Religion: The Driving Force Behind Anti-LGBT Bigotry

High school co-valedictorian discarded by parents for being gay.

When I belatedly came out of the closet in mid-life, my parents embraced me and supported and accepted me.  After my mother's death in 2011, I endowed a scholarship for graduating LGBT high school seniors in honor of my parents (donations can be made here).  One of the goals of the scholarship was/is to give financial support to students disowned by their "godly Christian" parents/families who value the myths and legends of unknown Bronze Age herders more than their own flesh and blood.  I have friends who suffered this fate and, as a story out of northeast Florida demonstrates the religious based hatred of gays and the discarding of children still stems from toxic "conservative" Christianity.  I remain convinced that causing LGBT children and youths to live in fundamentalist Christian homes is a form of child abuse.  Here are highlights on the travesty out of Florida (a gofundme page has been set up for this young man here - please consider donating): 

The 18-year-old First Coast High School co-valedictorian, student leader, athlete and extremely snappy dresser was supposed to spend his last summer at home, getting ready for college in the Ivy Leagues. Instead, he’s crashing with a bestie and preparing for his first semester at Georgetown University . . . . The more intriguing story, however, is how Seth came to be couch-surfing just months before graduating from high school. Unwinding that colorful, tangled yarn will make you want to cry, or scream.

See, in addition to all the other supposed-to’s, Seth Owen was supposed to be straight. The fact that he’s not has driven a wedge between him and his strict Baptist family who, as he tells Folio Weekly, have kicked him out of the house and refused to sign the financial aid package Georgetown put together, leaving Seth without the $20K he needs for tuition. Seth’s father, Randy Owen, denies kicking him out, and says that he’s willing to provide Seth with the same assistance as the family has done for his brother. “I made it very clear to him that he was not being kicked out, that he would have to make a decision … . We worship as a family. He would be going to church if he lived in our home,” he says. . . . and says he was not aware before a reporter told him that Seth is gay, though he did admit to seeing “a video of him kissing another boy” roughly a year-and-a-half ago.

He plans to study international politics, then attend law school (naturally), after which, he says, he’s leaning toward a career fighting for juvenile justice.

The subject is more than a passing interest; for his college entrance essay, Seth wrote about child marriage. “I think that’s what got me into Georgetown,” he says. His commitment to the subject is also what he says finally, after years of conflict about his homosexuality, cleaved him from family hearth and home.

The niggling awareness that he wasn’t drawn to the opposite sex began when Seth was just a tot. In childhood, he’d sit in the pews and absorb restrictive sermons and lessons, following along obediently as a good boy does, while deep in his heart, he didn’t agree with some of the lessons being imparted.

Seth says that his parents discovered evidence that he is gay a few years ago while searching his phone. Not wanting to hurt them, in his early youth, he’d tried to convince himself that he was “straight with some issues,” but by then, the closet was only a place he knew at home and in church.

Afterward, he says, they attempted conversion therapy—though no one specifically called it that, it was obvious this was the intent. For a few months, Seth says a counselor tried to help him pray the gay away, encouraging him to partake in stereotypical straight masculine behaviors, like fixing up an old car, or watching straight pornography. His father characterizes it as typical, not conversion, therapy, and says that neither parent knew what Seth discussed with his therapist. . . . eventually, the therapy stopped and the family went back to the way things had been before—pretending.

But now that the truth had come out once, going back into hiding proved almost more difficult for Seth, who says he felt “extremely comfortable” with his sexuality among his peers. Nevertheless, he lived a double life: out at school, closeted at home. “I can remember driving home and being in tears because I had to put on a mask,” he says.

In February, during one of those more tranquil times, Seth was sitting in a pew at church as usual, listening to the sermon, when a switch flipped inside him. The sermon was about children being required to obey their parents regardless of the circumstances. Someone in the congregation asked the question on Seth’s mind: ‘What if the parents are abusing the child? Must they still obey?’ ‘Yes,’ was the response.

This was a bridge too far. “It was that comment about the little girl, that she would have to sit there and take this abuse,” Seth says. Later, Seth says he confronted his family. The conversation ended with Seth giving them an ultimatum: He’d go to any church they want, but not that one. It did not go over.

Since then, he stayed with a few friends and mentors before settling in with a close friend for the summer. And he’s remained in communication with his family, who also attended his graduation. It’s obvious when he talks that he still loves and respects them; he’s just no longer willing to be anything but his authentic self for their benefit—even though in his case, it’s more about his principles as they apply to the treatment of others than it is about his sexuality.

On June 18, another of his teachers launched a GoFundMe page to help the young man pay tuition and expenses. Though as of this writing, the fundraiser is well short of its $20,000 goal, the smart money’s on the perseverance of Seth Owen. To borrow a line from his valedictorian speech, “Because of our struggles and life circumstances, we know that we are strong enough, and we are resilient enough to overcome anything and to accomplish everything on which we set our sights.”

Living in the closet is soul killing.  I know, I did it for 37 years, tried to "pray away the gay" and tried suicide twice. Kudos to Seth. Shame on his parents.  Fundamentalist religion is truly a toxic evil that needs to be eliminated from the Earth.

Seven Things One Needs to Know About Transgender Persons

I often have little good to say about conservative religious beliefs given the hate and division they inspire.  I often have even less good to say about Baptists in particular.  The general mindset of these Christofasists is exemplified by modern day Pharisee Franklin Graham whose latest message of hatred and division is that conservative Christians should be willing to die rather than give into accepting transgender rights and individuals.  Thus my shock and surprise to find a reasoned piece at Baptist News that looks at a pastor's efforts to educate himself and others as to the medical and scientific truths of what being transgender means and entails.  Even more shocking - but in  a pleasant way - is his statement that who is to say that the transgendered are not "made in the image of God."  Here are highlights of this piece that ought to be required reading for the falsely pious "godly folks":

I don’t know much about transgender issues, but I’m trying to learn. . . . But with the help of a pediatrician friend and a geneticist friend, I’m listening and trying to learn. This is hard, though, because understanding the transgender experience seems so far outside what I have ever contemplated before. And the more I learn, the more theological questions I face as well. This is hard, even for a pastor.

Here’s some of what I’m learning from my friends who have experience as medical professionals dealing with real people and real families:

1. Even though LGBT gets lumped together in one tagline, the T is quite different than the LG and B. “Lesbian,” “gay” and “bisexual” describe sexual orientation. “Transgender” describes gender identity. These are not the same thing. Sexual orientation is about whom we feel an attraction to and want to mate with; gender identity is about whether we identify as male or female.

2. What you see is not always what you get. For the vast majority of humanity, the presence of male or female genitalia corresponds to whether a person is male or female. What you see is what you are. But for a small part of humanity (something less than 1 percent), the visible parts and the inner identity do not line up. For example, it is possible to be born with male genitalia but female chromosomes or vice versa. And now brain research has demonstrated that it also is possible to be born with female genitalia, female chromosomes but a male brain. Most of us hit the jackpot upon birth with all three factors lining up like cherries on a slot machine: Our anatomy, chromosomes and brain cells all correspond as either male or female. But some people are born with variations in one or two of these indicators.

3. Stuff happens at birth that most of us never know. It’s not an everyday occurrence but it’s also not infrequent that babies are born with ambiguous or incomplete sexual anatomy. In the past, surgeons often made the decision about whether this child would be a boy or a girl, based on what was the easiest surgical fix. Today, much more thought is given to these life-changing decisions.

4. Transgender persons are not “transvestites.” Far too many of us make this mix-up, in part because the words sound similar and we have no real knowledge of either. Cross-dressers, identified in slang as “transvestites,” are people (typically men) who are happy with their gender but derive pleasure from occasionally dressing like the opposite gender. Cross-dressing is about something other than gender identity.

5. Transgender persons are not pedophiles. The typical profile of a pedophile is an adult male who identifies as heterosexual and most likely even is married. There is zero statistical evidence to link transgender persons to pedophilia.

6. Transgender persons hate all the attention they’re getting. The typical transgender person wants desperately not to attract attention. All this publicity and talk of bathroom habits is highly disconcerting to people who have spent their lives trying not to stand out or become the center of attention.

7. Transgender persons are the product of nature much more than nurture. Debate the origins of homosexuality if you’d like and what role nature vs. nurture plays. But for those who are transgender, nature undeniably plays a primary role. According to medical science, chromosomal variances occur within moments of conception, and anatomical development happens within the nine months in the womb. There is no nature vs. nurture argument, except in cases of brain development, which is an emerging field of study.

This last point in particular raises the largest of theological questions. If Christians really believe every person is created in the image of God, how can we damn a baby who comes from the womb with gender dysphoria? My pediatrician friend puts it this way: “We must believe that even if some people got a lower dose of a chromosome, or an enzyme, or a hormonal effect, that does not mean that they got a lower dose of God’s image.”

Would that the Christofascists and their eager political whores within the Republican Party would bother to educate themselves as this Dallas, Texas pastor is endeavoring to do.  Kudos to the piece's author.

Why Are the Deeply Religious So Obsessed with Sex?

One thing that binds right wing evangelical Protestants and right wing Roman Catholics is their obsession with all things sexual - especially sex that involves pleasure.  A piece in Salon has excerpts

from the book "The Illusion of God's Presence" that looks at looks at religion's obsession with sex.

One of the book's conclusions is that  the deeply religious suffer from what might be called stunted emotional development - infantile emotions, if you will.  This explains not only their obsession with sex which on the one hand they view as vile and dirty even as they desperately want to indulge in it, but also their fear of thinking for themselves and a desire to be able to "check off the boxes" to prove their future in Heaven.  The end result is a schizophrenic approach to sex where while condemning sex and matters sexual, both the Catholic clergy and conservative Protestant clergy engage in much higher than average levels of sexual abuse and infidelity.  Here are highlights:

Why does the creator of this infinitely vast universe care so much about what we do with our sexual organs as adults? Why is lust considered sinful? Why was Jesus born of a virgin, and, according to Catholics, his mother also? Why did the early Shakers not only practice celibacy, but also dance naked? Why do religious fundamentalists oppose not only abortion, but also the most effective means of pre­venting it, contraception? Why do televangelists rant about the evils of adultery, pornography, masturbation, fornication, and homosexuality, only to be caught with their pants down doing exactly those things? Why is religion so obsessed with sex?

As the core of a believer’s religious love of God, the innate model colors religious experience with infantile emotions. The more intensely pious the believer becomes, however, the greater the risk that these emotions will spill over into other parts of the evolutionary hack. The sparks really fly when the infantile emotions of religious fervor breach the levee and pour into sexual territory.

Perhaps this is to be expected, considering that novitiates are told that their celibate life to come is the price paid for the privilege of being wedded to Christ. But celibate nuns are not the only ones whose image of God is painted in sexual hues. . . .

The big problem here is that, despite this intrusion of the sexual, religious emotion remains primarily infantile, with God normally in the role of a greatly exalted parent. Sexual feelings for this parental figure therefore activate the incest-avoidance system, an innate mechanism that generates feelings of disgust and revulsion at the prospect of sex with close kin. . . .  The predictable result of this conflict is an obsession with controlling or prohib­iting sexual behavior, coupled with an almost irresistible drive to violate those prohibitions. How these people deal with this conflict—as individuals and as religious institutions—determines the variously entertaining or tragic manifestations of sexual obsession in religion.

If these ideas are right, then we should expect sexual misbehavior among the clergy to be significantly greater than in comparable secular professions, and several studies bear this out. Two surveys of predominantly male American Protestant ministers found that more than 12 percent of respondents admitted to having sexual intercourse with a member of their congregation other than their spouse. This is roughly double the incidence of sexual intercourse with clients committed by male clinical psychologists and physicians. The studies also hint at a more general problem of sexual conflict, guilt, and obsession. One of them found that 37 percent of Protestant ministers admit to the vague sin of “sexual behavior inappropriate for a minister.” Responses to other questions in the study suggest that at least some of these transgressions involve sexual fantasy, viewing pornography, and masturbating in private—acts of negligible consequence or moral weight in the broader society.

The pastors, however, see it differently. Their religiously warped view of human sexuality is especially evident in “The War Within,” an account of one Protestant pastor’s tormented struggle with lust, published anonymously in a journal for Protestant clergy. Although he was married and regularly had sex with his wife, the author tells a sad tale of his obsession with various aspects of sexuality off-limits to good Christians. . . . He mentions only in passing a “repressed childhood” that may have contributed to his obsession with lust, but beyond that glimmer of insight he appears utterly blinded by his religious worldview to the essence of his problem: lust is healthy and normal, but a religious obsession with it is not. “

The most obvious culprit here is the Catholic obsession with the sinfulness of sex for pleasure, especially homosexual sex, along with a peculiar sexual proscrip­tion for clergy: celibacy. Intentionally or not, the celibate priesthood specifically attracts applicants who are at best confused or conflicted about their sexuality, and at worst deliberately seek positions conducive to sexual exploitation of the vulnerable. . . . . Aside from being an ineffec­tive sham, the doctrine of celibacy for the priesthood apparently attracts young Catholic homosexual men, either as a means of suppressing a sexual orientation they perceive as evil, or—in certain Catholic subcultures—as a safe venue for hooking up with other gays.

That struggle takes a darker turn among Catholic clergy, who are disproportionately likely to sexually abuse vulnerable children and adolescents. Catholic apol­ogists deny this, often citing a study that found that only 4 percent of Catholic priests sexually abuse minors. They argue that this is the same as in the general male population, implicitly suggesting that there is no special relationship between Catholicism and the sexual abuse of children. There are, however, several problems with this rationalization. One is that other studies find higher rates of child sexual abuse in the Catholic clergy, over 5 percent, and even that is likely to be an underes­timate given the reluctance of victims to come forward and the intense effort by the Catholic hierarchy to protect offending priests and cover up the scandal. Another problem is the specious comparison to the general male population. The Catholic Church claims to be a high moral authority—God’s representative on Earth—and its clergy are supposedly transformed by God into a special state of sanctity. If this were true, we should expect exemplary behavior from Catholic priests, especially with respect to the sexual abuse of innocent children, one of the most odious crimes imaginable.

If the Catholic Church really were what it claims to be, the incidence of child sexual abuse by priests should be zero.

These insights suggest some obvious fixes for the problem of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy:

·        drop the requirement of celibacy;

·        allow women into the priesthood;

·        eliminate the ritual of confession for children and adolescents;

·        accept homosexuality as a natural dimension of human sexuality.

Thus, the ultimate irony is that those who are the most screwed up emotionally and in terms of normal sexual/psychological want to be the ones to advise and control others in all things sexual.  It's like putting the patients in control of the insane asylum. 

Lynchburg Area "Christian" School Expells 8 Year Old Girl for Being Perceived as Gay

When one heads southwestward in Virginia, once you pass Charlottesville, with the exception of Roanoke, much of the state is little better than "Deliverance" county.  Oh, it is scenically beautiful and all of that, but much of the population gives socially backwards and ignorant a new meaning.  Among this sea of backwardness is nestled Timberlake, Virginia, south of Lynchburg - is Lynchburg a world of batshitery in its own right since it is the home of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University - which is the home of Timberlake Christian School.  The school rightly finds itself the butt of news coverage across the country after 8 year old Sunnie Kahle (pictured above) was expelled for being perceived as being gay because she doesn't dress with the requisite amount of femininity.  Decent, moral people would be embarrassed to be affiliated with such a school, but since this region of Virginia is a Republican stronghold, ignorance and bigotry are worn like a badge of honor.  CBS12.com has coverage.  Here are details:

Sports, sneakers, and short hair; it's what makes 8-year-old Sunnie Kahle unique. It's also what had her removed from Timberlake Christian School. Her grandparents pulled the plug on her time there after they said she was no longer welcome.

The family received a letter telling them that if their eight year old granddaughter didn't follow the school's "biblical standards," that she'd be refused enrollment next year. She's out and in public school now.

Sunnie Kahle has short hair and a huge heart, and as far as her grandparents are concerned, she is a completely normal little girl.

"She cries every morning to get on the bus, she cries when she comes home because she wants to go back to Timberlake Christian with her friends," said Doris Thompson.

Doris and Carroll Thompson are Sunnie's grandparents. They adopted and raised the little girl and took her out of Timberlake Christian School when they received a letter from the school's K-8 Principal.

"You're probably aware that Timberlake Christian School is a religious, Bible believing institution providing education in a distinctly Christian environment," read Doris from a part of the letter.

The letter goes on to say that students have been confused about whether Sunnie is a boy or girl and specifies that administrators can refuse enrollment for condoning sexual immorality, practicing a homosexual lifestyle or alternative gender identity.

The letter goes on to reference specific Bible verses that affirm these beliefs.  The letter reads in part, "We believe that unless Sunnie as well as her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity, that TCS is not the best place for her future education."

An administrator from Timberlake Christian, said the problem with Sunnie goes "far beyond her hair length" and that the little girl is a good student, but that "things disturbed the classroom environment."

Not surprisingly, the school is affiliated with Timberlake Baptist Church and appears to have ties to Liberty University as well. If one wants to know why Southwest Virginia is stagnating and cannot attract new businesses, look no farther than Timberlake Christian School. 

Two Alabama Cities Top List of Porn-Loving "Religious Places"

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Feel the Love: Your Friendly GOP State Senator and a Pastor Advocating Death to Gays

The hate and utter vileness of the "godly Christian" folk is at times frightening.  During the last week this blog looked at the anti-gay bullying induced suicide of a 14 year old Iowa boy.  Just days later Republican Iowa State Senator Dennis Guth went on an anti-gay tirade on the opening day of the Iowa legislature as a Queerty article reports in part here:

“The media, for the most part, has bamboozled us into thinking that having a relationship outside of the boundaries of monogamous, heterosexual marriage is positive, happy and fulfilling,” Guth said. “Movies, television shows, articles and magazines abound with this theme, giving partial information to vulnerable audience: our children.”

“There are health risks that my family incurs because of the increase of sexually transmitted infections that this [gay] lifestyle invites. For example, there are more and more medical tests required before giving blood or giving birth.”  .   .   .   .  “It saves lives to have honest communication not only about the sexually transmitted diseases that shorten lifespans, but also about the deep loneliness that accompanies a life based on youth, beauty and sex.”

Where does this hate, venom and flat out untruths come from?  The church pulpits, of course.  And dishonest "family values" organizations that are increasingly nothing short of hate groups.  But back to the poison spread from the church pulpits.  The Advocate has an article from last year that captures the viciousness well.  The particular case highlighted involves Pastor Charles Worley (pictured above) of, Providence Road Baptist Church, in Maiden, North Carolina, but the toxic message is repeated from pulpits all across America.  Here are highlights from The Advocate piece that look at Worley's call for gays and lesbians to be place in concentration camp and left to die:

Pastor Charles Worley of Maiden, N.C.'s Providence Road Baptist Church recently told his congregation that lesbians and "queers" should be rounded up, placed in camps with electrified fencing, and left to die.

Worley believes that placing gays in camps will ensure homosexuality dies out since gays "don't reproduce." Worley isn't apologizing for his sermon, saying,"We offer NO apologies in believing the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. If you live in this area or are ever passing through, I invite you to come visit with us at Providence Road Baptist Church."

If anyone publicly and proudly advocated for the murder of blacks, Jews, and others, decent people would walk away.  But not your Christofascists.  They congratulate themselves on their piety and "godliness" as they call for the death of other citizens.    There is a reason why I call these folks the Christian Taliban.  They are evil and decent people need to ostracize them and have nothing to do with them.

   

Another Baptist Pastor Wants Gays Killed - - Hate is Something Taught and Learned

The hate and venom spewing forth from "godly Christians" - particularly Baptists if one is counting - in the wake of Barack Obama's endorsement of same sex marriage is down right chilling.   Blogger friend Jeremy Hooper at Good As You has coverage of yet another Baptist pastor stating that gays should be killed in a sermon entitled "The Curse of Homosexuality" that the "loving pastor" delivered over the weekend.  The money quotes of Curtis Knapp (at left), pastor of Seneca, Kansas' New Hope Baptist Church:

"Oh, so you're saying we should go out and start killing them? No, I'm saying the government should. They won't, but they should."

Another quote :

One of the most glaring signs of our need for a national revival in America is the increasing acceptance of homosexuality. According to Romans 1, God reveals His wrath on mankind by giving people over to homosexuality as a just judgment on their idolatry. America has rejected the One True God. 

And then this longer quote via Towleroad:

"They should be put to death. That's what happened in Israel. That's why homosexuality wouldn't have grown in Israel. It tends to limit conversions. It tends to limit people coming out of the closet. — 'Oh, so you're saying we should go out and start killing them, no?' — I'm saying the government should. They won't but they should. [You say], 'oh, I can't believe you you're horrible. You're a backwards neanderthal of a person.' Is that what you're calling scripture? Is God a neanderthal backwards.. in his morality. Is it his word or not? If it's his word, he commanded it. It's his idea, not mine. And I'm not ashamed of it."

The audio is here: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=527121350272 (at least until it's removed).

It's impossible not wondering how someone can become so consumed with hatred towards other human beings.  People that the hate merchant doesn't even know.   The answer is easy: it is taught and learned as demonstrated by this post at Joe.My.God entitled "Four Year-Old Church Singer Performs Ain't No Homos Gonna Make It To Heaven." Joe's reaction:

Christian Love: It's apparently an actual song and not only did they teach it to a four year-old, they proudly brought him up to the pulpit to perform it, generating whoops and a standing ovation from the congregation. Praise! Glory! Hit the link for the video if you can bear it.

This is nothing less than child abuse.  I truly want nothing to do with the title "Christian" if it means being even remotely deemed affiliated in any way with these horrible people.

Feel the "Love" - NC Baptist Pastor Wants Fence In, Starve And Kill Gays

As a number of media outlets have been reporting, a Baptist pastor Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, North Carolina, announced in a sermon that he had a solution to the "gay problem" - build a large electrified fence, pen us in and "eventually we'll die."  Sadly, Pastor Charles L. Worley (pictured above) horrific statements are pretty much what passes for "Christian love" nowadays.  At least among the Bible beating, Kool-Aid drinking "godly Christian" set.  It's little wonder that the so many of the "Millennial generation" are leaving organized Christianity in droves.  Towleroad, The Advocate and the New Civil Rights Movement look at Worley and the face of today's conservative Christianity.  Here are highlights from The New Civil Rights Movement:

North Carolina Pastor Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church is calling for the mass murder of the world’s homosexuals, as he told his congregation Sunday he had mused about how to kill of the entire gay population. Pastor Worley told his parishioners that he wants to airlift and drop all “lesbians” and all “queers and homosexuals” into an electrified fenced-in area so they can die out. “You know why? Because they can’t reproduce.”

“Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there,” Pastor Worley says, as his sermon builds. ”Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out…and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out…do you know why? They can’t reproduce!”

The “pastor” also said “God’s again’ it,” referring to same-sex marriage, and, homosexuals and/or same-sex sexual relations make him “pukin’ sick.”

If you'd like to share your thoughts with the bigots and would be genocidal murderers at Providence Road Baptist, here's the contact information (they scrubbed their website):

Providence Road Baptist Church
3283 Providence Mill Rd
Maiden, NC 28650
Telephone#: 828-428-2518; Fax#: 828-428-3358
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 507
Maiden, NC 28650
Contact List:
Pastor Charles L. Worley - email: pastor@prbcnc.com
Missions Director - email: missions@prbcnc.com
Missionary Pastor - email: pastorvictor@prbcnc.com
Youth Director - email: youth@prbcnc.com
Secretary - email: secretary@prbcnc.com

Here's a clip of Worley's horrible statements:

Anchorage Voters Reject Gay Rights Protections

In yet another example of the constant message of inferiority and bigotry that LGBT citizens still receive across much of the country on a daily basis, voters in the City of Anchorage, Alaska, have kicked LGBT residents to the curb and voted down measure that that would have extended basic civil rights protections to gays. We hear constantly about anti-gay bullying in schools, but that pales in comparison to this type of message - or that being spewed by GOP presidential candidates. And we wonder why gay youth have such a disproportionately high suicide rate? And it should come as no surprise that those who opposed the measure were those self-congratulatory hate merchants of the "godly Christian" set. It's enough to make one want to vomit. Here are highlights from the New York Times:

On Tuesday, supporters of gay rights in the city [of Anchorage], Alaska’s largest, took the issue out of the mayor’s hands — but the end result was the same. In a citywide ballot measure, voters overwhelmingly rejected language, known as Proposition 5, that would have added protections for people regardless of “sexual orientation or transgender identity” to the city’s civil rights laws.

The vote followed an unusually loud and expensive campaign for a city ballot measure in Anchorage. The organizers of Proposition 5, a group called One Anchorage, included prominent politicians from both sides of the aisle (Alaska’s United States senators, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat, both said they supported it), and the group outspent the opposition more than 4 to 1.

Opposition was led by conservative religious leaders in Alaska, including within the Roman Catholic Church, and was financed largely by one source, the Anchorage Baptist Temple and its leader, the Rev. Jerry Prevo.

Opponents ran ads suggesting various situations a new law would create, including one in which a church would not be able to prevent a cross-dresser from working in its day care center.

“It’s basically just a way to still be homophobic but just use different language,” Julia O’Malley, a columnist for The Anchorage Daily News, said in an interview. “That’s really what this debate is about. It hasn’t changed.”

Once again, the promise of freedom of religion for all and equal protection under the law in America is shown to be an utter lie and farce. There are days that this country utterly disgusts me.

New SPLC Designated Anti-Gay Hate Groups Earned The Hate Group Label

In previous posts I have noted some of the new Southern Poverty Law Center registered anti-gay hate groups, but it is worthwhile knowing about the entire list of new inductees to be properly on guard against the lies and poison that they disseminate. Think Progress notes that the advances in gay rights - obviously in places other than Virginia where there have been few advances - seems to have energized the haters. Here's a summary of the eleven new inductees into the hall of shame via Think Progress:

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identifies 27 active anti-gay hate groups, up from 17 in 2010. Sadly, the 11 groups new to this list from last year richly deserved the dubious honor. They are:

United Families International (Gilbert, AZ): This group backed the sodomy laws ruled unconstitutional in the Lawrence v. Texas case and has argued “No one is ‘born that way.’ Policies that would normalize homosexuality by equating homosexual behavior with innate characteristics such as race or ethnicity should be opposed.”

Save California (Sacramento, CA): The group is leading the charge to repeal California’s FAIR Education Act, hoping to stop teachers from “kidnapping the brains of kids” by teaching about the contributions of LGBT Americans. Save California’s head, Randy Thomasson, blamed a bullied and murdered gay teen for his own death.

Sons of Thundr (Faith Baptist Church) (Luthersville, GA): The church’s website features a “sodomites can be saved” section which claims “ALL HOMOS ARE: SICK, BRAIN DAMAGED, PERVERTS!”

You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide (Annandale, MN): Bradlee Dean, the group’s president and CEO, has said, “The gay ‘movement’ is part of a sexual revolution that has stripped sexuality of all moral significance for an entire generation. We cannot accept the physical prosecution of homosexuals and we cannot accept the proposal that homosexuality is either private or moral,” but notes he is opposed to actually executing LGBT citizens.

Parents Action League (Champlin, MN): A small group of parents in the bullying-riddled Anoka-Hennepin School District want to require schools to teach that AIDS is a gay disease and to promote harmful and ineffective ex-gay therapy.

Jewish Political Action Committee (Brooklyn, NY): This group claims that marriage equality in New York State has created a “surge” of child molestation and distributes signs that say “G-d sent AIDS to punish male gays.”

Mission: America (Columbus, OH): Lead by Linda Harvey, who has been dubbed “the most homophobic woman in America,” this group has discouraged the hiring of gay and lesbian employees and claimed that “there is no proof” that gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered people even exist.

Windsor Hills Baptist Church (Oklahoma City, OK): The church’s pastor, Tom Vineyard, argued against an employment non-discrimination proposal by making the bizarre claim that half of all murders in large cities are by gay people.

True Light Pentecost Church (Spartanburg, SC): On the church’s blog, it warns that “The sub-human culture created by the anti-christ and magnified by the Sodomite/Lesbian movement,” has “brought end-time prophecy to a final state,” and encourages followers to “fight the great sodomite/lesbian army.”

Tom Brown Ministries (El Paso, TX): Pastor and exorcist Tom Brown led the charge in El Paso to rescind an employment non-discrimination law he felt was “condoning immorality.” He also preaches that “homosexuality is actually an emotional, psychological disorder brought on early in childhood.”

Public Advocate of the United States (Falls Church, VA): Run by Loudoun County, Virginia Supervisor Eugene Delguaido (R), this group is infamous for its over-the-top anti-gay fundraising letters, including comments like, “As homosexuals die off due to AIDS, the remaining AIDS carriers prey on children to replenish the ‘Homosexual Community.’”

The common thread among these groups, of course, is the dissemination of deliberate lies and untruths and efforts to create anti-gay animus. The lies and claims based on junk science or worse endeavor to depict LGBT citizens as diseased sexual predators who prey on "recruiting" children and more. These untruths have nothing to do with legitimate statements of religious belief and everything to do with cause hate and potential anti-gay violence.

Quote of the Day - Bob Felton on Anti-Gay Christians

North Carolina blogger Bob Felton (who is straight, by the way) is a frequent critic of the deliberate embracing of ignorance which is increasingly the norm among conservative Christians - and their allies in the GOP. I'm with Felton and believe knowledge and science need to trump Bible based ignorance and bigotry. In commenting on a "debate" going on in certain Southern Baptist circles on the issue of homosexuality, Bob sums up the issue in a pointed way. Here's a portion of his commentary:

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The more complicated truth is that science hasn’t quite determined how homosexual desire arises. There is sound, statistically significant evidence that females are more fecund (have more babies) in family lines in which a homosexual male occurs; that points toward genetics. There is evidence that the pre-natal chemistry of the womb influences orientation. And there are millennia of anecdotal observations addressing family psychology and dynamics. The truth is probably that the object/orientation of sexual desire is shaped by the aggregate weight of multiple influences. * What nobody can deny is that homosexuality is found throughout the animal kingdom, where there are no pre-natal doctor visits and, especially amongst non-mammals, there are less complicated psychological influences. * So the “in-house” discussion proceeds by ignoring the established biological facts and relying, instead, on the ‘inerrant‘ Bible. No wonder it’s so hard to have a sensible conversation with this crowd; they’re living in their very own personal reality.
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More folks need to call out the Christianists on a virtually daily basis and challenge their "deeply held beliefs" and expose them for what they are - bigotry based on chosen ignorance and a conscious rejection of fact. They are free to hold their beliefs, but those beliefs should have ZERO influence on the civil rights of other citizens.

Ex-Baptist Pastor Fighting Extradition for Murder Charge

Other than the Mormon Church and the Roman Catholic Church probably one of the most homophobic U.S. denominations is the conservative and fundamentalist element of the Baptist Church. Much like the Catholic Church, these Baptists would be well advised to do some internal house cleaning as opposed to focusing efforts on demonizing and marginalizing LGBT Americans. Thus, from time to time it's nice - OK, outright fun - to expose just how rotten things are in some Baptist parishes. A story in the Los Angeles Times suggests that Albert Mohler and other pontificating Baptist preachers have far bigger things they should be doing besides being professional homophobes. Illicit sex and murder, plus embezzlement - sounds like an afternoon soap opera, but apparently that's what was the norm at New Hope Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri, under ex-pastor David Love. Here are some story highlights:
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Former Independence pastor David Love, being held in a South Carolina jail on first-degree murder charges in the death of his lover's husband, is fighting his extradition to Jackson County. . . . Love was arrested on Tuesday in Spartansburg, South Carolina, where he moved not long after Stone's murder.
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On Wednesday, Love refused to waive extradition. Prosecutors say that they have obtained a governor's warrant that will force the former pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church to return to Missouri to face charges.
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According to Stone's relatives, Love had a 10-year affair with Stone's wife, Teresa Stone, and had confessed to the woman the day after Stone's funeral, in which Love gave the eulogy.
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David Love, a friend of Randy Stone who happens to share the same name as the suspected killer, says that he still can't believe that Love gave the eulogy at Stone's funeral. . . . David Love says that he's not sure what motivated the killing, but says that he heard rumors that Stone was the treasurer at New Hope Baptist Church and may have been about to blow the lid on financial shenanigans at the church. "He discovered that things were not all on the up and up," said David Love, who says that he was happy to hear that an arrest in the murder had finally happened.
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Yep, less Bible thumping and less gay bashing would seem to be in order at New Hope Baptist and many other Baptist churches.

Feel the Christian "Love" - Pastor Advocates for "Hunt a Homo Week"

The anti-gay hatred preached by alleged Christians is sometimes frightening to hear. While they often claim to "love the sinner, but hate the sin," that false message is bullsh*t and serves only to mask an insane level of hatred. A case in point is Baptist Pastor Jeff Owens of Shenandoah Bible Baptist Church in Martinsburg, West Virginia. It's pretty difficult to misinterpret the good pastor's statements in a video sermon that fortunately was captured by Joe Jervis at Joe By God before it was taken down to hide the evidence against Owens. As Dan Savage reports, Pastor Owens favors the murder of gays. Here are some highlights from Dan's blog:
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In this sermon Pastor Owens lovingly and compassionately calls on his flock to terrorize and murder gays and lesbians:
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Shenandoah Baptist Church's Pastor Jeff Owens: BURN AND SHOOT FAGS! from Joe Jervis on Vimeo.

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We need to stop burning flags and start burning fags. We need hunt-a-homo week. We need to take 'em all out and shoot 'em with a scatter shotgun: that's Christian compassion for you all right. Now for all you moderate Christians offended by this sort of thing—by Owens' sermon, by my posting about it—if you want to tell anyone that Owens doesn't speak for all Christians, go tell Owens. I'm sick of hearing it, frankly, and Owens needs to hear it.
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Listen to that sermon again—listen to Pastor Owens crank up his congregation, listen to Jesus's followers scream and cheer when their loving, compassionate pastor encourages them to get out there and murder gays and lesbians. That's the kind of rally—so Nuremburgish—that gets innocent people killed. Listen to that sermon again. And then give the vile piece of shit a call: 304-263-3461.
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The quotes above are verbatim, and not "taken out of context." I don't know how you could put "we need to stop burning flags and start burning fags" in a context that makes it less of an incitement to commit a hate crime. Also: in the deleted clip Pastor Owens used some of the same language and arguments he made in his sodomy sermon: we need to shove this sin back in the closet, gay people wouldn't be coming out at all if more Christians stood up to them.
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Once again, I cannot help but think the world might be a far better place if it were rid of all self-anointed "Godly Christians." These people are anything but decent or Christian for that matter.