The Fruits of Religion: Mother Stabs Son to Death for Being Gay

Some people wonder why I find myself increasingly hostile towards religion, especially fundamentalist Christianity.  The  recent murder of a 17 year old teen boy in Brazil (pictured above) demonstrates the manner in which Christianity all too often justifies hatred and violence against others. Yes, Islam carries a similar hatred of gays as well.  The irony, of course, is that both Islam and Christianity derive their anti-gay animus from the Jewish Old Testament. As the book "The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies,", the end product of over ten years of historical research, documents, the harsh condemnation of homosexuality in Western society is a relatively recent phenomenon, unique among world societies throughout history, and that the spread on anti-gay animus and homophobia around the globe was the result of the efforts of Christian missionaries.   Stated another way, take away religious doctrine and homophobia and anti-gay hatred go away.   Yes, there are some "good Christians," but most do far too little to oppose their anti-gay co-religionists.  A piece in LGBTQ Nation looks at the horrific murder of Itaberli Lozano in two pieces, one here and the other here.  Here are excerpts:

A 32-year-old supermarket manager from a town near Sao Paolo, Brazil, confessed to stabbing her 17-year-old gay son Itaberli Lozano to death last week.  The body was found a week after the murder, burned and buried in a cane field.

The mother, Tatiana Lozano Pereira, 32, claims that Lozano used drugs and brought men home. The teen’s uncle Dario Rosa denies that, saying that Lozano was hard-working and educated, according to G1. Rosa believes that Lozano Pereira killed her son because he was gay and says that this is the first time she accused her son of drug use.

Her story changed when it was found that in December Lozano reported his mother to local authorities. He also posted a message on Facebook on December 26th accusing his mother of hiring several boys to beat him.

Last Friday, two teens were arrested in connection with the Lozano’s murder. They confessed that they were hired to attack Lozano, but they claim that it was the mother who stabbed her son to death in the end. She says she hired them to give her son “a lesson” and that when she saw that her son was dying, she stabbed him because she thought it was better to end his life, according to Blasting News.

Prosecutor Wanderley Baptista of Trindade Junior says the crime was committed because of homophobia. He cites a December 27th Facebook post from Itaberli where the teen says he was beaten by his mother for being gay and kicked out of her home. Itaberli’s uncle also says that the boy was murdered for his sexuality.

Carolina Aram, a lawyer with Brazilian Bar Association’s Commission on Sexual Diversity, said she has evidence that homophobia was the motivation behind the crime that she obtained from neighbors, and that Itaberli had already been the victim of a homophobic hate crime, according to G1. She will deliver the evidence to the judge.

Take a good look at Itaberli's face.  He died because of religious based hate.  While most parents fundamentalist Christians do not murder their children, let's not forget that 40% of homeless teens are LGBT, many thrown out of their homes by their "godly" parents. Fundamentalist religion, be it Christian or Muslim, is a surge on mankind that needs to be eradicated from the face of the Earth.

Shooter's Father Dishonestly Claims Killings Had Nothing to Do With Religion

UPDATED: the shooter in last nights slaughter of 50 innocent people last night called 911 as the massacre began and pledged allegiance to ISIS - a group documented to be murdering gays in the Middle East because of their failure to conform to fundamentalist Islams anti-gay beliefs.  Thus, this attack was ALL ABOUT TOXIC religion and demonstrates the dishonesty of the shooter's father who claimed otherwise.  This from CNN:

Mateen called 911 around the time of the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mention the Boston bombers, according to a U.S. official.

"It appears he was organized and well-prepared," Orlando Police Chief John Mina said early Sunday. The shooter had an assault-type weapon, a handgun and "some type of (other) device on him."

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack on jihadi forums, but ISIS sympathizers have reacted by praising the attack on pro-Islamic State forums.

As for the Lt. Governor of Texas, posting indicating that the victims got what they deserved for failing to conform to Leviticus, underscores the hate that underpins both fundamentalist Christianity and fundamentalist Islam.  Both are evils that need to be eliminated from the world.

ORIGINAL POST: One of the most dishonest things said so far in the aftermath of the horrific mass murder in Orlando overnight is the statement by the shooter's father that the deliberate massacre had "nothing to do with religion."  I beg to differ.  If one tracks the history of homophobia, it tracts directly back to the Abrahamic religions, and specifically the ignorant writings of the Old Testament that carried over into Christianity and Islam.  Indeed, in most parts of the world, same sex relations and even transgender individuals were tolerated if not accepted.  That change due to the efforts of Christian missionaries Islamic conquerors.   Homophobia and anti-gay violence ultimately ALWAYS has something to do with religion.  NBC News quotes this dishonest liar:

Mir Seddique, Mateen’s father told NBC News, “this has nothing to do with religion.” Seddique said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thinks that may be related to the shooting.

As I said, we need to burn every Bible and every Koran and erase all knowledge of them from the memory of mankind.   

The Bible Unearthed - New Archeological Study Undermines the Bible

In follow up to the last post, a new book, "The Bible Unearthed," will not be warmly greeted by Christofascists and charlatans who use the pulpit to shake down the ignorant and gullible for money.  The authors of the book, two archaeologists, use archaeological discoveries and analysis to disprove many of the main stories of the Old Testament and instead describe the Bible's Old Testament  as a contrived and manipulated set of ancestor stories aimed at meeting the needs of seventh-century-B.C. Judah and its quest for a unified kingdom.   As one book review notes:

Their detailed analysis yields conclusions that are startling to the uninitiated: the search for the historical ancestors has failed; the Exodus did not happen as described; the violent, swift and total conquest of Canaan never took place; the picture of judges leading tribes in battle against enemies does not fit the data; David and Solomon existed in the 10th century B.C. but as ''little more than hill country chieftains.'' There was no golden age of a united kingdom, a magnificent capital and an extended empire.

A small nation with big plans could use a grand story. In constructing it, authors and editors drew on many diverse and conflicting traditions, which they embellished and elaborated. The intent was ideological and theological -- not to record history (in the modern sense) but to appropriate the past for the present. The epic that emerged was edited and added to in subsequent centuries to become the powerful saga we know as the Hebrew Bible. Unequaled in the ancient world, it articulated a national and social compact for an entire people under God. Finkelstein and Silberman leave no doubt of their reverence for it. In their view, however, it is ''not a miraculous revelation, but a brilliant product of the human imagination.'' 

Drawing on new methods, excavations (even of old sites) and assumptions, they turn the traditional argument on its head. Archaeological studies, they argue, undercut rather than support the historicity of biblical traditions about the origin and rise of Israel. 

The take away?  The Bible is anything but inerrant and it is anything but the "inspired word of God."  It was written to serve the political and theological needs of an upstart kingdom that needed to support its boasts of special divine guidance and superiority over others.   It is little wonder that the Bible is so popular among the GOP base which likewise feels compelled to claim that America is under divine guidance and superior.  27 centuries later and the same mindset and agenda are alive and well.

ISIS - The Newest Face of Religion's Evil

In addressing the nation following the brutal video taped murder of American journalist James Foley, Barack Obama tried to separate the Islamic State from religion and Islam.  Yes, ISIS has a political agenda, but behind many of its atrocities lies its extreme form of Islam which in the minds of its followers justifies the murder of all who hold different religious beliefs.  It seeks to impose a religious purity - sick as it may be - much as the Inquisition once sought to do through trials and the burning of those labeled heretics.  One needs to look beyond church soup kitchens and charitable function to realize that over the course of the centuries, religion in its many forms has most often resulted in wars and murders.  What we are seeing in ISIS is just the latest variant.   The evil needs to be fought, but without being honest about the religious under pining of the atrocities, efforts may not succeed.  A op-ed piece in the Washington Post makes the case for defeating ISIS, but like Obama tries to avoid condemning religion as the root of the evil.  Here are excerpts:

The propagandists of the Islamic State must have imagined that their brutal video of the beheading of journalist James Foley would intimidate and terrorize the world. But people aren’t built that way, not in Muslim countries or anywhere else. When they see sadistic, uncivilized behavior, they are disgusted — and angry. 

President Obama spoke Wednesday with special precision and moral clarity in reacting to the video’s release. The Islamic State, he said, “speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day.”

“People like this ultimately fail,” Obama explained. “They fail, because the future is won by those who build and not destroy.” He spoke, as a president must, about the consequences of killing U.S. civilians: “We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done.” 

In the months before his death, [Osama] bin Laden knew he had failed.  Documents taken from his hideout show that, in his final days, bin Laden was haunted by the mistakes al-Qaeda had made. The organization’s wanton killing had appalled and alienated Muslims, to the point that bin Laden wondered whether the group should rebrand itself as a less toxic force. He even suggested 10 alternative names that might sound better to the world’s ears.

Bin Laden reflected in a draft letter about “miscalculations” and “unnecessary civilian casualties” that were hurting the jihadist cause.

This week’s macabre executioner, robed in black, traces his jihadist lineage to the very people bin Laden was condemning, the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Call their successor ISIL or ISIS or the Islamic State — the group has chosen to debase itself with the most extreme and bloodthirsty version of Muslim revolt. Its actions and boasts are a kind of jihadist fantasy, celebrating the pornographic violence of religious killing with beheadings and crucifixions and genocidal assaults on Shiite Muslims, Yazidis, Christians and dissenting Sunnis.

There's more, but it is striking that Obama states no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.  Has he not read the Old Testament where the Israelites rejoice in the annihilation of their enemies, be they men, women or children?  If humankind wants to advance and secure a just civilization across the globe, the first thing that needs to be eradicated is religion.  It is toxic and it promotes evil ranging from hate and discrimination such as we see here in America to brutal murders done by ISIS.

Christofascists and Noah - A case Study in Batshitery

The "godly folk" never cease to give examples of their lunacy and extreme need to cling to mythical writings found within the Old Testament.  Never mind that the authors of the myths are unknown and had a level of knowledge of science and the universe lower than that of most middle school students nowadays.  Indoctrination - and I believe psychological problems - make it absolutely essential to these folks that nothing be allowed to challenge the fantasy world in which they live.   One of the latest targets of their wrath is the movie Noah which is being condemned for not being sufficiently "biblical."  It goes without saying that most of the hyperventilating "godly folk" do not know that the story of Noah is either (i) a complete myth or (ii) a regurgitation of older flood myths.  A piece in Religion Dispatches looks at the possible real basis for the Noah myth.  Here are excerpts:

Noah did its job. It brought an ancient biblical story about a cataclysmic flood to life for audiences today. Was it biblical? Was it the least biblical Bible movie ever made? These questions flare up in what is frankly a flat and over-rehearsed debate about the Bible in American life. Honestly, does it matter whether a movie is biblical? Do the spiritual-but-not-religious care? Do those evangelicals who grow tired of the stereotype made of them in the media care? Do secular liberals who have no use for the Bible really care about these questions?

Long before the Bible was written, The Flood was a blockbuster of the ancient Mesopotamian and Mediterranean worlds. It originated in Sumer over 4000 years ago. New versions were  deposited in the greatest imperial libraries of the Mesopotamian empires (Babylonia and Assyria). The Biblical authors fashioned their own versions of the tale, and post-biblical authors continued to ruminate on its potential for meaning-making. The Flood found its proper place in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and flood stories crop up in Hindu, American Indian, and African story-telling as well.

The first known flood story comes from Sumer in the tale of Atra-hasis (19^th century, BCE). This story sets the basic elements of the ancient genre: gods try to eradicate humanity, while a flood hero builds a boat to save the animals. A tragicomedy about polytheism starring petty gods who complain like tired parents annoyed by their noisy children. With plans to destroy a boisterous humanity, they are thwarted not once but three times by the flood hero’s personal god and eminent trickster, Enki. With each divine attempt at total genocide, Enki gives the flood hero secret knowledge about which god to appease with a sacrifice. This worked against the first two rounds of disease and drought. However, Enki had to get creative for the third and final attempt. For the deluge, Enki instructs the flood hero to build a boat for family and fauna.

[T]he Epic of Gilgamesh shines a light on the flood hero’s excruciating experience. Dated somewhere between 1200-900 BCE, the Mesopotamian epic says little about the divine drama. We only hear that “the hearts of the gods were moved to inflict the flood.” The rest of the tale focuses on the flood hero, who builds an ark in a brave abandonment of his wealth: “tear down the house and build a boat; abandon wealth and seek living beings; spurn possessions and keep alive living beings.” He not only rescues his family and the animals from the deluge, he saves his workers, the craftsmen, who helped him build his boat. The moral suppleness of the flood hero crescendos with his first reaction to the post-flood world. Stepping into a sun beam, looking out the window of his ark, he sees that all humanity returned to clay, and with tears streaming down the lines of his face, he slumps down weeping.  

The biblical account owes much to the Gilgamesh version . . . While Islamic tradition focuses on the character of Noah, the Genesis Flood is entirely about God, about a new monotheistic construal of both divine judgment and the pro-human reversal of that judgment. 

The biblical Flood emphasizes the unique role humans played in corrupting the earth. In contrast, the post-biblical tradition of Enochic Judaism lays blame on a human civilization that was corrupted by supernatural forces. Society is shot through with war, industry, and vainglory, all of which were taught by fallen angels.

If the story of Enoch’s Watchers cleanses society, the Hindu flood myth cleanses the mind. The ancient Hindu scriptures emphasize a novel feature of The Flood: enlightenment. In the Mahabharata (and later in the Puranas), the flood hero rides out the deluge in a boat with animals just like Noah.

One has to wonder how many of the cretins and spittle flecked preachers understand that the story of The Flood in the Bible is really just a recycled pagan story.  As noted above, I truly cannot grasp the mindset of these folks who are so terrified of having to think and understand that there is uncertainty in life and in the world that cling to an invisible friend in the sky that, if a creator of the universe exists, bears no resemblance to reality.  Once upon a time such ignorance could be excused given the lack of education and scientific knowledge.  But in today's world this mindset represents nothing less than the deliberate embrace of ignorance.

Lockheed Martin Ends Gifts to Boy Scouts Over Anti-Gay Bigotry

Hate and bigotry do have a price as the Boy Scouts of America continues to learn as Lockheed Martin joins the list of major corporations that will no longer make financial gifts to the Scouts because the Scouts' homophobic policies.  We can expect more howling from the Christofascists who will claim their religious liberty is under attack even though it is not.  They can still engage in their bigotry and corporations like Lockheed Martin can exercise their right to not underwrite hate filled policies. As noted in a previous post, a former seminarian summed up the source of the Scouts' "deeply held religious beliefs" that condemn gays: the Old Testament, a work properly describes as follows: "the Hebrew scriptures were [are] altogether fictitious, plagiarized versions of other ancient mystery religions with a desperate agenda to galvanize and perpetuate an ethnic minority."  The Scouts agenda and that of Christofascist hasn't departed from the original Old Testament agenda of galvanizing and perpetuating a minority that has a desperate need to feel superior over others. The Virginian Pilot reports of Lockheed Martins rejection of this agenda:

Defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is halting its donations to the Boy Scouts of America over the organization's ban on gays serving as adult leaders after a review of the company's philanthropy guidelines, the company said Thursday.

Lockheed Martin spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the company decided it will not support nonprofit organizations that do not align with its corporate policies or commitment to diversity. The company did not disclose how much it has contributed to the Boy Scouts.

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed follows UPS Inc., Merck & Co. and computer-chip maker Intel in withdrawing support for the Boy Scouts over its no-gays policy in the past two years.

In a written statement, Johndroe said Lockheed seeks to support nonprofit groups that value diversity.

"We believe engaging with and funding an organization that openly discriminates is in conflict with our policies," he said. "While we applaud the mission of the Boy Scouts and the good things they do in our communities, their policies that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and religious affiliation conflict with Lockheed Martin policies."

The sooner the American public puts divisive and antiquated - and fiction based - religious beliefs behind it, the better the future  of this country will be.