Astronomy

Homophobos is the name of the moon eternally orbiting planet Religion.

Etiquetas de Technorati: Religion,Quotes

Informed Comment: The Great Reagan Pyramid Scheme Comes Crashing Down

Says Juan Cole in his Informed Comment:

The Republican Party that Nixon invented melded the moneyed classes of the Northeast with the white evangelicals of the South. This odd couple went on to simultaneously steal from and oppress the rest of us. The moneyed classes were happy to let the New Puritans impose their stringent morality, since they could always just buy any licentiousness they wanted, regardless of the law. And the New Puritans were so consumed with cultural issues such as homosexuality, abortion, school prayer and (yes) fighting school desegregation that they were happy to let the northeastern Money Men waltz off with a lion's share of the country's resources, consigning most Americans to stagnant wages and increasing debt. The Reagan revolution consolidated this alliance and brought some conservative Catholic workers into it. These domestic policies at home were complemented by wars and belligerence abroad, which further took the eye of the public off the epochal bank robbery being conducted by the American neo-Medicis, and which were a useful way of throwing billions in government tax revenue to the military-industrial complex, which in turn funded the think tanks and reelection campaigns of the right wing politicians. The Reagan fascination with private armies and funding anti-communist death squads contributed mightily to the creation of al-Qaeda, blowback from which fuelled even bigger Pentagon budgets, spiralling upward and feeding on itself. Terrorism is much better than Communism as a bogey man, since you can just intimate that there are a handful of dangerous people out there somewhere, and force the public to pay over $1 trillion to combat them. In fact, of course, less US interventionism abroad would create less blowback, and genuine threats are better addressed through good police work by multilingual FBI agents than by a $700 billion Pentagon budget. As a result of the Second Gilded Age and its serf-like subservience to big capital, most corporations in the US don't pay any income taxes, despite doing $2.5 trillion annually in business. The Reagan Revolution included the stupid idea that you can cut taxes, starve government, abolish regulation of securities, banks, & etc., and still grow the economy. The irony is that capitalist markets need to be regulated to avoid periodically becoming chaotic (as in 'chaos theory,') but the people who most benefit from regulation are most zealous in attempting to abolish or blunt it. What those policies did was create the preconditions for a long-term bubble or set of bubbles that benefited (for a while) the wealthiest 3 million Americans and harmed everyone else. The average wage of the average worker is lower now than in 1973 and has been lower or flat for the past 35 years. That's the condition of the 300 million or so Americans. In the meantime, the top 1 percent has multiplied its wealth many times over and now takes home 20% of the national income, owning some 45 percent of the privately held wealth in the US. The Right keeps promising us growth, but it turns out that "growth" is mainly for them, i.e. for the 3 million (and indeed mainly for about 100,000 within the 3 million). Those 3 million are a new aristocracy, lords of the economy, who reward each other with tens of millions in bonuses for ceremonial reasons that have nothing to do with the jobs they actually perform. Bush has been trying to make them a hereditary aristocracy by getting rid of the estate tax. That is why banks are refusing the government bailout if it restricts the salaries of the top officers-- you don't mess with the feudal lord's prerogatives. The enormous wealth of a thin sliver or people at the top of US society allows them to buy members of congress and to write the legislation that regulates their industries. Congress capitulates to this 'regulatory capture' because its members have to buy hugely expensive television ads to remain competitive in elections. So they fundraise from the rich, and the rich have expectations (as Keating did of McCain). These problems could be fixed with a graduated income tax and a closing of tax loopholes ( after we get out of the recession or crash or whatever this is); by legislation criminalizing regulatory capture; by requiring mass media to run political ads for free as a public service (the public owns the airwaves); and by much shortening the election season (please).

Maybe it's time for Americans to start thinking that the Religious Right, all those New Puritans, are only after power to seek their own agenda, not a gay agenda but their own rising of Armageddon, in their own words, making The Rapture come. And, serious as they are, they're on the way to bomb the earth.

Informed Comment: The Great Reagan Pyramid Scheme Comes Crashing Down

Gaytanamo

Sally Kern (left picture), an Oklahoma State Rep., warned her constituents that gays are taking over and have become more dangerous to the American way of life than terrorists. The lawmaker made the remarks in a speech to a small gathering but did not know they were being recorded.

On Monday, Kern said her comments were edited and taken out of context. Kern said they were directed at wealthy, politically active homosexuals who are contributing money to gay and lesbian candidates for public office in Oklahoma and other states.

“I was talking about an agenda. I was not talking about individuals,” said Kern, the wife of a Baptist minister. “They have the right to choose that lifestyle. They do not have the right to force it down our throat."

I'm not sure that anybody would want to force anything down Sally's throat, apart of her Baptist minister husband (but that would also be against the Biblical mandate of procreation, therefore a sin), but I'm deeply sorry to hear that Mrs. Kern didn't follow up her own advice and try advocating some sort of Gaytanamo, one where homosexuals could be kept for years without any other charge than being presumed enemies to the American Way of Life.

In any case, Sally Kern spoke about a "Gay Agenda" which is not clear to exist, according to Randy Thomas, VP of Exodus International, quoted at Ex-Gay Watch to have said that "I do not believe there is an American-wide gay conspiracy that is played up in by Coral Ridge and some other conservative Christian organizations to generate fear."

In the meantime, while homosexuals are being accused of destroying kids, in the Philippines province of  Bulacan, five people were nailed to wooden crosses, including a 15-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl. This wasn't the result of mob angriness, but a mixture of religious Catholic devotion and tourism attraction, taking place in the archipelago since decades, with the blessings of the Catholic hierarchy of course, who never forbid any of such bloody displays.

It's unclear whether a world where homosexuals be kept inside Gaytanamos and teens nailed to wood crosses would be better than the one we live right now.

The Spanish Larry Craig

Though "Larry Craig" wouldn't define well this Spanish politician and Tax Office clerk. Javier Rodrigo de Santos, formerly vice major in Palma de Mallorca, spent the amount of 50,804 Euro in gay relax services, disguised as "Public Relations Consulting" from the public budget of Palma Townhall. It couldn't be otherwise, the man is known to have refused to celebrate homosexual marriages while in office (objecting to those because of moral issues), though celebrated the Pope's visit to Valencia in 2006 and stands as an ultra Catholic. Ethics and morals, of course. Full information, in Spanish, in El Pais.

Ah, those Roman Catholics...

While the Pope himself praised the anti-homosexual policies undertaken in the United States, the Spanish Episcopal Conference elected a new head yesterday. During the last years, the main Catholic hierarchy body in Spain had been headed by bishop Blazquez of Bilbao, who held conciliatory views on most social aspects of life, including dialogue with non ultra-Catholic groups. However, bishops Rouco of Madrid and Cañizares of Toledo, known in the leftist blogosphere as "the Toños" seem to have succeeded in renewing (in this case re-olding) Catholic views in Spain. The most ultraconservative views both bishops represent have been raised up and now Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco Varela holds the position of President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. Hopefully, Rouco will be celebrating his designation for a few days so that he won't immediately try to change the sign of the March 9th election in Spain, which he has already tried to influence during a mass demonstration in December 30th, 2007, with the Popular Party, allegedly the second political force in Spain, honeymooning with the Church. As the Financial Times puts it:

Instead of acting as a parliamentary opposition, the PP has tried to impugn constitutionally major initiatives of the Socialists, in an effort to paralyse government. Mariano Rajoy, its lacklustre leader, has failed to emerge from the shadow of José María Aznar, the former prime minister, and has colluded in a hysterical campaign by the Catholic hierarchy that calls into question the legitimacy of the government.

So, as we say around here, "el pescado está vendido". We'll see next monday if homosexuals can keep our rights here in Spain, or we'll have to seek for asylum in a much less Catholic place.

Comedy in theaters and Knesset. And the Peanut Butter Jar.

After some weeks of watching mostly drama and thriller movies, I was looking for a good comedy this weekend, just to relax from work, also from the political campaign in Spain (which has good points, for instance, as I'm following Spain's politicians I don't have time anymore to follow the candidates in the USA). The only movie I could find in theatres currently, a decent comedy (and I mean "decent" in the sense of "please don't play me another stupid American teen movie") was, of course, Juno. But this is Party for the Rights and Juno is not a comedy about homosexuality, eh? No problem, there's enough comedy worldwide. Would you believe, dear abominable readers, that YOU cause earthquakes "when putting your genitalia where they're not supposed to be put"? That's exactly the collegiate opinion of Schlomo Benizri, who declared in Israel's Knesset, this week, about the measures to be taken on Israel's readiness on earthquakes.

It must have been funny, a committee of lawmakers having experts stating about measures and all that blah blah, and then this guy comes up and says something like, "if you stop passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes", that's the best measure to be taken in order to prevent victims on earthquakes, and quakes themselves.

If one thinks carefully about the whole thing, it's obvious that religion, ultra-orthodox religion, is always behind such attacks. Those ultra-religious people, fanatics and fundamentalists, are quite similar to little children who aren't able to catch a good sleep without a good tale before switching the lights off. The problem, and I use "problem" here because they move towards creating a problem for us, the problem then, I say, is only that ultra-religious people do believe that their tale is true. Pastors, bishops and preachers in the USA oppose homosexual marriage saying "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve". Funny slogan, but it's not Adam and Eve unless you defend Creationism (which is lately labeled as Intelligent Design, as if it was some sort of Italian couch or a masterpiece of Rem Koolhaas). There was no Adam and there was no Eve, there is the Theory of Evolution and that's science. And some people will still go dreaming of Peanut Butter Jars after being read the Bible Fairy Tale before going to sleep.

Ego sum ecclesia

Mariano Rajoy, the Popular Party candidate, opened last midnight the election campaign in Cadiz, in what he deemed a homage to the Spanish Constitution of 1812. For those not much versed in Constitutional Law, just remind that the article 12th of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 established that the One and Only Religion to be practiced in Spain had to be the Roman Catholic. All others banned. But that was the 19th century, or is it today? Monsignor Rouco must have had several orgasms at Rajoy's words... Oops, bishops don't have orgasms, sorry. It's called "ecstatic ecstasy".

Conversion therapy revealed

Via Ex-gay watch, the Winnipeg Sun tells the story of an ex-gay minister eventually convicted of sexual assault on one of his patients. Copying from Ex-gay Watch...

A young man is found by family to be sexually attracted to men and coerced through a fear of hell to seek “therapy” to go straight. This is the story that led a young Canadian man to seek out the help of Terrance Lewis, a minister and (former) counselor at Providence College and Seminary.

The man said Lewis started a program of “touch therapy,” which included the two kissing and fondling each other and engaging in sexual roleplaying.

“He said I was to tell no one about it because no one would understand,” the man testified.

During “touch therapy” sessions in Lewis’ car, Lewis asked him to masturbate, the man said. Lewis also admitted to fantasizing about him, the man said.

Many ex-gay therapists have practiced what they call “touch therapy,” including Richard Cohen, who extends this from touching to hugging or even cuddling on the couch. Dr. Chris Austin carried touch too far and was convicted of sexual assault, as was Terrance Lewis in the story above. While certainly not all ex-gay therapists go to this extreme, starting with the premise that sexual orientation should, or even can, be changed has led to unorthodox and at times, illegal “therapy.”

A-ha! So, the much hyped therapies to become ex-gay are only intended to become a closeted gay guy with your personal therapist, eh? Five to seven sessions of touch therapy weekly and you will be able to live a perfectly normal non-gay life. Reminds me to assaults on choirboys, which wouldn't be judged by courts because, in many cases, wouldn't be understood, or be just a matter of the divine, ethics, and moral. Religion, you know. Religion which wants to keep The Only Truth, The Key to Proper Sexual Life, The Authorized Science Guidelines, and The Door to Eternal Salvation. Were I to engage in such conversion therapies, at least I'd choose two or three hot therapists. Ex-gay ministries can call at my door with Jensen Atwood as touch therapist.

Social change in Spain

EDGE Los Angeles publishes an interesting article about how Spanish society has evolved since Francisco Franco's death in 1975. Though I might not agree with some of the views of Cotarelo, it's clear that we're living in a much open place than we were under the omnipresent wings of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. However, back in 2004 when, after March 11th Atocha Train Bombings elections were held in March 14th, it was not "centrist votes" which were crucial for the Socialist party to get into power, but the mobilization of the leftist votes. This section of voters seem to be on a sort of laissez faire when it comes to polls, and mobilize only when some sort of political disaster — as could be, for instance, giving power to a party which would fulfill all the Roman Catholic Hierarchy demands — is foreseen. That is what happened in 2004, and if things go like they are going right now, with bishops interfering in the political campaign, it's quite likely that the progressive, leftist electors will vote en masse again. 

It's February First

And it seems I can be back to blogging after a (much needed) forced break. In the meantime, the world doesn't seem to have changed a lot in regards to homosexuality and our issues. Churches worldwide continue their crusade against abomination with no less strength than ever. My friend NG sent me a brief note saying that the bishop of Tenerife stepped back his former statements on homosexuality and altar boys; No, it's not true. Bishop keeps as lewd as ever, and you better not be around him if you're below 14 or he'll sue you for asking him for sexual favors. The rest of the Spanish Catholic hierarchy stepped into the political debate (we'll be on election next March 9th) by recommending to vote that party which "will never negotiate a peaceful ending to Basque terrorism, which will abolish abortion and divorce laws, and put an end to the abominable depravation of same sex marriage". Among other points, Archbishop of Madrid asked for Catechism to be re-introduced into the Spanish K12 curricula as compulsory subject, and he's expected to keep asking, as the political campaign go on, to re-introduce Catholic Religion as compulsory for Spaniards, as well as General Francisco Franco to be resuscitated from among the dead, or if such a miracle is not possible via the Vatican, at least to sanctify Franco, his generals, and all participants in the Holy Crusade that was 1936 Spanish Civil War. By March 1st, it's expected that Monsignor Rouco Varela be asking to reintroduce the Holy Inquisition, bonfires for witchcraft practitioners and for all those who can't prove to be Old Christians. By March 9th, it'll be likely that, at least in Spain, the earth to cease moving around the sun, and the latter start moving around the earth, which will become a flat planet.

A bit busy lately

But still had some time to browse through the week's news, choosing the worst of them all in Cameroon, another nation which has sentenced three guys to six years of hard labor just for being gay. That's fair justice and treatment, absolute equal rights. One wonders if heterosexuals would be given equal sentences in a gay-leaded country. And speaking of country leaders, from inside Spain it doesn't seem that next March 9th election will only depend on gay marriage, as Deutsche Welle puts it. No, even though the Roman Catholic hierarchy is actively fighting everything they deem as sin, some days ago the Popular Party leader, Mr. Rajoy, said that his party position on gay marriage is to let it be as is. It's of course not clear whether them, the right side of the political spectrum, would amend the gay marriage law if they could obtain Congress majority enough to govern alone.

On the northeastern side of Europe, Topix says that Lithuania is facing the Council of Europe censure over their position on homosexual rights. There must be something in advantage when your country belongs to the European Union, the Bill of Rights is common for all countries (except for Poland, but it'll change too). However, on Eastern Europe, "Metropolitan Kirill, Head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, has made a strong statement condemning societal acceptance of homosexuality and reaffirming the task of the Church to proclaim the truth". Of course, it's a religious thing, what else can they say?

Well, I guess it's been all for today. I promise I'll try to keep updating for the weekend, but forgive me if I'm sending scarce posts till after Carnival... A man also needs a bit of free time for himself. Cheers.

Why Spain, Mr. Pope?

Pink News cuts short the recent events in Spain about the Roman Catholic church and the Government confronting. For the last three years, after securing a part of the nation's budget for their organization (something that no other officially registered religion, much less those non-registered, has achieved), Catholic hierarchy in Spain has been confronting the government either directly via their pastoral letters and speeches, or indirectly via the COPE Radio Broadcasting Network, which belongs to the Roman Catholic Church.

The last drop in this chain of events seems to have been a demonstration that Archbishops called to, held on December 30th, and to which Pink News makes wide reference. After such demonstration, officers of the government, as well as the prime minister himself, answered firmly, though not to the point of freezing the Church public budget. But, why Spain, precisely?

There may be two key reasons to stage some sort of war over power in Spain, from the Catholic Church standpoint: both intertwined and both dependant on each other. During the last decades, Catholic churches have been witnessing their own decay in Spain, which under Franco's dictatorship was one of the most Catholic nations of the world (practically, Sunday mass was sort of compulsory for every person). Even though key government and state officials still attend religious festivals, and the Royal Family keeps the tradition of marrying and baptizing their offspring inside the Roman Catholic Church, the majority of Spain's population is Catholic just namely, with little attendance to mass, and much less devotion. Though many people still want to marry in the church, a lot of persons have been dropping from weekly practice. Baptizing events, first communions, marriages are more a social event than anything religious. That perception, along with the promised educational budget which the Popular Party couldn't fulfill after being thrown out of the government in March 2004, and its consequent output of new, more secular education curricula for K-12 and High School, are putting the Catholic Church in a clear defensive position. They lose power every day.

But Ignacio Escolar points out another reason, much more important. The Vatican sees Spain as the key to Latin America, and if Spanish youth looses its religious commitment (Vatican means Catholic, of course), then it's quite likely that Latin American youth start demanding equal rights in the same way Spain implemented same sex marriage, abortion, divorce, and the like. That's why the battle for Spain is fierce. Not forgetting that in Latin America, Evangelical churches are gaining momentum.

The art of provocation

Times Online brings forth again a freedom of expression limits in the Netherlands. An Iranian artist has seemingly "photographed gay men wearing masks of the prophet Muhammad" and was "forced into hiding and her work removed from a museum exhibit." The journal says: "Speaking on the telephone from an unspecified location in the Netherlands last week, the artist, an Iranian exile who goes by the pseudonym of Sooreh Hera, said she had been threatened with “execution”. She accused the director of the municipal museum in The Hague of cowardice for caving in to Muslim extremists."

My opinion here is two-faceted. First of all, it looks exactly like any other art case involved with religion, no matter which religion: artists that, it appears to me, want to gain hype and recognition just by messing with, be it evangelicals, ultracatholics, islamists, or whatever other fundie religious group. That sort of publicity is free, and though we have in many cases advocated freedom of expression, I should say that, for all those cases and artists, it's a funny thing that you first go and choose your "art" subject then claim that you didn't intend to hurt no religious feeling. Of course you intended, Mr. and Mrs. Artist, and that's precisely where your possibilities of making the headline in The Times, the New York Times or whatever other respectable newspaper are. But you don't want to face the consequences of your action, huh?

Now in this case, there's a second lecture for us Muslims: just because someone claims that some given mask is that of Prophet Muhammad are we going to believe it? Where in the world is there any painting, drawing, or whatever, that accurately depicts which factions and appearance Prophet Muhammad had? Nowhere, right? So when any of these 15-minutes-of-fame-seekers claims that "the mask is that of the prophet Muhammad" how do they know? Because they had a revelation in a dream? Come on, brothers and sisters, if any of you is reading this: that's just provocation, and we'd better not respond to such gross intents. As for the "gay men" part, I didn't know till today that in the Netherlands, there was some sort of certificate that shows one's gay.

I could as well take a picture of someone wearing a mask of Daffy Duck and write over the photograph: "This is a gay man and the mask depicts prophet Elijah". And gain my 15 minutes of shame.

Technorati tags: Art of provocation, Netherlands, Wannabe artists

Recap of the year - Spain December 30

It was already by early December that the highest hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church called to a demonstration to be held on December 30th in Madrid. The motto of such mass movement, they said, was to promote Family.

Traditional catholic family, that is. Rouco Varela and other ultraconservative monsignori e prelatti dalla chiesa have been claiming, protesting and warning that divorce, abortion and same sex marriage only could lead to dismembration of the whole society, war, and destruction. If people were less read than we are today, Rouco would have possibly blamed famines, hurricanes, earthquakes and the whole War on Terror on same sex marriage. Not many of you, readers, may remember when cardinal Rouco claimed and shouted, just some months before July 2005, that the gates of Hell would literally open on Madrid if Spain dared to legalize same sex unions. But it's not just that issue today. Abortion (they claim to be pro-life but never moved a single finger to protest war or starvation), divorce (Roman Catholics would not recognize divorce, but the Church's got its own court where, if you have money enough, you can have your marriage removed), an educational reform introducing a new, much needed subject, Education for Citizenship, which Rouco and his adlatere find partisan and interested (they would instead teach the Roman Catholic Catechism, of course)... and their own political support for the most right-winged parties, that led to call for such a demonstration.

With invaluable support from autonomic authorities in Madrid, who are close to the Opus Dei or the Legion of Christ, the Spanish Roman Catholic Church staged a reunion of Catechism thumpers. Estimated figures ranged a lot depending on them being Church estimates, police estimates or whatever. Some people said there were more than 1 million people. According to an independent blog which took in charge making estimations for Madrid's demonstration, there were between 80,000 and 150,000 people in such demonstration. But don't worry, Jesus loves you, and will multiply demonstrators the same way he did with fish and bread.

Eventually, some intelligent guy said what must be said about such people. El Teleoperador writes, in Spanish, that:

Christians should be demanding for free abortion, for express divorce and for same sex marriage worldwide, because forbidding these things deprivates them (Christians) from proving the Lord the strenght of their faith. Christians should demand such rights first, then renounce them, and try to convice the rest of us to renounce too. That's what logic says, no? But of course which logic could be embedded within people who believe they can talk to doves?

Party for the Rights will be partying for all our rights extensively today, wishing you all a Happy New Year. Take good care, stay cool, keep safe, and do nothing we wouldn't party about.

Italian reparative therapy, and exorcising homosexuality out.

Via Vecchifroci I came to know about Davide Vari, an Italian journalist who posed as homosexual in order to enter religious "reparative" therapy circles. Though affiliated somehow with NARTH, the people involved in ex gay movements in Italy are also affiliated with the Catholic Church (Roman, that is), and Vari dissects the process and procedures of diagnosis and therapy in an article published in Liberatione, but also in his own blog. For those of you understanding Italian, this is the full text of its report. In brief, as I'm not really fluent in Italian, Davide posed as a gay man having had "full sexual relationships" with other men "both active and passive", and conducted a series of interviews with priests and psychologists, undergoing what he clearly describes as the Minnesota Test for purposes of measuring his degree of homosexuality, perceived in such circles as a deviation from natural law, perversion, or neurosis, depending on the interviewer.

Prompted by this article, Arcigay's president, Aurelio Mancuso, issued an statement asking to the proper Health institutions in Italy to watch carefully those reparative "therapies" and reminding that as of May 1990, the World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as disease and filed it into a natural variant of sexuality.

Of course, Catholics will not stay quiet about this statement, perceived as a direct attack to the Church: Catholic World News affirms that such WHO declassification of homosexuality was a success of The Homosexual Lobby — whenever I read "Homosexual Lobby" I can't help figuring out some sort of obscure and evil council of leather daddies, smoking cigars, plotting the conversion of all the world's children into gays and lesbians over a huge plasma round screen in the middle of an oval table. It might sound funny but it's the 21st century and you can't bring up again the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, can you? — plus defending their psychologists in the worst way they could to the eyes of a former Catholic: building their academic authority in their militancy with the Legionaries of Christ.

But on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, AlterNet offers an interesting interview with Scott Harrison, who

"desperately tried to change his sexual orientation in various "ex-gay" ministries for eight years, three of them as a ministry leader in Southern California. Most of his experience with ex-gay groups — Christian organizations that see homosexuality as a choice that can be changed with proper therapy — was with Living Waters and Desert Stream, two curricula of a national ex-gay network that has more than 80 branches today. When Harrison joined in 1982, he felt ex-gay ministers were then a band of compassionate outsiders attending to the first AIDS victims. But by the end of that decade, Harrison had taken note of the movement's increasing radicalism, symbolized for him by the minister at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in San Pedro, Calif., who performed an exorcism on him in an attempt to cast out the "demons" said to be the cause of his homosexuality. Harrison finally quit the movement in 1990 after deciding he could, after all, reconcile his sexuality with his Christian faith."

Technorati tags: Ex gay, Reparative therapy, Italy, Davide Vari

Janis Pujats, last addition to our Archbishop list

"Latvia's Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis resigned last week and the Archbishop of Riga Janis Pujats warned new candidates not to support LGBT related issues", Pink News informs. Therefore, the priest had himself to describe and define homosexuals and homosexuality as "total corruption in the sexual arena" and "an unnatural form of prostitution."

Wait a minute, a roman catholic talking about total corruption in the sexual area? Someone who allegedly has chosen to stay in celibacy for his whole life? What sort of sexual knowledge Mr Pujats have, to be able to pontify about what's good and bad for me and my fellow Latvian homosexuals? And since when the Chuch still has the right to crown a Prime Minister? Hey, Mr. Archbishop, this is the European Union!!

Technorati tags: Christianity and Homosexuality, Homophobia, Catholics and Politics

Brief note on Huckabee

Pink News headlines an article as "Huckabee challenged over attitude to gays" following the recent statements on his interview for GQ (see our former post) and some news about would-be Republican president had favored isolation for AIDS patients.

What I fail to see is why anybody on earth would challenge Mike Huckabee over his attitude to homosexuals, given that former Arkansas Governor has been also a preacher or something, is deeply and respectfully Christian (probably another born again) and therefore his attitude over gays, lesbians and homosexuality is plainly this: Homosexuality is a deadly sin, and homosexuals are abominations. Period. Let's face it, Huckabee's view is that, no other, no matter which kind soft lovely words he use to wrap that standpoint.

Technorati tags: Mike Huckabee, Christianity and Homosexuality, USA Politics

A plausible gay agenda?

After Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby accused the Anglican and Catholic archbishops of Sydney, Peter Jensen and George Pell, of making it hard for people to adopt a more tolerant attitude to gays, adding that homophobia and gay-bashing attitudes could come "from people's religious upbringing, reinforced even to this day by religious instruction, and it has to be said, religious instruction from the two archbishops of Sydney", one tends to review these statements on the light of the many news on homophobia worldwide, and at least me, conclude that the best gay agenda to be, if ever one, would surely be that of putting an end to every sort of religion in the world.

Technorati tags: Religion and Homosexuality, Gay agenda, Australia, Michael Kirby

Christian Double rule and Bias - More proof

Via The Age dot com, here's the latest proof that American Christians (and by extension Christians in general, and probably most religious clerks, priests, pastors,  bishops and hierarchy at large) use the principle of Freedom of Speech in their own and exclusive benefit: in other words, there must be freedom for them to speak but all other voices must remain silent:

Christian bookshops are refusing to stock copies of a new Bible study guide that challenges standard New Testament translations that describe gay sex as sinful.

A US distributor, God's Word to Women, has banned the Australian publication, and withdrawn another Bible translation published by the same NSW publishing house, Smith and Stirling, for promoting a lifestyle in contradiction of the scriptures.

Two American academics have asked that their endorsements be removed from other works by a classical Greek lexicographer, Ann Nyland, because of her authorship of the gay study Bible.

Australia's largest Christian retailer, Koorong, said it was unlikely to carry the Study New Testament for Gay, Lesbian, Bi, and Transgender if the content proves controversial.

"If the content proves controversial", that's the key. Controversial, not wrong or false. Just a little controversy and they shut you up. And they still are not ashamed to call themselves Christians. Not to mention that most of those "I have seen the light" preachers would claim to be more classical Greek savvy than any lexicographer or philologist, eh? Speaking in tongues, I think they call it.

Technorati tags: Christian hypocrisy, Biased and bigoted Christians, Christianity and Homosexuality, Homophobia

Tonsils and Homosexuality, a fascinating neuroscience issue

The Spanish political blogosphere is a bit revolted today especially on the leftist side because some woman named Cristina Lopez Schlichting pointed out on her radio space that "homosexuality can be cured". Nothing more, nothing less, this Spanish Ann Coulter wannabe has simply voiced in Spanish what many others have been doing in the USA for years.  Nacho Escolar links Dos Manzanas about the issue in a simple single sentence which says more or less: "Cristina Lopez Schlichting's got the answer (to the question: How to cure homosexuality). Neuroscience is back".

The most interesting part of Escolar post is not on Cristina, but on the Neuroscience side, which links to the transcription of a short interview aired by COPE radio station in 2005 during a demonstration by Family Forum (yes, even in the names Spaniard neocons copy Americans), originally published in Microsiervos. Among some other pearls, the woman interviewed stated her capabilities to give an opinion on homosexuality by saying that back when she was studying psychology, on the subject of Neuroscience there were texts making clear that "when animals have a gland injured, called tonsil, they develop homosexual tendencies, which are of course unnatural because when the seminal fluid enters the anus it can't procreate because all it finds is poopoo" — a more or less bad translation of her point against homosexuality (apart of her 8 children of course, and her blatant bigoted ultracatholicism that she failed to mention). For those of you understanding Spanish, don't miss the original links.

Technorati tags: Spanish neocons, Liberalism in Spain means ultracatholicism, Neuroscience Tonsils and Homosexuality, Abominations and Deadly Sins