have show that kids raised in loving homes with two mothers or two fathers do just as well as kids raised when both a mother and a father are present. And, of course, the list goes on!

And encouraging studies that seek to find out why some people are Gay is implying that there is something "abnormal" or "against the natural order" about being Gay, and we should find out why Gay people exist so that we can better understand this "strange" phenomenon. The fact is that many people fail to realize that God made God's Gay children, just as God made God's Straight children, with the capacity to love another person, and that capacity and the love that ensues from it are priceless gifts from God that God has graciously given to us.

What deserves study, on the other hand, is what makes it possible for so many people to be incapable of loving another human being? What makes it possible for a human being to despise and condemn the love life of another person? What is the source of such hate that resides in all too many hearts, be that hate justified in the name of "religion" or not, that makes one incapable of loving and not judging and not discriminating against others because of their capacity to love another person of the same sex?

It is these questions that deserve much study, for it is those who hate, especially those who hate in the name of God, who are the ones who really deserve to be studied. They are the aberration, they are the dangerous forces that wreak havoc on society and in the lives of innumerable LGBT people and their families. They are the ones who are directly responsible for parents kicking their Gay kids out of the house and into the streets and disowning them because their children placed their trust in them and that trust was horribly and sinfully betrayed. They are the ones who pervert the Gospel, if they profess to be "Christians," and who provide "justification" for those on the fringe to even kill LGBT people and do so thinking that they are doing God a favor by so doing.

It is the religious and other homophobes who deserve study! Far more mileage will be gotten by studying the causes and dynamics of homophobia and homophobic people, especially homophobes who "justify" their homophobia in the name of the Prince of Peace Who makes it crystal clear that to truly be His disciples we must love and not judge others, than will be gotten by studying the causes and dynamics of same-sex love and attraction!

It is especially the clear disconnect, the clear inconsistency, between homophobic professing Christians who spew hateful rhetoric and engage in discriminatory actions on the one hand, and Jesus' Commandment to those who would be His disciples to love and not judge others on the other hand, that certainly deserves scientific scrutiny for the well-being of society, for the well-being of LGBT people and their families, for the well-being of those who are Christians indeed, and for the well-being of the image of Christianity when seen by many decent, intelligent, and sensitive people!

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A NEW BLOG: IGNORANCE IS PLENTIFUL: HOME OF THE DUMB DORA AWARDS

UPDATE: An important email from Don Charles, that I received this morning, that should also be taken very seriously:

I've come to the painful conclusion that this movement is in a shambles, and it's getting worse every day! The majority of LGBT folk have priorities other than social justice. They haven't got their minds on liberation. Their minds are on escapism and marginalization. They think Gay stigma is fun! They couldn't care less if DADT or DOMA is repealed, or if GENDA gets passed. They are unconcerned about how safe public schools are for LGBT youth. All they care about is the next Pride Parade, the next Folsom Street Fair, the next big drag extravaganza, the new "Queer Art" exhibit, the latest "Queer lit" or "Queer film" review. Everywhere you look, there are "Queer Studies" programs on campus, depicting Gay American history as marginal, and "Queers And Allies" campus groups, alienating students who are making their first tentative forays outside the closet. On TV, scuzzballs like Dan Savage get tapped as spokesmen for Gay Rights, and Congressional Gay sex scandals are sure to unleash a flurry of crass Gay jokes from pundits like Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher. Religious fundamentalists get free reign to demonize Gay identity while Gay "leaders" concentrate all their attention on lobbying Congress. Then there's the sickening trend of make-believe activism, folks using the movement as excuse to stage cheap publicity stunts: Lesbians marrying Gay men "in protest", demonstrations in the nude, the "Day Without A Gay", the raunchy Prop 8 YouTube musical, and the Million Fag March. Cynicism has set in big time. Few people take Gay Rights seriously, least of all Gay people themselves! This problem was brought into crystal-clear focus for me last week when I heard about this new organization called TakeBackPride.org. When an activist veteran like David Mixner, who's had access to the most powerful people in government, believes that the public will take seriously Gay Rights protesters in leather fetish gear, glitter thongs and sequined ball gowns, you know for sure that cognitive dissonance is running amok! And Lt. Dan Choi has bought into this wacky idea, too! What have these men been smoking? The brutal truth is, Gay Rights remains a firm priority for just a handful of Gay people, along with a growing number of Straight allies like yourself. How can Straight allies avoid growing disillusioned, though, when their level of outrage over sex and gender discrimination seems to dwarf ours? And when our strategies for winning equality are so misguided and confused? You and I both put a lot of time and energy into raising consciousness, but more and more these days, I ask myself: Is it all too little, too late?


I like to rip the bedclothes off retrograde thinking and expose idiocy in all its shameful nakedness! Saying things nobody wants to hear or think about will make you unpopular, no doubt about that! However, the alternative is to STFU, go along to get along, and be just another dishonest pundit, pretending that the Emperor parading down the avenue isn't as naked as a jaybird. I find myself temperamentally incapable of being that kind of pundit. My mission is to root saboteurs out of the Gay Rights movement so that its objectives aren't compromised from within.

The above statement prefaces the news blog by Don Charles [Pictured] that is entitled, IGNORANCE IS PLENTIFUL: HOME OF THE DUMB DORA AWARDS that focuses on the much needed area of the betrayal of the LGBT Civil Rights Struggle by self-styled Gay "activists," many of whom get needed recognition and/or financial rewards for that betrayal.

It is to be expected that when the honest person tells the gullible and/or cowardly people that the Emperor has no clothes, that person will be vilified by the very same people he/she is trying to help. However, Don Charles has undertaken that very task in calling out, and publicly confronting, those who might as well be on the payroll of the most strident homophobes.

These self-styled, often professional, "activists" are doing inordinate harm to LGBT people; retarding the acquisition of full and equal civil rights; encouraging self-destructive behavior; sticking a finger in the eye of potential Straight allies; showing themselves to be traitors to this civil rights movement, for their 15 minutes of fame and/or for financial rewards.

The following is a brief excerpt from Don Charles' new blog that I hope will both whet your appetite to carefully read his blog, and also take to heart what he is telling all of us who are genuinely motivated to see to it that the LGBT Civil Rights Struggle is taken seriously by both those against whom we struggle to acquire those rights as well as by those who claim to be "activists" in gaining those rights.

All my rowdy friends are coming over tonight: Gay Uncle Toms, fagsplotiation schlockmeisters, make-believe activists, craven opportunists, clueless radicals, arrogant know-it-alls, and embarrassing Black people like you've never seen before. Get ready for the third edition of the Dumb Dora Awards! For the first time, this glittering ceremony is being held in our fabulous new Piet Mondrian theatre; we're showcasing stupidity in high style! Direct your attention to the stage, where my lovely hostesses are poised to call our 2010 winners up to the Imbecile's Podium. There they will receive their richly-deserved tin jackass statuettes, the highest honor willful ignorance can receive (other than the old reliable oh-no-you-didn't eye roll). Providing the music for this gala evening is Mariachi Lowrider, courtesy of the Pop Culture Cantina. Featured on vocals is the band's musical director, Big Buffy Chingas, accompanied by The Cochinada Brothers. Andale, tocan la música, muchachos! Everybody sing!

Say hello to the worst group yet
Ignorance is plentiful
So let's plumb the depths
And oh, what depths we'll plumb!
Who'd have thought that folks could be so dumb?

Don Charles' new blog is one of a kind, and is very much needed at this time when so much is at stake for LGBT people and the acquisition of full and equal civil rights.

You'll want to read and bookmark IGNORANCE IS PLENTIFUL: HOME OF THE DUMB DORA AWARDS

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CHURCHES MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAVE TAX-EXEMPT STATUS

This article highlights a very important LGBT activist principle.

As I've often contended, there are two venues in which civil and sacramental rights for LGBT people must be fought: the courts, and homophobic churches the influence of which cannot be underestimated. In the latter venue, peaceful and continual picketing during services of selected homophobic churches in each city or jurisdiction, showing how their false gospel of exclusion is antithetical to the Gospel of grace, faith, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness, should be undertaken.

When you hit, or threaten to hit, discriminatory institutions in the pocketbook, we might reasonably expect them to tone down their hateful rhetoric and discriminatory actions; withholding funds, such as removing churches' tax-exempt status, can be a major way of gutting the homophobic rhetoric and actions that exists in many, if not most, denominations and churches, because those churches would then lack sufficient funds to bankroll the prevention of equal civil rights as has hitherto existed. For the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to give just two examples, to enjoy tax exempt status is, in my opinion, a profound injustice!

I am a Christian who is quite theologically conservative, and not only don't I see any warrant to prevent same-sex marriage, or justify any type of homophobia, in the Bible, I am also adamant about the need for the separation of Church and State.

Currently, the Church and the State have become so enmeshed with each other that most "conservative" churches extol as virtues Americanism, patriotism, militarism, and capitalism. Indeed, most of the institutional Church is a handmaiden of the State, and often parrots the ideology of the power elite in secular society, and does so by calling it "biblical."

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth! If anything, the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, subscribes to anything but capitalism, as can be easily seen when reading Acts 2:44-45; Acts 4:32-37.

In any case, it's a profound tragedy that it's quite likely that if you ask the average person to say the first word that comes to his/her mind when the word "Christian" is said, "Love" is not likely to be that word! We're far more likely to hear words such as "sin" and "discrimination," thanks to the perversion of the Gospel of grace (the only Gospel to be found in Christianity) that exists in most of the institutional Church.

It is crucial that discrimination, be it in the religious or secular arena, be taken to the judiciary, and not pathetically taken to the public to win their votes on this or any civil rights matter! And, we must do our best to remove public funding of church and para-church organizations.

After all, if clergy within denominations and churches really have faith in God to provide for their needs, they don't need tax-exemption to help fund their operation!

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IT'S TIME FOR OBAMA TO LIVE UP TO HIS PROMISES TO THE LGBT COMMUNITIES

Said Choi: “We are handcuffing ourselves to the White House gates once again to demand that President Obama show leadership on repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ If the President were serious about keeping his promise to repeal this year, he would put the repeal language in his Defense Authorization budget. The President gave us an order at the Human Rights Campaign dinner to keep pressure on him and we will continue to return to the White House, in larger numbers, until the President keeps his promise to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ this year.” (See here.)

If Obama has any sense of shame, he should be devastated by this action! As of now, he has betrayed his promises to the LGBT communities, save for some crumbs thrown to his constituents in the vain hope of getting their votes in 2012.

Unless Obama heeds the words of Dan Choi, and all the heroes who chained themselves to the White House gate, he will not only lose the next presidential election by a landslide, but will set the stage for a reactionary presidency in 2012 that will likely seek to even rescind some of the meager civil rights that LGBT people now enjoy.

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ON THE NEED FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

I know that there are some in the Gay communities who do not see marriage equality as being very important compared to other civil rights that are needed. However, civil rights are of one piece; there is no such thing as having "some" civil rights and being denied others.

Equality means having every single one of the civil rights that heterosexuals have! Nothing more, and nothing less!

Moreover, I truly believe that once same-sex marriage is institutionalized as a civil right, all other civil rights will exist for Gay people.

The following article hammers home the crying need for same-sex marriage:

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place--wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold's care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.

[For the full article, see here.]

A couple of years ago, I was privileged to officiate a same-sex wedding ceremony, and this is the article I wrote, entitled, On Officiating a Same-Sex Marriage Ceremony, regarding that ceremony and the need for same-sex marriage:

Before the passage of Proposition 8 in California that removed the State Constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, I was asked to officiate at a woman's marriage to her partner of 10 years. Her mother and stepfather were there, as was her Great Aunt. Her partner didn't have any family there, which might have been due to their geographical distance from California.

There were about 15 people in attendance, and the ceremony took place in the backyard by the gazebo of a rest home in which her Great Aunt, about 90 years old, lives. The couple exchanged rings and, as part of their vows, together read their "ketubah," a Jewish document that in this case spelled out their love and commitment to each other, as well as their commitment to peace and love in their home for themselves and for anyone who would visit them.

It was a beautiful ceremony, and lasted about 15 minutes. I was honored that I was asked to do the ceremony.

Both the mother and stepfather of one of the women were so happy for the couple and for their being able to witness the marriage between these two devoted people! It was so beautiful to see the radiance on their faces, as well as the radiance and profound happiness on the faces of the two women whose marriage all of us were privileged to witness.

This marriage, along with all other same-sex marriages, highlights the downright foolishness and evil that would allow a Britney Spears' 55-hour marriage to have more dignity, more credibility, and legal protections than the marriage of this same-sex couple and all same-sex couples.

"Breaking the silence that has enshrouded her since her Jan. 3 [2004] Las Vegas wedding and ensuing 55-hour marriage, Britney Spears told MTV's 'Total Request Live' in a telephone interview Wednesday 'I do believe in the sanctity of marriage, I totally do.' "But, she confessed, 'I was in Vegas, and it took over me, and, you know, things got out of hand." ["Bride Britney: Vegas 'Took Over Me'," People Magazine, January 15, 2004.]

Spears, also 22, and Alexander wouldn't be the first couple to have an instant marriage followed by an instant divorce.

"Dennis Hopper and the Mamas and Papas' Michelle Phillips were married for eight days in 1970. Zsa Zsa Gabor was apparently married to Felipe de Alba -- her eighth husband -- for one day in 1982. […] "Other short-lived marriages include Janet Jackson and James Debarge (three months), Tom Green and Drew Barrymore (five months) and Jennifer Lopez and Cris Judd (15 months)." ["What was Britney thinking?" CNN.com, January 6, 2004.]

And, of course, there are many other short-term marriages among heterosexual couples of which nothing is heard from the arrogant “arbiters of morality" and those who foolishly or cynically claim to be defending "traditional marriage" when they bend every effort to rescind and/or prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage.

When it's alleged by assorted ignorant and/or hateful homophobes that same-sex marriage is a threat to the institution of marriage, one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry! How can same-sex marriage be a threat to the institution of marriage, when such a marriage as that of Britney Spears', the other ridiculously short-term heterosexual marriages, and the roughly fifty percent divorce rate in the U.S., and the higher divorce rate in California are not even seriously emphasized as such a threat by all too many homophobes?

If those who oppose same-sex marriage were really concerned about the threats to heterosexual marriage, they would be spending their money and energy, taking out all sorts of advertisements, calling attention to these alarming phenomena. But, actually, their rhetoric concerning the so-called "threat" to the institution of marriage is a mere smoke screen to try to sanitize and "religiously justify" their basic hostility to both same-sex marriage and to Gay people as well.

The "religious" homophobes take pains to say that they "love" Gay people, and one at a "Yes on 8" rally even had the temerity to tell me that his best friend was a lesbian who had helped him when his home was destroyed by a fire not too long ago; who often went fishing with him and had him over to her home on many occasions.

Yet, he was vociferously and publicly fighting against California's Proposition 8 that sought to strip away the right to marriage of same-sex couples, and he apparently saw no contradiction between his profession of "friendship" toward this woman on the one hand, and his mean-spirited and hateful stance toward what same-sex relationships she might have now or in the future on the other; feeling free to carry signs and spewing rhetoric designed to prevent her and all committed same-sex couples from living fulfilling lives under the protection of law as accrues to him and his spouse and to all heterosexual married couples.

What can possibly threaten the institution of marriage when a loving same-sex couple such as the one at whose marriage I was privileged to officiate is married? Are heterosexuals going to divorce their spouses so that they can now marry a person of the same sex? Is a child better off being raised by a single parent than by two loving parents of the same sex? How is any same-sex marriage going to in any way adversely affect someone's heterosexual marriage? Clearly, the answers to these questions are patently obvious, save to those who lack sufficient intelligence and/or decency!

During the ceremony in which I officiated, both women had a combination of smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Indeed, during a part when I spoke at the ceremony even I choked up.

This marriage probably meant as much to me as it did to the other witnesses to this happy event! In my small way, I was able to help make two wonderful people happy; publicly affirm their dignity; publicly affirm that their love and marriage were every bit as valid as the love and marriage of any loving heterosexual couple; take part in, now hopefully, legalizing their union as spouses for life that would be validated by the force of law. Moreover, it also helped potentiate my fervent desire that all same-sex couples who wish to make a lifetime commitment to each other be allowed to marry, as part of same-sex couples and Gay people one day obtaining all of the civil and sacramental rights that are currently enjoyed by heterosexual people and couples.

It is so important for same-sex marriage to be instituted in every state of the union, and recognized by both civil and religious authorities as being legal and binding; its spouses deserving of all of the rights, responsibilities, and credibility of heterosexual marriage!

If there had been music at their reception, we all would have danced! As it was, we were all so happy for them, and for the fact that we could participate in helping make their marriage both legitimate (which I have no doubt existed in the eyes of God 10 years before this ceremony when they committed themselves to each other) and legal.

If any decent person had been fortunate to witness and participate in this happy and dignified occasion, and seen the looks of happiness on the faces of both women, and seen the joy and reverence with which the couple and participants saw this marriage, he or she would want same-sex marriages to be legal in every state of the union, and properly respected and revered within secular and religious society that have for far too long horribly abused LGBT people as well as the love that same-sex couples have enjoyed for millennia.

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THE IRRATIONALITY OF HOMOPHOBIA: A DEFECT IN MENTAL HEALTH

Mental Health: A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life. (See here.)

Despite the author's contention in an article entitled, It's Not About Celibacy: Blaming the Wrong Thing for the Sexual Abuse Crisis, that celibacy is completely voluntary on the part of Roman Catholic clergy, the fact is that the Vatican DOES impose celibacy if one wants to be a member of the clergy or the religious (monks and nuns) within its ranks.

Celibacy is, therefore, involuntary, as should a priest, brother, or sister later on decide to no longer be celibate, he or she would be laicized. The author, Rev. James Martin, S.J, states: You make a promise of celibacy or pronounce a vow of chastity to offer yourself to God as fully as possible and to make yourself available to love as many others as possible. Once again, this is not to say that married and single men and women cannot do the same. Or that clergy in other religions cannot do so.

So, why the imposition of celibacy on Roman Catholic clergy, brothers, and sisters? Also, it's unbiblical to impose celibacy onto others (1Timothy 4:3), and unless called by God to be celibate, the demand of celibacy is placing a burden on people that is completely unnecessary, as the author unwittingly concedes in the above quote.

Just as the imposition of celibacy is unbiblical, it is also placing yokes of bondage onto others akin to the yokes of bondage placed on people by many denominations and churches that cause undue hardship that not only has nothing to do with the Gospel, but that can cause undue stresses that manifest themselves in assorted destructive ways both to the individual and, in many cases, to other people within his/her orbit.

Within our very being, we are as God created us to be, and to in any way thwart that aspect of God's creation we are asking for trouble! Our unconscious mind can repress our desires, and our conscious mind can suppress our desires but, sooner or later, those repressions and suppressions make themselves known, and often do so with tragic results.

Of course, for the Christian, we are to "...be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2), but that renewal is not accomplished by ourselves, through what the Apostle Paul refers to as "will-worship" (Colossians 2:23), but by the Holy Spirit Who resides within each of Jesus' disciples.

In other words, our lives are God's business, and we are not to be judged either by others or even by ourselves! It is God Who judges us, and no one else is to usurp that right! (1Corinthians 4:3-4)

I'm not one who believes that the requirement of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church has anything to do with its many sexual scandals! However, imposing celibacy, just like imposing any kind of yoke of bondage onto others for whom that yoke is "unnatural," can cause both physical and spiritual death!

Suicides can occur, either outright or on the installment plan, such as risk-taking behavior, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc., as can the needless occurrence of the experience of a spiritual wilderness, all of which can be, and often are, provoked by the often homophobic preachers of the false gospel of legalism and perfectionism who impose their own prejudices onto others "in the name of God."

Jesus says: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10) In order to have the abundant life Jesus promises us, we must remain in Him, and be authentic!

That is, we are to never allow other mortal, fallible, human beings to define our reality for us or define our spiritual life for us! I like the line I heard Rev. Troy Perry say: Jesus came to take away our sins, not to take away our sexuality!

For the most part, it seems to me that we can't separate our mental health from our spiritual health, and the inculcation of others' prejudices, doctrines, and dogmas that are unnatural for a given person is inimical to optimal mental health; the imposition of personal prejudices that seek to defame others and deprive them of civil rights enjoyed by every other citizen causes internalized and externalized homophobia with their tragic consequences, some of which are mentioned above.

The following is an article entitled, The Irrationality of Homophobia: A Defect in Mental Health, that I wrote several months ago that I think is appropriate to reiterate in this context:

In his book, In Our Time, Eric Hoffer, who was an excellent philosopher, was self-educated, blind for the first fifteen years of his life, and became a migrant worker and then a longshoreman, wrote the following:

In the alchemy of man’s soul almost all noble attributes - courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty - can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Thus the survival of the species may well depend on the ability to foster a boundless capacity for compassion.
So many in the United States (and elsewhere) lack that essential emotion, "compassion," that will help ensure the survival of the species! Indeed, the hostility visited upon LGBT people is a very strong indicator in our time of that deficiency!

All sorts of rationalizations have been trotted out by the ignorant and/or hatefully homophobic to try and justify discrimination against LGBT people, ranging from "maintaining traditional family values" to linking Gay people with pedophiles to causing all sorts of societal calamities. The very irrationality of their arguments in favor of deprivation of civil rights to LGBT people both bespeaks lack of compassion as it bespeaks gullibility and/or lack of compassion of those who take their rhetoric seriously.

In his book, The Passionate State of Mind And Other Aphorism, Hoffer states:

Passions usually have their roots in that which is blemished, crippled, incomplete and insecure within us. The passionate attitude is less a response to stimuli from without than an emanation of an inner dissatisfaction.

A poignant dissatisfaction, whatever be its cause, is at bottom a dissatisfaction with ourselves. It is surprising how much hardship and humiliation a man will endure without bitterness when he has not the least doubt about his worth or when he is so integrated with others that he is not aware of a separate self.

And it is to this phenomenon every person who possesses both a critical intellect and the necessary emotion of "compassion" must turn to help understand why there are some homophobes who make their homophobia something like a career. So many spend an inordinate amount of time condemning God's LGBT children, and one must understand that their animus ultimately resides, not in the object of their hatred, but in their own psyches that betrays their blemishes, crippled natures, incompleteness, and insecurities.

After all, if someone is emotionally and sexually intact, why would there be a need for their obsessive condemnation of other consenting adults' emotional/sexual orientations?

How is same-sex marriage, for example, going to adversely affect anyone's heterosexual marriage? Is there anyone who can give a reasonable answer to that question?

Clearly, there can be no rational answer to that rhetorical question! If anything, same-sex marriage will enhance the institution of marriage!

Indeed, increasing legitimacy will accrue to the institution of marriage the more people partake of its rights, privileges, and responsibilities. So, people who are genuinely concerned with the future of the institution of marriage should be working to minimize divorce and encourage same-sex couples who wish to make a lifetime commitment to each other to marry!

Yet, we have many religious (and secular) people who try and prevent same-sex couples from partaking of the very institution from which they benefit, thereby encouraging fornication as one of their prejudices' byproducts, and they even have the temerity to claim the right to discriminate in the name of God. So, would they have us believe that God would prefer fornication over marriage among Gay people?

Can they be that clueless that they could reasonably expect that Gay people can, should, and must lead celibate lives while only heterosexuals can and should fulfill one of human beings' most primal urges?

The irrationality of homophobic rhetoric shows a clear deficiency on the part of homophobes regarding their level of "compassion," as it does their clear dissatisfaction with their own lot in life! Why else spend such an inordinate amount of time thinking about and condemning the emotional/sexual lives of others?

Emotionally and sexually intact people aren't particularly concerned with the emotional and sexual lives of other adults! They are likely to have a "live and let live" approach to such matters!

However, when someone has an inordinate fascination with condemning others, that condemnation betrays an emotional deficiency that makes compassion very difficult, if not impossible, to have or sustain.

And if a Christian (or any other decent person) can be characterized by any one characteristic, that characteristic is "compassion!"

Christians are to be agents of God's grace in this world; we are to preach and live out the Gospel of grace, faith, love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness! And those who condemn others, those who seek to deprive others of civil rights, those who help create a climate of fear and hatred of others, have shown by their words and/or deeds that they are neither Christians nor even decent people!

We are to make no mistake: homophobes are absolutely no different in their mind-set and in their emotional deficiencies than were and are White Supremacists! Both groups partake of the need to discriminate and hate in order for the awareness of their own emotional deficiencies to be overridden by their condemnation of others!

"Condemnation" acts as an imperfect and temporary band-aid to help heal the haters' own emotional woundedness, a woundedness that they don't have the courage to bring themselves to face, confront, and overcome! So, they take the coward's way out and, rather than deal with "the beam in their own eye," they feel the need to manufacture a beam in a minority group whom they perceive it is safe to persecute.

And when that particular minority group is no longer considered safe to persecute, they will search for another minority group upon which to vent their anger, an anger borne of their own emotional deficiencies that they cloak in religious trappings, so that they can try and stake a claim on "godliness," "virtue" and "morality" when, in fact, their own rhetoric and actions show them to manifest the greatest form of ungodliness, lack of virtue, and immorality: the sin of pride in their oppression of others!

Jesus never condemned Gay people, but He sure spent quite a bit of time condemning the proud, the haughty, the legalists who condemned and discriminated against others and put yokes of bondage onto others, all the while claiming to impose those yokes in the name of God.

If haters didn't have an object to hate, they would be forced to confront their own emotional blemishes, crippled natures, incompleteness, insecurities, deficiencies and frailties. And that is the last thing a moral coward feels he/she can afford.

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VATICAN, LDS, AND RELIGIOUS ANTIPATHY TO GAY RIGHTS

UPDATE:

The Vatican must realize that the church’s belligerent, resentful and paranoid response to the global scandal is not working because it now says it will cooperate with secular justice systems and that the pope will have more meetings with victims. It is too little, too late.

The church that through the ages taught me and other children right from wrong did not know right from wrong when it came to children. Crimes were swept under the rectory rug, and molesters were protected to molest again for the “good of the universal church.” And that is bad, very bad — a mortal sin.

In the context of my last two posts, I decided to post the following which is an article I wrote on October 4, 2009:

Illinois state senator Heather Steans introduced the legislature’s first marriage equality bill on Thursday. Called the Equal Marriage Act, the bill was assigned the cheer-friendly number of 2-4-6-8.

In contrast, even while foaming at the mouth in its antipathy toward same-sex marriage and defamation of LGBT people, the Vatican is dancing as fast as it can in relation to its many sexual scandals.

“Sex” provides much of the root of homophobia: Such as the fear of sex; the fear of one’s sexuality; the fear of one’s being perceived as not clearly being in a (falsely) culturally approved and constructed dualistic box of gender performance and/or identification that is viewed by others as being appropriate to his/her anatomy.

It is no accident that the Roman Catholic Church is notoriously homophobic while at the same time having sexual scandals involving young victims that seems to know no bounds; offenses committed and facilitated by men who claim to be celibate heterosexuals who wear dresses and gowns.

Moreover, despite the admonition of the Apostle Paul that no one could or should forbid anyone to marry, all priests (who must, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, be men) must remain celibate.

Despite often stated “spiritual” reasons for mandated celibacy among the RC priesthood, the bottom line is that sexual expression is viewed by the Vatican as something that is largely antithetical to living a truly spiritual life that, to its way of thinking, can only accrue to those who remain celibate.

So, it’s no wonder that with this warped view of sex and sexuality, the RC Church and most of its clergy would feel, and express, revulsion against same-sex love, since many of their clergy are likely to be sexually fearful and/or sexually frustrated and repressed, unless they have been called by God to be celibate for God’s sake.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.(1Timothy 4:1-5)

Despite the biblical admonition to not ever forbid anyone to marry, the RC Church contravenes that admonition, often attracting sexually and/or emotionally stunted people to its ranks, and rejects healthy Gay people from its seminaries in favor of those who are often self-loathing closet cases who live lives of almost unendurable suffering by having to repress this most primal urge; they sometimes externalize their repressed sexuality onto vulnerable young people.

And, to add insult to injury, the Vatican blames Gay people for their sexual scandals [Also see here.], rather than blame itself for flouting Scripture regarding enforced celibacy; for rejecting healthy Gay people; for tacitly encouraging repressed, self-loathing closet cases; for consigning sexuality to an inferior position regarding the spiritual life.

The healthy integration of sexuality and spirituality is seemingly foreign to their views of sex and sexuality!

Similarly, it is no accident that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is notoriously homophobic while at the same time having a history of polygamy that was integrated into its theology until they were threatened by the federal government.

In 1890, “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could deny the right to vote or hold office to all Mormons who practiced the Law of Abraham, or who merely believed in plural marriage. Later in the year, they ruled that the Edmunds-Tucker Act was constitutional, and that the federal government could repeal the LDS church charter and dissolve the church.” [See here.] So, given this court ruline, pragmatism overrode theology for the LDS Church!

Given its checkered history of sexual/marital practices, it is remarkable that the LDS Church argues against same-sex marriage based on its belief in “traditional family values.”

So, we have the tragic situation where major denominations within the institutional Church are notoriously homophobic, and most denominations within that institutional Church are homophobic to varying degrees, and a courageous politician, Heather Steans of Illinois, seeks to move the ball of equality forward by doing the right thing!

The Church should be in the vanguard of fighting for equal rights and justice for all of God’s children!

Yet, regarding most of the institutional Church, we see the very opposite, where so many intelligent, decent, and sensitive people accurately see much of what is proclaimed to be “Christian” to be nothing more than Reactionary sham religion that seeks to deprive people of equal rights and medical care; most of its gullible followers bearing false witness against God’s very own LGBT children.

Whether she knows it or not, Senator Steans is doing God’s work!

And those who seek to deprive LGBT people of equal rights, and who defame them as much as they can, and who give money to keep them as second-class citizens who are often viewed as pariahs precisely due to the lies promulgated by homophobic clergy and their blind followers, are doing nothing short of serving the demonic!

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RELIGIOUS WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING PLAYING THE ROLE OF VICTIM

In the previous blog post that I wrote this past Thursday, I wrote:

Notice, how the pedophile and ephebophile scandal that has rocked the RC Church throughout the world is being diverted by the Pope's spokesmen into the alleged motives of those holding the Pope to account for this debacle by stating, "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...."

So, advocacy of civil rights for Gay people which, of course, includes the right to marriage, is used and is seen as the culprit by these Vatican toadies (seemingly trying to portray the Pope as a victim), rather than the coverups by assorted clergy of pedophiles and ephebophiles in their very midsts who have been allowed to be shuffled to other parishes by assorted bishops where they have been free to prey on other young men and children. And these pathetic, perhaps hypocritical and mendacious, apologists for the Pope don't even have the decency to blush!

Subsequently, the following article appeared that lends credence to my assertion:

...nowhere is this "paranoiac agitation" and hate-filled prejudice against Catholics more deeply ingrained than in today's Homosexual Hate Movement. There are parallels between this hate movement and the Ku Klux Klan at the early part of the twentieth-century. When the Klan enjoyed a resurgence in the 1920s, anti-Catholic rhetoric intensified to such a degree that it led to violence against Catholics and the burning down of a Catholic Church. Just two weeks after the Church of the Little Flower was erected in 1925, the Klan burned a cross in front of the church. Later the church would burn down in a fire.

[For the full article, see here.]

Also read the comments under the above cited article to give you an additional flavor of the resort to victim status, and often hateful animus, among religious wolves in sheep's clothing who both victimize God's LGBT children, and attack those children and all those who seek and demand equal rights for LGBT people.

To equate the struggle for equal rights for LGBT people with hate movements such as the Ku Klux Klan; to equate the struggle for equal rights for LGBT people with "anti-Catholicism," shows the level of denial, as well as the irrational desperation, exhibited by those who are either unable or unwilling to understand the damage that they do "in the name of God."

For wolves in sheep's clothing, who are often complicit in the sufferings, suicides, assaults, and even murders of Gay people, to play the role of victim, and announce that the people to whom they seek to deny civil and sacramental rights are a "Homosexual Hate Movement," both bypasses the main issue of the Roman Catholic Church's many sexual scandals and coverups throughout many countries of the world which is the real issue, and also bears false witness (a violation of one of the Ten Commandments) against Gay people who seek the same civil and sacramental rights that heterosexuals enjoy.

One must ask of such professing Christians: "Whatever happened to the Gospel of grace that is at the very heart of Christianity?"

One is hard put to find grace (God's unmerited favor to all of God's children), faith, love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness, the very heart of Jesus' teachings, in the rhetoric and actions of "religious" wolves in sheep's clothing!

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THE VATICAN STRIKES BACK AND SCAPEGOATS GAY PEOPLE

[Bishop] Bernando Álvarez said that there are 13 year olds who are wanting to be abused, and 'if you are careless they will provoke you' (See here.)

More recently:

The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of paedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign targeting the Pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Vatican Radio broadcast comments yesterday by two senior cardinals explaining "the motive for these attacks" on the Pope and the Vatican newspaper chipped in with spirited comments from another top cardinal.

"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.

[For the full article, see here.]

Notice, how the pedophile and ephebophile scandal that has rocked the RC Church throughout the world is being diverted by the Pope's spokesmen into the alleged motives of those holding the Pope to account for this debacle by stating, "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...."

So, advocacy of civil rights for Gay people which, of course, includes the right to marriage, is used and is seen as the culprit by these Vatican toadies (seemingly trying to portray the Pope as a victim), rather than the coverups by assorted clergy of pedophiles and ephebophiles in their very midsts who have been allowed to be shuffled to other parishes by assorted bishops where they have been free to prey on other young men and children. And these pathetic, perhaps hypocritical and mendacious, apologists for the Pope don't even have the decency to blush!

We saw this same tactic, scapegoating of gay men, used by the current Pope a couple of years ago when he did a virtual witch hunt to weed out people with "deep seated homosexual tendencies" and those who support "the gay culture."

Check this out:

"The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'.

"Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women.

"One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.

"Candidates who show a homosexual tendency will not be allowed into the priesthood unless they can demonstrate that they have been able to remain chaste for at least three years."

The Vatican's current stance on homosexuality dates back to 1961 where a ruling said that being gay was a "perverse inclination."

[For the full article, see here.]

Scapegoating members of a minority group about whom it is felt that it is safe to persecute is nothing new when people seek to defend the indefensible! Rather than admit that pedophiles have their own unique sexual orientation apart from their being heterosexuals or homosexuals, the Vatican seeks to defend the RC Church and the Pope by blaming gay men whose sexuality it says is a "perverse inclination."

To call child molestation of a boy by a man "homosexual" or of a girl by a man "heterosexual" is to misunderstand pedophilia. No true pedophile is attracted to adults, so neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality applies. Accordingly,[Dr. Gregory] Herek suggests calling men's sexual abuse of boys "male-male molestation" and men's abuse of girls, "male-female molestation."

Interestingly, Anna C. Salter writes, in "Predators, Pedophiles, Rapists and other Sex Offenders", that when a man molests little girls, we call him a "pedophile" and not a "heterosexual." Of course, when a man molests little boys, people say outright, or mutter under their breath, "homosexual. Herek writes that because of our society's aversion to male homosexuality, and the attempts made by some to represent gay men as a danger to "family values," many in our society immediately think of male-male molestation as homosexuality. He compares this with the time when African Americans were often falsely accused of raping white women, and when medieval Jews were accused of murdering Christian babies in ritual sacrifices. Both are examples of how mainstream society eagerly jumped to conclusions to that justified discrimination and violence against these minorities. Today, gays face the same kind of prejudice.

[For the full article, see here.]

In recent years, the Catholic Church in the United States has paid over $2 billion in abuse settlements. In Ireland, some parishes have said they may have to take up a Sunday collection to help fund abuse settlements. (See here.)

The RC Church that allows children to be sexually preyed upon over generations, and seeks to cover up that obscenity, and seeks to buy the silence of the abused victim and cause agonizing pain to the families of those children, is nothing short of perverse!

It's the RC Church that is perverse in this matter, and it complicates its perversity by blaming gay men for its scandal. Moreover, the RC Church contributes to its own perversity by turning away out and emotionally intact gay men from their seminaries, and by default accepting (if not tacitly encouraging) many self-loathing closet cases who are likely to lack emotional/sexual maturity, virtually setting up a petrie dish to act out their immaturity on vulnerable pre and post pubescent children. This latter group are not likely to be gay as much as they are likely to find it easy to emotionally and sexually relate to pre and post pubescent children, making them pedophiles and ephebophiles, and not gay men at all!

Gay men have an emotional and sexual affinity to other men; lesbians have an emotional and sexual affinity to other women. Pedophiles whose victims are either boys or girls have a completely different sexual orientation altogether!

Moreover, by blaming gay people, and bearing false witness against them, contravening one of the Ten Commandments, clergy in the hierarchy of the RC Church are betraying their ignorance and/or hatefulness toward Gay people and toward God's creation, which contravenes Jesus' commandments to us to love and not judge others! In addition, they idolize their own dogma regarding Gay people, and by so doing contravene an other one of the Ten Commandments.

Although apologizing for the pain suffered by victims of clergy abuse, during this past Palm Sunday celebration, "The pontiff said faith in God helps lead one "towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion". (See here.)

"Petty gossip of dominant opinion?" What's so petty about expressing revulsion and outrage at child sex abuse lasting for countless generations, aided and abetted by assorted clergy and bishops in their desire to place the image of the Roman Catholic Church over and above the well-being of children and their parents who trusted those who horribly betrayed them? Harry Truman showed more decency and courage than does this Pope when he said, "The buck stops here!"

This Pope attributes the heat he is feeling about these scandals to the "Petty gossip of dominant opinion."

What gall!

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OBAMA'S RHETORIC DOESN'T JIBE WITH HIS ACTIONS WHEN IT COMES TO LGBT EQUALITY

The Marine Corps' top officer [General James T. Conway] said March 25 that even if the ban on openly-serving gays in the services is lifted, he would draw the line at forcing heterosexual Marines to bunk with gays on base.

"We want to continue [two-person rooms], but I would not ask our Marines to live with someone who is homosexual if we can possibly avoid it," Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway told Military.com during an exclusive interview at the Pentagon. "And to me that means we have to build BEQs [bachelor enlisted quarters] and have single rooms.

[For the full article, see here]

It seems to me that there are two major forces driving this homophobia:

1. The cult of "macho" that infuses the military. People like Conway think that gay men are "weak" and "effeminate."

2. The equation of being Gay solely with sexual activity; gay men want to have sex with every man they see; gay women want to have sex with every woman they see. Clearly, there is a failure to see Gay people as fully human beings, but are seen by Conway as being merely sexual animals. Hence, to people like Conway (and I suspect that most homophobes think as he does), Gay=Sex.

Also, it must be said that homophobia in both the military and in the larger society largely stems from the rhetoric emanating from most of the institutional Church. Most clergy within the institutional Church have blood on their hands, as they have caused untold suffering, suicides, assaults, and murders of LGBT people!

For Conway to be allowed to keep his position by Obama who is, after all, the Commander-in-Chief of the military, after his making such a hateful statement, shows how the repeal of DADT is a long way away, as is the repeal of DOMA and the realization of full and equal civil rights.

Moreover, with Obama's Justice Department ferociously supporting DOMA in federal court, even invoking the specter of incest and pedophilia to bolster its argument, now DADT, despite its basic unfairness and inherent irrationality, is being equally supported by Obama's Justice Department:

There's no indication that the Obama administration is moving forward on the President's promise to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell this year. In fact, all of the evidence is to the contrary - Barney Frank recently said about the White House's approach to repealing DADT: ''They're ducking. Basically, yeah, they're not being supportive." But, the Department of Justice is aggressively defending the constitutionality of the law, even though they don't have to. The latest example is a case brought by Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) back in 2004.

DOJ asked for summary judgment, in order to throw the case out. It's strongest argument is a challenge to the standing of LCR. But, as in the DOMA brief (that invoked incest and pedophilia as a reason the court shouldn't overturn DOMA), DOJ had to go the extra mile to show just how valid the DADT law is. It's hard to miss the section titled:

Because Congress Could Rationally Have Concluded That The DADT Policy Is Necessary To Maintain Unit Cohesion, Accommodate Personal Privacy, and Reduce Sexual Tension For Military Effectiveness, LCR’s Facial Due Process Challenge Fails

They only right-wing talking point they left out is the "we're in two wars" argument.

[Please read the full article, here.]

Only the most dyed in the wool Obamamaniac still holds out hope that Obama will come through in his campaign promises, and hitherto empty rhetoric regarding his desire for equality for LGBT people.

Please listen to this brief video:

[Thanks to AmericaBlogGay.]

And to complicate matters, his indolence in fighting for equal rights, our continuing presence in Iraq, his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, his bailing out of large corporations (who are "too big to fail"), his defections regarding medical care for everyone without there being adequate controls on insurance and pharmaceutical companies, are going to cause most LGBT people and progressives to stay home during the next presidential election, thereby virtually assuring a landslide victory for any reactionary Republican to become the next president.

And, let's face it: a reactionary president wouldn't be doing anything other than Obama has been doing on all of these issues. Only the rhetoric is different, but the outcomes are about the same!

In my opinion, Obama has made a crucial mistake in taking his friends for granted and trying to conciliate with his enemies. If, in fact, they are his "enemies."

His waffling on crucial issues, his saying one thing and doing another, and his fading "charm" amidst all of his defections from virtually all of his campaign promises and even current rhetoric, have put him in the position where if he were deliberately setting the stage for a reactionary president to become the next president of the United States he wouldn't be doing anything differently.

Let's face it: we now have a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress, and if the above outcomes still exist, we have no reason to be optimistic about the acquisition of equal rights for LGBT people now or in the foreseeable future.

For what it's worth, for a long time I've felt that there's not a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans, save for rhetoric designed to appeal to each of their respective constituencies.

I feel that our two party system is one big shell game where their respective constituencies are motivated to give their allegiance to a given party, and no matter who "wins" the outcomes on the crucial issue dealing with human rights (and other issues, such as those mentioned above) will be the same.

All of Obama's lofty and promising rhetoric, both now and during his campaign, have shown themselves to lack substance. Indeed, his actions have shown him to have betrayed both his promises as well as LGBT people and progressives!

And, as Jesus says: Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7:20)

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DON CHARLES CLOSES ONE CHAPTER AND BEGINS ANOTHER

My good friend, Don Charles, just wrote his final posts, "My Final Book of Testimony--Parts 1 and 2"; "Their Worm Never Dies," on his great blog, Christ, The Gay Martyr, that I strongly urge you to read.

His posts are not only eminently readable, but are essential reading for all LGBT people and allies who are truly desirous of attaining equal rights, and equally essential for LGBT people to fully realize and affirm their very creation to be in accordance with God's will.

Part of Don Charles' post that deals with Transgender status reads as follows, and is just a mere excerpt that will hopefully whet your appetite to read his final posts on Christ, The Gay Martyr in their entirety:

I believe that transgender status is a unique and separate gender. I do not believe in the concept of gender confusion! I do not believe female biology is necessary in order for female identity to be legitimate, or vice-versa. I have never and will never believe that people are born into "the wrong body". I believe, as ancient cultures did, that there are people in this world who share blended gender status with God. I thought about writing this piece for a very long time, and I prayed for the right words. This is what I believe our Mother/Father in Heaven wanted me to say: Transgender consciousness today is where Gay consciousness was in the 1950s; the consensus is that transfolk are sick and need medical treatment. So long as the pathologizing of transgender bodies continues, transgender people will never have society's respect. I remember watching a segment of "In The Life", public television's monthly LGBT newsmagazine, and recoiling from a theatre piece in which pitiable transsexual women bemoaned not having vaginas. Seldom have I ever seen anything so retrograde! Just as is the case with Lesbians, Gay men and bisexual folk, there's an urgent need for transsexual consciousness-raising! It is God's will that male and female sometimes exist within the same body; the various problems transfolk suffer have everything, and I do mean everything, to do with denial of that fact. If the world ever lets go of that denial, the lives of transsexual men and women will improve remarkably.

The following is Don Charles' email that I received that beautifully summarizes the goal and mission of Christ, The Gay Martyr:

All too often, Gay blogs are vehicles for gossip, sarcasm, frivolity, rude humor, radical posturing and pornographic content. Posting is done too hastily, and the messages lack substance. Just as often, evidence of a blogmaster’s raging ego is so strong, it practically slaps you upside the head! I've got an ego, too, but with CTGM, I tried not to be the center of attention. I wanted give God the glory and give important issues the priority. I believed in putting the maximum amount of careful thought into what I posted, even if weeks went by between updates; and if I slapped anybody, I did so to wake them up out of a complacent stupor, and never for provocation’s sake alone. I wanted to improve the brand, and with God’s help, I think I was successful.

Founded in March of 2006, Christ, The Gay Martyr was a Christian blog that affirmed LGBT identiy, disseminated the true teachings of Jesus Christ, exposed ignorance, challenged retrograde thinking and behavior, and told many inconvenient truths. It contains 194 thought-provoking essays, along with eight pages of "Testimony" that serve as a Table of Contents. The blog's last pieces of original content have just been posted. Blogmaster Don Charles "Stuffed Animal" closes out his online ministry in bang-up fashion with "Their Worm Never Dies" a scathing indictment of mainstream Catholicism. Come and see what made Christ, The Gay Martyr one of the most controversial Gay blogs ever.

Is it sinful to be Lesbian or Gay? No, it isn't a sin. Nor is it a choice, a sickness, or an abomination. It's a miracle! It's God's divne illusion of same-gender attraction. Men and women with androgynous souls. Eunuchs and virgins by birth. Evidence of the Lord's unfathomable power, and a symbol of His Holy Covenant with humankind. Don't fear it . . . Don't hate it . . . rejoice in it! Hallelujah! And please remember . . . nothing that the Lord has made is Queer!!!

Please read Don Charles' last posts on his blog, and bookmark his new blog entitled, Ignorance is Plentiful, that is geared to confronting the betrayal of self-styled Gay "activists," who might as well be paid off by the oppressor to continuously affirm the hateful stereotypes that view Gay people as being merely frivolous, entertainment-oriented, sexually obsessed, hedonistic, and promiscuous animals.

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HOMOPHOBIA, HATRED, PLAYING GOD, AND IGNORANCE AMONG MANY WHO PROFESS TO BE "CHRISTIANS"

The following is an email I received the other day that is quite typical of the sentiments expressed to me by homophobic professing Christians. I post this email, and my brief response to the writer, so as to help highlight the animus and the many errors that help substitute the false gospel of "legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion" (that is often manifested in hateful rhetoric and/or actions against LGBT people) for the only Gospel to be found in Christianity: the Gospel of grace (God's unmerited favor to those whom God chose before the worlds were formed--e.g., Ephesians 1:4), faith (trusting God over and above seen circumstances), love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness.

I've omitted the author's name and email address for obvious reasons:

Sir, You are so far off on the article,'Honoring Gays'. Have you not read in the Holy Bible, Romans 1:18 to the end of this chapter. How can you preach in another article that we must not assign what we think a verse should say but take it in context and preach this about people 'are' born gay. Do you mean to say that your creator and Savior made a mistake? You cannopt be a real Christian but one of those spiritualist-types.Surrender to Him before it`s too late.

My response was as follows:

Have you not read Romans 2:1 which provides the context for the verse to which you referred? If you are truly interested in exploring this issue, I suggest you read some of the articles and sites in the Links section of my blog. I once felt the same way as you do until I studied this issue, looking at the Greek and the context of the Bible verses erroneously used to call Gay people "mistakes." Regarding my "surrendering to Him before it's too late," I won't even dignify that assertion by a response. Best wishes, Jerry Maneker.

Notice, in his email, his strong belief that: 1. Gay people are "mistakes"; 2. that I am implying that God makes mistakes when God creates LGBT people; 3. that one can't be "a real Christian" if one sees Gay people as deserving of full civil and sacramental rights; 4. that because I fight for LGBT rights, I have not surrendered to God; 4. that I must surrender to God "before it's too late."

I will return to his original email to me below, but the following is his email in reply to my response to his original email:

Jerry, I am pleasantly surprised that you replied so quickly. Give your self a pat on the back from me. How can you stand on your opinion that people are born gay,they are not. Did you not read the scripture I quoted ? Look at Lev.18:22 and 1 John 2:29. If a practicing homosexual confesses to be a Christian he is not.But if he is striving in all sincerity to break from it because he has read in God`s Word that it is sin then I accept him. [Notice, how he is placing himself in the role of God by this last phrase.] I am not judging him of my own opion but of the Word of God. Right now, I see you as an anti-christ for you are 'approving' them of their sin and going so far as to inform them that God accepts them and they`ll go to heaven. Look at it this way; picture the scene and imagine Jesus there. Can you se Him giving approval ? If you cannot then you are wrong . A friend, Jim

Notice, he sees me as an "anti-christ," but he calls himself my "friend." This kind of response that I receive from religiously based homophobes is not at all unusual.

He seems to have become a bad man, as he does say bad things about innocent members of a minority group, and he is one who truly believes that Gay people are "mistakes" and "sinners," and that someone such as me, who professes to be a Christian, can't possibly be a Christian as I am fighting for Gay rights; since from his point of view I'm working against God, I therefore must be "an anti-christ."

As suggested above, he is putting himself in the role of God; he feels that his interpretation of Scripture is infallible and he is immune to any alternate interpretations of the very same Bible verses he erroneously uses to "justify" his false gospel of vilification and exclusion; he doesn't even suggest that he read other sources that I suggested he read in my reply to him.

Clearly, it is a mistake to try to reason with such a person, as he is a true believer who is immune to ample biblical and extra-biblical evidence that run contrary to his views. (The very best book dealing with this subject is the eminently readable, yet scholarly, and comprehensive book by Rick Brentlinger entitled, Gay Christian 101, that I strongly urge you to buy, whether or not you are a Christian.)

So, Jim is not only committing the sin of "idolatry," a violation of one of the Ten Commandments, by worshiping the Bible, but he is committing an even worse sin in idolizing his own interpretation of selected verses of the Bible, thereby worshiping himself. Hence, his telling sentence: "But if he is striving in all sincerity to break from it because he has read in God`s Word that it is sin then I accept him."

He doesn't care to realize that God accepts (and loves) all of God's creation; we are not to judge anyone; he lacks faith by not knowing that God doesn't make mistakes by creating God's LGBT children. This man, like all true believers who think that they have a corner on the truth, is showing a tremendous lack of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

This man has drunk the Kool Aid, amply served by most clergy within the institutional Church, who feel the exact same way, and teach their followers to interpret the Bible in the very same way, that Jim does.

Jim is not alone in his faulty, literalist and non-contextual understanding of Scripture; his lack of understanding of the Greek word that is falsely translated as "homosexual" also helps blind him to the reality of what it means to be Gay, just as the fact that the very term "homosexual" doesn't appear in any biblical manuscript as the term wasn't even coined until the late 19th Century.

In any case, I want to discuss his first email to me, dealing with the above numbered items that might better help us understand the fallacy that lies behind the animus against LGBT people held by religiously-based homophobes, or those who use the Bible and/or religion to deny Gay people dignity, thereby traversing one of the Ten Commandments against bearing false witness; who seek to deprive Gay people of full and equal civil and sacramental rights, thereby traversing Jesus' Commandments for us to love and not judge others.

First notice:

Matthew 22:35-40 (New International Version)

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two Commandments."

Pretty simple, huh?

Yet so many professing Christians refuse to understand the only Gospel to be found in Christianity, the Gospel of grace; refuse to exercise faith, without which it is impossible to please God; refuse to love and not judge others!

In reference to Jim's first email to me, he states:

1. "Gay people are mistakes": He is suggesting that God makes mistakes by creating Gay people; being Gay is a freely taken choice, which contradicts virtually all of the scientific literature. Here, he is setting himself up as an arbiter of "the truth," appealing to his own interpretation of the Bible to affirm his position on this matter. Moreover, he is in "good company", in that most of the people who claim to be "Bible-believing Christians" would heartily agree with him. They may be sincere, but they are sincerely wrong!

2. "I am implying that God makes mistakes when God creates LGBT people": Actually, Jim, and others like him, are actually stating that God makes mistakes when God creates Gay people. Even forgetting the scientific literature that shows that sexual orientation is not a freely made choice, who is Jim, or anyone else for that matter, to suggest that any other human being is "a mistake?" That assertion alone contradicts Jesus' Commandment to us to "Love your neighbor as yourself." I don't see much love coming from homophobic professing Christians! Certainly, there is not much love in the Jims of the world who would call me "an anti-christ"; assert that I'm not "a real Christian"; make the judgment that Gay people are sinners, and by being Gay are not in the will of God, and will, therefore, not go to heaven. It should be clear to anyone with an ounce of sense that Jim is placing himself in the role of God in deciding who is acceptable to him; who is acceptable to God; who is a Christian; who is a sinner; who is going to heaven! And, on top of all that, he is clearly wrong in his understanding of the Scripture verses he uses to deny dignity to Gay people.

3. "One can't be 'a real Christian' if one sees Gay people as deserving of full civil and sacramental rights": Jim, like many other like-minded professing Christians, seems to need a sense of certainty in life and impose that sense of certainty onto others. Their need for certainty in a very uncertain world, and the fear that is engendered in them by the many changes, gray areas, and ambiguities of life, is what largely drives them to tenaciously dig in their heels, and fight to impose their view of the world onto others. Their need for certainty also provokes in them the need to create an out-group in order to enhance in-group solidarity with other like-minded people. And their need for in-group solidarity often provokes in them the need to paint themselves as "victims" of others (e.g., portraying Christianity as being under attack by "the Gay Agenda."), as they unconsciously and/or consciously reason that there can't be an "us" without a "them." So, no matter how irrational their pronouncements in the context of Christianity, the Gospel becomes subordinate to their psychological and social needs for meaning in life that often results in the oppression of others "in the name of God," akin to those of White Supremacists who often partake of the very same mind-set as do strident homophobes.

4. "Because I fight for LGBT rights, I have not surrendered to God": The fact is that it is God Who put, and still puts, in my heart the need to fight this good fight of faith! (1Timothy 6:12) The reason I have a fire in the belly for equal civil and sacramental rights for LGBT people is that I am a Christian, and a theologically conservative one at that! No one who is a Christian can oppress people, either rhetorically or by action or by silence amidst the oppression of others! No Christian can advocate discrimination against others! No Christian can assent to second-class citizenship for anyone in civil society and/or in regard to fellowship in any institution that calls itself a "church!" As Jesus says: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:35) One can be a decent and loving human being and not be a Christian! However, one can't be a Christian without being a decent and loving human being! If a person is not a decent and loving human being, he/she has no right to call him/herself a Christian! And no one who calls Gay people "mistakes," who says that one can't be Gay and be a Christian, who advocates denial of full and equal civil and sacramental rights to Gay people, who says that Gay people and advocates for equality for LGBT people are not going to heaven, is clearly not a decent and loving person. And a tragedy is that Jim's sentiments are shared by many, if not most, within the institutional Church that has blood on its hands due to homophobic rhetoric and actions that are, in my opinion, responsible for most of the untold sufferings, suicides, assaults, and murders of LGBT people!

5. "I must surrender to God 'before it's too late'": Given the fact that the disciple of Christ is assured that he/she was chosen by God to be God's possession, for God's inscrutable reasons, before the worlds were formed, as can be seen in many parts of Scripture, such as Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 1:4, not only does Jim show himself to be ignorant of one of the most basic features of Christianity, but he is playing God in asserting that by my advocacy of LGBT rights I cannot be "a real Christian" and that he judges that I have not surrendered to God, and that I'm not going to heaven when I die.

Talk about chutzpa!

As I've taught my children, and my students when I was teaching:

Never let other people define your reality for you or put you into bondage to their ways of thinking!

To live the "abundant life" that Jesus promises us, we must remember that in the Christian life, as in life itself, one size doesn't fit all!

And, tragically, there is no reasoning with the homophobic Jims of the world, of which there are all too many!

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